“When asked if there was a single element of the plan that Mack himself devised especially for Trenton, the mayor said there was one.
“‘Yes: the comprehensive plan. That’s my idea.'”
In a nutshell this one quote, from an article by Alex Zdan in this morning’s Times, sums up everything that is wrong with Tony Mack and his mayoralty.
The Mayor takes all the credit here for the “comprehensive” plan to address the crisis in violent crime in Trenton that has peaked since the one-third reduction in force in the city’s Police Department a few months ago. The account by Mr. Zdan expands and reinforces the impression made in his breaking news piece posted online yesterday shortly after the Mayor’s news conference.
In this article, and in this article in today’s Trentonian, a clear picture has been drawn of a plan that, whatever its merits – and there are some kernels of good ideas buried in the fuzzy and confused thinking of this cut-and-paste job of a “comprehensive initiative” – the Mayor’s plan is fatally flawed by the process that produced it.
Almost identically to the process that led to both the announcement of the “Mayor’s Commission on International Business Affairs,” and to the Mayor’s “plan” to re-open the city’s four branch libraries, we saw yesterday an effort that came entirely from a bunker that includes only Tony Mack and likely his small, equally inept inner circle.
The “Comprehensive Crime Initiative” was prepared without apparent participation and input by anyone in the Trenton Police Department. Neither was there any participation by anyone in Mercer County law enforcement, as evidenced by County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini’s statements he knew nothing about the mayor’s plans. Neither did City Council provide input into this plan, nor the public.
The International Business Commission was also the sole brainchild of the Mayor. It was created by Executive Order, with no prior authorization sought nor granted by Council; and also with no public input. It is entirely unclear to me as to whether this effort is even a valid one for a financially as well as intellectually bankrupt city to consider attempting. And it is increasingly clear that the structure, finances and mission of this Commission as announced by the Administration is – as with the crime plan – fatally flawed.
With the Library situation, the Mayor rejected a proposal from a local non-profit to lease the shuttered East Trenton Branch for five years, claiming that an “advisory team” he had assembled had come up with a plan and recommendations to re-open all four closed neighborhood branches. However, cruelly, it came out that this “team” met once, a year ago, and has produced no plans, no results.
There are many more examples that I could cite, going back to the beginning of the Mayor’s Administration in July, 2010, but these three – vivid in our minds for having happened over the last three weeks – all give evidence that the same processes of policy-making and decision-making are being used by this Mayor and his close associates. And these processes all involve the mentality of the Bunker.
Whatever the topic – public safety, economic development, libraries, the Water Works, the City’s finances and budget, as examples – Mayor Mack rejects the counsel of others, especially those others who may be more knowledgeable and savvy about a topic than he.
That’s why his first actions in office were to dismiss all serving department heads from the Palmer Administration before qualified replacements were named.
That’s why he exiled from City Hall other talented managers such as Eric Jackson, demoting them to positions below their skills and capacities. That’s why he forced out valuable people like Bill Guhl, Ernie Jackson, Joe Juniak, and Marc McKithen.
That’s why we have had a never-ending carousel of “Acting” Directors heading our city departments, without confirmation by Council, without oversight other than from the Mayor, and without Accountability.
And that’s why he instead surrounds himself with people who are less talented, experienced and even more dim than he, like Anthony Roberts and Harold Hall. And then he relies only on this inner circle, becoming even more closed, insular, and small-minded.
Which is how we end up with grand initiatives like the Library “plan,” the International Business “plan,” and the “Comprehensive” crime “plan.”
The process by which this mayor works is inseparable from the product that results from it. Broken, useless, and pathetic. The process by which Tony Mack governs in his self-imposed bunker IS the sad substance of his mayoralty.
This did not have to be. At the beginning of his term, Mr. Mack rode into office on a wave of good wishes and collective hope. After 20 years of Doug Palmer, a tenure which had calcified into inaction in his last years, and in the middle of nationwide financial distress, we all wanted Tony Mack to succeed. His success would be our success. His progress would be Trenton’s progress.
But we’ve gone from one disaster to another, all fueled by the defects in Tony Mack’s character that will not allow him to open up his decision-making, will not allow him to trust others smarter and more capable than him, nor even to recognize that the contributions and efforts of others are crucial to his success.
At yesterday’s press conference, he was quoted as saying this about who else contributed to the preparation of his crime plan: “I don’t think we have to go into the naming process. There’s more that we have to look into: results.”
Precisely! If you look at the results of the last 19 months, we can draw our own conclusions. We have gotten nothing out of the Bunker to help our city crawl out of our hole.
One glimmer of hope comes from the state’s Department of Community Affairs (DCA). Since DCA has taken over the recruiting process for senior managers and Directors, dozens of resumes have been submitted for open positions. I sincerely hope that the State can cull through them to find the talent and quality we need right now.
But those new hires will be effective only if they can succeed in spite of the likely resistance of Tony Mack. He won’t like being surrounded by people he does not know, that he didn’t hire, that he can’t trust.
These new directors will have to work with DCA, with City Council – and with Trenton’s citizens – to make this work.