What Bully Pulpit, Mayor Mack?

So, while officials in Robbinsville enjoy economic development success—they just snagged an Amazon distribution center and millions in private investment—Trentonians remain tethered to Mayor Tony F. Mack and his inability to formulate and execute effective policies.

In June, just weeks before FBI searches of the mayor’s home and Trenton City Hall halted his plans for a second term, Mr. Mack announced the formation of a committee that would open a dialogue with Amazon to help it identify sites in Trenton that could accommodate a 2 million-square-foot facility.

But like many of Mr. Mack’s hollow pronouncements, the committee never saw the light of day, going the way of his other phony policy initiative: the boondoggle to establish trade relationships with countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Just how would this scheme have created jobs and economic opportunities for Trentonians?

If Acting Director of Housing and Economic Development Carmen Melendez were still around, I’d ask her. But she has been on unpaid leave, presumably preparing for her debut on the witness stand if Mr. Mack is ever indicted and put on trial for his role in the alleged “Boss Tweed” matrix of corruption that has robbed taxpaying Trentonians of an effective municipal government that lives within its means.

Incapable of turning a door knob either on his own or with state oversight, Mr. Mack last week began his search for scapegoats, setting his sights on the City Council to lay blame for his wasteful spending and proposed tax increase. In the crosshairs: West Ward Councilman Zachary Chester, who boldly declared at a recent council meeting that he would work with his like-minded contemporaries to cut the hike and to minimize its impact on Trentonians' wallets. Sounds like leadership at work to me, and it is exactly what the City Council is supposed to do.

Last year, when the crime rate rose sharply following the shortsighted layoff of more than 100 police officers, Mr. Mack—who once had his elite guard, the park rangers, eject former Acting Police Director Christopher Doyle from Trenton City Hall—accused the Trenton Police Department of slowing down on the job, which was a false claim. The reality is that reduced manpower levels have made it impossible to keep up with a tidal wave of shootings, homicides, burglaries, robberies, home invasions, car thefts, carjackings, and ATV terror. The diminished police force is left with only the resources to be reactive, not proactive. Runaway crime perpetuates Trenton's reputation as a dangerous place to live and work.

In a press release issued on October 8, Mr. Mack accused the City Council of attempting to balance the budget on the backs of Trenton’s seniors, a constituency, he asserted, that is dependent on the city’s senior centers to enjoy taxpayer-funded activities, such as bingo, dominoes, chess, pool, exercise, knitting, crochet, and so much more. It went on to say that “Our senior centers act as a venue for both entertainment and education. Some of the educational opportunities our seniors have access to include: estate issues, tax filing, dietary needs, home security and sexual health, to name a few. These structured activities go a long way in stabilizing the lives of our aging population.”

This is nonsense. City Council members are not anti-senior. They are simply doing what they were elected to do. As South Ward citizen Patricia Stewart says all the time during the public comment segment of council meetings: “The council’s job is to keep watch over the municipal purse.” To be honest, I think that if you did an informal survey of Trenton’s senior population, you would discover that they do not avail themselves of the centers or even know that they exist.

Someone needs to inform our illustrious mayor—who has a master's degree in public policy—that the bully pulpit is only effective when the leader occupying it has credibility and political currency. Unfortunately, Mr. Mack has neither. He was credible at least until the public found out that he betrayed their trust, and he was never effective.

Mr. Mack is a national embarrassment, like those ciphers in Detroit who helped run that once great city into the ground. His illegal and intermittent Mayor's Learning Center Libraries are an expensive failure. His recreation agenda is a drain on the city treasury. His disdain for the Trenton Police Department is palpable and disrespectful, particularly as Director Ralph Rivera, Jr. works to reorganize the department and increase the volume and quality of its output. He, sadly, has not solved a single problem in Trenton since taking office in 2010.

It is Mr. Mack who has presided over a hail storm of reckless city spending, a huge mess that now the City Council has no choice but to clean up. Let us hope that, in the end, it won’t cost taxpaying Trentonians too much, including our property-tax-paying seniors.

Michael A. Walker is a city activist who blogs about his dissatisfaction with the performance of Trenton city government. His radio show, Slipstream, airs every Thursday at 5 PM on WBCB 1490 AM.