Ex-Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer to Gusciora and Vaughn: ‘How did we ever get so far?’
TRENTON » Former Mayor Doug Palmer is calling for a political cease-fire, saying if he can get over his blood feud with former county Executive Bill Mathesius in the 1980s that the city’s current crop of embittered politicians should be able to work out their differences.
“It’s gotten out of hand,” the ex-five term mayor said of the constant infighting between Trenton’s executive and legislative branches. “It got out of hand with me in my days. At the end of the day, you have to come together.”
The former political mover-and-shaker is even offering to play peacemaker.
“It’s just a distraction, and they’re all better than this,” Palmer said. “If I can help mediate, I will.”
Palmer’s proposed armistice comes after tired residents took the first step toward removing Mayor Reed Gusciora and council members Robin Vaughn and Joe Harrison from office.
Once excited about the former assemblyman and a new cast on council, voters have instead been forcefed a steady stream of embarrassments that captured international attention as Trenton has turned from New Jersey’s capital into the seat of dysfunctional government.
Over nearly two years, the sides have bickered and taken each other to court, in hostilities spanning the budget to redevelopment deals.
The mudslinging turned personal this month, when the trio got into a heated exchange during a coronavirus briefing.
Vaughn called the mayor a “pedophile” and suggested Harrison sucks his “d**k” while Gusciora blasted the controversial West Ward leader as an “idiot,” “child” and “little a**hole.”
Harrison got caught up in the salvos, calling Vaughn “ugly,” and suggesting she needed to see a psychiatrist following her repeated barbs toward Gusciora and city legislators.
Despite ample evidence of the mayor’s and council’s irretrievably broken relationship, Palmer still has delusions the sides can reach a truce.
He pointed to his oncelegendary feud with the man known as “Wild Bill,” a former politician and Superior Court judge.
Newspaper reports are filled with accounts of the foul-mouthed Mathesius, the former Republican county executive described as “the Trump before Trump,” and Palmer mixing it up while Palmer was a Democratic freeholder.
Former Trentonian columnist Ken Carolan described the pair’s relationship this way in July 1986: “If Doug Palmer said the pope is Catholic, Bill Mathesius probably would disagree with him.”
Mathesius once accused then-freeholder president Palmer and Paul J. Sollami of circumventing state contract and bidding laws over their alleged ties to composting corporation Renewable Resource Recovery Inc., according to 1985 Trentonian archives.
“The man should answer some questions about his relationship with this multi-million-dollar operation. He can wear a funny mask if he wants,” Mathesius said of Palmer.
Palmer called Matheisus’ allegations then “one of the most low-down dirtiest things he’s ever done, and that says a lot.”
The two later squashed their beef when Palmer said he made Mathesius a municipal court judge while he was Trenton mayor.
Mathesius’ reputation as a potty-mouth gunslinger followed him when he ascended to Superior Court judge.
The state Supreme Court suspended Mathesius without pay for a month in 2006 after its advisory panel found that he “showed poor judgment, impulsiveness and lack of self-control
and a tendency to act without sufficient regard for the propriety and consequences of his actions,” according to NJ Advance Media.
Mathesius later penned a rebuttal of the court’s opinion that many attorneys told NJ Advance Media felt sunk Mathesius’ career.
Gov. Jon Corzine decided against reappointing Mathesius in 2008, two years after his pointed parody of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Deborah Poritz in which he compared her management style to ex-Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
Big personalities often clash, Palmer said, as he and Mathesius showed.
He called the mayor and council members, including Vaughn, “very bright” people.
Palmer said Vaughn and Gusciora must salvage their strained relationship amid the pandemic, evoking a famous scene from “The Godfather” of the meeting of the five crime families.
“How did we ever get so far?” Palmer said, parroting crime boss Don Corleone. “I’m hoping this [recall] loses steam. Nobody has the time or appetite for a recall at a time when they can’t even recall the last time they hugged a friend.”