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To the City of Trenton

E-mailed this morning to Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson, Public Works Director Merkle Cherry, and Council President Zachary Chester –

Good Morning –

Last month, as news broke that the City of Trenton had missed a deadline to submit proposals for grant funding from the State’s Transportation Trust Fund, you Mayor Jackson called that failure a “debacle,” and your Director of Public Information promised that the single city employee deemed responsible would be held accountable “to the fullest extent that New Jersey civil service rules allow.” That eventual discipline is heard to have been a 10-day suspension for that single employee.

Yesterday, the State Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee held a public hearing to advance four separate pieces of proposed legislation written to help to repair the broken Trenton Water Works. Including the members of that Committee, individuals were in attendance representing many of the various stakeholders who have a strong interest in the future of the Water Work. In fact, every stakeholder was represented there, except the City of Trenton, and the Water Works.

Gentlemen, what would you call the failure to send anyone to that hearing? Who will be held accountable this time?

Many of the Mercer County Townships served by the Water Works attended and testified. Hamilton Mayor Yaede was accompanied by 4 out of 5 Township Council members. Lawrence Mayor Chris Bobbitt was there, as was Ewing Business Administrator Jim McManimon and Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes. Several staffers from the State Department of Environmental Protection were in attendance, and provided testimony.

Where was Trenton? Why was there not a single person from the City and the utility there to appear on behalf of the City?

Mr. Mayor, you were all about accountability last month when the topic was the Transportation Trust Fund. A single employee was identified as solely responsible for that debacle, and action was taken against him.

Will you gentlemen do any less in the aftermath of yesterday’s failure? Will you, or anyone in the City, be held as accountable as Hoggarth Stephen was?

Yesterday’s debacle – yes, the word fits here, all too well – raises a larger question that is relevant to all of us Trentonians: do you gentlemen intend to continue governing this City between now and June 30?

Mayor Jackson, you appeared before Council last week to defend your prerogatives as the City’s Mayor until the end of your statutory term. Why, then, did you fail to do so yesterday?

Mr. Cherry, you head the Department of Public Works and oversee the Water Works as part of that portfolio. Why did you fail to attend yesterday’s meeting, or send another representative in your place?

Mr. Chester, you and your colleagues just last week defended continued City ownership of the Water Works. All of you individually pledged to oppose any potential sale of the utility to private interests. Yet neither you nor any of your colleagues chose to attend yesterday’s meeting, as 4 out of 5 Hamilton Council members did. Why did that happen?

Gentlemen, the example you just set in the matter of Hoggarth Stephen and the Transportation Trust Fund “debacle” now compels you to take similar action in this case.

People, including yourselves, must now be held accountable.

Gentlemen, what will you do?

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