I think it’s a commentary on the state of affairs in our fair city that it’s getting difficult to tell the difference between the absurdity of a good April Fool’s prank, and the absurdity of Trenton Reality.
Case in point: this announcement by the Indicted Occupant of Trenton’s Mayor’s Office. Dated April 1, 2013, this press release announces the Grand Opening of Greg Grant Park. Since the things that the IO loves the most about his jobs has been the kind of ribbon-cutting, hand-waving, and vague-smiling occasions like this one, I’d expect the IO to pull out all the stops on this. It’s one of the increasingly-rare opportunities that the IO has these days to appear Mayoral. After all, it’s not likely that another Pakistani Rotary International Delegation will be passing through City Hall for a photo opportunity, so I guess you take your ribbon-cuttings when they come up!
I don’t have anything against this park, per se. But rather than celebrate the opening of yet another new recreational facility, I’d like to feel more confident that the Adminstration could take better care of the facilities and properties it already has.
This is a picture of a park bench in Cadwalader Park, taken in June last year, when the IO’s major park beautification effort was the installation of his Big Old Tony Mack Memorial Sign.
This is a picture of the same bench, taken today. Left to rot untouched since last June.
In his April Fool’s Day press release, the IO is quoted as saying, “We will continue to transform eyesores throughout our city into spaces for the benefit of the public.”
I’d feel better about this kind of initiative if this Administration didn’t have such a strong record of transforming spaces throughout our city for the benefit of the public into eyesores!
I was tempted to consider the whole thing a prank of the day, but realized that no, the IO was being serious. He, and his remaining handlers, don’t have a humorous or ironic bone in their body. This was For Real.
April Fool’s Day was also the occasion of several announcements by Trentonians that they were jumping into the upcoming 2014 Municipal Elections. Several of these announcements were obviously pranks, some were eerily “Is This For Real??” credible, that took some thinking (and checking with other people!) to check out.
One announcement was utterly authentic. Despite April 1 being an inauspicious day for announcements of any kind (see above), former Trenton Public Works Director and current Director of Public Works and Urban Development Eric Jackson announced to the press what he has been telling supporters and other groups for months, that he is running for Mayor. His third-place finish in 2010 certainly makes him a very credible candidate. Now that he is a declared candidate, I look forward to hearing him provide information on several questions I and other Trentonians likely have for him.
First, over the last few years we have seen several scandals coming out of the city’s Public Works Department. Former city union leader and Public Works employee David Tallone faces trial on several impersonation and forgery charges allegedly committed between April 2007 and May 2011. These charges revolve around several city vendor contracts and payments for Public Works-related events, many during Mr. Jackson’s tenure.
Similarly, former Water Works employee and mayoral brother Stanley Davis is serving time after conviction on criminal official misconduct charges. The specific charges on which Davis was convicted date to the fall of 2010, but the fraudulent activities of Mr. Davis and his associates have been described as going further back in time, also during Mr. Jackson’s term as Director. Now that he is a declared candidate, I look forward to Mr. Jackson’s descriptions of his knowledge of and/or experience with these issues, as well as others that may be relevant to his prior experience in Trenton’s government.
Yesterday’s announcement to the press by Mr. Jackson is more or less the formal acknowledgement of a process that has been talked about for several months, since at least September of last year. In that case, I wonder why – alone among the several announced and unannounced candidates for Mayor – Mr. Jackson has up until today failed to file the required forms and notifications with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission?
Mr. Jackson, while an unannounced candidate, has certainly been “testing the waters” for a potential candidacy for at least 8 months. According to NJ law, potential candidates “testing the waters” are specifically required to file notice of candidacy with the Commission, which includes such action as disclosing the names of a campaign committee, its Chair, its Treasurer, and bank account information.
So far, Mr. Jackson’s main potential competitors – (the now withdrawn from contention) James Gee, James Golden, Patrick Hall, Himself the Indicted One, and Walker Worthy – have all filed over the last few months, in Mr. Gee’s case as far back as October 2012.
Why has Mr. Jackson failed to do so? He’s been around the block before, having run in 2010. What reasons might his campaign have for not complying with the regulations? And why was Mr. Jackson’s final campaign disclosure report from 2010 filed at the end of April 2010, weeks before the election? Did his campaign have no income or expenses after that date?
Over the last three years we have seen what happens when someone is elected as Mayor who is incapable of even following the basic rules of campaigning for the job. If he wants to be taken seriously as a candidate, Mr. Jackson is certainly experienced enough and capable enough to be held to one basic minimum standard of demonstrating that he can at the very least run his campaign according to the rules. He needs to do start doing this right away, as well as explain his tardiness in failing to do so up until now.
Other candidates, to their credit, have started to provide(even before April Fool’s!) explanations and defenses of their records, but have stumbled somewhat in the initial attempt. Last week, for instance, former Public Safety Director under Mayor Doug Palmer James Golden posted on Facebook a response to certain issues that have been raised against him in connection with one of the two positions he held after his service in Trenton.
Mr. Golden served as the security chief for Philadelphia’s public schools from 2005 to 2010, and before that worked for almost two years as the head of security at Philadelphia International Airport. It was from this position that he was removed by the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), on suspicion of a charge of nepotism in the hiring of his son-in-law for an airport job, as well as other suspect hiring decisions.
Golden last week wrote that yes, he was removed in early 2004 on a nepotism charge, but was reinstated by the TSA later that year when cleared of those charges. Mr. Golden’s statement last week was a pre-emptive attempt to get in front of the questions that will surely come up, and probably repeatedly, in what will be a long campaign. This kind of pro-activeness is a good thing.
But Mr. Golden surely lost some major credibility in some of the wording of his statement. Of the charges leading to his dismissal, he wrote last week, “I believe these rumors were nothing more than hyperbole used by some of the resentful White employees who disagreed with my diversity plan in the appointment of my son-in-law and other qualified minorities to key positions.” [Emphasis mine – KM]
Really? This is how Mr. Golden chooses to respond to this issue, which challenges his integrity and his personnel hiring and management skills, from a position certainly relevant to his credentials as he runs for Mayor? By a gratuitous reference to “resentful White employees?”
Now I like Mr. Golden, and at this early stage of the 2014 campaign feel that his candidacy is one of the stronger ones.In addition to his executive experience, Jim Golden was the only one of the current mayoral candidates, and one of the few public figures of any sort, to publicly back the unsuccessful 2011 recall campaign against the not-yet-arrested-or-indicted-but-still-hopelessly-sleazy-and-incompetent Occupant, and to work on the recall effort. He stood up in 2011 against the current mess, and that counts for a lot in my book.
But in a city like Trenton, known for its wide diversity in ethnicities, incomes, educational levels and races; in a city whose politics are often characterized by early and frequent use of “the race card,” often played in winks, nudges and innunedo; to read such a statement is very unfortunate, very sad.
Without knowing the background of these issues in any great detail, it is the task of the candidate to tell this personal story of his professional background. It’s an essential element of a successful campaign, along with the candidate’s positions on substantive issues. I’m disappointed to see this candidate resort to such rhetoric before the campaign even really begins.
So, on this day after April Fool’s, we have seen two of the main contenders start their campaigns in very shaky ways. I do hope that these two, and the other candidates still in the wings, quickly start to show us that they know how to run a competent campaign if they have any hope of earning our votes and trust for the job of Mayor.
Otherwise, we might go back to some of those April Fool’s candidates and ask them if they might consider running. For Real.
Great post and good questions. I look forward to the answers.