Trenton hires new clerk from Atlantic Highlands
TRENTON » There will be a new face presiding over city council meetings.
Trenton council voted Thursday night to hire Dwayne M. Harris as the city’s clerk.
Harris comes over from Atlantic Highlands, where he served as a clerk and purchasing agent. The borough is a shore town in Monmouth County.
“I’m very excited and happy to be here,” Harris said Friday on his first day on the job. “I look forward to working with the present administration and the residents of the city.”
Harris holds certifications for Registered Municipal Clerk (RMC), Registered Public Purchasing Official (RPPO) and Certified Municipal Registrar (CMR).
He beat out deputy Trenton clerk Cordelia Staton for the position. The Trentonian learned Staton, a former city councilwoman, was one of three finalists officials were considering for clerk.
Staton was named in an investigative report that was performed by an outside law firm last year and, after reviewing the findings, city council forced the deputy clerk to take “team building courses” offered by the New Jersey Civil Service Commission this year. She was initially suspended with pay in February by former city Clerk Richard Kachmar but that decision was overturned by the state. Kachmar, who retired in February, had his ups and downs in the position. In March 2014, Kachmar erred in the city’s election by allowing all candidates to submit fewer signatures than required. The snafu occurred when Kachmar read the state statute for partisan elections — not nonpartisan elections — to determine the number of petitions required, and his mistake was caught by a city resident.
A judge ruled to keep the election schedule for Trenton as planned, deciding it was in the best interest of the voters to overlook the mistake.
Following Kachmar’s departure in February, Penelope S. Edwards-Carter, who served as Trenton acting clerk and acting deputy clerk from November 2006 until October 2007, was appointed to again serve as acting clerk until her permanent replacement was just named.