Jackson spokesman transferred to job at Water Works >>
TRENTON » “Water this, water that,” was a response city spokesman Michael Walker gave to a local media outlet earlier this year regarding the Trenton Water Works (TWW) crisis.
With his tumultuous tenure at his job dwindling since Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson did not seek reelection, Walker was transferred to a management specialist job at TWW, allowing him to stay on the city payroll.
“I consider myself very fortunate to serve the people of Trenton, to apply what I’ve learned over a long career of getting things done to a new set of challenges that create value for our residents, our businesses, and our stakeholders,” Walker said Monday in a statement.
Walker, who earned an annual salary of $57,038 as spokesman, constantly touts himself as a “public relations practitioner” with 20 years experience.
However, some are questioning Walker’s new role and his qualifications.
“As an outsider looking in, it looks like Mayor Jackson is taking care of his friends, making sure people have jobs as he leaves,” Hamilton Councilman Ileana Schirmer said Monday. “Quite honestly, in my opinion, no one in that administration should be working in Trenton Water Works. All of them should be gone because no one has cared about this issue, no one has done anything about it. In my opinion, they should all go, all of them.” At a state legislative hearing in March, Hamilton Councilwoman Schirmer called for a criminal probe into TWW.
The city has until the end of June to fix numerous issues at the troubled public utility. According to an agreement with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Trenton must address staffing, operations and infrastructure problems by June 29.
Over the past year, the water utility has been plagued with many dilemmas, including water contamination, excessive lead levels, staffing shortages and discolored water, prompting boil water advisories. The city has also been blasted for its lack of notification to customers during emergencies.
In outgoing Trenton Mayor Jackson’s tenure, TWW has received a whopping 23 violations, with 12 of those coming in 2017 — its worst year on record.
TWW provides water sourced from the Delaware River to capital city residents and suburban communities in Ewing, Lawrence, Hamilton and Hopewell townships.
“I have reached out to the mayor, I have called his office asking for the public information meetings. I’ve heard nothing. They’ve done nothing,” said Schirmer, a TWW customer.
In his new gig, Walker will “assist with the management and development of policy, procedures, communications and organizational relationships in the administration and operation of a municipal water utility to ensure water quality and service delivery excellence,” according to his updated LinkedIn page.
Walker started the job this month. The New Jersey Civil Service Commission job description for the management specialist position says candidates must possess a bachelor’s degree, which Walker has not obtained, though additional experience may be substituted for the educational requirement.
The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) approves all Trenton hires so it would have signed off on Walker’s transfer. A DCA spokeswoman did not return an email seeking comment about Walker’s transfer and his salary.
“I’d like to know at DCA who the heck approved this,” Schirmer said. “I would like to look at his resume.”
Mayoral candidate Darren “Freedom” Green, who finished fourth in the May election and is now backing Paul Perez, has aired grievances about Walker’s performance.
“He never disseminated information to lay out the vision or direction of this city,” Green said of Walker. “And whenever you dialogue with him, you always got a hard time, an attitude as if were pulling teeth to get him to do his job. And now with all that’s going on with the Water Works, why even touch that? Allow the new administration to come in and evaluate where we are, where we need to be and how we’re moving forward.” Mayoral candidates in the June runoff election, Paul Perez and Reed Gusciora, did not touch the hot potato of Walker’s new job.
“I’m just going to stay focused on the race,” Perez said, declining to comment on Walker.
Gusciora did not return messages seeking comment. Green, who ran a campaign against the machine, said the move just shows how the city has been operated by career politicians for the past 40 years and how certain people, like Walker, are protected.
“I would say an evaluation of each department with all the historical nepotism that has occurred will allow a lot of money to be freed up when you move people out of there who aren’t doing their job,” Green said. “There are people who work for the city but don’t do anything in the city ... The machine is the career politicians who have influence, power and control and have the ability to take care of themselves, their family members and friends, in a way where they’re provided opportunities regular citizens aren’t.”
Since late last year, a Newark-based firm has been paid handsomely to supplement any PR work Walker has done for the city.
Cole Media, run by CEO Sakina Cole, got wrapped up in controversy earlier this year when upset Trenton business owner Eleanor Kubacki of EFK Group felt Cole’s firm inappropriately got the nod over her despite not following specifications in a request for proposal (RFP).
EFK lost out on the contact to Cole Media by a single point, 149 to 148.
Kubacki, who threatened but never followed through with her threat to sue over the RFP stiff, claimed Mayor Jackson’s administration overlooked that Cole Media did not set forth a total amount for services in the RFP it submitted, leaving open-ended how much the city could potentially shell out for the Newark-based firm.
Cole, who has performed public relations for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, was rankled by insinuations she got the gig because of ties to Jackson.
She called The Trentonian after it published the story to dispute ever having worked for Jackson. Her firm, however, created a booklet for the mayor’s state of the city address, records show.
She insisted the work for Baraka and Jackson was for the “municipality not the man.”
The Trentonian obtained records that showed invoices and checks cut to Cole Media from September 2017 through January of this year.
The contract with the city wasn’t supposed to exceed $50,000, but records showed the firm has been paid at least $50,818.80 since September.
The records showed the firm basically charged the city a monthly rate that came out to roughly $10,000 with the largest payout of $19,999 coming in January.
Itemized breakdowns of the work were vague. A Sept. 5, 2017 invoice, for example, stated: “public relations and social media consultants” were “available M-F as needed to conduct research and handle daily public relations, marketing and branding services.”
Work included a social media manager creating and updating social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, the records showed.
Besides a passing reference to “newsletter prep,” no specific projects are mentioned in the invoices reviewed by The Trentonian.
City Council still OK’d another $50K contact extension for Cole Media in February. The Trentonian didn’t have invoices reflecting payments from February onward.