I say this with a little sarcasm today. After a morning perusal of the newspapers, it’s hard to say it’s a good morning with a straight face. More like another day to hunker down over a third cup of coffee and hope it doesn’t get any worse.
Only a few days after being restored to the Municipal Bench after several days’ suspension, Trenton Municipal Court Judge Renee Lamarre Sumners has been removed by the state judiciary, this time permanently. With her parting wishes to the city of Trenton, “I’m sick of y’all,” Ms. Sumners channels Otis Redding. Although more information is promised to be publicly released today, it’s likely only to confirm what has been apparent for some time now: given an abundance of personal financial and professional problems, hers is an appointment that should have never been made.
Moving on to the overall financial situation of the city, this morning we hear that Mayor Mack’s announcement last week of the – at least – suspension of planned layoffs of police and fire personnel has placed our application for NJ State Transitional Aid in jeopardy: it has come out that the Mayor “reportedly submitted different versions of his layoff plan to several different state agencies, which angered [Governor] Christie because [Mayor] Mack failed to follow specific guidelines sought by the state for the distribution of the millions of dollars.”
Now, this state knows a couple of things about losing grant money because of incorrect applications. This is serious. If this city submitted several different versions of plans, that means this city either deliberately misled the State, or incompetently did not centrally review its submitted materials for consistency before sending them to the State. Given the record of this Administration, it’s hard to decide which is the more likely scenario. For what it’s worth, I’ll go with incompetence.
This state Transitional Aid is to be awarded to municipalities on a competitive basis. Care to wager on the likelihood that, should Trenton receive aid in spite of its problems with the application, some town – with a perfectly completed application – getting less than its request will sue because of inequity? Why will other towns be penalized for their ability to play by the rules, while Trenton is awarded for its mistakes? Once again, Trenton is making it hard for the State to help it out.
The likelihood at this point is that we will probably get some Transitional Aid, if only because this town will be even more of a basket case without it than with it, something Governor Christie would not be able to tolerate in his own capital city. But what will be seen is how creative the State will be in how many strings, conditions, stealthy secret agreements, whatever; it will be able to impose on Trenton short of a formal state takeover. New Jersey has made it clear that a Camden-style assumption of authority is unlikely, although the state has also made it obvious it has zero trust in our government. I’ve already stated my willingness to see the State get more involved with the City’s affairs. An outright takeover isn’t in the cards. Let’s see what kind of presence they can impose on the Second Floor of our City Hall.
On another subject, there was a meeting yesterday hosted by County Executive Brian Hughes with several county Mayors devoted to improving emergency communications and coordination in the wake of last month’s Trenton Water Works fiasco. Sounds like a good idea. According to the article, “The officials on yesterday’s tour were Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo, Lawrence Mayor Michael Powers, Princeton Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman, West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov and representatives from Robbinsville, Hightstown Borough and Princeton Township.” Notable by his absence: Tony Mack, who was at the State Department of Community Affairs as mentioned above, trying to sort out our Transitional Aid application.
Missing this meeting was very unfortunate, especially considering that the Mayor blew off another such meeting last month hosted by Mr. Hughes. And that the whole issue of emergency communications is a hot button county-wide only because of last month’s communications snafu emanating from our own City Hall. The article doesn’t mention whether Trenton sent a rep to that meeting in place of the Mayor. I would hope so. On this issue right now, Trenton needs to be a better neighbor to the other towns in Mercer County.
Finally, another article in today’s Times discusses how an unsuccessful applicant, Mr. Dennis Moon, to Trenton’s Zoning Board, unhappy with the Board’s second refusal to approve his application for a vehicle towing and impound lot on North Clinton Avenue, hired private investigators . I was not at the September meeting which heard this application, although I did vote against Mr. Moon’s application the first time it came before the Board. Mr. Moon is quoted as saying he hired private investigators to “look at all of them (Board members)”, but only closely investigated a few individuals for further dirt. The article explains Mr. Moon’s motivation in hiring PI’s to investigate “board members’ potential issues as a way to combat what he described as years of city opposition to his family’s businesses.”
I am infuriated that such a covert investigation of volunteer citizen board members took place in retaliation to an unfavorable decision by our Board. This is the latest example in this City of someone not taking “No” for an answer, of wanting a Mulligan for a decision that doesn’t go their way.
Whether it’s a City Council re-voting resolutions previously decided; or accusations of mayoral family members investigating and spreading rumors about Council members in opposition to the Administration; or this example of a businessman unsuccessful in a zoning application who thinks that he may get what he wants through intimidation; this is all intolerable.
On this last matter, I’ve written my colleagues on the Zoning Board and our Counsel to look into this outrage further.I’ll let you know how this proceeds.
It’s all bad news this morning. Have a great day!