Trenton mayor, Mercer County sheriff world’s apart following Medina’s sudden dismissal
TRENTON >> Mayor Reed Gusciora claimed this week the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office “pulled out” officers from Trenton, in what has been viewed as an act of retaliation for the way the mayor handled last month’s sticky re-up of Pedro Medina as acting director of the city’s police department.
The much-bally-booed episode left city leaders wondering who was calling the shots.
The Trentonian first learned from reliable sources about the alleged pullout weeks ago, but the county denied that was the case in a statement responding to the newspaper’s inquiries.
This week, the mayor confirmed Trenton Police “upper brass” informed him the pullout happened. He has denied it soured his relationship with the so-called Mercer County Democratic machine that backed him in the runoff race.
“I’ve been in this business for 20 years,” Gusciora said. “There’s plenty of times I’m upset with somebody, but at the end of the day, politics makes for strange bedfellows. I think, at the end of the day, we all need each other. Certainly, any political aspirations he [Sheriff John “Jack” Kemler] has, I’m sure he doesn’t want to burn bridges. I’m sure he understands that.”
Kemler and Undersheriff Pedro Medina sat down this week with The Trentonian to address the mayor’s pullout allegations.
What followed was a candid interview about the sensational political entanglement over Gusciora’s last-minute decision to yank the vote on Medina out of the hands of the city’s legislative body while the mayor’s transition team was still searching for a permanent replacement.
Kemler, a Democrat who led the 146-member office as sheriff since 2010, was just re-elected last year to his third three-year term. Mercer County Undersheriff Pedro Medina, left, and Sheriff Jack Kemler have each other’s backs in the war of words against Mayor Reed Gusciora. Gusciora claimed Kemler pulled out officers from Trenton following his alleged snub-job of Medina. The sheriff denied that happened.
He accused the first-term mayor of trying to “twist” the truth, hinting at a breakdown in the county’s relationship with the still-relativelynew mayor.
But he denied it led him to retaliate against the mayor by pulling any of his officers off the city streets or directing them not to assist the Trenton Police department.
“He could have handled it differently. And he chose not to,” said, Kemler who hasn’t talked to Gusciora since everything went down. “I hope he learns from his mistakes. He could have called Pedro and said, ‘This is what I’m going to do. Thank you for your service,’ or called me. When he sent Pedro back, he never called me once. I think he should have made a phone call and say, ‘Hey thanks.’”
The sheriff was stunned by Gusciora’s sudden decision to pull back on the re-appointment of Medina, who was on loan to the city for free for more than three months.
Gusciora has repeatedly proclaimed the undersheriff was his “first pick” to lead TPD.
Kemler was more surprised by the move because the mayor had been “hounding” Kemler and Medina to convince the undersheriff
to leave the county and accept Trenton’s permanent gig.
Medina, who makes more than $141,000 with the county, would have had to take a more than $30,000 pay cut if he accepted the police director position.
Gusciora has defended the way he handled Medina’s exit saying he doesn’t feel like he “did [Medina] dirty.”
Gusciora doesn’t believe he owed Kemler or Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes a courtesy call letting them know Medina’s time as police director was up despite that they did the mayor a solid by loaning out Medina.
“I’m talking to Pedro the man himself,” Gusciora said in response to Kemler’s hurt feelings. “Why do I then have to go behind his back and clear it with Kemler?” Oct. 18 meeting, the mayor pulled the proposal off the table.
Gusciora explained he felt it wasn’t prudent to allow the vote to go forward even though Medina had requested as much.
Gusciora and his chief of staff have insisted a straw poll conducted ahead of the Oct. 18 meeting showed Medina didn’t have the support.
The move angered Medina – a retired 29-year veteran of TPD — who had said at the time he felt the mayor’s decision lacked “backbone.”
Medina and the mayor’s critics felt the mayor was allowing South Ward councilman George Muschal, a Medina critic who was a member of the so-called “gang of four,” to run the show.
The mayor attempted to saddle the blame on City Council, but atlarge councilmen Jerell Blakeley and Santiago Rodriguez undercut the mayor’s claims that he didn’t have the four votes needed to retain Medina.
Medina decided to attend a prior engagement at Lawrence High School instead of attending the meeting, which Gusciora said sealed the undersheriff’s fate.
“You have to pick and choose your battles, and Pedro was not able to come to the council meeting, so you do the math,” Gusciora said. “I didn’t wash my hands of it. … If this was so important to Pedro, he should have been there. We’re talking about an interim appointment. … I didn’t think in my wildest imagination council would turn down a free police director for six months.”