So it has come to this: On Monday evening, City Hall hosted a kickoff event for last night’s National Night Out (NNO). Refreshments were served, including a cake featuring the NNO logo – dated 2011. Oops.
In most other City Halls, in almost any other year, this little blooper would be the occasion for a few chuckles and self-critical laughs among attendees, media and City Hall staffers alike. I mean, it’s funny!
But not in Trenton’s City Hall, not this year. The same folks who produced a City Hall event in which the mayor wished the press a “Happy Pearl Harbor Day” are incapable of a simple laugh at their own expense. In an account in today’s Trentonian, Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman reports, “Neither [Mayor Tony F. Mack®] nor anyone else who supported the event said anything about the cake having the wrong year on it… Paul Harris, a city employee who worked with city police to coordinate the event, on Tuesday said he wasn’t authorized to comment on the cake mishap. He referred The Trentonian to mayoral aide Anthony Roberts, who couldn’t be reached for comment.”
Wow. “Not authorized to comment on the cake mishap.” No one sayiong even a word about the wrong date. I cannot imagine any evidence that the second floor of 319 East State Street is in full bunker mode stronger than this. It was a cake. With the wrong date. It was funny. Lighten up!
On the other hand, there is nothing funny about what’s going on in City Hall this month. For example, the National Night Out events this week reportedly cost the City $12,000 the City can ill afford to spend.
This is standard operating procedure from Mayor Mack and his crew, but it’s sad to see that Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson seems to be developing many of the worst habits of his colleagues. In yesterday’s paper, the Trentonian reported, “City Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson said City Council appropriated $15,000 for National Night Out in the 2012 fiscal year budget but that the city is using less than $12,000 of that for Tuesday’s National Night Out. He said the remaining $3,000 will go toward helping the city balance its budget for fiscal year 2013, which began July 1. ‘This is something I wholeheartedly endorse,’ Hutchinson said of the city’s 2012 National Night Out.” [Emphasis mine. – KM]
Mr. Hutchinson is claiming that a fiscal year 2012 budget line paid for last night? Umm, the FY 2012 budget paid for last year’s National Night Out, in August 2011. We are now in FY 2013.
During a budget workshop this past June, Mr. Hutchinson was the very model of fiscal rectitude. He said, “I agree totally that in many areas, even small control and accountability have been lacking, lacking and perhaps even nonexistent. But we are taking steps to make overall operations, not just public works, more accountable and to ensure integrity in the process. Whether it’s $10, $1,000 or $10,000, it matters.” [Emphasis mine. – KM]
I agree, sir! Last night cost $12,000, and it matters. Heritage Days cost $75,000, and it matters. The lawsuit over grant software could cost us $140,000, and it matters. The lease for an abandoned courthouse project could cost over $7 Million, and That Matters. It all matters.
It doesn’t help if our BA appears to confuse fiscal years, or endorse spending $12,000 on what is another photo opportunity intended to prop up a staggering Administration. Residents of this City hoped, as did the State Department of Community Affairs who vetted and recommended Mr. Hutchinson’s appointment, that he would serve as a counterweight to the poor managerial and budgetary decisions repeatedly exhibited by the Mayor and many of his team. After the FBI raid of City Hall, Mr. Hutchinson showed some leadership, and I appreciated it. But he has been in his job for several months now, and he has not had made as much of a positive contribution to changing the culture of that building as much as hoped. I would like to see that change.
Otherwise, the same week as the National Night Out anti-crime festivities were staged, an estimated 15-20 people are preparing for their testimony at tomorrow’s Federal Grand Jury session. After the FBI’s raids and continuing investigation, tomorrow’s Grand Jury represents the next step in the process that could shortly lead to criminal indictments. If charges are in fact handed down, be prepared for several more months of upheaval in our sad little town. Stay tuned.
With tomorrow’s session as context, perhaps some folks looking at the “2011” date on that cake were wishing that the calendar could be somehow turned back to the Good Old Days of 2011, before the roof caved in.