Nice to see Mayor Mack this morning talking about the latest round of City Layoffs. In his first comment since last week’s announcement from “The City of Trenton”, the mayor appeared today on CNN’s “American Morning” show along with the Mayor of Flint, Michigan to talk about the ongoing financial crisis in many US cities.
It’s nice to know now what it takes to get the Mayor to speak on relevant topics: a national TV audience. We’ll have to remember that. Because otherwise, Mr. Mack has been conspicuously silent on many matters for weeks now. I did searches on both NJ.com and the Trentonian’s site, as well as Google, just in case I may have missed anything the Mayor may have said on the record about matters as various as: the massive looming layoffs in public safety and other city departments; the ongoing spike in violent crime in the city, pre-layoff; the harassment and intimidation of citizens by city Rangers and mayoral friends and relatives; or even the weather!
Whatever the Mayor’s been doing over the last few weeks, or whatever he’s been thinking about everything going on in town, he sure hasn’t bothered to keep us in the loop. So it is good to know that he will be responsive to the right invitation, that he will leave whatever bunker or undisclosed location he has been hanging out in this summer, for screen time.
So, how was his performance? Well, to me, not as bad as it could have been. He made a few mis-statements: namely, that the Trenton Police represents 70% of the City’s salaried line items. I think the number is closer to 40%, based on a cursory review of the city’s summary Budget for last Fiscal Year. He may have conflated the Police and Fire Departments, added in payroll fringes and benefits, and rounded up to get to the neighborhood of 70%. But he did say “police” were 70% of salaries, and at that I think he misspoke.
But, hey, it’s live TV. For someone who’s gotten out of practice with public speaking like Mayor Mack, it can get kind of intimidating on camera. So I can cut him a break on that one.
But it was his use of “economic benefit” when talking about the police layoffs that bothers me. The Mayor made the point that the police department, being the largest unit of salaried employees, represented the biggest budget target, in terms of significant reductions to the budget. In Mr. Mack’s rather tortured and unfortunate phrasing, he said these reductions offered Trenton’s taxpayers “more bang for their cuts.” Sigh.
But calling this reduction an “economic benefit” is just wrong. There is no economic benefit – in the sense of an impact that will positively benefit the ongoing economic health of the City of Trenton as a viable enterprise, or positively benefit the current and future vitality of its citizens and taxpayers – to laying off one-third of your police force. None. Just a positive budget hit. There is a BIG difference.
Look at it this way. Here are some selected headlines from the papers over the last THREE DAYS:
“Trenton sex offender sentenced to 10 years”
“Woman foils Trenton carjacker by crashing vehicle”
“Trenton man dies after he was arrested for bar fight”
“Trenton police investigate home invasion by two armed men wearing ski masks”
“Trenton police seize samurai sword, brass knuckles after alleged shooting”
“Trenton man uses python snake as a weapon against police”
“Trenton police look for three suspects after woman was pistol-whipped, robbed in home invasion”
“Trenton man struck in head by brick during robbery”
“Motorized wheelchair stolen in Trenton from paraplegic homeless man”
“Police investigate Trenton grocery store robbery”
“Three robbed while sitting on from porch in Trenton”
“Trenton man shot in both legs while fleeing drive-by shooting”
“Trenton teen indicted on murder charge of laundry worker”
These, remember, are headlines for August 2, 3 and 4. Three days in our city, before police layoffs.
What possible “economic benefit” can accrue to the City and its people from this layoff? What person – taxpayer, homeowner, possible investor – would read these headlines, and think that laying off one-third of this city’s police force would provide any kind of bounce to the economic climate of this city?
The Mayor was deeply mistaken in his use of this term today. This very painful round of layoffs may relieve some of the strain from our city’s budget, but in no way can this be considered a “benefit.”
Still and all, I suppose it was good on some level to see the Mayor addressing the issue in some capacity. I hope we hear from Mr. Mack again, perhaps before he goes on “Meet the Press?”
There really is no economic benefit at all…how much over time will those left work to make up the difference?