Eight Pillars of Failure

As of this morning – Friday, February 26, 2016 – the most recent Press Release on the website of the City of Trenton is from February 5. That date happened to be the very day we first heard news about what turned out to be the theft of Millions of Dollars from the City of Trenton by its private payroll service.

February 5 is not the most recent day that the City has made news, but it is the most recent day that Mayor Eric Jackson and his Administration condescended to provide the public with any information about the public’s business; namely, any details about that payroll theft, which recent estimates make the total amount embezzled under the noses of the very same Mayor and Administration to be in the neighborhood of around $4 Million Dollars.

So what was that last item of News and Announcement that did make the grade, that the Administration decided was worth the municipal imprimatur? An announcement titled “Trenton mayor Eric Jackson Joins Call to Stop ICE Raids,” in which we read “Mayor Eric Jackson, his Latino Advisory Council (L.A.C.), and a coalition of Latino civic and nonprofit organizations, have come together to address the growing fear and misinformation among the city’s immigrant community about the recently announced campaign of arrests conducted by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” The press release later states, “No such arrests have taken place in Trenton. However, residents have expressed concern over a perceived increase in ICE presence in our City.”

This is certainly an area of great concern to many in the Latino community in Trenton, as it is in towns all across the country. However, as a matter of national import and national policy, it’s not something over which the Mayor of Trenton has any control or influence. His February 5 statement is fine in itself. It’s a nice gesture of solidarity with and support for many Trentonians. But it doesn’t really exactly mean very much in terms of any impact it may have.

Which is a pretty good summary for the Jackson Administration so far: nice words over matters that it doesn’t really have any control over, but not much real effect or impact on anything actually under its influence. Like, for instance, how $4 Million Dollars (or more) gets skimmed off the City’s payroll monies over the better part of an entire year.

There’s another featured item on the front page of the City’s website worth re-visiting, in the (so far, silent) aftermath of the payroll theft, for what it says about the track record of this Administration nearly half-way through its term.

On the front page of the City of Trenton site, right next to a portrait of Mayor Jackson, is a link to the text of the Mayor’s 2015 State of the City Address, delivered on October 22, 2015.

The Mayor was very proud of this Address, and of what it represented to residents of the City as well as those outside of Trenton, believing it showcased this town as rebuilding from many decades of economic and social decline, and more recently several years of governmental malpractice and criminal corruption.

Re-reading that October address – a time, we now know, which was smack in the middle of the worst of the payroll embezzlement by John Scholtz of Innovative Payroll Services (IPS)  and his two daughters – the self-congratulatory language now comes off as more than a little hollow. For example:

We’ve focused our efforts on restoring our municipal
government, getting its finances in order, addressing
critical personnel matters and the myriad tasks our
employees must accomplish everyday in a professional
manner.

To that end, we are executing a governance strategy that
is supported by eight pillars: restoration, collaboration,
communications, accountability, benchmarking,
measuring results, transparency and innovation.

The residents of Trenton expect nothing less, and as
Mayor, it is my charge to deliver on that promise every
day, every minute, every hour.

Thanks to the work of Business Administrator Terry
McEwen and the staff of the Department of Administration,
we prepared a 188-million-dollar budget encompassing
11 separate departments. And with the help of City
Council, we passed that budget. Because of the renewed
confidence that the state has in our management team,
we successfully negotiated a 2-million-dollar increase in
our transitional aid.

Whew. If the state increased our transitional aid by $2 Million, “because of the renewed confidence that the state has in our management team,” what will happen now, after that same management team oversaw the theft of over twice that $2 Million Dollar increase the Mayor was so proud of? Will we thank the work of Business Administrator Terry McEwen then?

Aside from the outrage of the theft itself, the thing that bothers me most about this payroll scam this month is how much it has illustrated the wide gap between this Administration’s rhetoric and promises, dating back to the 2014 campaign season, of transparency, accountability and ethics; and the reality of the last two years. Re-reading the State of the City text, so proudly displayed on the City’s website to this very day, just reinforces that.

How well, for instance, did the Mayor use some of his “eight pillars of governance strategy” – specifically, Communications, Accountability, and Transparency – during the IPS matter? Not well, at all. More like pillars of governance failure, if you ask me. This Administration failed during the IPS matter, in ways we do not yet know because this Administration is anything but Communicative, Accountable and Transparent.

To a great extent, though, that incident is done, it’s behind us. The money’s long gone.  A civil court process is under way to attempt to recover as much of the City’s money as possible. Criminal investigations have begun on the state and federal levels that will surely result in indictments and prosecutions of those responsible at IPS.

The Mayor and his Administration have a chance now to do much better in the IPS aftermath. Whatever, and whoever, failed to prevent the loss – policies, procedures, management structure or individual employees – needs to be disclosed, analyzed and fixed so nothing like this happens again.

How confident am I this will happen? What do you think?  Yeah, I thought so…

On the other hand, Eric Jackson will have to try to make something positive happen. He’ll have to say something good at his next State of the City speech, after all.