A judge ruled this week that Trenton's police chief Joseph Santiago is in violation of the city's residency requirement since he does not live in Trenton. Trenton mayor Doug Palmer has for years used that residency rule to go after political opponents, but he recently claimed it was no longer valid and the police chief should be allowed to stay.
Greg Forester - who was the lead litigant against the city - calls Palmer out on his inconsistency on his blog The Ruins of Trenton:
It should not be forgotten that in defense of this single city department director, Mayor Palmer committed what should be an unforgivable sin by reversing decades of residency-related policy.
The result of that policy cannot be forgotten: the wanton destruction of the livelihood of dozens of city employees.
His argument that the residency ordinance that he had so faithfully utilized to fire employees and go after opponents was invalid paints Mayor Palmer as nothing more than a two-faced, lying politician who doesn?t deserve to be the mayor of the smallest hamlet in New Jersey, let alone one of its most important cities.
