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Ha, Ha, Ha! That's a Good One, Mr. Glickman!

Tallone was on sick leave, collecting a paycheck from his $88,000 annual salary. The city was supposed to stop paying Tallone after the indictment was handed up, but public records obtained by Trenton civic activist Jim Carlucci revealed Tallone collected his paychecks on Feb. 2 and Feb. 16.

Glickman said Trenton Acting Business Administrator Anthony Roberts “took immediate action to get it corrected.” Taxpayers can expect Tallone won’t receive a city check on the next pay date of March 1, because “it’s not like it takes two or three weeks to get him off the books,” Glickman said.

Oh, that’s pretty funny, Mr. Glickman! That’s Trenton’s outside labor attorney Steve Glickman quoted in this morning’s Trentonian in a story by Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman.  He’s talking about David G. Tallone, a City employee and head of one of the municipal labor unions, currently under indictment on multiple charges of impersonation and forgery.

Mr. Tallone was first arrested in November 2011. At that time, the City was quick to announce that he would be dealt with sternly: “While the charges will be resolved in court, the City is taking all necessary administrative actions which include suspension without pay, pending final resolution of the charges,” read the city’s press release of November 11.

Strong words, indeed. The only thing is, no action was taken against Mr. Tallone. He remained on the city payroll, drawing full pay. In January of this year, that inconvenient fact was discovered after the hardest-working citizen in Trenton, Jim Carlucci, filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request that revealed that the City’s bold words in November were lies.

In January, the City sent Mr. Glickman in front of the press to explain why Mr. Tallone was still cashing the City’s checks. From another Trentonian article dated January 14:

Glickman said the city was originally given information that Tallone was indicted and that [City spokesperson Lauren] Ira’s press release was based on that. “Further information given to the city (indicated) he was not indicted, he was given a summons,” Glickman said of Tallone.

“When somebody is given a summons, it is kind of treated like you are innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, he was allowed to remain on sick leave.”

“If he was indicted, it would have been treated differently,” Glickman added. “Indictments are more serious and are presumed to be felony accusations.”

OK, you know where this is going, right?

You are correct! February 1, in the Times: “Grand Jury indicts Trenton employee on fraud charges.” So, maybe NOW the City stopped his pay?

Of course not! Mr. Carlucci, once again, filed an OPRA request that reveals that Tallone drew paychecks from the City for the month of February! How can this be? you must be thinking. Cue Steve Glickman:

Since the indictment came down, he was supposed to be suspended without pay. It was an administrative error that is being corrected.

NOW, he says, THIS TIME he will be suspended. FOR REAL.  ABSO-DARN-LUTELY. You can put money on it.

Glickman said Trenton Acting Business Administrator Anthony Roberts ‘took immediate action to get it corrected.’ Taxpayers can expect Tallone won’t receive a city check on the next pay date of March 1, because ‘it’s not like it takes two or three weeks to get him off the books,’ Glickman said.

Isn’t that last line a hoot? “It’s not like it takes two or three weeks!” I’ll bet he said that with a dismissive toss of the hands and a huff. That was really one of the funniest lines, spoken no doubt without a tinge of irony or self-awareness, spoken in this town by a person not named Tony F. Mack, in months.

It’s not like it takes two or three weeks! Of course not! It takes four months, several news articles and a slew of OPRA requests!! (UPDATE: Here’s a link to copies of the paystubs for 2012, courtesy of Jim Carlucci)  Even then, the City does the right thing only when forced to.

And we pay this attorney How Much?

Speaking of “Acting” Business Administrator Anthony Roberts, he’s in the news this morning on another matter. Today’s Times reveals in a piece by-lined by Matt Fair that Acting Inspections Director Cleveland Thompson is facing disciplinary charges for an undescribed “incident” weeks ago between him and Mr. Roberts. There were no details provided, but the ubiquitous Mr. Steve Glickman mysteriously hinted that “the incident did not rise to the level of police involvement,” in the words of Mr. Fair.

Over the weekend, news started circulating – put in writing first by local blogger Robert Chilson and confirmed for me over the weekend by a prominent City Hall figure – that Mr. Thompson had actually been suspended by Mayor Mack, because he had committed the offense of Disloyalty To The Mayor by talking to the press about the piteous state of the Inspections Department in the aftermath of departmental layoffs. By the end of the weekend. Thompson had been Un-suspended, and now faces disciplinary charges.

This kind of punitive treatment will be familiar to anyone who remembers how City Law Director Marc McKithen was treated by the Mayor for similar disloyalty. In the Administration of Tony Mack, personal fealty is always valued above professional competence and public service.

I don’t know Mr. Thompson, but I can recommend one line of defense at any disciplinary hearing that I doubt the City could deny with a straight face:  “You say I dissed the Business Administrator? Oh, yeah? So who is that? Not Anthony Roberts! He was appointed as Acting Biz Administrator on September 23, 2011. That’s  almost 160 days ago. His appointment expired 70 days ago, and his term was never renewed by Council. He’s not the Business Administrator, so I couldn’t have disrespected him. So, you can all KISS MY ASS!

I did say that I’m not a lawyer, right? My advice might not be the most diplomatic, but it certainly would be highly satisfying.

That’s plenty for one morning. I won’t have a chance to go into Jim Carlucci’s latest effort, also in the papers this morning: he filed suit against the City for failing to comply with yet another OPRA request. This one concerns the City’s reluctance to disclose information about the Mayor’s new shiny plaything, his Commission on International Business Affairs.

I have to leave something to write about! Not that this city ever leaves us at a loss for new and increasingly unbelievable disasters to talk about.

4 comments to Ha, Ha, Ha! That’s a Good One, Mr. Glickman!

  • ed w

    usually when your out “sick” for an extended amount of time you need a “doctors note”

    i dont need to know the nature of his illness(i respect medical privacy), but is he under medical care or is he just abusing his sick day privileges? to be out for that length of time, you usually are severely ill.

    the city attorney needs to collect his back wages, thats city money, money he knows he is not entitled to.

    keep up the good work

    peace

  • Mike R.

    I’ve seen Anthony Roberts in action. That man needs some serious anger management classes.

  • […] Ha, Ha, Ha! That’s a Good One, Mr. Glickman! […]

  • analyticalguy

    I heppen to know Steve Glickman. He’s a fine attorney. Unfortunately, his job with the City is to clean up the mess after mistakes made by the Mack Administration and help staunch the bleeding from tis self-inflicted wounds. It’s not his job to run the City – he doesn’t have the authority, and he works on an hourly basis from his private law office in north Jersey. He’s jsut the attorney (coming in after the fact, with advice not necessarily followed by Mack & Co). They because of the lack of credibility ascribed to one Ms. Ira, he gets to do her job as well, by making statements to the press. What previous City Labor COuncil ever made ANY comments to the press? Of course Glickman’s going to sound a bit silly when he has to defend the indefensible.