Mercer County Parks Commission scandal, a many-faceted beast
Some thoughts on the Mercer County Parks Commission scandal, starting with …
1) Man, you’d think County Executive Brian Hughes would have more to say than “we have a statement out” when asked about the state attorney general raid the other day. As county executive - you know, the “here” where the buck stops - you’d think he’d want to get a little more out in front of the story.
2) Fact: We’ve been fielding calls about the Parks Commission for years. A lot of unhappy employees, a lot of people alleging a lot of things. I can only imagine these same callers reached out to the AG’s office.
3) Know this: The AG’s office is not in the business of running around willy-nilly. When they decide to throw their resources behind an investigation, you can be sure they’re supremely confident they’ve got something. The cliche of “where there’s smoke there’s fire” usually fails in this scenario; it’s more like “run for your lives!”
4) It’s been reported the “Friends of Mercer County Parks,” a non-profit, is in the crosshairs of the investigation. Who are the “Friends of Mercer County Parks?” Tough to say, as they have about the least impressive Google search results I’ve ever seen, at least before the news broke. I did a search the day after the scandal broke and limited it to before April 24, and I got a grand total of 18 hits. Eighteen! I got 311 hits for “dflskd” which are random letters I just typed into my computer. And I have to say, in this day and age, having 18(!) Google hits for something as large as a non-profit that has a few hundred grand laying around, seems … odd.
5) And while “Friends of Mercer County Parks” didn’t ring any bells with me, it certainly rang a bell for Lisa Richford, who ran a bumbling campaign for county executive last year. And while she failed in her attempt to unseat Hughes, she’s probably feeling pretty good about herself right about now. Why? Because last October, speaking in front of the county administration building a week before the election, she called Friends of Mercer County Parks a “shell game,” according to a NJ.com report. Smoke, fire, run for your lives.
6) Mercer County has a website. They have a “news” tab. They have all the “press releases” there. You know what’s at the top of the page? How to deal with winter storms and extreme cold. (It’s almost May.) Then the 4-H newsletter comes next, which directs us to a “page not found.” Next up? Hurricane Sandy recovery. (I think we here in Mercer are doing OK.) The fourth item? “Mercer to celebrate older Americans month,” with the release’s first paragraph stating, “Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes asks that county residents join in the national celebration of Older Americans Month in May by honoring and recognizing older adults for the contributions they make to our families, communities and society.”
I’m on it, Brian. Gonna find me some old people and recognize them for their contributions.
As you might imagine, nowhere is the “statement” concerning the parks commission on the website.
7) Gee, ya think the Mercer County Democrat machine believes they can do whatever they damn well please? Well, they should feel that way. Hughes won re-election last year by a 2-to-1 margin. I’m relatively confident God himself could have descended from the heavens to run for county executive and still get his heavenly hind end handed to him if he decided to run as a Republican. So the calls from the rafters of “ding dong the Democrats are dead” are not only premature, they’re also probably very, very, wrong. And lastly ... 8) Gotta love Jack Furlong, who parks chief Kevin Bannon retained as his attorney: “The guy is an open book,” he told The Trentonian in regards to Bannon. “But haters gonna hate.” Haters gonna hate! Listen, when criminal defense lawyers start parroting Notorious B.I.G., you know this stuff is going to get good.