Things change direction so fast around here, one is at serious risk of whiplash, trying to watch all the balls in motion.
On the Library front: remember yesterday, when I paraphrased the Library Trustees’ and Director’s request for written confirmation of his offer of additional funding to re-open the neighborhood branches? I put it like this: “Please let us know that you are good for the additional half million. We don’t want to be left holding the bag if you back out of the deal!”
Well, the Mayor is backing out of the deal. “There’s no letter[confirming the additional funding], you know why? Our authority as the executive branch of government does not allow me to authorize expenditures. I am the mayor of the town. I carry out the day-to-day policy. the city council appropriates dollar amounts. I don’t want to get into the business of giving somebody a letter saying that you get $850,000 when that’s not my job.”
You know, I thought that this offer from the Administration in advance of an approved City budget and authorization from Council sounded kind of squirrelly. Now even Mayor Mack agrees. Sadly, I am not feeling confident this morning that we will see the neighborhood branches open any time soon.
If I were Business Administrator Andrew McCrosson, I’d be pretty livid reading that article today. Tuesday night, he was working damned hard to sell Council on the line that his emails to the Library were sufficient confirmation of the promised money. The BA got pretty upset when Councilman Chester disagreed, telling him that email from the BA wasn’t as good as a mayoral letter. Today, the BA’s boss just cut him off at the knees. That can’t feel good.
Yesterday’s other item, about Muni Judge Renee Lamarre-Sumners? This morning, there is a call for her removal from the bench if she doesn’t submit to the background check she’s been ducking for weeks. That call for removal? Oh, yeah, it’s from the “Acting” Police Director! And this same article contains an unattributed report that there are several other newly-hired city employees who have not had background checks performed, either. Serious stuff.
So, with all of this swirling around, yesterday was the day chosen to release a 6-page press release outlining the Administration’s Highlights of its first 100 days. This document, actually released 19 days after the actual 100-day mark, is subtitled “How Trenton Makes a Breakthrough,” and includes an exhaustive (Did I say this was a 6-page release?) of what is titled “ADMINISTRATIVE ACCOMPLISHMENTS.” These “accomplishments” include several items featuring liberal use of such phrases as:
“We attended” a meeting.
“We engaged in dialogues”
“We hosted meetings”
“We identified grant opportunities”
“Applied for [a] FEMA grant”
“We aggressively submitted grant applications”
“We will receive bids”
“We have plans”
“We have begun the planning”
“We attended [a] ribbon-cutting ceremony”
“We attended [a] closing ceremony”
Accomplishments? Accomplishments? These are not accomplishments. These are either ceremonial functions, plans for items that have not yet materialized, or frankly routine day-to-day stuff. In a business setting, when doing a job evaluation for a colleague, half of this stuff would be Goals and Objectives for the coming year, not completed accomplishments. The idea to create such a long, self-congratulatory celebration of imaginary “accomplishments” was, sadly, not a good one. And imperfectly-executed: with what is now apparently SOP from this shop, the release is peppered with typos, odd grammar, and inconsistent punctuation.
The Mayor is right about a few things. He did not create the mess that he stepped into on July 1. The budget deficit, the public safety of our citizens under threat, the physical infrastructure crumbling around us, and the sinking morale of employees and citizens alike, are all working against easy solutions.
However, for all that, Tony Mack presented himself as the best person to do his job. He said he had solutions, would bring in the best people and work to the highest standards. He would make us proud.
I still Hope he will. I still Dream he will. But I fear that he Can’t, and Won’t Do Any of that.
He did inherit the mess. (third graph from bottom)
You are correct, sir. Should have been “did not create.” It’s been changed. Thanks.
His accomplishments aren’t even real goals.
A good goal for a Mayor of a city like Trenton would be:
Increased population by 1000 citizens
Increased tax based by $500M
Decreased Index Crimes by 10 points.
Improved High School graduation by 10%
Anything short of these kind of goals is just talk. In fact, I invite you Kevin to assist me in submitting a resolution to City Council to tie a Mayoral performance bonus for 2011 to these goals. I submit that if our Mayor achieved all of these goals he should get a large bonus ($200K or so) and we’d be glad to pay it. However, missing a much more moderate set of targets should land him in a lower salary bracket than his current $126K.
What say you Trenton?
Now there’s a plan! Performance metrics from the top down.
Sounds good to me, Dan! We can discuss the specific targets, but a question on one of them. High School Graduation: do you mean to grow the current graduation numbers by 10%, or do you think you can get an additional 10% of the Senior Class to finish? That’s one target that wouldn’t actualize until June 2012. So how about making the bonus an incentive for FY 2012?