AND THEY’RE OFF
Trenton mayoral race officially kicks off with Councilman Bethea’s candidacy announcement
TRENTON » City Councilman Alex Bethea was asked by a city resident why he thinks he could beat incumbent Mayor Eric Jackson in next year’s election.
Bethea paused for a moment at his formal mayoral candidacy announcement on Wednesday afternoon on the steps of City Hall before delivering his answer in the form of a question.
“The police director says you’re a hoodrat. So if I’m the mayor and I stand by this guy, is that all right with you?” the at-large councilman asked. “If I had a police director calling you hoodrat and I was the mayor standing by him, that’s not good.”
Bethea was referencing Trenton Police Director Ernest Parrey’s now-infamous comment that surfaced in July via a video. Jackson’s pick for police director was caught on body-camera video last year calling residents “hoodrats.”
Though the first-term mayor criticized Parrey’s “poor choice of words,” he stood by the director to remain in the post.
With Bethea becoming the first official mayoral candidate to announce his run, it appears Jackson’s resistance to bring about change in leadership in the police department will now be used as a campaign attack.
Bethea said he wrote a letter to the mayor a couple weeks ago and asked him to remove the director after the comment came to light. The civilian director was also recently exposed for pulling over a resident illegally, since he has no police powers, and was captured golfing the day after a weekend of three murders.
“We had some indication of the police director’s behavior unbecoming of a director,” Bethea said. “Under no circumstances, would I tolerate that type of behavior under my administration.”
City police have also come under fire for the use of excessive force and another resident questioned Bethea how he would handle that.
“The leaders, whether it’s the mayor or the police director, set the standards,” Bethea said. “If there’s any indication, a slight indication (of anything improper), they would be reprimanded, there would be action taken. But it’s hard to do if you’re a director and you’re not following the guidelines yourself. This mayor said he stands by that director, that’s his choice, but that’s not what I would do even if that person was my brother or my son. I couldn’t stand by him if he did something that was illegal himself. It’s hard to hold your subordinates accountable when you’re not being held to the highest standards yourself.”
If elected, the mayoral hopeful said he would conduct a search before hiring the next police director.
“I would get the best person for the job that can handle this type of community,” Bethea said, noting he does not currently have a person in mind to lead the department. “Just because one was a police director in Hamilton may not work in Trenton.”
Bethea also took issue with the kind of police deployment tactics under the Jackson administration.
“I believe that policemen should walk the beat,” Bethea said. “(Mayor Jackson) has a different perspective. He’s comfortable with them riding around in cars with tinted glass. You can’t develop a relationship with the community if you’re in a car.” In fact, Jackson campaigned on bringing “beat cops” to Trenton when he was first running for mayor in 2014.
Jackson even admitted in August that cops walking beats has not occurred on his watch.
“If you go downtown, you’ll see police out of the trucks on patrol downtown,” the mayor said. “Are
we walking in the neighborhoods? Not at this point. But we are moving toward that.”
Bethea said he would deploy police to walk the street in “known crime-infested areas throughout the city.”
“Police officers would be encouraged to engage residents in meaningful dialogue,” Bethea said. “The police officers who are walking the beat would engage in meaningful dialogue that would, in turn, create trust between the residents and the police officers.”
Public safety was one part of Bethea’s five-point plan he discussed Wednesday to turn around the city. The councilman for the past eight years also highlighted education, housing and economic development, property tax stabilization and employment for city residents.
Calling himself the “educational candidate,” Bethea spent 40 years working as an administrator, teacher, coach and disciplinarian in Trenton Public Schools. He last served as a vice principal at Robeson before he retired in 2015.
Bethea said his primary focus would be in K-3 students.
“My objective would be to have them reading on grade
level by third grade,” said Bethea, who is the father of seven sons and two daughters. “I think we can do that with proper assessments of each child to make sure we find out what the needs are.”
The mayor appoints all school board members.
Again, trying to show separation between himself and the mayor, Bethea criticized Jackson for allowing new Superintendent Fred McDowell for receiving a five-year contract — something he says was never done in his 40 years at the district.
“I would not have approved that and I would have conveyed that to my board of education,” Bethea said.
Bethea said he also wouldn’t have allowed the laying off of 92 paraprofessionals in the district a couple years ago.
“I would venture to think that at least 50 of those lived in the city,” Bethea said. “The administration never stepped up and said, ‘Wait, we can’t lay off our residents that live in Trenton for someone outside of Trenton to benefit.’ That’s not acceptable.”
Bethea said he would create jobs for Trentonians through a rehabilitation program of city-owned abandoned properties and an apprenticeship program. He said he would then encourage longtime renters of at least five years to buy the homes through the program. In turn, that would increase home ownership to strengthen the city’s property tax base, the councilman said.
Bethea also attacked the mayor for allowing directors to live outside Trenton — a change that occurred shortly after Jackson assumed office.
“I believe that we have the best and the brightest living in Trenton,” Bethea said.
Growing up in Dillon South Carolina, Bethea earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The College of New Jersey. A devoted Christian, Bethea attends Friendship Baptist Church.
About two dozen people attended the councilman’s announcement, with a handful wearing black “Bethea for Mayor” T-shirts. Paul Perez, who was 2014’s mayoral runner-up, was also in attendance. Perez told Trentonian columnist L.A. Parker that he is exploring a run.
Jackson has disclosed to The Trentonian he will run for re-election in May but has yet to make a formal announcement.
Bethea proudly highlighted at his campaign kickoff that he is co-founder of Trenton Youth Wrestling and volunteers coaching “to try to get young men and women off the street.”
Asked what he’s done in the past eight years on council to prepare him for the job as mayor, Bethea said, “You learn and you get to see the operation of government close up and personal.”
“You would have to be almost inattentive not to learn the operation of the administration,” he said. “Just from experience being on city council, you get a firsthand experience of how this government works.”