Sources: Mayor dresses down Hughes over coronavirus ‘sh*t show’
Mayor Reed Gusciora went off the deep end, lighting up Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes over the county’s apparent tepid response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The capital city’s leader dropped “multiple” F-bombs during Tuesday’s conference call with area mayors, upset over what he viewed as the five-term county kingmaker’s pussy-footing around as New Jersey struggles with the growing coronavirus crisis, according to sources with knowledge of the call who spoke on condition of anonymity.
While others were thinking or may have wanted to say it, the
TRENTON » sources said, Gusciora was the first mayor to lay into the county executive with an expletive-laden tirade following days of brewing frustration over the county’s allegedly lackadaisical approach.
“Reed lost his sh*t on him,” one source said, describing the exchange. “‘This is f**king ridiculous. You’re not doing anything.’ It was really wild. It was a sh*t show.”
Another source described the blowup by pulling a famous quote from “Saving Private Ryan”: “What’s that saying? Gripes go up, not down.”
Gusciora did not respond to phone calls seeking comment, but he’s not the only one apparently stewing over Hughes alleged lack of leadership.
Other leaders privately expressed frustration with the county executive. who declared a state of emergency and shuttered most countyrun facilities this week.
They felt he abandoned his dozen municipalities, leaving them to fend for themselves against a respiratory illness that’s overwhelming the world and bringing life as everyone knows it to a screeching halt.
They pointed to the county’s apparent lack of testing kits, rumored to be as few as 50 for the more than 374,000 who live here, and the lack of a plan for how to address a possible surge of patients that could overrun Trenton-area hospitals.
Those issues aren’t unique to Mercer County, Hughes said, pushing back against perception his administration isn’t doing enough.
“We’re not slamming the door of county government,” he said. “We realize we are the face of regional government. We will continue to work on solutions to this regional problem. We are not abandoning the cities at all.”
Hughes said he’s been on earlymorning conferences calls with the governor’s office and has met with area hospital leaders to discuss how to better prepare Mercer County as the outbreak worsens locally, including ramping up drivethru testing.
So far, the county has just nine cases while Bergen County has been hit the hardest with 84 of the state’s 267 cases of the coronavirus.
New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said Tuesday that 55 percent of those patients have required hospitalization.
Because of that, state and federal officials are more focused on