Self-report says Trenton responded ‘adequately’
TRENTON » In a report written in part by the mayor for the mayor, Reed Gusciora concluded his administration has done an adequate job responding to the capital city’s COVID-19 crisis.
The 38-page status report recounted the city’s efforts — from testing, establishing alternative housing options, personal protective equipment collection and contact tracing — to deal with the global pandemic that has infected 3,705 and killed 103 people as of June 4 in the capital city.
The report also sought to explain budgetary constraints that prevent the city from adopting council’s demand last week for universal testing.
The big feather in the cap touted by the Gusciora administration: the death rate.
Trenton’s death rate, including fatalities reported at the city’s four nursing homes was 2.8 percent, lower than the statewide average of 7.4 percent, according to the report.
The calculation was based off the state’s 11,970 deaths and 162,530 cases reported at the time. As of Wednesday, that number rose to 12,377 deaths and 165,346 infections, according to the state Department of Health.
The administration conceded the fatality rate was higher, 4 percent, when adjusted for the death of city residents under state supervision. Still the report appeared to absolve the Gusciora administration of any negligence dealing with the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, has been the health crisis of our generation. While we are still not out of the woods, the City has adequately prepared for this crisis and continues to contain the spread of the virus as best as our resources allow,” the report concluded. “We pledged to remain vigilant to ensure the majority of our citizens are protected and that we meet their health care needs.”
Community stakeholders said they were still digesting the report. But some were struck by the defensive tone of it, suggesting few have been fiercely critical of the administration’s response to the pandemic.
They wondered if the report could become “campaign fodder” for Gusciora — already facing a recall — to fend off opponent attacks about his effectiveness guiding the city through the crisis should he run for a second term.
“This is called C.Y.A. But nobody’s after his a**,” said Algernon Ward, a former council candidate who has criticized Gusciora for deploying a curfew over the last two months. “For him to suggest that, he’s putting his own neck in the noose. These are self-inflicted wounds. Clearly, we haven’t done enough. When you try to claim that, you just make yourself look bad.”
Ward said the report recounted a lot of information but was “not a plan of action.”
“Suggestions for improvements are not an attack on them. If you don’t have a plan, plan to fail,” he said.
Gusciora conceded the report was produced by members of his administration.
Listed contributors included the mayor himself, fire director and emergency management coordinator Derrick Sawyer; procurement officer Grady Griffin; recreation director Maria Richardson; economic and housing director Ben Delisle; business administrator Adam Cruz; chief of staff Yoshi Manale; COVID operations consultant and former water director Steve Picco; health director Shakira Abdul-Ali; health officer Yvette Graffie-Cooper; staff support Rich Kavin and Rachel Villatoro and research intern David McMillan.
Copies of the report were sent to state health commissioner Judy Persichilli and Mercer County health officer Kristin Reed.
Asked who wrote the report, Gusciora said it was a team effort, and acknowledged being involved in drafting content for the report.
“Our response can stand up to anyone else’s,” Gusciora told The Trentonian in a phone interview Wednesday, “We are in the orbit of New York, where it was coming down like a tidal wave. This report speaks for itself about what we did and what we intend to do in the future. I don’t think anywhere
we self-assessed ourselves or patted ourselves on the back.”
Timing of Release, Rehash
The city released the report three months after Gov. Phil Murphy placed the state on lockdown, shuttering schools and non-essential business and banning social gatherings.
Murphy lifted the stay-athome order Tuesday as the state slowly reopens after seeing a downward trend in the number of new reported cases of the deadly virus.
That being said, the city made clear it’s bracing for a “second wave” of the virus in the fall.
Much of the report rehashed what’s already known about the city’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, from establishing a first-responders mobile test site — hailed by Gusciora as the first of its kind in New Jersey — to partnering with the county and local nonprofits to extend testing to more Trentonians.
Sawyer, head of the Office of Emergency Management, said the city secured 328,984 masks, much of it donated, for residents and health care workers.
Officials gave out more than 100,000 masks to Trenton residents, the report states, crediting that with heading off outbreaks in the city’s communal and elderly residential settings.
Mike Ranallo, a resident of the West Ward and reputed Gusciora critic, wondered if the administration should be taking a “victory lap” while the nation is still contending with the plague.
He wondered about the motivation behind such a pro-administration report not conducted by an independent party, expecting it will be used as “campaign literature” if Gusciora runs for re-election.
“This would be the major event of his administration,” he said. “There’ll be nothing bigger this in the next two years. It will be campaign fodder.”
The report also sought to explain the city inability to meet council demands for testing for every Trentonian as the city moves toward reopening, calling the push for universal testing an “unfunded mandate.”
Testing has been limited in the Mercer County region, something Gusciora has been slammed for by some critics.
The county has run a mobile site for symptomatic residents, first at the Quaker Bridge Mall in Lawrence before re-locating to a parking lot near the McDade building in the capital city.
Trenton ran a mobile test site for Mercer County first responders, headed by chiropractor Dr. John Piazza, that tested more than 400 people.
That was something West Ward councilwoman Robin Vaughn attacked Gusciora for on a now-infamous coronavirus call heard ‘round the world.
Of the 21 positives, nine were police officers, including TPD Director Sheilah Coley, and 50 officers were required to self-quarantine.
In addition, a single firefighter tested positive and 80 percent of Trenton Water Works employees were tested to avoid an “emergency shutdown of the City’s water filtration plant,” the report stated.
Gusciora repeatedly defended the decision to initially test only first responders. The city later partnered with the Trenton Health Team for rotational mobile testing in the four wards.
Between the four sites, 272 Trentonians were tested with 95 positive cases found as of May 27, according to the report. The 272 people tested represent less than a percent of the 83,203 residents in Trenton, according to the U.S. Census.
The city has no plans for universal testing, Gusciora said, adding he favors “targeted” testing, particularly in vulnerable populations.
The mayor also balked on an initial push for anti-body testing on all city employees, noting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says such tests are “only accurate in up to 50% of the test cases.”
The report says the CDC says “[s]erologic test results should not be used to make decisions about grouping persons residing in or being admitted to congregate settings, such as schools, dormitories, or correctional facilities.”
Testing more than 83,000 people is cost-prohibitive, the Gusciora administration concluded, estimating it could run the city as much as $8 million, based on a figure of $100 per test.
The governor’s office projected it could test 20,000 people daily, according to the report. If Trenton tested 5,000 residents a day, it would “account for 25% of the total State tests administered (even though the population is approximately 1% of the State population).”
“To test all residents is an unfunded mandate, and the City has neither the resources nor the capacity to complete. It also ignores the shortage of tests available to local and state governments,” the report said.
“If the City subsidized 5,000 tests each day, it would cost the City $500,000 daily (not including the cost of staffing). Over sixteen days, the City could administer 80,000 tests (assuming the City could procure these tests and meet the staffing requirements). This testing scheme, for sixteen days, would cost the City $8,000,000 (not including the cost of staffing and PPE). At this point in time, the City has neither the financial resources or the tests and equipment to implement this testing scheme,”
Beyond that, the report concluded that “forcibly testing” residents who don’t want to be tested could violate their “civil liberties.”
Reactions to Report
Reaction to the report ran the gamut, with some saying the timing of the report was suspect and others suggesting Gusciora is in a tough position no matter what he does.
Ward, a scientist by trade, read the report as excuses for lack of action.
“They cant keep being evasive and defensive about it,” he said. “The last thing I want to think about is politics. COVID-19 doesn’t give a sh*t about politics. The best politics is doing the right thing. If you do that, you’re gonna prosper. Excuses are bridges to nowhere. I don’t want this life-and-death situation to get mired in politics. The hell are you, Donald Trump?”
Jonette Smart, president of the Trenton NAACP and a West Ward resident, said she felt it was inappropriate for the administration to conclude it has done an adequate job still in the midst of the pandemic.
“They shouldn’t be patting themselves on the back for responding to a pandemic and taking care of its residents,” she said, noting Gusciora’s hardly the only politician who has taken that tack.
At-large councilman Jerell Blakeley, who is often viewed as being pro-Gusciora, deferred substantial comment until he finished reading the report.
“I think that reasonable people can disagree about them presenting the facts,” he said. “There are plenty of people who love to criticize the mayor’s performance they will do that regardless of what the numbers say. If the mayor cured cancer, you’d have people complaining about the decline in health insurance stock.”
Darren “Freedom” Green, a community activist and former mayoral candidate, graded the Gusciora administration’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis as “an F.”
He said city officials also haven’t done enough to address the gunplay that has swept the city during the public health crisis.
One of the notorious examples of the alleged lack of leadership was the coronavirus debacle, in which Gusciora, Vaughn and East Ward councilman Joe Harrison were caught on tape hurling insults at each other.
Vaughn caught the most heat for making homophobic slurs toward the openly gay mayor.
The call received international attention and cast a cloud over the capital city.
“At some point, it’s dangerous if we start to believe our own delusional information. It’s always about symbolism,” said Green, pointing to the lighting of City Hall in George Floyd’s alma mater colors as an example of officials’ proclivity for PR puffery. “If you’re going to elevate a city, you need substance.”
Green said he agreed with others who believe the report will be used to shore up holes in Gusciora’s future mayoral prospects.
“This will be used as a buffer to keep people off him,” he said.
Gusciora refused to grade his administration beyond the “adequate” assessment offered by his office’s report.
“That’s for somebody else to decide,” he said.