The City of Trenton needs a reset
I am white and do not reside in the City of Trenton, but I care about our capital city. I have lived in West Windsor for more than forty years and for the majority of those years I have consulted to nonprofit agencies in the areas of development and strategic planning. Twenty of those charities have been located in the City of Trenton. As a result, I have been to Trenton more than 2,500 times over the past 30-plus years.
I am aware of Trenton’s political, social and economic history and of the city’s longstanding racial divide. I have written dozens of columns over the past three decades for The Times and The Trentonian about the deep-seated structural problems that Trenton’s residents face. Most of these are compounded by an inability to adequately finance needed government services; too many of Trenton’s properties are tax-exempt because they house state offices. Trentonians pay too much in property taxes for the inferior quality of government and education services they receive. It’s not surprising that many of them are disillusioned with government, that voter apathy is high and voter turnout extremely low (22% in the most recent mayoral election). I supported Reed Gusciora in his campaign for mayor and served on his Transition Committee because I thought his legislative experience could be helpful in securing desperately needed additional state aid and that he had the temperament to work collaboratively with the City Council. In July, I will be assessing his overall performance at mid-point of his tenure.
Suffice it to say the recent verbal exchange between Mayor Gusciora and Councilwoman Robin Vaughn was incredibly disconcerting. None of the participants, including the Mayor, who taunted the Councilwoman from early on in the call, when she questioned his entering into contracts with various “do-nothing” nonprofits, meet the standard I would set for someone I’d vote for. The Mayor admitted that he used inappropriate unprofessional language that was beneath the dignity of his office and offered an apology for this role in the telephone call. Likewise, Councilwoman Vaughn, under heavy pressure, offered a written apology for the vulgar profanity-laced homophobic rant. Joe Harrison should also apologize for his inappropriate utterances in response to horrific comments made about his family. I believe all the council members who were on the call and failed to speak up and demand that the participants tone it down and act in a civil manner, should also apologize to Trenton’s residents.
It is clear to me that a major across-the-board reset in Trenton is needed when Councilman-at-large Santiago Rodriquez said that he refuses to take sides because “I was not elected to condemn anybody, I am not a judge.” In order to fulfill one’s responsibility as a councilperson, you are constantly called upon to decide what is right and wrong and whether people are performing appropriately and take appropriate actions.
If you need another example of the total dysfunction in Trenton, consider the council’s recent 5-to-2 vote, along political lines, against providing necessary bonding to undertake capital upgrades at the Trenton Water Works. Without an upgrade of the antiquated water system, expect to see a Flint, Michigan-type calamity coming to Trenton.
I do not believe that Mayor Gusciora’s or Councilwoman Vaughn’s apologies mean that that we will see an end to uncivilized discourse in Trenton. Some folks, like the respected Jeannie Frisby Larue, have called for an intervention.
I understand where she is coming from and I respect her point of view, but see it as an exercise in futility and a waste of time.
Councilwoman Vaughn, like President Trump, is not going to mend her ways and will be cheered on by a cadre of her supporters who will encourage her inyour-face style. Like President Trump, she wants and craves media attention. She will, no doubt, try and make the case that the various negative words used by
the mayor and Councilman Joe Harrison in the teleconference i.e., “child,” ‘‘4-yearold,” “idiot,” “ugly,” and “incompetent” were racially motivated signs of disrespect towards a forceful black woman that would not have been used if she were white.
The question now is how the community-atlarge, the political establishment and the religious community will respond. I hope that responsible members of the community will make it clear that they will not support her if she decides to run again for any political office.
Instead of those concerned about Trenton trying to mediate the chasm between the mayor and
the council or attempting to re-call Councilwoman Vaughn, I’d suggest a fullcourt press from the city’s political, civic, religious, business and communitybased groups to recruit, educate and train a new generation of leaders to run for municipal office in Trenton.
These constituencies should reach out to prestigious non-partisan entities like the John S. Watson
Institute of Public Policy at Thomas Edison College, Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University and Lead New Jersey and engage them to develop a plan that will encourage talented Trenton residents to enter the political fray and provide them with the training in political campaigning/fundraising and
the intricacies of municipal government. This effort should mirror what the Center for American Women & Politics at Eagelton has done to spur female candidates for political office.
Foundations, corporations and concerned citizens interested in rebuilding Trenton should provide funds to retain one or more of these nonprofit entities to develop a community-based
plan to attract the best and brightest residents of Trenton to serve in municipal government. Trenton needs a reset.
Irwin Stoolmacher is the President of the Stoolmacher Consulting Group, a fundraising and strategic planning firm that works with nonprofits agencies that serve the truly needy among us.