“I know what you’re thinking about,” said Tweedledum: “but it isn’t so, nohow.”
“Contrariwise,” commented Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”
— Lewis Carroll. “Through the Looking Glass”
Tonight at City Council, an ordinance is to be introduced for first reading by North Ward Councilmember marge Caldwell-Wilson. As described in an article in today’s Times by Matt Fair, and as you can read here thanks to Jim Carlucci, the intent of the ordinance is to assert a role for City Council in the Tony Mack Administration’s management of various non-profit tenants in City-owned properties.
Over the last couple of weeks, the Administration has taken a newly aggressive stance regarding several tenants, including Artworks Trenton in their Stockton Street building; Passage Theater in the Mill Hill Playhouse; the Team Hope boxing project run by William McLaughlin ejected from an old firehouse on South Broad Street; and a food bank run by the Greater Donnelly Neighborhood Initiative, now homeless after leaving its City-owned building on Fell Street. Led by former-“Acting”-Business-Administrator-now-the-only-mayoral-aide-left-on-the-payroll Anthony “Off With Their Heads” Roberts, who claimed the city could peremptorily cancel city permits and lease/rental agreements with any tenant on city property with 90 days’ notice, the Mack Administration’s newly-confrontational position has alarmed many in Trenton.
There are concerns that the affected groups may lose funding, be unable to attract critical new grants and donations, and be unable to do any long-term or even medium-term planning if the status of their home base were continually uncertain.
And there are questions about any possible ulterior motives the Administration may have regarding other potential groups or people the City may place in these properties should the current tenants depart. These latter questions are being asked in connection with the shadowy effort being touted by Tony Mack in his State of the City Address as “The Mayor’s Learning Center Libraries.” These are planned by the Mayor to operate in at least some of the closed neighborhood branches of the Trenton Free Public Library (TFPL), although neither the Management nor the Trustees of the TFPL know anything about the Mayor’s plans, and are apparently not going to be involved in the operation.
So who will be working on this effort? We don’t know. But since the neighborhood branches house books and other materials which are the property of the TFPL, and since state law mandates that city-owned buildings once they are used as libraries must be under the operation and control of the public library and not any shadowy other group, this may be the makings of another big Tony Mack Mess.
But, back to the Ordinance. This proposal would allow Council to review and hold a hearing about any attempt the City might undertake to terminate or evict any group on a City-owned property. The new bill would also direct the Business Administrator (Hi, Sam Hutchinson!) to prepare a report and list of all groups operating out of City facilities and the nature of their lease/rental agreements, whether written or verbal.
All in all, this Ordinance looks to me like a sensible, logical effort to bring some order and calm to a process that, in typical Mack Administration fashion, is lurching wildly from one impulsive move to another half-baked plan. The proposal seeks to protect the current groups at risk from recent Administration actions and threats, as well as get a good handle on the overall status of all such groups, citywide. This should receive unanimous support from our Council members.
But, of course, this is Trenton, and nothing is that easy or logical here, is it? I hope this measure passes tonight, overwhelmingly. There will still be opportunity to review and discuss at second reading. For now, this will go a long way to reduce some of the uncertainty over their future being experienced by Artworks and Passage Theater, and may help get Bill McLaughlin and the Donnelly Food Bank back up and running.