You First, Mr. Bethea! After You, Ms. McBride!

Oh, this is rich!

One of the persons least justified in climbing on a high horse in this Trenton election season is Councilman-at-Large Alex Bethea. On a body blessed with an abundance of mediocrity and mendacity, with a pitiful 4-year “record” of accomplishment to show for their terms, Bethea surely stands out as being the most useless. And that is saying something!

But, there he is in this morning’s news. In a Trentonian article by David Foster, he is described as having “seen enough” of the ongoing election snafu in the City: Bethea “called for embattled Clerk Richard Kachmar to submit a letter of resignation by the end of the business day Wednesday due to ‘his incompetence’ stemming from his election mistake. ‘Let’s hold people accountable,’ Bethea said after the council meeting. ‘If you’re not doing the job, then submit the resignation.'”

I am not a fan of this Clerk. His fumbles in office, along with those committed on an ongoing basis by Trenton’s Law Department headed by City Attorney Caryl Amana, deserve their dismissal in favor of someone who knows what they are doing.  But I can’t stand to hear Bethea of all people on this subject.

Had only Mr. Bethea taken such a stance earlier in his term, we might have heard similarly stern and impassioned calls to resign directed at the incompetence of other City figures. But a Google search for such items won’t turn up other statements blasting the incompetence of the likes of Anthony Roberts, Harold Hall, or Tony Mack.

In fact, what will turn up for Mr. Bethea is a long record of statements and votes supporting the Convicted Ex-Occupant.

For instance, in August of 2012, weeks after the FBI raids on Mack’s house and City Hall that would lead to federal felony indictments and convictions of several people, Bethea claimed “We don’t have the right to tell the mayor how to do his job.” God forbid he should have suggested of the mayor, “If you’re not doing the job, then submit the resignation.”

I could go on at GREAT length about Mr. Bethea, but will only add this one reminder that on one of the few occasions when City Council attempted meaningful action to rein in the Administration of the Felonious Punk, Bethea had Mack’s back. Remember the effort in Fall 2012, when Council voted “No Confidence” in the mayor, and also voted to cut his salary in half? Guess who voted against both? Yep, Alex Bethea.

To be fair, Mr. Bethea has little to no chance of being re-elected to his at-large seat in the spring election – whenever that will be – so I won’t bother to call for him to do the honorable thing and resign. It will be soon enough that we won’t have to put the words “Councilman” and “Alex Bethea” together again. Good riddance to him! That day can’t come fast enough.

You can say the same thing about his colleague and fellow Council obstructionist Kathy McBride. One can say with an absolute certainty that she won’t be a Council member after her term is over. But in her case the reason is that she feels that her record on the Council is so good that she is running for Mayor.

She is joining her colleague Bethea in calling for the resignations of Mr. Kachmar & Ms. Amana, and has even requested the state Department of Community Affairs (who vetted and approved the appointments of both) to intervene and terminate the employment of both.

Like Mr. Bethea, McBride was a firm and active backer of the Convicted Fraudster and Bribe-taker, who also blocked the 2012 votes of No Confidence and mayoral salary reduction. She, too, is a born-again Good Government type as the election is getting closer. Her calls for Council and State to do the right thing regarding ridding the city of incompetence are increasing in number at a rate that seems to be inversely proportional to the number of days before the election. So for 3 1/2 years, we have heard and seen little from her other than support for the previous Administration. Now, she hopes we all have short memories.

In her campaign for Mayor, I think she knows she can’t run on her Council record. Instead she is running on her record as a community activist and private citizen. Here is a select list of what she presents on her campaign website as her “Record” over the last four years:

• Hosted an expungement seminar that provided Trenton residents with information about the expungement process.
• Advocated for union workers to maintain their employment with the Lafayette Yard
• Raised awareness of mental health problems in collaboration with former NBA basketball player Luther Wright. All proceeds were donated to the Greater Trenton Behavioral Healthcare.
• Hosted an annual movie night for the entire community.
• Sponsored a trip to Orangeburg, South Carolina for high school and college students to participate in the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary Election. The goal was to introduce students to the political process.
• Celebrated and united Trenton’s various cultures by hosting an annual Multi-cultural/Holiday program. This program offered an olive branch to different ethnicities to highlight the rich diversity of the City. During this event, hundreds of children received gifts for the holiday season.
• Worked closely with the Police Benevolence Association during Hurricane Irene to provide clothing and gift certificates to displaced families.
• Educated Trenton students about municipal government and guided students on a tour of city hall.

That’s right, Trenton. Kathy McBride thinks she should be Mayor of this city because she’s hosted Movie Night, and guided students on a tour of City Hall!

She is, apparently, quite serious.

In her defense, she does state quite clearly that this record describes her “service on the Council and as a Community activist,” so she is not claiming all of those milestones solely as her Council legacy.

Her expressed dissatisfaction with the City’s Clerk and Law Department is just not credible, given her record – on Council – of enabling the incompetent and criminal excesses of the previous regime, and obstructing all efforts of her body to control and reverse the worst of them.

Given her “record,” then, what does she propose to do as Mayor? Her platform is full of vague objectives vaguely expressed and poorly argued. Her website claims that, “As Mayor, Kathy will…”

• Maintain safer streets and safer neighborhoods.
• Improve community policing policies that are geared towards reducing our crime rate.
• Work to increase foot patrols and enhance the channels of communication between police personnel and city residents.
• Secure funding to provide adequate staffing and resources to the Police Department.
• Offer Police Officers and Fire Fighters salary incentives to establish and maintain residency within the city.
• Work with the Board of Education for system wide improvement of the school district.
• Provide additional resources to schools with innovative programs that strive to advance academic growth.
• Heighten our children’s preparation for the workforce with quality career and technical educational programs.
• Attract educators who are STEM literate (“Science, Technology, Engineering and Math”), and incorporate STEM learning in every subject.
• Promote bilingual education city-wide through peer tutoring programs.
• Work with business interests to make the city amenable for investment opportunities.
• Partner with corporations to attract new business and create employment opportunities for Trenton residents.
• Sell abandoned city-owned properties to qualified developers and city residents.
• Continue to work with the State of New Jersey to redevelop surface parking lots into commercial real estate.
• Impose wage contribution for all employees who live outside of the city.
• Re-build city bridges
• Repair damaged roads

Nowhere in her platform does she explain just how she proposes to do any of these things, or if she even comprehends how some of these actions can even be attempted.

For example, does she really think she could “impose wage contribution for all employees who live outside the city?” What does this even mean?

How will she “secure funding to provide adequate staffing and resources to the Police Department?” Her last “plan” on the matter was to  incoherently beg the Governor to “deputize” law enforcement officers from outside the City to patrol our streets.

Is she the best person to “Attract educators who are STEM literate (‘Science, Technology, Engineering and Math’), and incorporate STEM learning in every subject?”

Her only public foray into science education, after all, was her attempt from the Council dais to warn Trenton’s citizenry about the danger of that dangerous new public health threat, Blue Waffle Disease?”

What, you thought I could resist an opportunity like that? Not a chance!!

Alex Bethea and Kathy McBride are two Council members who have no business lecturing us about the need for incompetent Trenton public officials to resign.

If they want to be taken seriously on this matter, the first resignations to be tendered would be theirs.