AND BACK IN
Police Director still on the job after sources said she reportedly was expected to resign >>
TRENTON >> She’s back.
In the only Michael Jordan moment she has had in her turbulent tenure, Carol Russell on Tuesday reneged on her decision to step down as acting police director, according to multiple sources.
The Mayor Reed Gusciora administration denied that Russell ever resigned her post following a 4 p.m. meeting Monday at City Hall that a spokesman would only say was held so city officials could discuss “police business.”
The administration’s denial is contradicted by what three highlevel city sources with knowledge of the situation, along with multiple police sources, have corroborated to this newspaper: Russell agreed to resign Monday, only to take it back a day later.
She left the meeting Monday with the intent to write up her own resignation letter, sources said.
She turned in her keys to police headquarters, sources said, but then backtracked Tuesday when she returned to work and informed the administration she was rescinding her decision and wanted City Council to decide her fate, the same request made by her predecessor, Pedro Medina.
City spokesman Tim Carroll said Russell, who was nominated by the mayor in October as the first black woman to lead TPD, never supplied a resignation letter. She attended a cabinet meeting Tuesday at City Hall.
“She’s still employed,” he said. “She’s currently acting police director, working on police initiatives, and is looking forward to a confirmation hearing from the council. I don’t know what sources may have misconstrued, but she will continue to be employed until the council makes a decision.”
At-large councilman Santiago Rodriguez doesn’t believe the administration’s cover story.
“To me, it’s all a game,” he said about Russell’s Jordan-level flipflop, which was almost as stunning as when the GOAT stepped away from pro basketball at the height of his career. “She was put in by outside sources. And they don’t want her to leave.”
But so many people in the department, including some of the retired Trenton Police sergeant’s old foes who have clamored that she’s unqualified, loved to watch her leave.
Everyone, including the person TPD cops were already calling to congratulate as her successor, was shocked when Russell returned to police headquarters Tuesday morning after apparently thinking better of it overnight.
“I’m going to stay the course and hope the mayor will grant me an interview,” retired State Police trooper John Day told The Trentonian after learning Russell was staying. “I still have a positive attitude. I hope she does the best she can while she’s there, but if they want to move in another direction, I hope they give me an opportunity. This is one of the most important positions in the city. We can’t play around with that.”
After doubling back on her decision to step down, Russell had to be let back in the building Tuesday morning, through a side door at TPD headquarters because she turned in her keys the previous night, sources said.
Russell didn’t attend morning roll call and hardly spoke to anyone after being let into the police director’s office, sources said.
The administration’s claim that Russell never resigned is contradicted by what numerous wellplaced sources told this newspaper about the intent of Monday’s meeting, which was attended by the mayor, his chief of staff Yoshi Manale, law director John Morelli and Russell.
Carroll said the mayor only “sat in for a while” on the meeting.
During the meeting, city officials basically laid out the situation for Russell, sources said.
She doesn’t have the votes to get confirmed by council — “not one,” declared Rodriguez a day later. “Probably one abstention, but I doubt it.”
So it was suggested that Russell step down, sources said. She agreed to do so but indicated she wanted to write up her own resignation letter rather than sign any documents at City Hall, sources said.
To that end, Russell turned in her keys, sources said, but changed her mind sometime between the meeting and when she showed back up for work on Tuesday like nothing happened.
Now, the administration plans to let her make her case to council for why it should ignore what Rodriguez called her “very bad” performance before the legislative body last week.
She struggled to answer questions posed to her by at-large councilman Jerell Blakeley, who walked back his initial support of her based upon nagging concerns related to her personal, professional and educational background.
The mayor’s spokesman, who didn’t sit in on the Monday meeting, contended that “as far as I know, there was no talk of resignation” at the meeting.
Claiming Russell still has the mayor’s “full support,” Carroll admitted he never asked the mayor or other city officials present during the meeting whether they discussed Russell resigning.
“There’s been no discussion internally of her offering her resignation, so far as I know,” Carroll said. “The proof is in the pudding. She’s still here. She’s working.”
Carroll said he “didn’t know about” Russell turning in her keys.
The Trentonian attempted to get answers from the mayor, who repeatedly ducked calls Monday and Tuesday. This newspaper approached him at City Hall before Tuesday’s ceremony where a dozen firefighters were sworn in.
Gusciora discounted the newspaper’s reporting.
“You need some better leakers,” he said.
The Trentonian informed the mayor what it learned from highlevel city sources, but Gusciora grew upset when a reporter pressed him suggesting he was deceiving the public.
Approached a second time after the swearing-in ceremony, Gusciora said he would only talk to a reporter about Russell if the reporter apologized.
The Trentonian reaffirmed to the mayor it believed, based on the information from multiple reliable sources, that he was being dishonest.
Gusciora stormed off and said he was “done” speaking to a reporter.
Then he angrily turned back and shouted “fake news” toward The Trentonian before dashing into his office.
South Ward councilman George Muschal, who has claimed the mayor nominated Russell for “political gain,” said he doubts the mayor’s claims based off what he learned from the administration.
“If the shoe fits, if he’s a liar, tell him to wear it,” said Muschal, who has notoriously called out past mayors for being deceitful.
The South Ward councilman has been one of Russell’s biggest detractors, but now says he feels “bad” for her.
“What [Gusciora] did to her, dragging her reputation in, when she has zero qualifications. This was the mayor’s pick. He picked a person that was unqualified of the job and he knew it, and then he wanted to put the responsibility on City Council to correct his problem,” Muschal said. “His mistakes have caused nothing but havoc in the City of Trenton and the police department. This is on the mayor 110 percent. He should get his act together and straighten it out. This is a disgrace.”