The full text of Trenton City Council Resolution #14-300, authorizing final payment in the amount of $52,918.49 to the Long Marmero and Associates LLP law firm is available. Council is scheduled to consider the matter at its meeting this evening.
According to the text of the resolution, the legal services provided to Trenton by Long Marmero covers a period from July 1, 2013 through December 12, 2013. According to those dates, there seems to be no obvious conflict with Trenton’s Pay-to-Play Ordinance involving a contribution of $8,200 made by a Political Action Committee (PAC) closely associated with the firm to the mayoral campaign of Eric Jackson on February 25 of this year, as I discussed a few days ago.
However, without knowing more about the Initiate Civic Empowerment PAC (also known as “ICE PAC”), it’s difficult to make any more authoritative statements about this PAC and its contributions. The sources of funding for the Committee are still unknown as of this morning, as are the recipients of any contributions from ICE PAC other than Mr. Jackson’s campaign. ICE PAC has failed to file any quarterly financial reports to the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) since the Committee first filed a Registration Statement with the Commission in July 2012. So a clear picture of the scope and range of the activities of “Initiate Civic Empowerment” is not available for examination in the way that other, similar groups who comply with NJ law are.
By the act of its February contribution to Mr. Jackson, Long Marmero may not be able to accept new business with the City of Trenton for some time to come. But it appears based on the language of the Resolution that Council will consider this evening, if there is to be any fallout from its donation 4 months ago it will likely be ICE PAC and its officers, a name partner and an employee of Long Marmero who will have to deal with it, not Mr. Jackson.
Campaign financing in New Jersey is often a very murky and messy affair. It gets even murkier when participants in some of the more colorful and vivid events attempt to rewrite history, as a column in today’s Trentonian by LA Parker reminds us.
Cooper Levenson is the Atlantic City law firm that had a $50,000 contract for legal services with the city from 2010 to 2011. Prior to that contract, the firm had made a $7,200 donation on behalf of Tony Mack’s 2010 campaign to another local PAC, Partners for Progress. That PAC forwarded the money directly to Mack’s campaign, which became an issue with Trenton’s Pay-to-Play law.
According to a conversation between Mr. Parker and Lloyd Levenson, a name partner of the firm who also served as the Chairman of Mack’s inaugural ball committee, the firm sensed that “Circumstances pointed toward a mess and Levenson, chairman of his firm’s casino department, knew a not so promising hand had flopped. His firm checked out.” And later in Parker’s tale, “Cooper Levenson rescinded the contract as Mack moved on to criminal complications.” [Emphasis mine – KM]
I suppose it is nice for a guy like Mr. Levenson to tell the tale in a way that allows a little luster for his firm. As it happened, back in 2011, the Cooper Levenson firm did indeed withdraw from its contract with the City, on February 8. But that was a full week after the City of Trenton’s then-City Attorney MarcMcKithen voided the contract, first, on February 1.
It’s pretty well accepted to say that you broke up with your girlfriend a week after she dumped you. It’s ok to try and save face and retain a little dignity, I suppose. As long as everyone remembers what actually happened.
Was I perhaps a little hasty to suggest that the ICE PAC contribution to Mr. Jackson’s campaign, which I had first written about in April, might have violated the city’s law? Perhaps. As discussed above, there are still a lot of questions about the PAC and its activities, but they are not likely to affect Jackson. Mr. Jackson’s campaign had a demonstrated series of other finance and reporting missteps in this campaign and his 2010 effort that put the ICE PAC donation in a suspect light, for me.
I’m not entirely convinced to put a Good Housekeeping seal on this transaction, but I don’t think any unanswered questions should hold up any Council action tonight to authorize the final payment to Long Marmero, nor do I think Mr. Jackson should return the ICE PAC contribution.