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Remarks Made at Trenton City Council, January 16, 2018

NOTE: As I wrote yesterday, I attended Trenton’s City Council meeting on Tuesday, intending to speak in opposition to proposed Ordinance 18-1, a measure to appropriate $6 Million Dollars in capital funding to buy equipment and pay for other infrastructure-related improvements for the troubled Trenton Water Works (TWW).

As it happened, before the meeting was opened to public comment, Council President and West Ward Member Zachary Chester called for a motion to introduce the proposed Ordinance. No one spoke. There were only four members in attendance at that time – besides Mr. Chester were Marge Caldwell Wilson, Phyllis Holly-Ward, and George Muschal; Alex Bethea would join slightly later – but none offered a motion. Without such a motion, the Ordinance died. For now.

Since it was not defeated, simply not introduced, a similar measure could be introduced successfully at a later time. That being the case, I proceeded to read my prepared remarks anyway, to get my opposition noted for the record.

Once I receive an audio recording of Tuesday’s session, I will transcribe some of the truly remarkable comments made that night. Until then, as Second Prize, I give you my own poor words.

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Mr. President, Councilmembers – I oppose Ordinance #18-1 at the present time, approving $6 Million Dollars of Capital funds for the Trenton Water Works.. Even though this is the First Reading of this Ordinance, and it is still subject to a Second Reading and Public hearing, to approve this Ordinance this evening would be an endorsement and vote of Confidence in the current Trenton Water Works management, Trenton’s Department of Public Works, and the current Administration. A vote of confidence they do not deserve.

News articles have informed us that since the current Administration took office in 2014, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has cited the Trenton Water Works for 16 violations, 12 of them in 2017 alone.

In October of last year, NJ DEP took the City to task for staffing the Water Works at “only one-third the number of staff needed to operate its system.” Just last week, outgoing DEP Commissioner Bob Martin wrote the City and said, “The City’s inability or unwillingness to act with the urgency the current situation requires potentially puts at risk the health of the 225,000 people” served by the Water Works in Trenton and elsewhere in Mercer County.

Even after that stinging notice, over the last weekend, the Water Works screwed up again, issuing a Conservation Advisory and Boil Water Notice on its website and sending out Reverse 911 calls to Trenton residents only well after neighboring Townships informed their citizens of the problems, which are still in effect in parts of our service area.

Over the last couple of months, TWW customers have made terms like “turbidity,” “haloacetic acid,” and “permanganate” part of their vocabularies. Outside of college classrooms, there really is no reason an average citizen should have to know these words and what they mean. But it’s now part of everyday life in TWW’s service area to know the chemistry of treated water and how it impacts the ongoing safety of our drinking water.

Incidentally, Councilmembers, as an aside speaking of safety, today there is a Facebook home video, seen almost 15,000 times, before it was removed, which appears to show a person trespassing on the TWW Intake Plant on the River, and walking unimpeded for several minutes throughout the plant, inside and out. Not a door is locked, and not a security measure in place to stop this apparent intruder. This failure of onsite security is just the kind of thing that the federal Homeland Security department would consider a real problem, that the water system of a state capital supplying a quarter-million residents including a governor, legislature and thousands of public employees would be so compromised.

Tonight you are being asked to approve the first reading of Ordinance #18-1, to appropriate $6 Million Dollars to acquire equipment and perform various capital improvements for the Water Works. I strongly request you to postpone this matter for the time being, for three reasons.

First, I submit that TWW, and Public Works, and the Administration has lost all credibility and trust in the way it has managed and operated the Water Works. Any request for funding at this very significant level should frankly not be trusted at this time.  The current players have all broken Trenton’s Water Works. Now, you should now believe that they know how to fix it?? Nope. Not a chance.

Second, it’s not clear that spending Six Million Dollars on Capital is what’s needed here right now. From what we’ve come to know over the last month, the main immediate threats to water safety are managerial and operational in their causes, not due to deficient capital infrastructure.

The final reason goes back to the subject of Commissioner Martin’s letter last week. He wrote to express the state’s frustration and impatience with the City’s utter lack of movement in proceeding to seek and contract with an external entity to take over the management and daily operations of the utility. In a Trenton Times article dated January 12, Kevin Shea wrote “Martin’s Friday letter said the DEP has been ‘exceedingly patient’ with the city, but that Trenton officials are not following the steps he outlined in a Oct. 30, 2017 letter, nor in ‘several telephone conversations’ as recently as last week.”

The State has run out of patience with the City. As the Times put it in the same Jan 12 article, The DEP said it has chosen not to file a Superior Court compliant, due to the few days left in the Gov. Christie administration, but Martin said he’s already informed the new DEP commissioner nominee, Catherine McCabe, of the TWW situation, and the options she has for the ‘much needed corrective actions needed at TWW.’”

Councilmembers, despite the city’s footdragging, sooner or later – probably sooner, much sooner – an outside entity will take over the Water Works. With that prospect a near certainty, it’s going to be the case that this new management will generate its own list of capital equipment and project priorities. Don’t handicap them by approving this Ordinance containing what is, frankly, a capital project list tainted by a failed TWW Management and failed City Administration.

Councilmembers, please do not approve this First Reading. To do so tonight will put on the record the mark of your personal, individual endorsement of this failed Management and Administration. Don’t use the excuse that this is “only a First Reading.” You and I know well that after the First Reading of an Ordinance, the Second Reading and Public Hearing is only a formality. It’ll be a done deal if you approve this tonight.

Table this Ordinance for the near future. The new Management will undoubtedly come to you with its own list of priorities, which you will deal with on a swift and timely basis, either on your own voluntary initiative or in response to the order of a judge or DEP mandate.

Don’t do this tonight. Don’t do this now. Not with this current Administration and TWW Management in place. Not after all the recent failure after failure after failure. Postpone this.  Please. Thank you.

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