Today’s headlines highlight the story of a compromise between Mayor Tony Mack and his Acting Police Director Chris Doyle on plans to re-structure what’s left of the Trenton Police Department after the layoff of one-third of its pre-Labor Day strength. TPD will keep the TAC and Vice Squads, and additional foot patrols will be instituted. No doubt this agreement, mediated by Mercer Prosecutor Joe Bocchini, was made easier to implement by the (at least) temporary return of 18 laid-off officers, made possible by the reallocation of unspent Federal grant funds. Good. We’ll have to see how it works, but for now, I think the plan as reported is a workable and practical one.
With that crisis resolved, for now, back to business as usual. Which means that the senior “Acting” Directors of the Mack Administration continue to flail about the Public’s business. A perfect – I use the word ironically – example of this was on display to the handful of citizens who stuck it out for last night’s City Council meeting. Thankfully, one of those citizens was Dan Dodson, who posted a Note of that session on his Facebook page overnight. I hope he puts it on the open net, so more non-Facebookers (is there anyone NOT snared by Mr. Zuckerberg yet?!?!) can read the account and be educated and entertained. Or mortified.
The single biggest failure of Tony Mack’s Administration from Day 1 has been its recruitment of senior Directors. And their preparation for their jobs.
OK, the TWO biggest failures of the Administration has been recruitment of senior people and their preparation for their jobs. And their compliance with regulations and laws for Purchasing and open bidding.
Alright, the THREE biggest failures of the Administration has been recruitment, preparation, and compliance with purchasing laws. And Communication with Council!
You get the idea. What went on in Council last night was certainly the stuff of low comedy, but it most definitely was not funny. Here are some excerpts from Dan’s note:
One way to make sure you do business in private to wait out the public until they get tired and leave. That was the new tactic tonight at city council. We waited 3 hours for the open session to start… Council adjourned at midnight with only four members of the public left…
Fire Director Bashir didn’t do himself any favors tonight… He came to council without an invitation and ranted for over 30 minutes. His behavior was erratic and he participated in name calling. One of the commanders attempted to calmly explain the situation with the fire trucks and that might have finished the conversation. However, the Fire Director started ranting again. He never explained why he hadn’t responded to Councilman Muschal’s emails…
It was amateur hour again in contract bidding and evaluation as the administration tried to figure out how to answer basic questions about contracts it was recommending. Discussion in council chambers between two administration officials literally dealt with the burning issue of how to communicate information to city council members. Carmen Melendez [newly-appointed “Acting” Director of Housing and Economic Development] was not clear about what she was doing.
Fraud alert! The administration started submitting what appear to be fraudulent proposals from contractors with fake business addresses, that weren’t signed off on by actual Directors. Turns out that Marge Caldwell Wilson and George Muschal did a little detective work to find that even though the work in question was being called emergency work by Harold Hall (the guy DCA said should be fired) was actually not deemed emergency by the Inspections Director who refused to sign off on it. The offending resoluition is below along with the fictional address of Kris D. Remodeling.
11-641 RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING PAYMENT FOR A CONTRACT WITH KRIS D. REMODELING INC., 611 MULBERRY STREET, TRENTON, NEW JERSEY WHICH WAS AWARDED ON AN EMERGENCY BASIS FOR THE DEMOLITION AND REBUILDING OF THE PUMP STATION HOUSE AT WEST END FIELD ON PARKSIDE AVENUE TO ALLEVIATE A DANGEROUS AND HAZARDOUS CONDITION ($35,700.00)
The famous Trenton IT contract is back in play and it seems that the administration is trying to keep the RFP process quiet as neither council nor the public has been invited to review the evaluation work. Seems that Marge is on the case here. I wonder who could possibly be doing an IT contract evaluation. The last one was incomplete at first glance to me but it took an entire court case to convince the administration that they had neither followed the law or done a reasonable contract evaluation.
You know, I wouldn’t approve any resolution for any expenditure of money or execution of contracts for projects undertaken by departments with Acting directors who have not been approved by City Council. That’s how this council can begin to regain control. For all it knows these unapproved Acting Directors have made up expenses. For instance, Harold Hall wants us to buy him four new fancy top of the line pick-up trucks. Somebody should remind him we just laid off 150 employees. But that’s OK he also needs 75 new Dell computers. But wait it turns out this is a duplicate request he’s tried to slip by council. Credit the City Clerk with noticing this. Mr. Hall was on a spending spree tonight as the hour drew towards midnight as was Carmen Melendez…
Dan deserves much credit for sticking it out. I left when a fearsome park ranger stuck his out from the conference chamber and looked around for the third time. He seemed to be taking a quick head count as to how many of the public were left. It is high time council learns just who they work for – the taxpayers of our fair city!! Dan is also right that council has a few ways to get things moving – will they? Stay tuned. PHS
Four is all that is needed to get a change of government on the ballot. Eliminate the position of mayor, hire a real business savvy CFO and lets get moving.
Also, the 18 officers returned the day after 9 retired.
Change of government? But how would Mack’s family create a political machine then?