Johnson’s claim that he remains the union leader despite losing his job resembles a claim made by Mack after he was laid off in 2004 from his job as the city’s recycling coordinator under then-mayor Douglas Palmer. Mack was serving as head of AFSCME Local 2281, but Palmer’s administration opted not to recognize him as the union leader.
“I’m the president of the local,” Mack said at the time. “Everything that happens from the local at this point has to come through me. Whether the city likes that or not is another story, but that’s the way our union works. Fortunately for the union, the city has no authority over it.”
Mack continued to serve as head of the local until 2006. Reached on his cell phone last night, Mack declined to comment.
– Trenton Times, April 18, 2012, Article by Matt Fair [Emphasis mine – KM]
Thank you, Mr. Fair, for another excellent article this morning! For readers such as myself who did not attend last night’s City Council meeting, you recapped very nicely what must have been quite a night.
A lot of the proceedings revolved around “Acting” Public Works Director Harold Hall, who is apparently seeking to add “Union-Busting Goon” to his list of titles, after encounters of the last week with acting president of the city’s blue-collar union Edmund Johnson. In one alleged incident, Mr. Hall is accused of simple assault on Mr. Johnson last week, when Johnson was forcibly ejected from a disciplinary hearing of one of his union members. Last night, a new charge was made that Mr. Hall changed the lock on the union office in City Hall, depriving Mr. Johnson of access.
The Times article reminds us that Johnson was laid off from City service last year after he provided testimony against the Mayor’s brother Stanley Davis, now convicted of official misconduct while working for the Trenton Water Works (TWW). Johnson along with TWW employee Timothy London filed suit against the City, Mayor Mack as well as Mr. Hall and current Mayoral “Aide” Anthony Roberts. alleging that their layoffs were the culmination of a long pattern of payback and retribution. That pattern of retribution and payback is apparently continuing, according to the recent articles about Mr. Johnson.
As the quote at the beginning of this article illustrates, it is richly ironic that the Tony Mack Administration is refusing to recognize Johnson as the legitimate head of AFSCME Local 2286. The Mackers are using the very same tactic that was used against Tony Mack by their nemesis, former Mayor Doug Palmer! Call it Karma, or Payback, or whatever: You gotta love it!
Mr. Mack himself noted back in 2004 that the City has no role in selecting union leadership. If the union leadership says Edmund Johnson is the acting president (because president David Tallone is under indictment for defrauding the city), then the City has to accept Mr. Johnson as president. The City can’t lock him out, or physically push him out. They have to deal with him!
Thanks to Matt Fair for writing another fine article on a tight deadline, one which provides some rich background and necessary context to the events and issues at hand. Nicely done!
From the accounts of last night’s meeting, both Mr. Fair’s for the Times and this one by Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman for The Trentonian, it appears that Council has had just about enough of the thuggish behavior of Harold Hall. There were moves made to bring him to one of their next meetings to provide an account of himself, which may (and should!) lead to his dismissal. The Trentonian’s account also mentions what I have been banging my drum about for close to two years: “Trenton’s municipal code gives the mayor unilateral power to hire acting directors, but those appointments ‘shall terminate no later than 90 days after the date of the appointment,’ unless City Council formally extends the appointment.” YES! YES! THANK YOU!
Mr. Abdur-Rahman goes on to explain that “City Acting Law Director Walter Denson at Tuesday’s council meeting said he wasn’t sure about the process regarding the 90-day rule, because the state Division of Local Government Services [the division of the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA] is now in charge of soliciting candidates to replace all of the acting directors in Mack’s cabinet.”
But The Trentonian also reminds us that DCA has never liked Hall, and last year thought he had no role in City Government: “Tom Neff, director of the state Division of Local Government Services, wrote Mack a letter last year [2011] requesting the mayor remove Hall from the Trenton Public Property Division leadership position. ‘Over the past several months, several incidents have called into question his ability to competently serve the people of Trenton,’ Neff said of Hall in his letter to Mack.” And this was even before his promotion to “Acting” Director!”
So, kick his sorry ass out of City Hall, already!!
Thank You to Councilmember Marge Caldwell-Wilson for leading this effort! And Thanks to the other Councilmembers supporting this move: as named in the articles – Councilmembers George Muschal, Phyllis Holly-Ward and Zachary Chester. If any other members spoke in favor of this move or are otherwise supporting it, I am sorry for not mentioning you here.
I am glad that Council is moving to remind us that we are under the rule of law in this City, and not the rule of men. Especially men who are as thuggish, petty and small-minded, mean-spirited and just plain stupider than a sack of hair as this crowd who are running the Executive Branch of our Government.