Mack wants Trenton City Council’s support on pseudo-libraries
TRENTON — Mayor Tony Mack’s administration on Monday said it will ask City Council to support the embattled mayor’s four controversial learning centers and also announced it has updated procedures in place to better monitor how the city spends money on recreational functions.
The city’s four neighborhood branch libraries closed in August 2010 amid a budget crisis under Mack’s watch. The city’s free public library system concentrated its resources in operating only the main library on Academy Street. Mack earlier this year reopened the four shuttered libraries as mayoral learning centers, which former New Jersey state librarian Norma Blake described as being in violation of state law.
“First of all, we certainly want to be in compliance with whatever the rules or stipulations are,” said Councilman Alex Bethea, an educator who works as a vice principal in the Trenton public schools system. “We don’t want to do anything not in compliance with the state regulations of libraries.”
Bethea said he’d support the learning centers if they are operated in a way that complies with state law and if the funding to operate them is “reasonable.”
“No. 1, we have to be in compliance,” Bethea said on Monday. “We don’t want to do things haphazardly and then have to come back and change things because we’re not in compliance. We don’t have time for that.”
The administration will present its fiscal year 2013 budget at City Council’s Tuesday evening meeting. Mack has presided over an FBI-raided City Hall and is free on $150,000 unsecured bond on federal charges he conspired with others to extort $119,000.
At the end of August, Mack’s administration removed a $17,000 sign it installed at Cadwalader Park because the city didn’t have proper permission when it erected the sign at the historic site on June 25. Mack opened up the city’s five public pools late for the summer swimming season and closed some of them early to avoid exceeding the $96,000 pools budget this year.
The administration’s news release on Monday said the Trenton Department of Recreation, Natural Resources, & Culture “has updated its account and control procedures in order to better monitor spending and revenue.”
“Now after two years they are gonna turn around and say they’ve learned their lesson,” South Ward Councilman George Muschal said of the administration on Monday. “Where was the accountability for two years? … Two years past the fact, let’s see how we’re gonna handle this. Just because they say they are ready, we are still check and balance and I’m gonna monitor and see how they do things.”
Muschal, who is recovering from recent surgery, said he won’t be at Tuesday’s council meeting but will soon be back in action reviewing Mack’s forthcoming budget proposal.
The city’s recreation department has no director or dedicated staff. Paul Harris, a Trenton Water Works stock clerk, has recently become the city’s unofficial recreation organizer.
The administration’s press release also said the administration will ask City Council to support events like the Heritage Days Festival and annual Thanksgiving parade and to support the city’s annual funding of athletic organizations like Chambersburg Little League and Trenton Track Club.
“At the time of this press release, I’m just disappointed to see it, considering we’re establishing a working relationship,” Council President Phyllis Holly-Ward said on Monday of the Mack administration.
“I haven’t heard anything about this. If you are going to ask us the question, ask us the question. I’m disappointed,” Holly-Ward said. “It’s not the way you do business if you are trying to establish working relationships.”
The press release said the city updated its TrentonNJ.org website with a new recreation webpage and said recreation functions are one of Mack’s “priorities.” Mack has been mayor of this capital city since July 2010.
“I think the priorities of the city are screwed up,” city activist Michael Walker said on Monday. “But if people want festivals and little leagues and learning centers to be funded, then I guess that’s what City Council should do.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has until Dec. 11 to present its criminal case to a grand jury in pursuit of an indictment against Mack and alleged co-conspirators Joseph “Jojo” Giorgianni and Ralphiel Mack. Federal prosecutors could seek a continuance to extend that deadline.