Trenton council approves two Gusciora appointees
TRENTON » Mayor Reed Gusciora got his guys with few questions and little fight.
City council members, dispensing with the “mean-spirited” melodrama for part of the meeting, voted unanimously Tuesday to confirm the appointments of acting law director John Morelli and municipal judge Harold George.
Morelli became the first member of Gusciora’s cabinet to be approved by the legislative body to serve out the remainder of the mayor’s four-year term.
George was already serving as a municipal judge in a holdover capacity after former Mayor Eric Jackson’s failed bid in 2016 to replace him with one of three appointees.
At-large councilman Jerell Blakeley and South Ward councilman George Muschal, rarely in unison on any topic, lauded the mayor’s picks as “fine” and “great choices.”
“Very nice,” Gusciora said of the squabble-free rubber-stamping of his two legal picks.
Very nice isn’t a term used often to describe this belligerent bunch.
But if just for a few moments, the legislative body parted with the divisiveness long enough to make George, a respected figure who has been on Trenton’s municipal bench for over a decade, serving several stints as chief judge over four of those years.
George, who is also a municipal judge in Willingboro, came to council chambers decked out in a crisp blue suit, a red bowtie and snazzy maroon shoes.
George, who nodded his head in quiet approval following council’s unanimous vote, was reappointed through October 2021 after his future remained on the Trenton bench remained in flux under Jackson.
Local attorneys fiercely defended George when the former mayor tried to boot him off the municipal bench two years ago.
George previously survived Jackson’s push to replace him with one of three appointees – William Sitzler, Geraldine Eure and Emilia Perez, all of whom were voted down.
The council’s rejection of Jackson’s appointees saved George from the ax but put him in a precarious “holding pattern,” Mayor Reed Gusciora said.
“Justice was indeed done,” the former municipal prosecutor said in lauding George for running a “congenial court.”
Jackson’s second attempt to get Sitzler on the municipal bench, which drew sharp criticism, also failed although the legislative body did approve Eure as a part-time judge in a second go-around.
Council had few questions prior to green-lighting George, who said he didn’t look at his reappointment as vindication following Jackson’s thwarted judicial coup.
He said he was gratified to be given the opportunity to continue working in the “best job” he’s had in his professional life.
Like the judge, Morelli faced little questioning as council was apparently in a genial mood.
Morelli, a former city attorney, was elevated to acting law director when former law director Walter Denson resigned once the Gusciora administration took office.
The legislative body accepted Gusciora’s description of Morelli as a “highly respected” certified civil attorney who would be indispensable as the city prepares to defend against a flurry of expected lawsuits over the Art All Night shootout that injured dozens of festival-goers earlier this year.
“I think we need somebody who is seasoned and experienced,” Gusciora said, to mitigate the city’s liability over the Father’s Day carnage.
Morelli graduated from Rutgers University School of Law and was admitted to the New Jersey bar in December 1981.
He opened and ran what he described as a “thriving” private law practice before joining the city last year as an assistant attorney.
Morelli dissolved the practice and another firm, the Cherry Hill-based Jacobs, Schwalbe and Petruzzelli, for which he serves in an of counsel position, absorbed his clients.
The new law director said his of counsel responsibilities are minimal and had only been to the firm once in recent months.
Morelli, who also served as a municipal judge in Stratford Township, has cleared his docket now that he’s the city’s go-to for legal advice.
He was up for reappointment in Stratford this week but told the clerk to hold off, knowing he was up for advice and consent in Trenton.
Morelli explained to the legislative body he will resign from the Stratford municipal bench to focus “100 percent” on his responsibilities to the capital city.