The Ruins of Trenton

With the usual summer crime wave plaguing some neighborhoods in New Jersey's capital city, the Douglas H. Palmer administration has apparently taken the position that the city's ousted police director can decide his own succession plan, at his leisure.

Also, while that process does or does not occur, the rest of the city will be kept in the dark over who exactly is taking over public safety responsibilities in Trenton.

Actually, what is going on right now with the status of former Police Director Joseph Santiago's position really doesn't come as too much of a surprise, given the political status quo here in Trenton.

That's because, to state the obvious, not too many other mayors or associated administration officials in New Jersey would ever decide to keep their municipality out of the loop when it came to who was taking over the reins of power at the police department.

Most good public officials are somewhat accountable to their constituents, and the reason that most places enjoy such a peachy state of affairs is because the populace tends to hold their public officials accountable, at least when it comes to such important affairs as who is leading their multi-million dollar law enforcement organization.

But in Trenton, one of the many things that public officials lack is accountability. And that is just so much more clear when it appears the Palmer administration is doing absolutely nothing when it comes to ensuring a smooth transition into the post-Santiago years.

It amounts to just one more area of public policy where the people leading the City of Trenton come up woefully short, and what's worse, most people could probably care less.

Jim Coston, South Ward councilman for the City of Trenton, announced a nice victory yesterday in the city's battle with irresponsible bar owners who allow their patrons and their activities to get out of control, frequently to the detriment of the surrounding area.

Mr. Coston said that State ABC officials actually asked for a hearing on the granting of a stay to a bar owner whose bar had become notorious for damaging the quality of life in the South Ward neighborhood in which it is located.

Usually state ABC officials grant a stay without a hearing, leading to an additional 8 to 10 months of agony for the locals, but this time Mr. Coston and community members gathered testimonials and photographic evidence of the bar and its associated activities, which resulted in an official stay hearing date in September.

Now, this is indeed good news, given how this particular establishment has wreaked havoc on the city.

But situations like this are happening all over the city, and Trenton, like many other cities, is ill-equipped to deal with ABC violators. There is only a single ABC officer attached to the Trenton Police Department, responsible for hundreds of bars in the capital city.

Illegal activity happens at some of the finest of these establishments, and at the lesser city cantinas, illegal activity runs rampant and frequently spills into the surrounding streets.

The city needs to get more men on the job. Effective ABC policing is a good way to nip much city crime in the bud, but those efforts are severely hampered with the fact that the city and people like Mr. Coston are forced to rely upon a single ABC officer.

Add to that the usual willingness of the state to grant stays to the worst of the bar owners, and the result is a situation where out-of-control bars will continue to thrive in Trenton.

Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo, also under fire for the recent use of township-owned property for a political fundraiser, made an interesting choice of words in describing tha matter when talking to Times of Trenton reporters for an article that came out in today’s paper regarding a pay-to-play controversy.

The comments came after a man, with a large stake in a company that recently received a Hamilton Township contract, and his wife contributed $300 a piece to the mayor’s political campaign.

The contributions were recorded as a single $600 donation, which is twice the limit on contributions made to township politicians from those holding township contracts.

But “the couple went out of their way to write two separate checks” in a specific effort to obey the pay- to-play rules, claimed Mayor Bencivengo, according to the Times.

Going out of their way to write separate checks could be construed as an effort to obey the rules. But it could also quite as easily be construed as someone going out of their way to circumvent the rules, in getting political donations to a Republican mayor, whose allies on Township Council then take a June 4 vote to award a $20,000-max contract to Remington, Vernick, and Arango Engineers.

Remington Vernick’s executive vice president, Richard Arango, happened to be the one who, along with his wife, made the twin $300 donations to the campaign of Mayor Bencivengo and “went out of their way” to obey the rules, according to the mayor.

And, so it goes...

The Times of Trenton could be shut down should unions at the paper and other employees not accept buyouts and other concessions being leveled at them by management, according to the New York Times.

Management has apparently sent letters to employees of the paper seeking 25 buyouts from its non-union employees, after the same thing happened at the much larger Star-Ledger, whose parent company, Advance Publications, also owns the Times of Trenton.

If those buyouts and other specified proposals go unaccepted by employees at the newspaper the entire operation could be shut down, according to the New York Times.

Another possibility is for both the Star-Ledger and the smaller Times of Trenton to go up for sale, with the parent company already having retained the assistance of a financial firm to help out with the plan.

Star-Ledger Publisher George Arwady told the New York Times that the staff at both papers face wage freezes, benefit cuts, and other privations with the sale of the newspapers to another company.

But even a sale to another company seems unlikely, considering that both papers have been operating in the red for years, according to the report.


Text of Star-Ledger Publisher George Arwady's letter to employees:

July 31, 2008

To: Full-time, non-represented employees:

I have communicated with you several times about the heavy financial losses our Newspaper has been suffering. Although we have implemented a variety of plans to reduce expenses and create new sources of revenue, our financial picture continues to deteriorate. We simply have been unable to offset the unprecedented and continuing steep decline in advertising revenue. Therefore, we now have a genuine crisis. The situation is critical – we are currently on life support.

We have one last chance at survival. Two goals must be achieved. Getting one only will not be enough – we must have success with both of these objectives:

1. New agreements must be reached with the unions representing the Mailers and the Drivers for the economic and operational relief we have requested; and

2. A minimum of 200 employees must accept the buyout offer summarized below.

It has been decided that if agreement with the two unions and the necessary number of acceptances to our buyout offer are not achieved by October 1st, The Star-Ledger and The Times of Trenton will be put up for sale.

In fact, we have already retained J.P. Morgan Chase to help us plan a sale as well as to evaluate other strategic alternatives.

If a sale occurs, the buyer will likely consider cutting costs sharply by, among other things, laying off employees, reducing pay and eliminating expensive employee benefits. It is also likely, if our Newspaper is sold, that the buyer would not be obligated to adopt the pay, benefit and work rule terms in the current collective bargaining agreements. I strongly urge you to carefully consider the current situation we are in as you review the terms of the voluntary buyout offer.

Our buyout offer is explained in detail in the papers that are being delivered to you this week. In summary, its generous terms include:

1. The amount of your 2007 income as reported on your 2007 W-2; and,

2. Continuation of medical benefits for one year.

After the time for accepting this offer has expired, and if we satisfy the goals outlined above, we will carefully compare our staffing needs with those employees who have not accepted the offer. Then we will make appropriate decisions regarding assignments and scheduling. This means that it is possible that employees will be asked to take on additional duties, transfer to another job or location, work in another department, or work different hours. We will not know the details of how the assignments will work and where the employees will be assigned until we know exactly how many employees accept the offer. Once we have that information, we will review staffing and make appropriate decisions.

Your managers will meet with you individually over the next few weeks to discuss your individual situation.

It is not easy to come to grips with such a bleak situation, but I know you want me to be direct and candid with you. In evaluating your response to the buyout offer, you may want to discuss this situation with members of your immediate family, explaining to them that a decision has been made to sell our newspaper if both of the goals explained above are not accomplished by October 1. Remember, if fewer than 200 full-time non-represented employees accept the offer, and we do not receive the concessions from the unions, no buy-outs will be accepted.

In large part, the future of The Star-Ledger is in your hands.
Sincerely,

George Arwady

Following the brouhaha over Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s plan to resell Bruce Springsteen tickets at sky-high prices for a campaign fundraiser, a Republican state senator has announced that he plans on introducing legislation to put an end to the practice.

The legislation by Sen. Anthony Bucco, R-25, would close a loophole in event ticketing laws that gives political organizations enough legal leeway to sell event tickets at prices many times the original event price for political fundraisers.

Other individuals and entities are normally prohibited from doing so by ticket scalping laws.

“As part of our effort to eliminate the potential for corruption in the political process, we must remove the exemptions that have been carved out in our laws to the sole benefit of politicians,” said Sen. Bucco, in a statement. “Candidates for public office should not be able to purchase tickets to popular concerts and events at face value and mark them up for sale to donors. If members of the public cannot resell their tickets for substantial profit, elected officials and candidates for office should not be allowed to do so either.”

Earlier this month longtime New Jersey politician and Sen. Lautenberg nearly purchased 40 tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert to be held at Giants Stadium for $108 a piece, with his campaign planning to resell them at $1500 each to raise funds for the senator’s campaign against Republic Dick Zimmer.

Sen. Lautenberg’s campaign eventually rescinded the purchase and asked the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to reexamine the way it doled out tickets, to make the process more fair and tickets more available to everyone and not just important public figures.

Former Police Director Joseph Santiago is apparently the master when it comes to who will be chosen to succeed Trenton’s ousted head cop, and it looks like he is doing nothing about it as the police force drifts nearly rudderless.

That much was clear from a piece in The Trentonian today, in which city spokesman Kent Ashworth first avoided providing any information on the city’s succession plan, and then deferred to the director himself when it came to how the next director would be chosen and who the person will be.

This comes after one avenue to Mr. Santiago’s salvation as city police director was closed this week, when the director failed to appeal earlier court decisions that effectively ousted him. That certainly seemed to vindicate the position that Mr. Santiago and Mayor Douglas H. Palmer were wrong in maintaining that the mayor has the power to enforce city law as he sees fit.

About rumors that Mr. Santiago will separate from his wife, establish a pseudo-residence in Trenton, and circumvent a decision that four different judges and hundreds of thousands of city tax dollars determined, Mr. Ashworth once again punted.

"We are way too busy with genuine needs and issues to dignify or comment on rumors," said Mr. Ashworth, to The Trentonian’s Joe D’Aquila. "When there is a real development, as opposed to speculation, however, we will have an announcement - as soon as it is both appropriate and accurate."

Mr. Ashworth also did not provide any comment in portions of the story where police officers said Mr. Santiago has frequently been absent from the city of late, despite the blossoming public safety crisis, a situation which they called the norm during the five years of Mr. Santiago's tenure.

So it appears that Mayor Palmer and his administration are doing nothing to follow court orders and begin preparing for a transition from Mr. Santiago’s leadership – which seems to becoming more ineffective with each day – to the leadership of someone else.

It appears that Mr. Santiago and Mayor Palmer are acting like a bunch of schoolchildren who just lost a dodgeball match, refusing to acknowledge defeat and move on. This will probably be the path taken, until the very last minute on that day in September when Mr. Santiago will have to pack his bags and move on out of Trenton.

Answers should be provided at the August 7 City Council meeting, when administration officials will likely face questions from council members curious about who will be take over and be forced to deal with a worsening crime wave.

Mayor Douglas H. Palmer is taking it back to Africa on a trip with Bill Clinton this week, while his hometown continues to experience a surge in the violent crime that has become so prevalent under its longtime mayor.

Wednesday’s newspaper pages, splattered with various stories about violent crime in some city neighborhoods, also carried stories about Mayor Palmer’s decision to travel to Africa with many accentuated with pictures of Trenton’s missing mayor, in fashionable suits and designer glasses.

One conclusion that can be reached from a review of this bizarre situation is that Mayor Palmer has long outgrown his office here in Trenton. He talks about tackling environmental issues, creating so-called green jobs, and improving the conditions in the nation’s larger cities when Trenton’s streets are unsafe, the schools are ineffective, and there are not even enough people with regular jobs to support a healthy local economy.

It really looks like Trenton needs someone to take over the leadership of this city who is more local and more home-oriented. The city needs a leader that will spend their time here, rather than traipsing around the world talking about non-existent programs that offer no hope for improving the conditions of this city.

To take it one step further, the people living in the surrounding townships and the rest of the state need to also consider pushing for new leadership here in Trenton, and in many of the state’s other downtrodden urban areas.

The Trenton Water Works debacle, in which the city is preparing to sell outside water infrastructure that it never built for $100 million to a company that will jack up water rates to make township residents foot the bill, is a perfect example of the direct cost that Trenton represents to outsiders, whether nearby or far away.

Also, this faulty and ineffective leadership is not only relieving the state of around $400 million for school and municipal budget dollars annually, but it also causes greater potential for the surrounding areas to suffer.

The crime problems that fester under Mayor Palmer and former Police Director Joseph Santiago threaten to consume more of the viable areas of the city, and eventually push over the borders into the surrounding areas.

Let it be realized, that a healthy Trenton makes for a healthy Mercer County, and it starts with the people working at 319 E. State Street.

Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James, whose legacy is intertwined with some of his former police officers who are now working for the City of Trenton, was sentenced today to 27 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $100,000 in fines after being convicted of using his office to steer cheap land in city-endorsed deals to his mistress.

Federal prosecutors reportedly asked for 15 to 20 years in prison for the former mayor, but Judge William J. Martini responded with a much lighter sentence and reprimanded prosecutors and those asking for the maximum sentence because of a perceived discrepancy between what they were asking for and the crimes Mr. James committed.

"It disappoints me and it shocks me that government would seek 10-20 year sentencing," said Judge Martini, in reports. "I know in the zeal of prosecution, things sometimes get distorted.”

Trenton’s outgoing Police Director Joseph Santiago and Communications Director Irving Bradley both worked under Mr. James during long tenure as Newark’s mayor, along with Barry Colicelli, Trenton’s now-ousted gang czar.

Mr. Santiago appears to be on his way out of the Trenton scene as well, after losing his court case against plaintiffs including me. We sued over Mr. Santiago’s non-residency in Trenton, and Mr. Bradley appears to be guilty of the same violations, along with being deemed “unqualified” by the state Department of Personnel.

In comparison with other corruption-disgraced New Jersey mayors, Mr. James made off pretty well, although his case was different in that he did not get involved in bribery or extortion or other crimes prevalent with New Jersey political corruption cases.

Terrance D. Weldon, former Ocean Township mayor, received 58 months in prison in 2007 for taking more than $60,000 in bribes from developers. Former Marlboro Township Mayor Matthew V. Scannapieco received 21 months in prison in June of this year for taking $245,000 in bribes from developers and committing tax evasion.

Former Hazlet Mayor Paul Coughlin was sentenced to 24 months in prison in 2006 for taking a single $3,000 bribe from a cooperating witness.

But Mr. James never took any money from anyone, but steered cheap land to his mistress Tamika Riley that netted the Jersey City woman around $700,000 in profits, paid for by developers.

Communications Director Irving Bradley already has been labeled unqualified to serve in a state taxpayer-funded position as leader of the city’s Communications Division by the state Department of Personnel.

It also appears that he is also in that position in violation of the city’s residency ordinance, with his family living in Rahway and Mr. Bradley almost never seen at his Trenton residence.

Now it appears that the city has this man in what might be a totally unheard-of directorship, judging by the way that nearly no other large city in the State of New Jersey utilizes a similar position.

A quick review of the city governments of Atlantic City, Camden, Newark, Paterson, and other cities shows that none of those urban areas have something equivalent to Mr. Bradley’s position.

Most of those cities rely on either a lower-ranking municipal employee or a police officer of lieutenant rank or lower to lead the organization that handles emergency communications, dispatching, and other city communications.

In fact, Trenton used to rely on a similar system, with the communications hierarchy existing under the leadership of a Trenton police officer, usually a lieutenant, whose position was already on the books and did not require an additional pension or salary cost.

But some years ago Mayor Douglas H. Palmer decided he wanted the handling of emergency and other communications under the umbrella of the city administration. To the mayor that must have seemed like a better arrangement, rather than what at that time represented an area of the city government that was not under the complete control of the mayor and his lackeys.

After that change a couple of retired police officers managed the City Hall-controlled radio room, and now the organization falls under the leadership of the Newark cast-off, Mr. Bradley, who does not appear to be a resident and is not qualified for his job, according to the DOP.

A great $90,000 arrangement for the city and state taxpayers, indeed.

More mind-numbing violence shattered the peace in some of Trenton’s worst neighborhoods this weekend, once again.

But former Police Director Joseph Santiago was apparently too busy to meet with his command staff on Sunday to implement some emergency measures to address the situation, law enforcement sources said.

Numerous violent episodes plagued the city, but perhaps the most horrific was the shooting of a 16-year-old city resident who happened to be tooling his way down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at around 3 a.m. Sunday morning.

The Trentonian reported that attackers dragged the boy off of his bicycle and unloaded two slugs into his head, making permanent brain damage and the loss of sight of at least one of the child’s eyes highly likely, despite the best efforts of the valiant medical staff if Capital Health System-Fuld Campus.

Mr. Santiago’s leadership in the police department seems to be deteriorating even more rapidly than has become usual for the summer, as the unaccountable director has cut manpower in many of the city’s worst areas while doing nothing to stop the endless summer violence filling the pages of newspapers with each successive day.

Rumors have it that Mr. Santiago plans on announcing a separation from his wife, followed by taking up another kind of pseudo-residency hotel or apartment arrangements that he took up in the beginning of his tenure in Trenton.

Residents need to write to their mayor and City Council and demand the removal of this monster, who like others in the city administration, fail to put real effort into creating viable solutions for a smallish city that probably could be turned around fairly rapidly.

New leadership in both the police department and the city is needed, ASAP.

A barrage of violent crime continued to plague some of Trenton's more crime-ridden neighborhoods this weekend, with a variety of shootings, stabbings, robberies, and assaults occurring intermittently while Mayor Douglas H. Palmer and former Police Director Joseph Santiago presumably spent their time outside the city, in Hunterdon and Morris counties.

Considering the crime problem and the variety of other afflictions that plague this great city, it really begs the question: when are the residents of Trenton going to move to get people into positions of power that actually care about the city enough to live here and spend their time here, even on the weekends?

The omnipresent crime plaguing the city's worst neighborhoods has not improved under Mr. Santiago. In fact, the argument should be made that the further slipping of once-viable neighborhoods and the cut in manpower on the streets under the director mean he has been worse for Trenton than many of his predecessors.

With regards to Mayor Palmer, the mere fact that he is unwilling to spend more of his time in his hometown and the city he now leads immediately makes him an inferior leader. A leader that spent more time here, assessing the everyday problems and spending more time solving them would be more appropriate to lead Trenton.

These days Mayor Palmer appears to be living the life of a state worker, spending Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., working for the city, then having his city-funded police escort whisk him away on weekend days and at many other times.

Just like many state workers, it appears that Mayor Palmer has refused any thought of leading a life as a full-time Trenton resident, instead choosing to treat the city like so many others: as a place of work, and not a place of life.

It's high time that the city get a new leader who will actually take part in living here, rather than treating it simply as a workweek-long place of employment.

A leader needs to understand what life here is like, and the problems that face the city 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just like the 85,000 others who actually make this place a full-time place of residence.

A Newark councilwoman who intervened in a traffic stop involving her nephew back in 2006 could be removed from office for her participation in the incident.

Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow last week filed a court motion and wrote a letter citing state statutes that call for public officials to be removed from office, following serious convictions.

A municipal court found Councilwoman Dana Rone guilty of obstruction of justice for her involvement in the incident, in which she verbally attacked a Newark police officer and told him that she "was a councilwoman," in what appeared to be an attempt to use her office to help out her nephew.

Ms. Rone appealed the decision to a state Superior Court, but the higher court upheld the conviction.

Following the Superior Court decision the Essex County prosecutor cited the removal statute, and has asked for the councilwoman to step down effective on June 27, 2008, the date of the final court decision.

Earlier this month, Trenton Councilwoman Annette Lartigue reportedly told an officer, over a cell phone, to "stand down", after the officer pulled over Ms. Lartigue's daughter for several motor vehicle violations.

During the traffic stop the daughter allegedly told the officers that her mother was a councilwoman and that she "was related to" Mayor Douglas H. Palmer and then managed to get the councilwoman on the phone.

The daughter eventually received several motor vehicle summonses, and Ms. Lartigue got some unneeded media attention because of her involvement in the stop. But luckily, justice was served because the officer rightly went ahead and issued tickets, despite statements about public office and power from some of those involved.

The City of Trenton received state backing today when Department of Community Affairs officials told the Times of Trenton that the city was within its legal rights to transfer $9 million from the Trenton Water Works’ revenue into various areas of the city’s general budget, in what amounts to taxing people living outside of Trenton to pay for city services.

The flap, which has emerged several times over the past several years, comes as Trenton is attempting to sell all of its outside water infrastructure to New Jersey American Water for a reported $100 million. Township officials and residents from Ewing, Hopewell, Lawrence, and Hamilton are screaming bloody murder as they face a 36 percent rate hike with the sale, and the prospect of having their water bill money used to help the private water company pay for the cost of Trenton’s outside infrastructure.

A DCA spokesman backed up the city’s position that in equalizing pay rates in 2006, the city became exempt from Board of Public Utilities oversight, allowing it to raise rates at will and transfer water revenue as city officials saw fit.

Mayor Douglas Palmer, of course, took some jabs at officials from the outside townships, telling the Times of Trenton that he was “offended” by the accusations leveled by the outside townships of impropriety on the part of the city, in transferring the $9 million.

Despite today's reports, the City of Trenton should not be viewed as being exonerated quite yet. Remember that the city only equalized rates in 2006, meaning the numerous questionable transfers prior to that event could be illegal, under state law governing water utilities.

Also, water works employees this week said that the city did not actually equalize the rates, pointing to discounts and other measures that effectively make the rate paid by some city residents lower than those paid by residents living outside the city. These matters certainly needs to be looked into.

The $100 million sale of Trenton Water Works infrastructure in Ewing, Hopewell, Lawrence, and Hamilton townships to New Jersey American Water was assaulted by a united front of public officials and residents on Wednesday at Hamilton Township's Municipal Building.

A major sticking point for the criticism was how the City of Trenton has sapped millions of dollars in what was erroneously called "surplus" out of the Trenton Water Works budget and used it to fill budget gaps in other non-water related areas of the city's services.

"This constituted a fraudulent act, and a misappropriation of funds," said Lawrence Planning Board official Falk Engel.

That money should have been used to maintain the water utility's infrastructure, Mr. Engel said, which would have offset the emergence of a need to sell off the outside infrastructure to generate a one-time infusion of funds to maintain and upgrade pipes and equipment within the city.

Instead, the city took more than the 5 percent of the utility's revenue allowed by law and used it repeatedly, to the tune of $9 million, to plug budget holes.

Other municipal officials like Ewing Mayor Jack Ball also attacked the deal, calling it double-jeopardy for suburban residents faced with being forced to pay for the water utility sale and then pay for New Jersey American Water's alleged need in upgrading infrastructure, after illegally shelling out so much to shore up the city's finances.

"All four mayors are vehemently opposed to the sale," Mayor Ball said.

A lone lawyer represented the City of Trenton at the meeting, and both he and a lawyer for New Jersey American Water threatened the suburban townships with 40 percent rate hikes, should the deal not go through, compared with a 36 percent increase should the deal go through, as proposed.

Both lawyers also said the deal would shore up Trenton's finances and result in increased "revitalization" and residential and commercial development.

Trenton City officials were conspicuously absent, and only one Trenton resident, Patricia Stewart, spoke at the meeting.

She said she was totally against the deal and had visions of a future of bake sales at City Hall, should the city sell off one of its last remaining revenue-generating assets.

The City of Trenton was attacked as an organization repeatedly at the meeting, as municipal officials complained of denied Open Public Records Act requests and being kept totally in the dark about the entire process.

One official said Mayor Douglas H. Palmer and City Attorney Denise Lyles avoided communication about the deal, and that an acting City Clerk denied a public records request regarding public bids for the infrastructure.

"I have never heard of a public bid not being available for public review," said the official.

A meeting tonight at Hamilton Township's municipal building could really get ugly when people from the surrounding areas get together to discuss the impending sale of the Trenton Water Works’ outside infrastructure to New Jersey American Water, a company that plans on leveling large-scale rate hikes on its new suburban customers.

That’s because of recent media reports that finally detailed for all to see the fiscal mismanagement going on in the City of Trenton, which has been using the city water works as a massive cash-generating facility to plug gaps in the rest of the city’s municipal budget.

Normally that would not be so bad, considering the city actually owns the utility, but such practices are actually unlawful because the Trenton Water Works serves thousands of customers outside of the city. With their rate money being used to pay for other areas of municipal services, it's as if Trenton is taxing people living outside of its borders to fill budget gaps.

Business Administrator Jane Feigenbaum deflected criticism by saying that the city’s move, in 2006, to equalize the rates paid by city residents and those living outside of Trenton removed the utility from Board of Public Utilities oversight and allowed the city to use the works for general city revenue.

But the only problem with that, according to Trenton Water Works employees contacted today, is that the nefarious practice of robbing revenue from the water utility has been going for years, untouched and unpunished by anyone, as the city continually removed more than the 5 percent of the works' revenues allowable by law and plugged it into the city budget.

The Department of Public Works, the Fire Department, and other departments that do little to no work related to the Trenton Water Works have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the water utilities budget and the wallets of suburban taxpayers.

For a more personal example level, city communications employee and Mayor Palmer's publicist, Kent Ashworth, has had his entire salary show up on the suburbia-supported Trenton Water Works budget.

It appears that now, with suburban residents facing higher rates that will exacerbate their cost of living issues, have more serious complaints been raised, and a Times of Trenton article written on the issue, which only partially revealed the way the Trenton Water Works has been abused by the Douglas H. Palmer administration.

Suburban residents and officials fed up with getting the short end of the stick from Trenton’s administration and city residents fed up with the same administration’s unlawful behavior should really consider taking drastic action before the sale goes through, which will both hurt Trenton’s long-term fiscal viability while dooming suburban residents to skyrocketing water costs.

Gee, sometimes the interests of suburban residents and those living in Trenton actually do converge.