Gusciora, Perez trade jabs at Trenton business forum
TRENTON » No jaw-shattering haymakers were landed at a forum between the two men looking to become the city’s next mayor.
But Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer/Hunterdon) and Paul Perez exchanged jabs numerous times during the event hosted Tuesday morning by the MIDJersey Chamber of Commerce at the Cure Insurance Arena.
Gusciora laid into Perez for flipflopping on former Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to bulldoze three state office buildings in Trenton and resurrect two new ones outside the city’s redevelopment zone.
“I fought like hell. I joined a lawsuit,” Gusciora said of his opposition to the plan. “I know Paul originally was against the plan — now he’s for it. But I think that we need to get it right. We have to work with the Murphy administration and change those buildings to go downtown, which will have the biggest impact and the biggest economic effect.”
Perez has received some union support, most recently from the United Association of Plumbers & Pipefitters Local #9, after he changed his mind. The labor unions were upset that Gusciora had protested the plan that could impact hundreds of jobs.
“What we’re responsible for doing is creating a safe environment where people want to walk, people want to stretch their legs,” Perez said, noting when he worked in Washington, D.C., employees went for long walks during their lunch break because it was safe. “It’s not because where you place things. I did go down and testify at the Statehouse against the buildings because what I was interested in was how was it going to benefit the workers of this city. But realistically once I knew that there was not much that we were able to do, I said, ‘OK, enough said. Leave them alone. Let’s move on to the next stage.’”
At a December legislative hearing about the proposal, Perez said, “If you build in the way and form that it’s being presented today, it’s being done in unison for state workers only. We don’t get any benefit. It sounds good ... but how far does it go really and how much does it impact the true residents of this city?”
Gusciora said he will work with Gov. Phil Murphy to ensure the two new state office buildings, a $250 million plan, are put back in the downtown zone or near the Trenton Transit Center.
Perez, the top vote-getter in this month’s election, then ridiculed his opponent for continuing to bring up the topic.
“If Reed wants to concentrate on that, that’s a good thing,” Perez said. “It’s probably a softball for him so he’ll knock it out of the park every time you talk to him about it.”
Perez, who seeks to become the city’s first Latino mayor, also continued badgering Gusciora about being a career politician. Gusciora has served in the Assembly representing the Trenton region since 1996.
“What makes this election so exciting is that it’s a real rejection of career politicians,” said Perez, a retired Army officer who’s held several supervisor roles in the federal government at various agencies. “I think the assemblyman is correct when he says he has great legislative experience. Maybe, he should have ran for city council because what we need in this seat for the mayor is an executive, someone who’s really managed people before ... We have to leave career politicians back where they belong, back in the 19th century.”
Gusciora described his relationships with Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver and Treasurer Liz Muoio, both of whom he served with in the legislature, as a way to move the city forward and become a partner with the state. He also said he was one of the first politicians to endorse Gov. Murphy.
“We’re going to need experience and we’re going to need a mayor and council that can reach up to the state and make sure that the state treats the capital city as its capital and invest in this city,” Gusciora said.
But Perez, the runner-up in the 2014 Trenton mayoral race, bashed the prominent state leaders as well.
“Those relationships that he spoke about — those career politicians — that’s what the people are rejecting in this city right now,” the outsider candidate said. “That’s where we are at this point in time because they’re tired of that.”
As far as a relationship with the governor, Perez said he knows Murphy.
“I got to meet him,” Perez said. “He’s not my best friend. But I know who he is, he knows who I am.”
The two candidates also differed on staffing levels at the police department. The current force is comprised of 290 officers.
“In the heyday, we had as many as 400 officers,” said Gusciora, a former Trenton municipal prosecutor who currently holds that position in Lawrence and Princeton. “I’m a great believer in community policing. I believe if we were able to hire to get the staff levels back up, we can have police back in the neighborhoods and instill confidence that the places are safe.”
Perez said the next mayor “needs to understand the handicap going in” with 290 officers.
“The likelihood of us hiring 100 new police officers right now is probably zero because you’re going to have to get a lot of money in order to do that and, as you know, we don’t have that money,” Perez said. “I would look at the 290-police force and come up with a way to properly deploy them strategically so that they could do more with less.”
One issue that both candidates agreed on is that the attitude within City Hall needs to improve.
“We’re not friendly enough to the outside world,” Gusciora said. “We need to answer the phone and say, ‘This is the city of Trenton, how can I help you? Not, ‘How did you get my number?’”
Perez said the mindset in City Hall must change.
“In order to do that, I have to create the conditions or environment where City Hall now becomes an urban center of excellence, where we have professional staff members,” Perez said. “When we do that, we will create the conditions that’s going to allow private industry to have confidence and want to invest in our city. We can dream all we want to, but if we can’t provide the basic services, no one is going to want to invest in our city.”
As for tourism, Perez envisions Trenton turning into a place where he once lived.
“Believe it or not, I owned a home on George Washington’s Union Farm,” Perez said of when he lived in Alexandria, Va. “What we found interesting was that every time we went to Mount Vernon, they were making money off of the history of Trenton. I’m talking about busloads of people going in to hear the history of Trenton. Why isn’t the city of Trenton capitalizing on our own history? We’re not being creative enough.”
Perez wishes to transform part of downtown to a “small-scale Williamsburg-type village.”
“It would make Trenton into a destination city again,” Perez said.
Gusciora also said Trenton must capitalize on its history.
“We don’t invest enough into the historical aspects of this city,” the longtime 15th district assemblyman said. “We can recreate the fires that George Washington lit and then escaped to the Battle of Princeton. We really need to capitalize on the fact that Trenton is a historic town. It’s a crime that Eagle Tavern isn’t reopened.”
The candidates, who will face each other in the June 12 runoff, announced some new ideas.
Gusciora said he would reinstate the city’s recycling department and couple it with a prisoner re-entry program. The assemblyman also proposed an adopt-a-road program.
“Because we have so many potholes and the influx of 20,000 state workers every day into the city, they should adopt West State Street,” Gusciora said, noting the state must make payments in lieu of taxes. “The county should adopt South Broad Street and tell them to fill those potholes.”
Perez outlined a fee-for-service program at City Hall for inspections.
“If we create a fee-for-service revenue stream for the city in the inspections office and get everyone that’s involved in that process together, then there will be businesses that would rather do that than allow their investments to sit for quite a while,” Perez said, calling the current process a “nightmare.”
Perez and Gusciora will meet again at The Trentonian debate at Mercer County Community College’s Trenton campus on June 3 at 3 p.m. There will also be debates for the four council runoff races at the event.