Learning to Crawl

There’s an old adage which advises that before one can run, one must learn to walk; before one can walk, one must learn how to crawl. I recall an old comedy routine build around that, although I can’t quite remember if it was a Bill Cosby or Flip Wilson bit. No matter.

That old advice seems fairly relevant today. I read Mayor Mack’s State of the City Message as delivered on Monday night. By all accounts, the stagecraft was professional – platforming and dual TelePrompTers, no less – and the room was nearly full. I won’t give a full recap of the speech itself, though. Dan Dodson’s done an excellent job of that today.

Mayor Mack has indeed, as Mr. Dodson tells us, provided us his vision of Trenton. As the Book of Proverbs reminds us, “Where there is is no vision, the people perish.”  In the first nine months of his Administration, we have seen no vision from this Mayor, as he scrambled from crisis to crisis, embarrassment to embarrassment, stumble to stumble. This week, with the glow of a successful St. Patrick’s Day Parade under glorious skies in recent memory, and the accomplishment (still not completed) of a fiscal year 2011 Budget finally balanced (if one doesn’t look too closely at some of the possibly gimmicky devices used to get there), he can’t be blamed for a little self-congratulation. The Mayor looks to stride ahead to make his vision of Trenton’s future a reality, assisted by a senior management team that is now – finally – coming together three-quarters into his first year.

But, as stated above, before striding, our government needs to do a little remedial crawling. There are some Basics that are still causing this crew some Basic Problems.

Case in point: last night’s Council Resolution #11-157.  According to the docket, this was a “RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE CONTRACT WITH ASSOCIATED DATA PROCESSING CONSULTANTS, INC. (ADPC).”

Oh, yeah. Those guys! THAT Contract!!!!!! Ohhhhhh…

The one that Judge Linda Feinberg a month ago ordered reinstated for the last three months of its term, from March 1 to June 30. The order that was validated by the Judge’s written ruling on March 11.

Resolution #11-157 was the mechanism by which Council would have authorized paying ADPC for the work the company has been performing for the City, on an uninterrupted basis during the whole contract mishigas, without payment since March 1. The Resolution that would have brought the City into compliance with the Court’s order. The Resolution which was defeated last night by a vote of 5-2.

Why, you may ask, was this Resolution defeated? The Judge declared the Contract valid as of March 1, we owed the company money. What was the problem?

According to Robert Chilson’s blog post about last night’s Council session, it seems to be largely due to the failure of City Attorney Marc McKithen to explain to Council the purpose of the Resolution, and to produce any written documentation – the ADPC contract, for instance, and the Judge’s written order – to Council substantiating the need for the Resolution. According to Mr. Chilson, the Council discussion and vote on the Resolution proceeded with minimal input from Mr. McKithen.

I gotta say, I have big problems with this. First off, Mr. McKithen did his client – City Council – a major disservice. He was unprepared to explain the need for the resolution to both comply with the Judge’s order, and to be fair and pay a company that had been working without compensation for close to a month. He didn’t provide the needed and necessary documentation Council should have had to inform their vote.

Now, as long as I have served on the City Zoning Board, our Counsel has always jumped in to a discussion or testimony, in order to provide the Members advice on the fine points (and sometimes the broad and blunt points!) of what the law required of our Board. That’s his job. We are not trained lawyers. That’s why a Counsel serves Boards such as ours, and City Council. To pro-actively advise on the substance of the laws and regulations at issue, ensure compliance, and make sure the public record of proceedings is full and complete. It doesn’t sound that Mr. McKithen did that here. His failure.

Now, at the point in the proceedings when Mr. McKithen said words to the effect that “I don’t have the contract,” any single member of Council should have immediately said, “Mr. President, I move for a 10-minute recess so our Attorney can get off his ass and find the flipping Contract!!!” Didn’t happen. That’s Council’s failure.

What really steams me is that this wasn’t some obscure resolution about some half-forgotten contact or matter gathering dust for years before being rescued from a dark and damp vault. Nope, this was one of the more prominent and newsworthy matters to come before this Council since they were sworn in. Remember, this was the “I have a letter from the State approving Lynx,” “I will also let the State make my decision” and “I’ve done my own independent research.” This is the matter when Judge Feinberg spanked the City in general, and Mayoral aide Anthony Roberts in particular, over the sloppiness of the City’s purchasing process.

This Council should have known better, and should have been more conscientious about this matter, out of all the other matters it dealt with last night. I commend Councilmembers Muschal and Caldwell-Wilson for their common-sense votes in favor of the resolution.  I also would like to give a virtual head slap to the remaining five members for their incomprehensible “No” votes. What were you thinking? The result of all this, as Mr,. Chilson upates us, is that ADPC is going back to Judge Feinberg for justice and satisfaction, which they will surely get. We are likely to be treated to some further choice language from the Judge about how this City does business.

As they say, SMDH.

So, Mister Mayor, I do appreciate hearing your grand words and your expansive vision for this City. I, too, yearn to see a greener city, a safer city, and most of all, “a vibrant city, with an active street life, new private sector jobs, and a strong growing economy.” I would sprint to that future, if I could.

But, as long as we struggle with what should be the simple, basic stuff like complying with a court ruling, or even avoid such court dealings by following state laws and regulations in the first place, we aren’t sprinting anywhere. We are still learning to crawl.