Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer has not been shy about his disapproval for the Governor's plans to cut back on state aid. Trenton is seeing $43 million in aid cut and we get this from the Mayor about what the situation is:
"Right now it looks pretty bad. We've been put in a position where we are just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and Gov. Christie is an iceberg coming right at us,"
Palmer says the money is owed to the city because they have to pay their rent. The Governor is saying they have to go through the process to compete for aid. I'l like to be able to tell my mortgage company that they have to go through a process to compete for my money.
Governor Jon Corzine is set to undertake the historic task of selecting an individual to run as the Democratic candidate to become the first Lieutenant Governor in New Jersey history.
On Monday, we looked at the potential Republican picks for Lieutenant Governor. Today, below the fold is a diverse list of ten possible Democratic contenders. It is subjective and, more than anything, written to solicit the opinions of Blue Jersey readers on the strengths and weaknesses of each potential pick.
I'd like to start off the week with a question. There has been talk about names and possible running mates for Governor Corzine. If you take away the names, I wonder what people think are the most important qualities in the potential candidate?
Should the Governor make his decision by adding diversity to the ticket choosing a woman or minority running mate? Should he forget any of those factors and make a decision based on who will get him the most votes given his current position in the polls and the makings of a difficult campaign? Should he look for someone with policy expertise to sure up any perceived weaknesses in his campaign? Should he consider geography in making the decision? Do you think there is a candidate that encompasses any or all of these qualities?
From reports, the Corzine campaign believed that Cory Booker filled the bill, but he has rebuffed repeated overtures. I would argue that choosing someone based on policy expertise doesn't matter if they don't get enough votes to implement the policies. Now if you can tell me there is someone that brings votes with that expertise, I'm open to hearing it, but I don't really see it.
Senator Weinberg endorsed the idea of Buono, Sweeney and Watson Coleman. Sweeney wouldn't qualify as a woman or minority, but definitely falls under regional considerations. I don't think Sweeney would want it and don't think the Governor is going in that direction, but the name is out there. Ron Rice wants a minority candidate to be the choice, but given that Cory Booker said now, you wonder whether he can say I offered and it was turned down. Former Party Chair wants Bonnie Watson Coleman to be the choice, saying she has the issues, leadership, and would help with the urban base.
Ultimately, I think the choice will either be Barbara Buono or Bonnie Watson Coleman. I think the calculation is that the race will be about the Governor and his policies, regardless of who the running mate is. I wonder not only who you think it will be, but why you think they should be chosen.
Let the race for Lieutenant Governor begin as past appearances that would have been considered standard protocol, will now be scrutinized for further meaning. Governor Corzine attended an event last week with Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer at a community health clinic where Palmer made this joke:
"I don't know why for the first time, being with the governor, I feel like I'm auditioning now."
Palmer said the Governor has told him he is on the short list. The article goes on to talk about other possibilities under consideration as well. Who would you like to see on the list for the newly created Lieutenant Governor position and why? Is there anyone the Governor could choose that would make you question your support for him as well?
The Drum Major Institute just posted an interview with Trenton mayor Doug Palmer, their latest from the MayorTV series -- an effort to draw attention to urban issues during the presidential election. Palmer specifically touts the "Live Where You Work" program which provides low-interest mortgages as incentive for people to buy homes in urban areas (for now, Trenton and Jersey City) where they work. I won't make the obvious quip about his police director Joseph Santiago not living where he works.
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.
Some people living outside of Trenton, our fair state's capital, might think the current brouhaha over the residency of our Police Director, Joseph Santiago, is just so much political posturing on the part of out-of-power wannabes. And, frankly, you would be about 30% right - much of the energy behind the protest against Mayor Doug Palmer's illegal waiver of city residency requirements for the Police Director is surely about political posturing more so than any actual concern for the public safety.
And then there is the other 70% (all percents are SWAGs, don't start with me, okay?) some which is contained even within those who also harbor a portion of that 30% - the absolute indelible feeling that the Trenton Police Department is mismanaged, ineffective and an absolute negative benefit to the city's seemingly permanently tarnished image.
So here we are. Our Police Director holds his job illegally .... and a top cop, caught twice - TWICE! - sleeping in uniform, on the job, with his weapon in his possession ... who has been smacked down to the tune of a thirty day suspension for sexist crapola - (and meanwhile Trenton wonders where its newest crop of police officers is going to come from, the city is holding a job fair because there aren't enough candidates in the funnel) - this sterling example of protecting and serving gets transferred from WHERE? Strategic street duties, where alertness and sensitivity might be useful tools, to WHERE? Ah, the Police Academy! There to impart the wisdom of his years to the raw young recruits, of whom there are already too few ... (You want a laptop, rookie?)
The point of this post, frankly, is to embarrass. The Mayor, Director Santiago, and Capt. Messina should ALL be too ashamed to show their faces in Trenton. Doug had a good 12 years but in the last two his administration has jumped the shark and is cruising now to oblivion. If he runs again, Palmer should borrow Sharpe's bicycle and ride to City Hall to announce his next campaign ... Santiago should move to Trenton or resign, which is what he should have done before Palmer granted him the waiver. Messina ... should just go away. He makes the Trentonian's job much too easy.
A group of citizens filed suit in Mercer County Superior Court today after becoming outraged over the arrogant bending and breaking of the law at the hands of Mayor Douglas H. Palmer in the case of the non-residency of Police Director Joseph Santiago.
Citing public statements made by Mayor Palmer, administration officials, and Director Santiago himself, the suit seeks an immediate vacating of the directorship, based upon state law that calls for the removal from office of government officials who fail to meet residency laws dictated for municipal positions.
Bear with me. This could take a while. Or skip to the jump, that'll work, too.
I moved to Trenton in 2003, after taking the time to get to know people in and experience some of the civic life of other NJ cities, including Asbury Park, Plainfield and Jersey City. (Previously in this life I had lived in da Bronx, NY, Kendall Park, NJ, da Bronx again, Kendall Park again, Piscataway, KP again, San Francisco, Franklin (Somerset), Bridgewater (Finderne), Manahawkin, Hamilton (Mercer), and Manahawkin (again). The longest I had been in one place since childhood had been in Finderne (7 years) and I was hoping to find a community that was affordable, that had public transportation, some culture, work opportunities, and an out gay community, where I could live for a nice long time as I genuinely truly hate to move.
In 2003, Trenton seemed to fit that bill, and I had an opportunity to rent at a very reasonable rate in a place where I can park two cars off-street for no extra money, so off to Trenton I went. I stuck with it even after getting a job in Philadelphia and a 1+ hour commute in each direction.
Well, timing is everything ... and in 2005, the proverbial **it hit the fan for Trenton in the form of a gang war that left the city shaken (35 violent deaths in one year) and the streets pretty much off-limits to citizens not in need of additional ventilation ... and the situation, though stabilized, hasn't improved since. If anything, I've seen everyone that can do so move out. The restaurant district is pretty much a thing of the past, what there is of the gay community is either gone or bunkered, and while there are occasional glimmers of light (Ellarslie, the Trenton City Museum, is having a fabulous year - I'm on the board of trustees of the museum society-please visit us at www.ellarslie.org ), the drug problem is out-of-control, the petty thievery and the outright assaults are way up, and if I could scrape together the deposit on a new apartment I would be gone. Tomorrow. I don't need drug dealers in my driveway, and I've got 'em. Today, there isn't a single neighborhood I would say is both safe and affordable in the City of Trenton. I would NOT recommend it to anyone. I used to walk and ride my bike around town - not any more. No way. And I lived in the South Bronx in the 1970s so I know bad neighborhoods when I see one - poor doesn't phase me, I know the difference between run down and unsafe. My neighborhood, Villa Park, was safe in 2003. Four years later, it emphatically isn't. The bangers are here and drugs are being dealt openly on the street in front of my house. Corner of Hamilton & Revere. Don't think I haven't confronted some of the dealers and called the cops repeatedly.
The New Jersey Can Spam Act advanced in the Senate yesterday. The bill would establish criminal and civil penalties for certain spam email-related activities, including prohibiting the use of a computer in Our Fair State to send multiple commercial spam and to mislead recipients or service providers about their origin.
Open Thread: What's on your minds today, Blue Jersey?
NJ Transit fares will be going up on June 1. The fare hike is needed to offset a $60 million deficit. Rates are going up almost 10% and the morning "peak" period will be shortened by 30 minutes.
Pay no attention to the shootings and robberies and sexual assaults! Our police are still in control of the city. The gangs are now in disarrary.
That's what Trenton's police director Joseph Santiago would be saying if he wanted to deceive the public about the city's crime problem. He might also stop providing the press with crime reports.
In a one-month period since Police Director Joseph Santiago disbanded the public information unit and instituted a new policy, the city of Trenton had 50 robberies, 29 aggravated assaults, eight sexual assaults and one homicide, according to records obtained under the state's Open Public Records Act (OPRA).
Because of the city's policy shift, just seven of the crimes, including the homicide, were reported in The Times of Trenton.
Santiago instituted the new policy of hiding information from the public because, in his words "Public information wasn't working for me." He's upset that the media isn't clapping loud enough for him.
Santiago said his department was not benefiting from having public information officers deliver a daily dose of incidents to the media. He said he wants to see larger-scale stories, like the city's crime drops and other crime suppression stories, in the city's newspapers.
In Santiago's world, local papers would be filled with stories of all the little girls that haven't been shot in the face. To make matters worse, this clown has the support of mayor Palmer:
And Palmer showed full support for his police director yesterday. "Director Santiago is abiding by (Executive Order) 69, has been and will continue to do (so), and that is just the way it is," the mayor said. "I'm satisfied Director Santiago is operating within his purview."
With leadership like that, it's no wonder the city is such a mess. Santiago should resign (again) and Palmer should apologize to the city for defending the indefensible. Then he should step down and turn the keys over to someone responsible.
The US Justice Dept. states that forcing telephone companies to comply with subpeonas issued by the NJ Attorney General's Office may reveal state secrets. Our Fair State wants to investigate the release of customer records to the NSA, and counters that since everybody and their cousin knows about the program, there are no 'secrets' to be revealed. The State also argued that the federal lawsuit oversteps the boundary of state sovereignty.
The city of Newark may lay off up to 20% of its municipal workforce in response to a huge budget deficit. Between 400 and 800 employees could lose their jobs in an attempt to cut waste and slow spending, according to Mayor Cory Booker.
Union Local President Jerry Collins is "cautiously optimistic" that the nurses' strike at RWJ University Hospital will end this week. A federal mediator has become involved in talks between the hospital and the nurses, who have been on strike for almost three weeks.
An airline employee let a relative bypass security yesterday, resulting in a shutdown of part of terminal C in Newark Liberty Airport. The man was stopped when he tried to board an airplane without a boarding pass. On the 9/11 anniversary. Really.
The civil trial about the Trenton Mayoral election began yesterday, with Tony Mack attempting to show election fraud, including disenfranchised voters and other election law violations. If Mack wins the case, the May 9th vote re-electing Mayor Doug Palmer may be declared void.
Some contamination: Gov. Corzine and local residents feel that plans allowed or being considered by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission for decontamination at two South Jersey sites are inadequate. The former Heritage Minerals in Manchester Twp (Ocean County) has removed radioactive waste to levels acceptable years ago when the plan was developed and plans to build 2,450 senior housing units on the site; critics want it cleaned up to currently acceptable levels. ShieldAlloy in Newfield (Gloucester County) wants to cap their radioactive waste on-site "with dirt and rocks" at a significant cost savings rather than ship it to specialized landfills.
State Sen. Bill Gormley is pushing for Atlantic City to become a leader in off-shore wind power, proposing at least 100 windmills. State DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson has said the state will take a serious look at offshore wind to meet the goal of 20% of the state's power by renewable resources by 2020.
Newark Mayor-elect Cory Booker is today's big winner. In addition to a landslide victory, three on Booker's slate won seats on the city council. The other six will be decided in a runoff election in June.
Gloucester Township picked a new mayor for the first time in 15 years. Republican Cindy Rau-Hatton defeated Democrat-backed William Collins. Republicans also picked up two seats on the council.
Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer was reelected for a fifth term. Paterson's mayor Joey Torres was also reelected, though Bayonne mayor Joseph Doria will face Patrick Conaghan in a runoff.
In Pine Valley, turnout was 100% - all 13 registered voters had previously cast their ballots by mail.
Sgt Matthew J. Fenton, 24, a Marine from Little Ferry, Bergen County, died this weekend at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. from wounds suffered from a bomb explosion in Fallujah.
In response to extremely low school election turnout, Assembly Speaker Roberts will introduce legislation today which would move school elections from April to November. Good idea.
State Senator Nicholas Scutari may soon introduce a bill to legalize medical marijuana. In the mayoral debates last fall, both major party gubernatorial candidates expressed support for the idea.
Anti-abortion group and self-declared moral compass for the state, New Jersey Right to Life, which is facing declining membership and financial troubles, "has been cited twice in the past three years for illegally spending the charitable contributions of its donors."
