Trenton employee says he’s scapegoat for TTF ‘debacle’
TRENTON » A public works employee being blamed for a Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) “debacle” that caused the city to miss out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in municipal aid told The Trentonian in an exclusive interview he’s being made into a “scapegoat.”
He’s speaking out publicly after Mayor Eric Jackson went on television and denounced the public works department employee for neglecting to file an application for the funds and referred to the oversight as a “debacle.”
City spokesman Michael Walker confirmed the city is pursuing disciplinary charges against the employee who would be held accountable “to the fullest extent that New Jersey civil service rules allow.”
But the worker says the city has left out a big part of the story.
“They’re just picking on me, man,” said the worker, who spoke to The Trentonian on condition his name not be used. “Somebody has to take the fall. I will fight til the end.”
He claims the state Department of Transportation sent a letter to Mayor Jackson’s office last summer encouraging the cash-strapped capital city to apply for state funding after a 23cent gas tax bump helped replenish the TTF but the DOT letter never made it to the city’s traffic and transportation division in the public works department.
Two sources confirmed the letter was sent to the mayor’s office but city officials refused to answer questions about the memo or acknowledge if it had been received.
The worker is in the process of retaining an attorney after he said he was served with disciplinary charges Monday morning, including neglect of duty, that could end up with him losing his job.
The matter will fester for the city and may spill more into public view if the Civil Service Commission, an independent body that referees labor disputes between municipal employees and employers, becomes involved.
The contentious issue centers on who is at fault for Trenton being left off the list of 505 municipalities sharing in $161 million of funding for road improvements projects. Gov. Phil Murphy announced the funding last week.
In the 15th Legislative District alone, $3.7 million is being divvied up among East and West Amwell, Lambertville, Ewing, Hopewell Borough and Township, Lawrence, Pennington and West Windsor.
In his only public comments on the TTF snafu, Mayor Jackson blamed the employee for not doing his job.
“As a leader of the city, I’m extremely disappointed,” Jackson, a former public works director for Trenton, told News 12 New Jersey. “My public works director shared with me that it was a staffing oversight. I didn’t take that lightly nor did he … The director told me the employee would face immediate disciplinary consequences for that oversight and what I call a ‘debacle.’”
Some of Jackson’s fiercest critics took the funding blunder as another indication the lame-duck mayor, who has indicated he will not seek re-election, has checked out with months left in his first and only term.
Jackson hasn’t responded to multiple messages seeking comment on the TTF matter.
And city officials refused to address almost all of The Trentonian’s specific questions about the breakdown that contributed to the city worker missing the deadline to apply for the funding.
The employee claimed last summer the DOT sent correspondence to Jackson’s office related to the TTF but the letter never made it to his desk.
“I’m not sure about any correspondence that was sent as a reminder,” public works director Merkle Cherry said in an interview.
He said he couldn’t discuss specifics about the funding gaffe because it was a personnel matter and the employee was afforded due process.
Walker, the city spokesman, called the funding gaffe a “black and white” issue, insisting officials are working to “clean up this employee’s mess. I don’t understand why you’re trying to make this situation more complicated than it is.”
Walker claimed that by not meeting the deadline, the employee failed “his colleagues, his superiors and failed the people of Trenton” and shot down as “absolutely, totally and completely false” any notion the city is making the employee the fall guy.
During a conference call with The Trentonian, he repeatedly cut off reporters from asking Cherry to address similarities between the TTF debacle and his dismissal as recreation director in May 2000 under then-Mayor Doug Palmer following a loss of federal funding.
While Cherry headed the recreation department he and another employee were let go after the loss of the city’s designation as a federal Weed & Seed site, costing Trenton some $150,000 in funding related to after-school and anti-crime initiatives.
Cherry was asked whether he specifically knew about the TTF deadline and if he felt he shared in the blame given his history of missing out on grant funding under the Palmer administration
“That’s an unfair question,” Walker interjected. “Merkle, do not answer that.”
Defending the public works director, the city spokesman derided The Trentonian for “assuming that you know what has gone on internally, and I assure you, you don’t.”
All Cherry would say in defense of his record was he is “very good at putting processes in place to give employees an opportunity to make sure we’re on top of process. That has been done throughout my tenure and every job I’ve had.”
The total cost of the TTF blunder is unknown.
Cherry, however, estimated that figure close to $200,000. The capital city may have gotten more from TTF this year because the state’s recent gas tax increase more than doubled the amount of funds for local road and bridge safety improvement projects, officials said.
While it missed out on the TTF, Trenton is receiving $584,950 in Urban Aid that it didn’t need to apply to get. The capital city was the only municipality in Mercer County that qualified for 2018 Urban Aid.
Walker wouldn’t address questions about whether city officials petitioned the governor’s office for additional Urban aid to offset the loss of money from the TTF honeypot.
“We’re not at liberty to divulge discussions with the governor,” he said. “We’re always advocating for more funding from the state.”
Trentonian staff writer David Foster contributed to this report