We've Been Here Before

From The Trentonian, July 15, 2015:

Police say the tip they received was in regards to a single employee engaged in drug activity. But a Trenton Water Works employee who asked to remain anonymous said “numerous people” who work at the Water Filtration Plant not only use drugs at work, but also deal drugs out of the facility. The employee also said supervisors at the plant have known about the drug activity for quite some time.

“They know who gets high around here and no one does anything about it,” the employee said. “It’s been happening for at least two years and it’s being swept under the rug. It’s not right.” [Emphasis mine – KM]

A single Trenton Water Works (TWW) employee was arrested Tuesday evening on charges of marijuana possession. According to the unnamed TWW employee quoted above in Penny Ray’s Trentonian piece, Rashawn Davis is not the only person at the vitally important municipal utility dirty with drugs. “Numerous people” not only use at work, but also deal. This is not an insignificant matter. TWW provides drinking water for over 200,000 people in Trenton and several surrounding Mercer County townships. The integrity of employees who work in such a public utility should be very high: the safety of our water depends on it.

However, according to City Hall spokesperson Michael Walker, this is not important enough of an issue for him or his mayor to provide comment to local media. Using the all-purpose response made popular during the Mack Administration, Mr. Walker “declined to comment, stating that it is the city’s policy not to comment on personnel matters.”

This is not simply a “personnel matter,” Mr. Walker. It is a public safety matter. Should allegations of widespread drug usage by employees were to be made against any random water utility anywhere in the US, public or private,I expect that the response by management and law enforcement would be strong and immediate. Not in Trenton, though.

Which is hard to understand, given the history at TWW over the last several years. The city-owned utility, as any reader of this space well knows, has been the source of many, many critical stories over the last several years, covering a gamut of topics from brown water, to crumbling and ill-maintained infrastructure, to employee hi-jinks, to charges of politically-motivated rate increases, to lawsuits against Trenton filed by disgruntled townships, and, last but not certainly least, to “Muscles.”

Had Michael Walker, or his boss, been sufficiently sensitive to the matter, either or both would have rushed to the local press with a statement to the effect that the arrest of one employee for drug possession proves how seriously the Administration considers the safe operation of TWW to be for all customers. Allegations of further abuse by employees would be fully investigated. During this time of investigation, of course the City would not be able to comment in any greater detail about any individual under investigation, but the City would assure all its customers of the complete integrity and safety of Trenton’s tap water and fire hydrant supply.

But we have not heard that from Mr. Walker, or Mayor ZT. Which would be kind of surprising coming from any administration of any American city. From Mr. Jackson, though, the lack of response can be seen in the context of his professional history with TWW, a history that suggests a somewhat casual approach to employee honesty and integrity.

Eric Jackson served from 2001 to 2010 as Trenton’s Director of Public Works under former mayor Doug Palmer, a portfolio that included responsibility over the Water Works. During a grand jury investigation in 2010 that eventually led to the indictments (and later convictions) for theft of Tony Mack’s brother Stanley “Muscles” Davis and two other TWW employees, testimony was given about several instances of equipment theft and other corruption within TWW covering a period from 2001 to 2010, this period of time covering Mr. Jackson’s tenure.

When details about the 2010 grand jury’s investigation were reported to the public, Mr. Jackson defended his management of the utility by describing a process of investigation and discipline that was conducted internally by Public Works – a process that notably excluded participation by law enforcement. As one might expect by the absence of any police or prosecutor involvement at the time, there really wasn’t much to show for Mr. Jackson’s efforts. Which Mr. Jackson admitted to reporter Alex Zdan, then of the Trenton Times, in an article published in December, 2013:

Now a candidate for mayor, Jackson said Monday that several employees were disciplined for theft during his time at the public works department, which oversees the Water Works.

“Did we get them all? No,” Jackson said. “Is there more work to do? Absolutely.”

Jackson said he had received some information that employees were hooking up water to customers without authorization, but did not obtain enough information to make a case against anyone.

“There were allegations we investigated, but not corroborated,” Jackson said.

As director, Jackson said, he inherited staff and procedures, but worked to increase accountability even as some of the employees tried to counter with other ways to perform illicit activity.

“The reality is, you always have people who think they’re smarter than what you want to do,” Jackson said.

The public record of that time period shows that although allegations of criminal activity were frequent during the years of 2001 to 2010 during Mr. Jackson’s management of the Trenton Water Works, the arrest and prosecution of Stanley Davis did not take place until well after Eric Jackson had left the Public Works department. In December of 2013, I wrote a piece noting this, and asked several questions of then-candidate Jackson at the beginning of his successful campaign to be elected as Trenton’s mayor:

We know that there was criminal activity at the Water Works; that’s why Muscles Davis is serving time. Equipment was walking away, and individuals were falsifying time cards. Did any of this lead Mr. Jackson to involve law enforcement? If not, why not? Why did the only criminal prosecutions stemming from corruption at the Water Works occur after Palmer and Jackson left City Hall, if the situation was similar back then?

I think we also need to Mr. Jackson to explain what other measures he put in place to reduce problems at the Water Works. We read he cut down on overtime abuse. Were additional security cameras installed to control equipment walking away? Were inventory controls and equipment sign-out procedures revamped? Did TWW management exert more effective oversight of their staff?

While we are at it, why did maintenance of the suburban assets of TWW allowed to slip in the run-up to the 2010 referendum, and why were so many staff openings for service technicians left open during that period, leaving the Water Works short-handed as the Mack Administration started up?

I concluded that piece as follows: “Every new revelation of past corruption, and waste, and theft that precedes the Mack years hurts the City’s case for its future stewardship of much of Mercer County’s water supply for its residents.”

I still believe in that conclusion, made even more relevant in light of the new revelation of misbehavior alleged of Rashawn Davis, and of the allegation of further, current abuse and corruption within TWW as made by the unnamed employee quoted in the Trentonian.

The stakes for the future of Trenton’s Water Works are even higher now than they have been over the last few years. New legislation is now on the books that makes it far easier than in the past for publicly-owned water systems in New Jersey such as TWW’s to be sold off to commercial water companies without public approval.

Don’t make the mistake of believing that there aren’t vultures out there looking for any excuse to swoop in to Trenton and take our publicly-owned system off out hands. A fascinating new article in The Nation describes just how this is being done in this state, encouraged by the Christie Administration. The article leads off by citing Trenton’s successful citizen resistance to the 2010 referendum which would have sold off TWW’s valuable suburban assets to the NJ American Water company. That 2010 victory may well end up being the high-water mark in the history of citizen resistance to water privatization in New Jersey, as the article argues. That would be a shame. Privatization will likely lead to much higher rates for all of TWW’s customers, as well as worse customer service. There have been too many examples of exactly those outcomes to say that would never happen here.

For all of the reasons above, that’s why the response so far from Michael Walker and Mayor Jackson to the allegations of drug abuse at Trenton’s Water Works is so insufficient and unsatisfying. Mr. Jackson’s prior history of passivity when faced with corruption at TWW while Director of Public Works requires a more assertive response now. The threat to the safety of our water supply demands reassurances of safety to TWW’s Mercer County customers. And some demonstration of managerial responsibility and competence is necessary to argue in favor of continued public ownership of this valuable asset during this time when the danger of privatization is just way too high.

This isn’t just a “personnel matter,” Mr. Walker and Mayor Jackson. It’s time to say much more, and do much more. We’ve been in this place before. We know how this can end. We need you to do better for us this time.