The Judge, Accused

At Tuesday night’s City Council session, the matter of the outstanding background check for Municipal Court Judge Renee Lamarre Sumners was raised during Public Comment, not by any member of Council, but by a private citizen. His son, he explained, was due to appear on charges before the Judge, and he was concerned that any impropriety on her part might impact his son’s right to speedy and impartial Justice. Anyone in the Chambers that night could see this man wasn’t concerned about the politics of the matter; he wanted what was right for his son. It’s personal to him.

This morning, we find out that this citizen is right to be concerned. Both newspapers this morning carry the same story: due to a pattern of bouncing checks required by the State of New Jersey to keep her status as an attorney active, she may have been ineligible to practice law in this state in the past as a municipal prosecutor, and even now as a Trenton Muni Court Judge. As a result of this news, Judge Lamarre Sumners may be suspended from office, perhaps as early as today.

Now we have some idea as to why she was so resistant to getting her background check done!

Remember, this is the judge whose appointment was pushed through by City Council in August, on a 6-1 vote, after one of the previous “Acting”Business Administrators (it wasn’t me, current BA Andrew McCrosson said this past Tuesday) assured Council that the required checks had been completed.

This is the same judge whose rushed appointment caused significant disruption at the Municipal Court, when over 80 cases were canceled or rescheduled following the premature dismissal of former Muni Judge Louis Sancinto.

The same chaos created in August by a messy, unplanned transition occasioned by the eagerness the Mayor and his judicial employee showed to see her installed as quickly as possible is now likely to be repeated again, affecting who knows how many individuals and families such as the man who spoke on Tuesday, and his son. This is not even to speak of all the cases heard and decided by the judge from her installation in August until now; how many convictions may be tossed because the Judge was not eligible to practice law in this State?

Once again, the recruitment, nomination and confirmation processes as practiced by this Administration are revealed as not only ineffective and sloppy, but downright dangerous: the entire body of work of our Municipal Court for the last several months may be thrown out!

Enough! I have had enough. We’ve had 120 days of this, and we can’t do anything in terms of any kind of recall for several more months.  The Mayor has shown he can assemble a bloc of four or more votes to get his contracts and appointees past Council when he wants to. There are a few voices in opposition, but they don’t consistently add up to the number 4.

A lot of control seems to be out of our hands. So, what can we do? Next week, we are due to hear the result of our application to the State for the Transitional State Aid we have requested to balance our current year budget without having to lay off even more employees than we are doing, and/or impose even higher local property taxes. Today, we read of some of the strict terms and conditions to be imposed on all towns and cites as a condition of their receipt of that aid. We will be on a short leash from the State, should we get any award of aid.

I have written this morning to the Governor as well as Acting Director of the Division of Local Government Services Thomas H. Neff to suggest one additional condition:

Good Morning:

The City of Trenton is due to be informed sometime next week what award, if any, it is to receive under the State’s Transitional Aid program. We are hearing news reports of some of the procedures and conditions to be followed by Aid recipients as a condition of the receipt of such Aid. I would respectfully like to suggest an additional condition you may include for the City of Trenton.

The new Administration of Mayor Tony F. Mack took office this past July 1. Since that time, Mayor Mack has governed without benefit of a Deputy Mayor/Chief of Staff, as provided for in our City Ordinances. In my opinion as a private citizen, the operations and efficiencies of the government of our Capital City have suffered greatly without such a senior official to support this Mayor during a time of financial emergency. Should the State choose to grant Transitional Aid to this City, I have strong reservations about the ability of the City to manage that aid wisely and effectively without a seasoned, effective and experienced Chief of Staff.

I strongly urge you and the State to insist that the City of Trenton hire a Chief of Staff as a condition of making any Transitional Aid Award. Beyond that, in the spirit of the other Conditions and Obligations this City will have under the Transitional Aid program, I would respectfully request that the State of New Jersey require its approval over this  appointment, subject to any other applicable ordinances and personnel regulations of the State and City governing such appointments.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Kevin Moriarty

Now I know this has been a particular hobby horse of mine for the last few weeks. But, please consider: recall is an option that is way too far away; this Mayor continues to gather inexperienced and incompetent people around him that serve neither him nor this City well AT ALL; there is little to no movement toward nominating permanent Department heads to serve long after the statutory grace period of 90 days for Acting Appointments has passed; the quality of such permanent appointments the Mayor has made has given us folks like Renee Lamarre Sumners.

Given all that, we desperately need a Grown-up in City Hall. If Tony F. Mack won’t give us a good, competent Chief of Staff/Deputy Mayor, I don’t mind asking Chris Christie to do it.