Deputy clerk’s job in limbo as council vote lingers
TRENTON » It may be D-Day for “Dee.”
Longtime deputy city clerk Cordelia “Dee” Staton survived previous political coups for her job. But she may have hit the end of the line as her fate appears to rest in the hands of expected swing voter, East Ward councilman Joe Harrison.
Darren “Freedom” Green, a city activist and former mayoral candidate, singled out Harrison at Tuesday’s meeting over previous statements he made at meetings prior to getting elected about having integrity in decision-making.
Green urged Harrison, who didn’t respond to a message seeking comment, to vote to retain Staton when council votes whether to reappoint her Thursday.
Green called Staton a capital city “ambassador” and a “historical landmark.” She became the first black woman elected to an at-large seat in Trenton, Green said, and went on to serve two four-year terms on the legislative body before becoming the deputy city clerk.
“She lives here. She’s a financial investment in the city. She’s a blueprint for what you want in people who are appointed into positions,” Green told The Trentonian. “What more do you want? If you run her up out of here, who do you think is going to come here when you disrespect the good talent that’s here?”
The legislative body appears split about whether to bring back Staton, according to those with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At-large councilman Jerell Blakeley, who has sponsored the resolution to reappoint Staton for the next three years, believes she is a “longstanding resident and champion of Trentonians” and the city would be worse off if she was replaced.
He remembered Staton helped pique his interest in civics as a teenager.
Staton, who was on vacation when reached by phone, declined to comment.
While she wasn’t at Tuesday’s meeting, her supporters flocked to City Hall to speak on her behalf.
At least 20 people signed up to be heard during the public comment portion of a meeting and more than a dozen people remained as the meeting stretched past 11 p.m.
Staton isn’t a stranger to controversy.
She survived at least two stabs for her job, including much-publicized dust-ups with former councilwoman Phyllis Holly-Ward and former Mayor Tony Mack.
Mack showed brute force in having cops remove Staton from the city clerk’s office in 2010.
South Ward Councilman George Muschal, who previously backed Staton during the Mack attempted coup, flipped on the deputy clerk after a “horrible” 32page personnel report last year documented Staton’s alleged disrespectful attitude and other problems on the job.
The report was compiled following an investigation by the law firm of DeCotiis, FitzPatrick & Cole, but it was never made public.
Holly-Ward got into hot water when she allegedly lifted the personnel report and made copies of it, leading city officials to contact the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.
No charges were ever filed against Holly-Ward, who is no longer a member of the legislative body.
Muschal reminded colleagues and Staton’s supporters during the meeting of the investigation that set the city back $25,000 – a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars the city has paid out in police brutality, slip-and-fall, and other assorted lawsuits.
Muschal previously told The Trentonian the findings of the report were “unbelievable.”
He said Wednesday his position on Staton hadn’t changed and was based on “information from the report and based on other information that will come out.”
The former city cop, always the salesman, refused to tip his hand about what “other information” he was referring to but promised to stake out his position more clearly prior to Thursday’s
vote.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Holly-Ward said Staton should be appreciative that she was allowed to serve out the remainder of her three-year contract in light of the “scathing” personnel report.
“It should have definitely been made public,” the former councilwoman said. “There was an employee who was threatened. There was a part in there that clearly says the payroll was tampered with, and that she was receiving money she wasn’t supposed to be receiving. I just really
think she should be grateful she lasted this long. It’s the worst thing I read in my life. It was very damaging.”
Staton’s supporters include the likes of county freeholder Sam Frisby, who lauded Staton during Tuesday’s meeting for her “institutional knowledge” of the city, and former Mayor Doug Palmer.
Palmer called Staton a close personal friend and lamented the possibility she could be voted out by council, which supervises the deputy clerk.
Green said he was “deeply troubled” by council’s ongoing saga with Staton, who was previously taken to task in 2016, when she erroneously neglected to record a meeting, as is
standard practice, while subbing for then-city clerk Richard Kachmar.
Staton was riced over what she called an honest mistake. That led to an exchange with Holly-Ward, who instructed Staton to “stop going back and forth with her superiors,” according to meeting minutes.
Staton responded that she “respects all members of council but they sit on a dais, not a throne,” according to meeting minutes.
Green called the prior probe of Staton an “investigation to nowhere” and her current predicament of being in professional purgatory an “unproductive carryover from the last council.”
Palmer said Staton was optimistic that hostile relationship with members of the past regime was a thing of the past since an infusion of new blood into the legislative body.
“Has she made mistakes? Yeah, who hasn’t,” Palmer said. “I don’t think that disqualifies her. What’s so
ironic is how hopeful and optimistic she was in moving forward with this council. And, you know, I don’t know what’s going on. I called Marge [Caldwell-Wilson] and Marge said, ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’”
Caldwell-Wilson, who appears to be one of the council members opposed to extending Staton, didn’t respond a message seeking comment.
Prior to the meeting letting out, Bertha “Bert” Scott, a city resident and lawyer who is related to Staton, warned the council “this is not an opportunity for payback.”
Trentonian columnist L.A. Parker contributed to this report