“[O]ur city needs a leader who does not require on-the-job training, a leader who has worked in every aspect of municipal government, a leader who has never abandoned Trenton when the going got tough.” – Candidate Eric Jackson, Op-Ed piece, Trenton Times, June 2, 2014
Well, that’s good. Because the going is getting tough.
“In the city’s fiscal year 2015 audit, the city was cited for expending money on employee meals and entertainment, like [Trenton Chief of Staff Francis] Blanco’s meeting snacks…. This was the first audit that applied to the Jackson administration since the mayor assumed office in July 2014. The audit ran from July 1, 2014 until June 30, 2015… In the audit, the city was also cited for over-expenditures tallying nearly $105,000, failing to maintain proper payroll records, and hiring consultants and professions [sic] without the required state approval.” – Trentonian, August 30, 2016
So, maybe the folks in the Jackson Administration do need “on-the-job training?”
“Trenton Business Administrator Terry McEwen said Tuesday in a phone interview that he did not “want to go in too much specifics” when questioned about the unauthorized expenses.
“’These are areas that we need to improve in,’ McEwen said. ‘This was done in 2014 … and so we’re improving in all of these areas.’
“City spokesman Michael Walker added that one of the reasons the annual audit is conducted is to ‘bring these kinds of things’ to the city’s attention… ‘I think that we are careful as to how we pay for them and the source of the funds, and that is demonstrated by the fact that we hire the auditor to come in to rate our financial performance and to test individual transactions to ensure that they comply with our own standards and those standards of DCA.'” – Trentonian, August 30,2016
Hmmm, I thought the City “hires the auditor to come in” because it’s required by law?
Look, the prohibition against spending City funds on food and entertainment isn’t something that, as BA McEwen is implying, was something brand new to the City of Trenton when he, his boss Eric Jackson, and the rest of the new Administration came into office in July 2014. By the time they did so, this prohibition had been on the books, and in state Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) for four years.
Since the very first Transitional Aid MOU was signed between the City and the NJ Department of Community Affairs in December, 2010,
language – pretty clear and unambiguous language, to boot – to that effect was included in the text of the MOU.
So, even though folks in the brand-new Jackson Administration might not have known the terms of the MOU – rather hard to believe, since the State’s Transitional Aid had become crucial fiscal life support for the City’s finances for four years, and one would figure that anyone not needing “on-the-job training” would already be familiar with its terms and the history of its Administration. After all, the history of the 2010-2014 Mackatastrophe would be incomplete without the many instances of conflict between the City and the State about the City’s fidelity to the terms of the Agreements.
One would figure. One would be wrong, apparently.
UPDATE: Thanks to Trenton ex-pat Jim Carlucci, we have the Fiscal Year 2014-2015 MOA, which Mayor Eric Jackson signed on his very first day in office, July 1, 2014. The language hasn’treally changed since 2010. No excuses, then!
So Mr. McEwen just dismisses the problems revealed in the audit by saying, “This was done in 2014 … and so we’re improving in all of these areas.”
He and his colleagues are “improving in all of these areas.”
Just as you would imagine people would improve over time. After, you know, two years of “on-the-job training.”
Except, they really aren’t “improving.” This audit is only the most recent demonstration of the poor leadership and management record the Jackson Administration is compiling.
- A bad Information Technology deal.
- A bungled pair of contracts for the City’s public swimming pools.
- Being designated by the US Justice Department as a “high-risk grantee of Federal funds.”
- Getting swindled out of $5 Million Dollars of tax deposit funds over several months, despite many written warnings and red flags
- And more.
One of the major selling points of Eric Jackson’s 2014 mayoral campaign, as referenced in the opening quote, was that he represented Experience. Competence. A firm and steady hand tempered by years spent in public service, especially in Trenton. Which he knew like the back of his hand. And not just him personally. All of his senior managers and appointees. That’s why he wrote in that 2014 Op-Ed, “That is why I am running to be the next mayor of Trenton. It is a city where I was born and which I have never left. It is a city that has seen good days and bad – and I have been here for every single one of them.”
And now Mr. Jackson, and many of the same Department Heads and Division Directors, Business Administrator, and Chief of Staff who have presided over the last two years, have approached City Council with a plan to grant themselves a handsome raise of 15% over effectively the next two years (between now and 2018).
Although it is not being presented as such, this kind of increase over this span of time, in this kind of impoverished city, represents nothing more than a hefty raise to be paid to them ALL for their “on-the-job training.”
Is there any other way to look at this?
I don’t think so.
Generally, new employees receive nominal increases – if any – while they are training. It’s only after that training is successfully completed – and there really doesn’t seem to be much evidence of that in Trenton, New Jersey’s City Hall, don’t you think? – that salaries are raised to a more reasonable level.
The Administration of Eric Jackson begs to differ. They are looking forward to their 15% raise, thank you very much. If City Council approves this plan on September 15, as Council is scheduled to do, they will get it.
Unless enough of Trenton’s citizens collectively say,
“No 15% increases for On-The-Job Training!”
You can say that, and say it LOUD, by signing a petition, which will be circulated during a very short 20-day period following September 15, if Council approves the Administration’s proposal.
You can also say the same thing, NOW, by signing your name (if you are a registered Trenton voter), to this petition on Change.org. This pre-petition, if you will, allows a Committee of Trentonians in opposition to this plan to know who you are, and how to find you easily to sign the actual written petition, in the last half of September. State law doesn’t give us a lot of time to make an effort like this easy, so we are using the time between now and September 15 as a head start.
If you don’t believe in giving 15% raises for On-The-Job Training, sign this petition online now, and the written one next month.
