Councilman stopped donating salary to Meals on Wheels
TRENTON » One and done.
At-large councilman Santiago Rodriguez only made good on a quarter of his promise to donate his $20,000 salary to Meals on Wheels over his four-year term, The Trentonian has learned.
Rodriguez was emphatic on the campaign trail that he wouldn’t “take a penny” of his salary. Keeping with that promise, he appears to have donated his first year’s salary to the organization, according to Meals on Wheels of Mercer County’s 2018-19 annual report.
The report, including donations from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019, lists Rodriguez as one of its “community delivers,” but doesn’t mention the donated amount.
Since then, Rodriguez hasn’t given one red cent to Meals on Wheel in fiscal year 2020, according to sources.
While he confirmed he is no longer contributing to the organization and keeping the salary for his “expenses,” Rodriguez became argumentative and threatened to sue when The Trentonian asked why he stopped donating.
“Who is sending you to do this? Why don’t you talk about all the stuff?” the atlarge councilman said. “Deflect what? I have nothing to hide. … I’m tired of you calling to harass me. Write whatever you want to write. You better have the facts, though, if you’re going to smear me. You better say the truth.”
Rodriguez disputed ever saying he planned to donate through all four years of his term, which contradicts what Meals on Wheels Executive Director Sasa Olessi Montaño told The Trentonian when it first reported on Rodriguez’s generous act in July 2018.
The Meals on Wheels Facebook page applauded Rodriguez’s efforts in a July 22 post, linking to The Trentonian’s story: “Meals on Wheels of Mercer County is exceedingly grateful to the newly elected Trenton City Councilman Santiago Rodriguez for the donation of his salary for the 4 years of his term to make sure our Trenton seniors can benefit from a meal!! Read all about it!”
“Nah, nah, nah, who said that? She told you that? She’s not complaining to me,” Rodriguez said. “I talked to her right after you called me. She’s not complaining. She said she’s fine with the money I gave her. I gave the whole thing to her. You don’t know what I talked to her about. You don’t know our deal. I’m not disputing anything, Mr. Isaac. Go ahead and write whatever you want. Goodbye.”
The councilman hung up the phone.
Montaño spoke openly with the newspaper last year about Rodriguez’s commitment, but she declined an interview request now that Rodriguez’s tune changed.
“We do not give out specific details on any of our donors’ donations other than what is stated in our publications,” she said in an email. “I refer you to our website. I suggest you contact Mr. Rodriguez directly.”
In an interview earlier in the week, Rodriguez chided the newspaper for digging into his “personal” business over the agreement with Meals on Wheels.
“I’m not getting the same money I was getting. But that’s not your – why are you asking that?” he said when asked if he was still donating. “Why don’t you write about what’s important in Trenton? Why do you always have to get in my personal business?”
The newspaper informed Rodriguez he is a councilman and works for the public that should know whether he is delivering on his promise to Meals on Screengrab of Meals on Wheels post from last year applauding Councilman Rodriguez for agreeing to donate all four years of his legislator salary.
Wheels.
“So what?” Rodriguez responded. “There’s plenty of things that we have been doing in council that you don’t cover at all, in the community in Trenton. I never see you around in Trenton at any activity. You told me you’re too busy with Hamilton. Ask Hamilton council people. I’m not answering anything else.”
Rodriguez claimed he was only getting $12,000 of his $20,000 annual salary this year, “and it’s going to be like that until I finish at City Hall,” but wouldn’t explain why that’s the case.
“Of the $12,000, I’m going to use it for my expenses,” Rodriguez said. “I have a lot of expenses. I’m the lowestpaid council person. … The city doesn’t have to [provide] me a car or nothing or lunch or anything or pay for when I have to go to activities.”
City clerk Dwayne Harris referred questions about Rodriguez’s compensation to personnel officer Steven Ponella.
Ponella didn’t respond to a message seeking confirmation of Rodriguez’s claim and specifics on why the councilman is only getting a portion of his salary.
Rodriguez previously provided city officials with documentation regarding compensation he receives from being a military veteran. He wouldn’t answer questions about whether he receives a disability pension.
“Disabled? What is your business?” Rodriguez said. “You got information last year illegally. I could have a case against you because you published my personal
stuff. Get the information from your sources. You have sources that are telling you everything. … I gave more to Meals On Wheels than the city did last year, or the year before, or four years ago. A lot more.”
Rodriguez went on to claim the city “was making money out of me. … I wanted to do it for nothing, but you people started messing around, and they told me I couldn’t do it voluntarily, that I had to get paid. So the first year, it went to Meals on Wheels. From this year on, it’s going to go to my expenses.”
The at-large councilman then attempted to slam colleagues for introducing a salary ordinance that would have raised their annual compensation to $30,000 and $35,000 for the council president.
The Trentonian had to remind Rodriguez that he was one of the five legislators who voted in favor of advancing the ordinance when it was introduced, over the protestations of the Department of Community Affairs, which repeatedly demanded its removal from the council agenda.
In fact, internal correspondence obtained by The Trentonian shows the salary ordinance was only removed from consideration for adoption at a Sept. 19 meeting because the DCA threatened to revoke city clerk Harris’ Registered Municipal Clerk certification.
“Please do not share this communication nor use it for Political jockeying but I received a phone call today from a personal friend who works at the DCA. Yesterday
I received another directive from the DCA to remove Ordinance 19-56 and 1959 from the docket,” Harris wrote to council members Sept. 19. “I was told if this was not done, the DCA will charge me personally for violating a contractual agreement [MOU] and their expressed directive to remove those items from the docket and will pursue the revoking of my RMC certification.
“You as the governing body are the ones who have the authority to appoint me and I as your clerk, serve as the Secretary to the Council. The old adage ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ comes into play here because that is exactly what is happening. Although I am not the initiator of actions by the Council which are spurned by the DCA, my name keeps coming across their desks in communications and are looking upon me as an the instigator and see me as a low hanging fruit easier to deal with to exhibit their authority than the whole body of elected officials and I will become the spoils of war.
“To that end, I have removed the items requested by the DCA from the docket, because that was their directive, if to which I am compliant, removes he target from my back at least from the DCA for now.”
Rodriguez was still nonplussed and once again threatened legal action against the newspaper.
“Go ahead and publish whatever you want to do and then I’ll go to an attorney and see,” he said. “You better have the facts. You better be able to prove that whatever you write is true.”