City broke, criminals go free

From The Trentonian’s Joe D’Aquila we read today that the city is releasing criminals picked up on non-indictable offenses because the police force is running out of room in the holding cells at its North Clinton Avenue headquarters.

And what is the reason for the lack of room in these cells?

The courts are backed up because Business Administrator Dennis Gonzalez has not paid the city’s public defenders, who are summoned to represent many of Trenton’s fiscally-deficient criminals.

Mr. D’Aquila, in what was apparently denied in a one-liner e-mail by city flack Kent Ashworth, writes that the attorneys haven’t been paid since August and the worsening jail situation has resulted in a Monday police order to hold only indictable criminals and release the rest onto our streets with hand summonses.

We note two immediate problems with this development:

One, the city is spending/wasting money on city-owned vehicles, gasoline, insurance, plus low-attendance events like the Thanksgiving Parade and the Jazz Festival, while we’re not paying public defenders who are an important cog in our city justice system.

Two, picking up people for loitering and other small-time and non-indictable offenses has been a cornerstone of fighting urban crime for decades and is important for getting high-risk and dangerous people off the streets.

The city’s budgetary actions and resulting police order will effectively tie many of our beat cops’ hands behind their backs – they lack the power to actually get the scum that operate our city’s open-air drug bazaars off the streets, into those cells, and away from the rest of us.

This is a real disgrace, Trenton.

Rough road ahead

So, I return from a business trip to Florida and George Muschal is the new South Ward councilman and Chris Christie is New Jersey’s new governor.

Looking back on the gubernatorial race, it seems that the worldwide economic maelstrom – plus Gov. Jon Corzine’s failure to address the state’s property tax issue and reform official corruption – doomed his campaign.

Relatively independent voters and even more liberal citizens such as myself gravitated towards Mr. Christie as an alternative to the past.

Ironically, Mr. Christie won in a manner similar to U.S. President Barack Obama, who won by garnering the support of independent and even right-leaning voters sick of the extravagances of the Bush years.

Back in Trenton, it seems that Mr. Muschal’s organizational and financial advantages overwhelmed his opposition, which included several Hispanic candidates who stole votes from one another and assured Mr. Muschal’s victory.

Looking forward to the May 2010 municipal election, Mr. Muschal faces a tougher challenge.

Unless he takes 50 percent of the vote, plus one, he will deal with the city’s runoff election provisions, in an election that will be a totally different animal from November’s one-and-done vote.

Around that same time Mr. Christie will be wrestling with some of the toughest budget decision ever faced by a New Jersey governor, as he deals with Gov. Corzine’s going-away present – an $8 billion budget deficit.

There’s a tough road ahead for both men.

Quinnipiac: Christie up by two; Daggett key factor

So, here’s the latest from Quinnipiac on Election Day eve:

In the see-saw New Jersey Governor’s race, Republican challenger Christopher Christie has 42 percent to Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine’s 40 points, with 12 percent for independent candidate Christopher Daggett, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Six percent remain undecided.

This compares to a 43 – 38 percent Gov. Corzine lead, with 13 percent for Daggett, in an October 28 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University.

Among Daggett supporters, 38 percent say they might change their mind: 39 percent say Corzine is their second choice, while 29 percent say Christie is number two.

Only 10 percent of Christie voters and 13 percent of Corzine backers say they might change their mind.
Corzine leads 77 – 6 percent among Democratic likely voters, with 12 percent for Daggett.

Christie leads 78 – 10 percent among Republicans, with 9 percent for Daggett, and 47 – 32 percent among independent voters, with 17 percent for Daggett.

“Daggett is the key to an incredibly close New Jersey election,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

From October 27 – November 1, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,533 New Jersey likely voters, with a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public opinion surveys in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio and nationally as a public service and for research.

Does this sound familiar?

From elsewhere in the U.S. we find that the same German water conglomerate that wants to get its hands on our precious Trenton Water Works is maneuvering to take over the Chicago water utility in a lease deal that doesn’t bode well for city residents and their wallets.

It turns out the water company is charging three times normal rates for water in the surrounding suburbs, citing costs associated with infrastructure improvements as the catalyst in the exorbitant rates.

CBS Chicago found that residents of those surrounding suburbs are actually RATIONING their water usage as a means to combat the costly water charges. This is what Trenton’s suburbs – and probably the city itself – face with a New Jersey American Water Co. takeover of the local water system.

Is Mayor Daley Looking To Lease Water System?
Private Firm Would Jack Up Rates For Residents, Watchdogs Warn
Roseanne Tellez CHICAGO (CBS) ―

If the parking meter deal put a bad taste in your mouth, try swallowing this:
Chicago is considering leasing its water system to help fix the budget.

The new boss could charge whatever they want for water, CBS 2’s Roseanne Tellez reports.

Could it happen here in Chicago? It already has nearby. Homer Glen in Will County relies on Lake Michigan water, but the supply comes from a German-owned firm. Locals say there’s a lot more than water going down the drain.

It’s a vital resource you can’t live without. But in Homer Glen, the question is can you afford water. Residents say rates are breaking the bank.

Homer Glen resident Lillie Gajda said her family has tried to cut back to offset high rates.

“Oh, we do everything — we’ve changed out toilets, we’ve changed our showerheads, we’ve changed faucets, we’ve changed dishwashers,” she said.

Mayor Jim Daley says residents pay about three times more than those in neighboring communities. He said Illinois-American Water Co. offers the same explanation.

“They simply say that they have infrastructure improvements they need to make, that they can show their costs,” he said. “What we’re saying: It’s absolutely absurd.”

But Could Chicago be next? A trade publication says the city’s Department of Water Management is “considering a lease of its water and wastewater system.”

Alderman Scott Waguespack has heard similar rumblings.

“We’ve already heard inklings that they’re thinking about it,” he said. “They’ve had discussions. Why is the public not at the table?”

Waguespack was one of the few holdouts on the City Council when the parking meter deal went through. Under that controversial plan, the cash-strapped city agreed to lease its parking spaces for 75 years to a private firm that would collect higher parking rates. It netted the city more than $1 billion in cash.

“Why are we having a fire sale on everything in the city?” Waguespack said.

Jon Keesecker, with Food and Water Watch, says there’s simply no public accountability.

“The financial situation is dire, but handing off an asset that is essential to life and that absolutely all residents in the city need is probably not the best solution,” he said.

CBS 2 made repeated calls to Illinois-American Water, with no luck. Mayor Daley didn’t want to talk, either. And Water Commissioner John Spatz did not return calls.

According to the mayor’s 2010 budget, the city expects to bring in $453 million from water sales next year. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to what a private firm would get.

Mencken on elections, government

“The government consists of a gang of men and women exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government. They have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principle device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.” H. L. Mencken

Ich Bin Ein Phillie, from Faith and Fear in Flushing blog

Address to Reluctant Mets Fans
by Jason on Wed 21 Oct 2009 11:48 PM EDT

Taken from Faith and Fear in Flushing blog

My fellow Mets fans,

Tonight we gather neither in triumph nor in joy. Rather, we have assembled out of necessity, driven by the need to oppose a deep-seated evil. Tonight we must make choices that will not sit well with any of us. Tonight we must make choices between unpalatable courses of action. Tonight we must do what many of us, in all honor, once swore we would not.

These are not easy times. We have been bested on the field of battle and outmaneuvered in the arena of ideas. Our fires have been banked, damped by misfortune and miscalculation. For now, our yesterdays are brighter than our tomorrows. We may mourn that we have come to this pass, yet we stand here nonetheless.

And here, stand we must. We have proven unfit to play a role in the combat about to unfold before us. Yet this grim judgment, however impartial its verdict, must not lead us to reject our larger calling, or to turn aside from our unhappy duty. We are bystanders, yet our voices must be heard. We are reluctant, yet we must commit.

We have profound differences with our league-mates to the south. It would be the stuff of childish fantasy not to acknowledge this. We abhor their Hawaiian braggadocio. We reject their penchant for domestic violence. We disdain the partisan yowling of their maroon rabble. To offer them fellowship runs counter to all we profess and everything we hold dear. We are neither friends nor allies. It is only wisdom to state this clearly, calmly and without apology.

Yet wisdom is nothing without a sense of proportion. We must not profess blindness citing the mote in our eye, while ignoring the beam that would blot out the light for all. Our neighborly disagreements are profound and the canyon between us is deep. Yet deeper still lies the chasm into which we now both stare.

My friends, there is another evil loose in our nation, one that makes the misdeeds of our league-mates in maroon look small. We have a greater enemy, and a higher calling. This greater enemy gilds all that it touches in gold, then scorns those who can afford only brass. This greater enemy gathers mercenaries and reprobates and evildoers to its banner, and declares them paragons. This greater enemy declares that pitchers shall not hit. This greater enemy conflates arrogance with tradition, and bequeathed wealth with hard-earned success. This greater enemy is attended by a howling mob that knows neither reason nor humility nor decency.

This greater enemy cares not for our disagreements and disputes, real though they are. Twenty-six times has this foe bred a vile plague, one that reduced our nation to lifelessness and blighted all that we hold dear. Though we are not allowed to fight, neither are we required to adjourn in silence. We must lift our voices against tyranny, though we would have chosen most any other champion. We must shout down injustice, though our voices cannot conjure fairness. We must oppose a great evil even if it means supporting a paltry good. We have been called, and however reluctantly, we must answer. It has fallen to us to do what must be done, and to heed a summons we would pretend not to hear.

My friends, this too will pass, and the banner of the blue and orange will fly once again in triumph. I eagerly await that day, and the restoration of all that is just and proper. As do all of you. But for now, we must serve a more difficult cause, and we must do so with all we can wring from our reluctant hearts. This is necessity. This is obligation. This is duty.

My friends, the conflict we wish had never come to pass is upon us now. Join with me. Say the words we would rather bite back. Say them firmly, and clearly, with loud voices, though none of us possesses a glad heart. Say them with me now, and we will face these difficult days together.

ICH BIN EIN PHILLIE.

Accountability Now!

The Trenton Residents Action Coalition filed a city vehicle accountability ordinance with the clerk’s office this afternoon. She was actually pretty positive about it, “encouraging citizen activists” and their importance in light of Trenton’s generally uninvolved population.

She gave me a copy of the top petition with her datestamp and confirmed that by getting them in now we’ve beaten the election clock, which means we need 720 valid signatures rather than whatever a post-gubernatorial election delivery would have required.

I know the city administration and council has talked about better vehicle controls and begun keeping a few city vehicles at City Hall, but they haven’t actually put anything permanent in place, like an ordinance, to implement the changes.

TRAC has taken the position that Trenton’s officials, including Doug Palmer and others who constantly lament the state’s unfulfilled financial obligations, need to save as much money as possible to show our state benefactors that we deserve more consideration and state aid.

In addition to this effect, this ordinance will also provide an extra layer of accountability by showing Trentonians exactly how cars and vehicles are being used and why, in a city of only 7.5 square miles.

Trenton Last?

Sorry about the lack of postings, but we couldn’t resist this one.

As many know, Mayor Douglas H. Palmer will be holding a benefit event at the Trenton Marriott Tuesday featuring an appearance by none other than former President William Jefferson Clinton.

Proceeds from the event will go towards Mayor Palmer’s foundation, called the Trenton First initiative.

But as our friends at The Stoop have pointed out, perhaps it should be called Trenton Last, or more specifically, Trenton Third, after management expenses for Mayor Palmer and his cronies and fundraising costs.

Those statements ring true because at this non-profit only $5,138.00 was actually spent on program expenses benefitting Trenton last year, out of a total of $43,280 in direct contributions.

That figure represents but 12 percent of the non-profit’s total operating budget.

The rest of the money was broken down into $8,875 for management and $30,570 in fundraising expenses, meaning the overwhelming majority went to causes other than “putting Trenton first.”

Those numbers are horrendous, especially when compared to similar non-profits organizations such as that of Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

In this case, Mayor Palmer has put Trenton last…dead last.

Feinberg: Bradley is a resident

A citizen’s lawsuit seeking the ouster of Police Director Irving Bradley Jr. was dismissed today by Judge Linda Feinberg, who ruled that Mr. Bradley satisfies the city’s residency requirement by renting an apartment in Trenton while maintaining a separate single-family residence in Rahway with his wife.

In doing so the judge cast aside decades of rulings that have found that merely renting an apartment and creating ephemeral indicators of residency, like voter registrations and driver’s license information, does not indicate true residency.

During Friday’s rather bizarre hearing Judge Feinberg said that today’s economic climate has caused Mr. Bradley, who is admittedly not estranged from his family, to cut himself off from his wife and children and Rahway home and effectively satisfy the residency requirement by making Trenton his number one home.

Mr. Bradley makes approximately $145,000 in total salary on top of an $80,000 police pension.

The judge said she was particularly impressed with a package of receipts that Mr. Bradley provided her, showing food, pharmaceutical, and furniture purchases he has made since “moving” into Trenton.

She cited the package as strong evidence of his fulfillment of the residency requirement.

Unfortunately this ruling could have ripple effects in Trenton and elsewhere as employees become emboldened by Mr. Bradley’s ruling and seek to fulfill the residency requirement of Trenton and other municipalities by renting rooms and spending time away from family and home, for economic purposes.

In sum, Friday represents a true perversion of residency requirements and a dark day for those who want public employees to truly contribute to their communities.

Ledger Editorial is a lesson for our politicians

Some food for thought for Trenton City politicians and those currently seeking office – please keep donor money and campaign contributions out of public decision-making:

Editorial

Star-Ledger

September 29, 2009

The curious case of the Food and Drug Administration, the knee implant and four New Jersey congressmen raises serious concerns about how politics can influence decisions that affect Americans’ health. It also raises hopes that the FDA is cleaning up its act.

The agency is taking a second look at its approval for Menaflex, a patch designed to replace torn cartilage in the knee. The FDA’s scientific reviewers had recommended against approving the device, based on studies showing it was prone to failure with the result that patients had to undergo more surgery.

Yet it was approved for the market in late 2008. How did that happen? The FDA, to its credit, is now looking into that.

Its preliminary investigation found FDA’s own processes at fault – some of the agency’s rules were confusing, and other times procedures simply weren’t followed.

But it also said unusual pressure was brought on the agency by Reps. Steve Rothman and Frank Pallone and Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, all New Jersey Democrats.

Fair enough, but the FDA report said the congressmen were involved in the process to a “highly unusual” degree. It noted their persistence and their interest in “specific, substantive aspects of the device’s review.” It said they spoke directly with then-commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, even trying to arrange a meeting with the commissioner, company officials and members of Congress all present – which would have violated FDA policy. The report stopped short of saying that political pressure was the most significant factor that got the device through the process.

Yes, the congressmen were responding to a constituent’s complaint of unfair treatment by a federal agency. It also happens to be a company whose executives gave a total of $28,000 in political contributions to the four politicians. Not every constituent has the wherewithal to contribute thousand of dollars and get special attention. Even when there isn’t a direct quid-pro-quo it has the aroma of pay-to-play.

Money has infected our politics for so long, there is the temptation to look away and say “So, what else is new?” But when it comes to a medical product which, if defective or inferior, may lead to more pain and expense for patients, there is no excuse for allowing politics to get in the way of scientific review.

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