Mayor rebuffed as council OK’s act after ‘olive branch’
TRENTON » So much for the “olive branch.”
Shrugging off advice from the law department and concerns from the capital city mayor, council passed a special counsel ordinance 4-3 Thursday night.
The measure effectively created a “separate law department” for council, according to Mayor Reed Gusciora, who penned a missive to legislators ahead of the meeting imploring them to reject the ordinance.
Council president Kathy McBride and other legislators felt they couldn’t trust the word of attorneys for the city law department, so they approved the measure over the administration’s objections.
In doing so, it was clear McBride still harbored animus toward Gusciora for firing council’s last attorney Edward Kologi following a previous brouhaha over the Roebling Wire Works building.
“We cannot keep having the administration, on a whim, pull legal representation from council,” McBride said before casting the deciding vote.
The vote comes after McBride offered the administration an “olive branch” earlier in the week following more than two years of tumult and acrimony.
On Tuesday, the council president urged Gusciora to drop ongoing litigation against council so both sides could moved forward.
They’ve landed in court several times the past couple years, over issues ranging from the budget to the firing of law director John Morelli.
Council’s decision to pass the special-counsel measure likely sets up another legal entanglement that Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson will sort out.
Interim law director Wes Bridges told legislators at the meeting he didn’t have a “dog in the fight.”
Yet he warned the body that council wasn’t entitled to appoint an attorney under the Faulkner Act and the ordinance would likely get struck down if litigated.
He also cautioned council that it was potentially opening itself up to sanctions as Jacobson already weighed in on the special-counsel issue during previous legal skirmishes.
Some legislators were undeterred.
“If Judge Jacobson wants to go against it, that’s her prerogative,” at-large councilman Santiago Rodriguez said.
Council members Jerell Blakeley, Joe Harrison and George Muschal voted no to the measure, but they were overcome by the majority.
Blakeley was already on record calling the special counsel measure “redundant” and a “waste of money.”
“They’re not going to listen to the law advice they don’t want to hear,” Blakeley added at the meeting.
Despite telling The Trentonian that he’s already extended “olive trees” to the governing body, Gusciora hoped that McBride was serious when she offered up an “olive branch” this week.
He urged council to make good on their cooperative pledge by voting against the special-counsel ordinance and allowing a longdelayed land-banking presentation to move forward in the coming weeks.
Gusciora in his letter pointed to case law that suggested the law department was counsel for both the administration and governing body.
“I stand ready to work with you to move this city forward for the good of our residents,” wrote Gusciora, who didn’t return a phone call after being rebuffed.
The special-counsel initiative is hardly the only difference between the bickering officials.
In his letter, the mayor said he was also disheartened when council struck down some bonds to keep Trenton Water Works from being “forcibly taken away” by the state.
The city is locked in litigation with the Department of Environmental Protection.
Three suburban municipalities serviced by TWW intervened in the suit, asking for partial ownership stakes in the public utility due to repeated water-quality issues and blunders over the years.
Gusciora said the administration extended an “olive branch” by agreeing to a forensic audit that legislators insisted on before considering high-ticket bond packages for the struggling water utility.
Despite making good on its end, Gusciora lamented that council still nixed some of the funding.
With Thursday’s decision, he can add another one to his list of grievances.