Documents show expenditure at center of Hamilton government controversies
HAMILTON >> The township paid more than $4,600 for Mayor Kelly Yaede and members of her townshipassigned security detail to stay with her at swanky hotels last year while attending business conferences in Washington D.C., Atlantic City and Boston, Massachusetts, records show.
While the financial documents obtained by The Trentonian cover only trip expenses for the mayor and security personnel for 2018, Yaede’s critics say her “personal bodyguards” have been globetrotting with her across the country on taxpayer-funded trips for “years.”
The records show the Republican mayor fronted the cash for the hotel expenses — half which went to pay for her security detail — on a personal credit card and was reimbursed by the township in December.
The reimbursement of those expenses is at the heart of a state ethics complaint suspended chief financial officer John Barrett has brought against members of Yaede’s inner circle.
Township officials and a local gadfly believe the costs of putting up the mayor’s security detail in hotels should be included in the so-far elusive tally of how much Hamilton spends each year for Yaede’s bodyguards.
That figure has never been made public despite repeated requests for it from residents who keep a watchful eye over township finances.
Republican councilwoman Ileana Schirmer said the Yaede administration promised to wrangle a figure for the detail but never followed through.
Schirmer, who is on the outs with Yaede and the established Republican party, told The Trentonian in a phone interview on Monday she and other residents often get the runaround whenever they bring up the topic.
She doesn’t believe it’s financially responsible for the township to pay for police detectives to escort the mayor to places where she isn’t well-known.
“You’re not that popular,” Schirmer said of her political adversary. “Unless she feels scared being by herself.”
Political Price of Trips
Copies of the Dec. 6, 2018 purchase order showed that Richard Mulrine, the mayor’s brother-in-law, signed off on the reimbursement of the lodging expenses.
Mulrine’s decision to OK his sister-in-law’s expenses landed him in hot water with Barrett, the suspended chief financial officer who complained to the state Department of Community Affairs’ Local Government Services that Mulrine wasn’t deputized to do so.
Barrett, who awaits the outcome of tenure charges filed against him by the Yaede administration alleging incompetency and insubordination, also went after business administrator Dave Kenny for signing off on a separate $179 purchase order.
Officials have raised questions about the way the reimbursements were processed and whether it violated township policies.
“The situation with the mayor’s purchase orders is another example where we have to question the administration’s judgment and actions,” council president Jeff Martin, a Democrat who announced his bid for mayor, said in a statement. “Procedures were put in place for all town employees to prevent this situation and they should always be followed, no matter your title or position.” Martin declined to comment about whether he believes Yaede needs a security detail.
Documents appear to show that the mayor waited until the end of the year before submitting the paperwork required to receive the reimbursements.
Schirmer wondered if that was done intentionally, so the township could avoid turning over records to those who regularly request public documents under the state Open Public Records Act.
The invoices and backup documentation the mayor provided the township with so she could get reimbursed for the $4,686 she spent on the trips last year showed Yaede spent $2,258 to put up members of her security detail in hotels.
Yaede and township Detective Geoffrey Nielsen racked up a $1,158 bill for their two-day stay at the Capital Hilton, just blocks from the White House, for the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting in January 2018.
Detailed invoices show Yaede forked over $352 per night — which included $45.44 for taxes each night — for two rooms on her personal credit card.
She expensed two $75-payments for valet parking, and made two undisclosed purchases that were charged to her room.
Yaede was not reimbursed for the two undisclosed expenses, which were redacted from the invoice obtained by the newspaper.
In April 2018, the mayor paid $304 for two rooms her and her security detail to stay at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City during the New Jersey Conference of Mayors.
Yaede’s big splash came in June, when she shelled out $2,279 for a three-night stay for her and Nielsen to stay at the ritzy Boston Marriott Copley Place during the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ annual meeting.
The mayor paid $377 a night, including taxes, for adjoining rooms, the records show. She and Nielsen were in town from June 7 to June 10, according to the records.
Yaede also got another $542 for when she and Hamilton Police’s Kevin Krall stayed a couple nights in November at the Tropicana for the New Jersey League of Municipalities conference shindig.
Yaede did not respond to phone calls requesting comment on why she felt it was necessary to have a bodyguard with her on the trips.
Local Travels
Besides out-of-town excursions, members of Yaede’s security detail routinely accompany her throughout the township, and region, to routine functions and events.
They were with her last month, when she attended the funeral service for Mercer County sheriff’s Pablo Santiago at St. RaphaelHoly Angels church in the township, a memorial service bustling with cops.
And they were reportedly with her when she visited a class at one of the township high schools, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Steinert High School teacher who was in charge of the class did not respond to a request for comment to confirm whether Yaede’s bodyguards were present.
The administration has suggested it only uses the escorts as they’re needed.
But their almost-constant presence with Yaede has garnered attention from people like David Henderson, a township resident and Yaede critic who has repeatedly raised questions about the need to have police detectives with dedi
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