Third freeholder denies trying to stop city clerk’s enforcement
TRENTON >> The identity of the Mercer County freeholder who thought it was a good idea to insert himself into city enforcement issues remains a mystery.
But the process of whittling down the list of potential callers continued Thursday, as a third freeholder came forward to deny phoning Trenton city officials to influence them to ease up enforcement actions against Car Depot Sales & Service.
Mercer County freeholder chairman John Cimino said Thursday he wasn’t behind the phone call.
“It wasn’t me,” Cimino said, joining colleagues Sam Frisby and Pat Colavita Jr.
Both stated unequivocally they have no ties to the Car Depot owner or managers and were not behind the power-wielding phone call to the Trenton clerk’s office.
Car Depot, which does work on vehicles in the city’s fleet, was temporarily shut down Wednesday by the clerk’s office after repeatedly refusing to pay more than $4,000 in fees and fines to renew its expired business license.
The repair shop ended up paying off its outstanding balance the same day, but not before company representatives tried name-dropping to get out of coming into compliance with the city’s business licensing ordinance.
The Trentonian learned that a manager at the repair shop accused city officials of unfairly targeting the shop and said the clerk’s office would be “hearing from his people,” city clerk Dwayne Harris said.
Licensing inspector Shirley Lopreato later received a phone call from a male county freeholder. Harris would not identify the freeholder by name or say whether he was a current or past member of the county board.
Freeholder vice chair Andrew Koontz is the only current freeholder who has yet to respond to message seeking comment. The newspaper unsuccessfully attempted to get a cell phone number on Koontz.
A colleague said he would relay a message to Koontz’s aide to try to get him in touch with the newspaper.
Cimino said he’d be “hardpressed” to believe Koontz made the call on behalf of Car Depot.
“He does not strike me as one that would be putting himself in city business like that,” the chairman said.
If it wasn’t Koontz, it may have been a former freeholder.
South Ward councilman George Muschal is determined to out the county public official who called to exert pressure on city officials to get them to drop the enforcement issue.
Car Depot had been operating without a valid business license since at least 2017. When city officials shut down the repair shop Wednesday, at least one police cruiser from the city’s fleet was in the lot awaiting repairs.
Mayor Reed Gusciora said the city will honor any outstanding invoices with Car Depot.
Behind the scenes, city officials have expressed disapproval of the city continuing to do business with a vendor that thought it was exempt from the city’s business licensing ordinance – which was recently strengthened – because of political ties to local officials, past or present.
Gusciora refused to weigh in on the controversy in a phone interview Thursday, when the newspaper asked him whether it was appropriate for a public official to insert himself into city enforcement issues.
He said he wasn’t on the phone call and couldn’t say how the conversation went.
“I can’t honestly comment. I have no idea what the communication was,” he said “No freeholder called me.”
Asked if he would get involved in something like that, the mayor responded, “Is that something that I would do, no. I would hire a lawyer.”
The mayor’s office, in a statement, seemed to suggest the clerk’s office may have acted out of turn by shutting the repair shop down without first contacting the law department and issuing a summons.
“The clerk did his duty in notifying them of their violation,” city spokesman Connor Ilchert said. “However, before a business may be shuttered, a hearing must occur.”
The clerk, Harris, and city law director John Morelli did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
The city’s updated licensing ordinance, passed by council in February, says, “Any business engaging in any operations covered by this article that does not pay the required license within 90 days after the initial notice of fee due and that does not obtain the required license: (1) Shall be required to immediately cease operation of the business in the City until such time as the license is renewed. (2) Shall incur an additional penalty of $250. (3) Shall be subject to administrative and/or civil action for collection of the fee, as well as be liable for court costs, reasonable attorneys’ fees, and additional administrative costs incurred by the City as a result of collection efforts.”
The mayor said the Car Depot had a right to “due process” but he wouldn’t say whether the city may revisit the licensing ordinance, which increased fines to $1,500 for businesses that don’t follow city law.
“I don’t blame Dwayne,” said Gusciora, who is also an attorney. “You can never cede the due process. There are certain civil liberties that cannot be superseded. They should have they have issued a summons. It was the same result.”
The mayor acknowledged he didn’t veto the updated licensing ordinance, as passed, which vests city officials with the right to shut down businesses that don’t comply with the licensing requirements.
“I can make an ordinance that I can shut down The Trentonian,” Gusciora said. “But there is a First Amendment right that supersedes that. Executives all the time sign something that could later run into constitutional questions. It happens every day. That’s why there’s a Supreme Court.”
Muschal said he has no sympathy for the owner of Car Depot, saying he was given ample opportunity, since first being notified in June, to pay off the balance before being shut down.
Instead, the repair shop tried to play political hardball by getting a freeholder involved.
“You don’t get a summons, you get shut down,” the councilman said. “You were told in June to get a license, and you didn’t. Mean what you say. Say what you mean.”