Vaughn moves to abolish Trenton parking authority
TRENTON >> Polish up those resumes.
The Trenton Parking Authority’s Board of Commissioners could find themselves out of jobs.
Councilwoman Robin Vaughn said Tuesday she would explore the possibility of abolishing TPA, which is embroiled in scandal over an ongoing ethics probe of top current and former officials.
Vaughn, unafraid to speak out even after highpowered chairman and political operative Bill Watson signaled plans to sue the councilwoman for suggesting corruption is afoot at TPA, hoped to draft a measure in the coming weeks that would do away with TPA.
Her pronouncement came days after TPA faced renewed scrutiny after The Trentonian revealed it violated the Open Public Meetings Act by failing to keep minutes of executive session meetings at the center of the ethics probe.
Dissolving the TPA, which was created by city ordinance in 1948, and restoring the agency’s powers back to council would be a dramatic shakeup with stark implications.
TPA has about $30 million in assets and operates three downtown garages and a Merchant Street lot.
It is governed by a board of seven commissioners appointed by council and the mayor, and most of its revenue comes from user fees generated by monthly passes and daily parkers.
An attorney representing TPA commissioners did not respond to an emailed request for comment on Vaughn’s latest threatening overture.
The city law department has cautioned lawmakers about rushing to take action against commissioners until the ethics investigation is over and findings are made public.
That hasn’t stopped Vaughn from going after commissioners. She attempted to oust Harry Reyes and Andrew Worek from their council-appointed posts over misconduct allegations.
She also wanted to expel Watson and commissioner Scott Rice but backed down because council couldn’t remove mayoral appointees.
Council postponed the disciplinary hearings after receiving a threatening letter from an attorney hired to represent commissioners.
TPA has been under a cloud of suspicion since it was revealed that Watson
and ex-commissioner Perry Shaw III were being investigated by the Trenton Ethics Board for allegedly using their office to steer a $120,000 contract to a consulting firm owned by Kim Jackson, the former transportation and parking director at Princeton University.
After 13 years with the Ivy League institution, Jackson retired this month once the process that TPA used to award the contract came under heavy scrutiny.
Watson, Rice, Reyes and Worek voted for the contract.
In December, a law firm secretly investigating the possible ethics violations planned to subpoena communications between Watson, Shaw and officials at
Jackson’s firm, KEJ Associates of Lawrence, to determine whether officials colluded to rig the contract.
The Maley Givens law firm also sought minutes from executive session meetings in which Watson was accused of openly discussing with commissioners exploiting a loophole in the ethics rules that would allow TPA to hire Shaw, then still a commissioner, as executive director.
The city ethics code says TPA cannot hire commissioners who are not a year removed from serving on the board.
To get around that rule, Watson allegedly proposed during an Oct. 24, 2019, executive session how TPA would hire a consulting firm that would then bring
Shaw aboard.
Two whistleblowing commissioners, Anne LaBate and Evangeline Ugorji, filed ethics complaints last year against Watson and Shaw.
LaBate told The Trentonian in a recent interview that Watson met with her over lunch at the Mill Hill Saloon in Trenton before the Oct. 24 secret meeting.
Watson discussed how he wanted TPA to hire Shaw as executive director but learned from TPA board attorney Michael Ash that it would be an ethics violation, LaBate said.
She left the meeting thinking the issue was settled and the board was avoiding a potential pitfall.
“I thought it was a nonissue. That was the end of that discussion,” she said. “In fact, it was not the end of the discussion.”
Soon after, LaBate said Shaw asked her to have lunch so they could discuss his interest in the position. She refused to meet him.
In the ethics complaints, LaBate and Ugorji alleged a job-candidate solicitation, called a Request for Qualifications, was unilaterally changed without board authorization, enabling firms and individuals to submit contract proposals.
Jackson, who has been described as one of Watson’s associates, founded her consulting firm a day after the RFQ was advertised in local newspapers, state records showed.
The new firm landed the lucrative deal after being the lone contract bidder.
Shaw, who was featured in the RFQ while still serving as a commissioner, resigned from the board Jan. 30, 2020, a week after KEJ won the contract.
He began working for KEJ Associates as executive director Feb. 1.
The alleged patronage deal flew under the radar until The Trentonian exposed it in January.
The ethics probe, which has been ongoing for more than a year, was abruptly halted in February over a contract row with Maley Givens.
The law firm’s contract expired and council grew impatient with the lack of findings.
The city law department put the contract out for bidding, requiring the winning law firm to wrap up the investigation in two months.
The city received proposals from three law firms and expects to finish reviewing bid packages by the end of the week, business administrator Adam Cruz said.
The contract must then be presented to council for approval.