1) I do a lot of work with the city and the Mayor’s vindictive,
2) I don’t believe in recalls,
3) The recall committee didn’t print their reasons on the ballot,
4) I don’t know whose running,
5) It will cost the city money,
6) I work for the Mayor.

The first thing to remember is that the recall petition isn’t even a vote to recall. It’s simply a request to formally put the question forward. It’s quite possible that if the recall petition drive is successful, we’ll have a special election and Tony Mack will win the special election. The recall committee and the 8000 or so people that have already signed think there’s enough doubt though to warrant a vote on the subject.

Therefore I’d like to address the reasons not to sign, one by one:

First “The Mayor is vindictive and he’ll hurt my business”. Well, that should tell you something. Aren’t we done with bullies in this society? If you’re not the one to stand up to a bully, then who is? And who’s to say the Mayor’s not bullying someone else that is less able to stand up to it than you. This is exactly the reason to put the Mayor’s status up for a vote.

Second, “I don’t believe in recalls”. What’s not to believe in? The NJ legislature has provided this very democratic method for correcting terrible mistakes. The fact is that a Mayor can do significant damage to a city through mismanagement without doing anything illegal. In four years that damage can become irreparable. That’s where Trenton is heading. If you think our Mayor has behaved ethically, is managing the city well and has a plan for its recovery, that’s one thing. If you don’t then not believing in recalls is like believing your city is doomed.

Third, “The recall committee didn’t print their reasons on the ballot”. I actually heard this. Hopefully, the committee has hand-outs. But if not, their web site is trentonrecall2011.wordpress.com. Let me also suggest kevin-moriarty.com.

Fourth, “I don’t know whose running”. You should venture out from under your rock. Jim Golden has announced. Eric Jackson may be in the race. I didn’t support Jackson in the first campaign because he was a re-hash of Doug Palmer. However, he was worlds more suitable than Mack and did run the public works department. Golden is interesting. He comes across as thoughtful and it doesn’t hurt that he’s run the police department. I’ve not met with Jim to discuss all of his policy thoughts but from I know so far, we’re on the same page.

Fifth, “It will cost the city money”. A recall election will cost about $100,000. That’s small change compared to the $2M in transitional aid we already didn’t get this year because the Mayor has consistently thumbed his nose at DCA. It’s small compared to the ground we’ve lost in our efforts to revitalize because we don’t have a plan, or the misspending of our budget that’s happened either because of fraud or, more importantly, because we don’t have a high quality set of department Directors in place. Trenton’s budget is $185,000,000 next year. $100,000 is a small price to pay to get a Mayor qualified to spend that amount to our mutual benefit.

Sixth, “I work for the Mayor”. If you do, I apologize on behalf of all voters. You probably shouldn’t sign unless you’re looking forward to getting to know “wrongful termination” lawyer George Doherty a lot better.

There’s hardly a reason not to sign the recall petition. It’s only a petition to request a vote. If during the special election Tony still winds up being the best choice, then so be it. But, if you think Trenton is on a terribly wrong course, then recall is the only rational answer.

We’re laying off 105 police officers because our municipal budget is over $200M and Trentonians already pay the highest tax rate in NJ just to contribute $70M of that amount. Contrary to popular belief, the State of NJ would pay almost that same total, plus almost ALL of our $300M school budget.

Trenton’s taxpayers are nowhere close to being able to pay for their own government. The state currently owns roughly 25% of property value in Trenton and pays over 40% of the cost of municipal and school budgets.

We could keep the police officers but our property taxes would have to go up an additional 12% or so, thereby bankrupting many of us.

How did we get here?

Its been ignorance and pride that have brought us to this point. At some point Trentonians will have to do the hard work of taking responsibility for their city. The State can be a partner but Trentonians must cooperate in good faith. We must show a plan for recovery. We need to lead.

* BTW – According to COAH’s Guide to Affordable Housing Trenton has 7799 affordable housing units (even before including Trenton Housing Authority or section 8). Readers should be aware that there are only 22,000 or so households in Trenton. This means that over 1 out of every 3 homes in Trenton is affordable housing.

What an opportunity not taken.

Reinvent Trenton has been underway for three years and there are 83 posts covering what I believe is a coherent philosophy and approach for revitalizing our city.

Central to that approach are several things

• Create and communicate a vision
• Explain measurable goals and foster transparency
• Build a strategic plan
  • Base that plan on analytics that relate actions to goals
  • Use the budget as a strategic tool
  • Use the tax code as a strategic tool
  • Work neighborhood by neighborhood
• Focus on attracting disposable income to the exclusion of other wishes
• Clean up the place

So how did Mayor Mack do in his state of the City?

He talked a lot about a vision and that’s good.  In fact, I’ve directly encouraged him to paint a picture of the city after the pain is over. It’s a powerful thing to do and one used by perhaps the greatest speaker of our age when Martin Luther King described his dream.  While MLK indeed isn’t here to see it with us, many people believe they will see racial harmony in their lifetime.

A similar dream for Trenton is perhaps equally important.  If our urban centers can transform themselves from despair to success, Martin Luther King’s vision of equality will be that much more realized.

I’m sure Tony Mack wouldn’t compare himself to Dr. King, and I won’t either, but he did start to describe a vision.  It could use some fleshing out but it’s a start.

Unfortunately, Mayor Mack is also in charge of making his dream reality and that’s where the trouble begins.

The Mayor knows he needs to express measurable goals and foster transparency.  Yet right out of the gate he attacked bloggers and the press.  Most of what the Mayor’s critics are looking for is accountability.  They don’t feel they’re getting it.  Indeed, no measurable goals for education improvement (increase graduation rate by 10%), crime (lower index crimes by 20%), economic recovery (increase ratable by 10% and population by 5%) were given.  Not one. 

If there are no measurable goals, there can be no accountability.  Without clear goals, we continue to wallow in the muck of poorly performing programs that must be covered up.  We need goals for a government to focus on a clear mission.  There were none.

Instead we heard about program after program most of which have been tried in Trenton and most of which were initiated under the previous administration.  I don’t begrudge Mayor Mack wanting to spend CDBG money on parks, or state tax credits on development at the train station.  But please don’t take all the credit, its unseemly.

The speech failed to present a strategic plan. The Mayor didn’t explain how any of his programs related to each other or built on each other.  A strategy links together pieces of a puzzle to deliver a vision.  Because there were no goals, there could be no linking of a program to, for instance, an increase in ratables.  There was no crime goal that could link together efforts in the court system with a community policing tactic.  It was as if all of his programs will stand alone. Because they were conceived outside of a strategic framework, they won’t have the multiplier effects they could have if they had been considered as part of a single plan

The worst omission was that of our tax policy.  On one hand the Mayor trumpeted the maintenance of all city services but on the other failed to address Trenton’s crushing tax rate.  Trenton’s tax rate is the highest in NJ, and by a lot.  That high tax rate will stop the new private investment needed to drive our economy.  Mayor Mack didn’t even mention it.  While I know the Land Value Tax concept is new in his administration, the upcoming reassessment isn’t.  He could have explained how those reassessments would help achieve his vision.  He could have laid out a goal to have a lower tax rate next year, but he didn’t.  One can only assume he has no intention of ever lowering the tax rate.  If this is true, he has no intention of revitalizing Trenton.  I hope the omission was just a terrible accident.

And what of development?  The Mayor talked about several housing projects (Hope VI, the rescue mission, and the cigar factory as well as several smaller efforts).  Yet, his administration steadfastly refuses to answer basic economic questions about those projects.  His housing director can’t find the time to tell the public whether a new government sponsored project will cost more in services (municipal + school) than it pays in revenue (property tax).  This is an easy calculation that would tell Council and the public whether or not a project is a financial benefit.  We may decide as a community that no matter how bad our situation and how high our taxes, we’ll still foot the bill in city services to support a rescue mission, but we should at least know how high that bill is.  The Mayor refuses, and I mean completely refuses to provide that basic information.

A good strategy for Trenton will be to systematically develop one neighborhood at a time.  We don’t have the infrastructure, police and economic development capacity to fix the city all at once. Yet, the Mayor made no mention of it and instead talked about selling city property, paving streets and policing city wide.  A better strategy would have been to lay out a focused approach, “we’re going to apply our strategy to one area this year and if it goes well, two more next year”.  This is strategy.

The Mayor clearly did not focus on attracting residents with disposable income.  He didn’t mention the concept once.  One can only assume he doesn’t know how high a family income has to be in order for it to generate disposable income that funds stores and restaurants.  If he had read Reinvent Trenton he would.  He lumped all development together, and it is NOT all equal.  Our strategy needs to severely over-index on disposable income or we will continue to have a weak economy.

He did stake out a couple of items, that while not put into the context of a strategy will help.  He mentioned arts and culture and highlighted a dual track inspection process.  Both of these items have Reinvent Trenton articles devoted to their utility in driving high end development.

The Mayor did talk about cleaning up Trenton.  This is good.  Getting rid of litter, straightening street signs and the like improve the look of our city more than anything else.  I’ll never forget my mother’s comment on her first visit to Trenton, “It looks sort of dirty”.  I was as embarrassed as if I hadn’t cleaned house before she arrived. 

Surely I could go on about the strategic value of all this but cleaning up the joint doesn’t need that kind of insight.  Phyllis Holy-Ward is right in her crusade to clean up Trenton.  When we clean up the place, we’re prouder of it.  The prouder of it we are, the more likely we are to keep it clean.  To be honest, I’ve never lived among such a filthy people.  Trentonians litter indiscriminately.  Parents do it in front of their children and then the children litter at will. Drunks throw their liquor and beer bottle in streets, empty lots and sidewalks. It’s a sight to see. 

I don’t know that I quite understand why Trentonians are so messy, but any leadership the Mayor can lend to the effort is welcome.  I applaud him for addressing it and hope that the message filters down to regular citizens.

Finally, I’ll say a bit about residency.  It’s a fallacy that forcing employees to live in Trenton will fix Trenton.  It’s revitalization fool’s gold.  What’s far more important is that we have employees who are best in class. The mission is to attract new residents that build our economy.  It is not to attract new residents who are dependent on our economy.  While it’s good for employees to live in the city, we need about 30 new residents to support every new city employee’s salary and benefits.  The marginal benefit to our economy of a single new city employee’s residency is nothing compared to the increased output that we may get from broadening our hiring pool. 

Residency just isn’t an important tactic if you do the numbers.   Sadly, Trentonians seem to lap up the rhetoric.

Reinvent Trenton has written about all of these issues for many years.  The Mayor talks about sitting down at a conference table to discuss this with bloggers and activists like me.  Hopefully, with a new cabinet finally forming there will be people in place able to have the strategic discussion.

The 2011 State of the City Address

Propose your own Trenton Budget

That’s the claim Mayor Mack’s aid, Lauren Ira, made in her op-ed piece in the Trenton Times.  Along with that she criticized people like me for questioning the Mayor’s ELEC habits, the city’s poor contracting, it’s improper and misguided attempt to sell city homes.  We are chastised for complaining about the Mayor’s failure to discipline his brother, delays in appointing a cabinet and lack of a city budget along with other public missteps. 

She says that activists hoping to help the city should stand loyally behind the Mayor.

Is that what the citizens of Trenton want?  Do you want people like Jim Carlucci, Kevin Moriarty and Robert Chilson to hold their tongues?  Would you prefer to have elections paid for with illegal contributions?  Would you prefer “Pay to Play”?  Would you prefer that our contracts go to firms who win popularity contests rather than skills contests?

I hope not.   Because if you do, you also want a Trenton that continues in the ways of the past; a past that has driven us to the brink of moral and fiscal ruin.

For the first time in a long time we have a City Council that on occasion has a spine.  We have a city attorney who’s decided not to be a lap-dog.  And, we have newspapers that are reporting investigative news for a change.  All this has happened because we also have citizens who are watching our government carefully. 

This brings me to Ms. Ira’s “rebirth” comment.

It’s this kind of thing that really gets a guy like me.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to examine Trenton’s economic situation.  I’ve done this without much help from the city and as a volunteer.  The evidence, and your tax bill, shows we are not currently in any kind of turnaround.  Instead, we have laid off a significant portion of our city staff and are in the process of raising our taxes by 15%.   Our per capita income is among the lowest in NJ and Trenton’s lost population. 

This is measurable evidence of an anemic economy.  It’s not rebirth, its decline.  Knowing the difference is the first step in fixing the city.

So what was Ms. Ira saying?  As the Mayor’s spokesperson, what’s her message to the citizenry?

It seems as though she’s trying to say.  “Close your eyes cover your ears and shut your mouth. Stay stupid and everything will be all right.   You won’t even know how bad it is.”

Let me respectfully suggest that this is not a good approach.

Rather than complain about honest volunteer activists trying to help Trentonians regain control of their government; embrace them.  Admit your mistakes, beg forgiveness and become the most open and transparent government in the country.  What would all the watchdogs do if they had no hidden ELEC reports to analyze or no messy contracts to protest?

I can tell you what I’d do if my watchdog services were rendered obsolete.  I’d spend all my time working on the city’s budget and budget process.  If the administration could answer emails, keep commitments and show up for meetings, we’d make pretty short work of fixing our finances.  If working with the city were easier, then maybe I could do other things like organize my S. Broad St. block to clean itself up in order to attract more business.  If the city really starting working well, I could work on what I really want to do: like raising a Trenton investment fund to develop new projects in our town.

But before we get working on all these positive things, we need to work first on cleaning up the bad things.  Mayor Mack and Ms. Ira have put blinders on and can’t see how bad the city looks to us, to normal Trentonians and to outsiders.  All they have to do is read the blogs and the papers.  None of us have an interest in embarrassing Trenton.  In fact, many of us have roundly criticized Mr. Stoolmacher (the writer Ms. Ira complains about in his article last month) for going too far.  However, we’re not going to let our city be taken advantage of.  We’re going to hold the administration to a high standard befitting a great city.

I want Trenton to be in rebirth.  I just want it to be true when I say it and I want to work with the administration to make it happen.

I’m hopeful that our current city council will be inspired to act on these ideas as it has shown signs of willingness to move in a new direction.  I’m encouraged by many of their private and public comments especially around the subject of refocusing our economic development efforts on attracting disposable income. 

However, as promising as they are, they are still a legislative body and require leadership. 

If the Mayor chooses to exert leadership or at least anoints others to do so in his stead (perhaps citizen leaders), these are some of the big low cost ideas that we might pursue.  They are in no order and not mutually exclusive.

1)      Abandon residency restrictions

Our recent miss-steps and hiring disappointments should convince us that restricting employees to city residents is folly.  There are many smart public service oriented people out there that might help run a water department, a public works department or even a police department that for one reason or another can’t live inside Trenton’s city limits.  Trenton isn’t for everybody.

We shouldn’t let a person’s address stop them from helping us manage our way through a very difficult period.  We need help and we should look outside our city limits for it.  The old rationale for residency has proven to be false, let’s not let our provincialism hold us back.

2)      Accelerate property revaluation

The County is doing us a favor by forcing us to revalue our property.  As it stands now we’ve implemented a Rube-Goldberg approach to setting tax rates and then discounting them.  We have no idea what our actual property values are except when a property is sold or renovated. 

It’s only when investment actually happens that we can properly tax the hell out of it.  Meanwhile, older properties of equal value skate by at a lower effective discount off of market value.

It sounds unbelievable but we’re actually using our single biggest policy tool (taxation) to discourage investment in Trenton.  A smart city administration and council will recognize this and rush to fix it.  This is a specific area in which Fix Trenton’s Budget seeks to work with the city.

3)      Create a Master Developer for city owned property

This is brand new idea at Reinvent Trenton.

I recently made a big stink about a non-profit call Trenton City Home that the city uses to dispose of some city owned properties.  That complaint had two parts to it.  First, no one on council (much less the public) knew what it was.  It’s a shadowy subsidiary of the city with no public board and likely no tax returns. The second complaint was that the city was using this entity to funnel property to other non-profits and low income housing developers.

My read of the public and city council is that they are through with stimulating low income property uses and would rather see Trenton attract high disposable income residents. 

The Master Developer idea is similar to Trenton City Home except it won’t be secret, won’t be non-profit and will be aligned with citizen goals for increased population and disposable income

I propose that Trenton appoint a Master Developer to form a for-profit company with a public board to develop ALL of the city’s abandoned property.  This is a bit like a land bank. 

The company will be partially owned by private developers, the city of Trenton and private investors (including Trenton residents).  The city will deed clear title to this company on property it receives.  The developer, in turn, will seek to maximize return either by developing property itself or selling it to third parties. It will undoubtedly do this by focusing on creating critical mass for development neighborhood by neighborhood, rather than in a scatter-shot method as the city currently does.  Furthermore, this entity will be free to move quickly to capitalize on opportunities.  Specifically, the developer will undoubtedly find it expedient to resell properties to smaller developers who will augment efforts in a neighborhood.

By the city taking an ownership position in the entity, citizen’s interests are aligned with the developer’s profit motive.  The developer may also operate an investment fund that could allow individuals to invest their own money into the entity and thus create an additional financial opportunity for Trentonians (I’d invest). 

There are a lot of details to work out in this plan, but the key idea to move fast and increase flexibility in order to attract middle and upper income residents.

4)      Establish a partial land based tax

Reinvent Trenton has written many times about the land tax.  It remains one of the most intriguing mechanisms for using our tax code to encourage rather than discourage investment.

Today we discourage investment with a progressive tax that taxes high value investment more than low value investment.  At the same time there are private speculators who own vacant land in Trenton and pay very low taxes. 

Vacant land brings down the value of neighboring property and thereby destroys value.

We can both encourage investment and discourage speculation by establishing a land tax.  The land tax would compromise only a portion of the property tax (say 25%) but in so doing would increase the tax on vacant land and provide a mechanism to lower the tax on property improvements. Most homeowners would not see a difference in their tax bill.

However, new development would tend to be high end (you’d be better off building your mansion in Trenton than Princeton) or dense (with a lower tax on improvements why not build a tall building).  Meanwhile, we’d increase our revenues by increasing the tax on vacant property.  Speculators would be forced to sell to someone who could actually develop the land.

5)      Create a Strategic City Budget

Trenton’s city budget and departmental operations are a collection of years of neglect and are hopelessly out of date as no top to bottom realignment has been done in recent history.  Now that we have to do more with less, we need a thoughtful approach towards aligning our operations with our civic priorities. 

The Fix Trenton’s Budget Committee has proposed a priority based budgeting approach and along with Beautiful Trenton and TCCA plan to assist the city in implementing it.  We’re only waiting for a willing partner in city hall to work with us.

6)      Dissolve the city or at least rush towards regionalization

I’ll call this the “Mickle Plan” in honor of The Trentonian editor who put it out there.  Why are cities in NJ knocking themselves out to run so many school districts, police departments and public works departments?   All of the municipal funding problems the state is wrestling with (including Abbott Districts) would vanish with strong county governments.  Counties would naturally include economically diverse populations that could take care of their own local affairs.  Let’s remember that with 21 counties and 8,700,000  NJ residents, no NJ county government would be larger than a mid-sized American city.  Our most populace county is Bergen and has fewer than 900,000 residents.

A natural first step towards dissolving our municipalities is aggressive regionalization.  There are State sponsored programs encouraging this and though it isn’t likely that collapsing any service into a county-wide operation will save more than 10% in cost, 10% IS a big number.  Furthermore, we’ll be able to attract a higher caliber of management to a large county department than we could to a smaller city operation.

Other than a county-wide school system, which no sane person should oppose, complete elimination of our cities is a last resort or a far off goal.

There’s nothing on this list that can’t be done.  Even the “Mickle Plan” is within reach.  We just need leaders who aren’t afraid.

Editors Note:  I’m told John McManimon first laid out the ”Dissolve Trenton” idea  in a Trentonian Op-Ed last spring.  So all credit to him.  It must be the echo from him, as I bought my current house from John.

My thesis was that the suburban pipes were not strategic for the operation of Trenton as a city and that it would, instead, divert management attention from out critical issues.

Sure enough!

I didn’t debate my friends in the “No” camp that the price wasn’t high enough.  I had no idea what the right price should be.  In the end, there was evidence that the $80M price was too low by virtue of the expensive marketing campaign,  American Water waged to win the deal.   I voted “No” but think $100M would have moved me into the ‘Yes” column.

Nor did I debate my “Yes” friends who wanted to patch the 2010 budget with the proceeds.  By the time the vote happened, the Governor had pulled the plug on Trenton’s budget and it should have been clear to everybody that the TWW patch was like putting a finger in the dam of financial destruction.

Both sides were wrong and neither considered the central question:  “Is it strategic for a city to operate water works for its suburban neighbors.” 

I can’t see how it is.

Now with a Mayor beset by personal financial issues, dramatic municipal financial issues, a looming crime wave, low worker morale and an “almost” flood; here he is, having to take flack from the mayor of Hamilton.  That call to Hamilton warning about unsafe water is one more thing on Tony Mack’s “to do” list that he shouldn’t have had to do and certainly didn’t want to do.  It was a distraction and so much so, he did it poorly, causing himself and the city even more embarrassment.

In tough times it’s important to simplify your operation and focus on the core. Trenton needs to shed every single operation that doesn’t directly lead to its own revitalization.  There is no way running pipes in Hamilton will ever revitalize Trenton. 

Even the most ardent “No” supporters will have to agree that there IS a price at which we can profitably sell the water works.   There are professionals in the business of properly valuing assets like TWW’s suburban pipes and we should hire one.  Given risk and the time value of money, there simply has to be a price at which our future revenues are worth the same as a current price.  Perhaps $80M was too low, but there is a price.

The suburban Water Works is only the most glaring example of a non-strategic distraction for our very scarce management resources.  Other operations that should be up for discussion are our Health and Human services department, the libraries and our schools. 

The question is what parts of our city budget give us strategic advantage in attracting new residents with disposable income.  Pipes in Hamilton most certainly do not.

And before people try to correct me by pointing out that we would have still supplied the water to Hamilton this week, I know that.  However it would have been a very different customer dynamic with American Water serving as a buffer between Trenton and its irate neighbors.  Perhaps the water company would have been a bit quicker to turn on the reserve taps.

Since then, I’ve largely taken the summer off from Trenton politics because I was too depressed about the election including the city council contest in which most of my choices lost.  But still there’s hope.

Now here we are, a month into our new government, with a well documented litany of bad and possibly nefarious decisions and revelations coming out of city hall.  The regional and national press is covering Trenton’s train wreck.  Citizens are openly discussing recall elections and State takeovers.  Our murder rate has spiked and absolutely NO progress has been made on actual revitalization.

 Mr. Mack is wrong when he says the election is over. He wasn’t the first choice of a large majority of Trentonians in the first place and even if was, he’d have to win them over daily in order to get the city moving.  Great politicians keep campaigning.

Reinvent Trenton and subsequently the Fix Trenton’s Budget group were set up calmly discuss revitalization policy and budget process.  This is hard to do in the best of times but in an environment devoid of trust, I’d say it’s impossible to initiate brave new policies.

For Trenton to take new approaches like the ones I’ve outlined over the years, we’ll need to take leaps of faith in our leadership.  Our leader will need to bring along not just people like me, but all of the citizens in Trenton.  Tony Mack himself once told me, “Dan, I like your ideas, but how will they play in the Wilbur section?”.  I thought it was an excellent question and I gave him what I believe was the good answer, “Rising water raises all ships”.  No matter who we are, we’re better off with more wealth in Trenton.

To get his administration back on the right leadership footing and to earn the ability to lead us in the policy leaps of faith, Mr. Mack needs to do a few things. 

• Institutionalize transparency,  especially into his own finances

Anyone in Mr. Mack’s financial situation would be desperate.  However, not everyone is mayor of a small but high profile city.   His situation damages his leadership ability but more importantly gives rise to suspicion that he will abuse his power in order to resolve his debt issues.  To abate these concerns, Mack needs to put his finances under official third party scrutiny until he’s resolved his problems.  This is uncomfortable I’m sure, but how else will we be able to establish trust?

• Develop a revitalization plan that passes the test of economic soundness

None of the candidates offered real revitalization plans and to be fair, it would be hard to do so without the resources of a city administration.  So now, Mr. Mack needs to get down to work on this.  So what is  “this”?  The budget is only part of the problem. When we talk about cuts, we’re really talking about surviving.  We have to talk about not just surviving but thriving.  I’ve said many times,  that this is harder than rocket science and therefore we need a serious effort.  We need a solid team led by a serious person.  While Mr. Guhl may have been a serious person, the idea that the solutions to our city’ core problem would be resolved by a volunteer who could easily resign, is ill-conceived.  I’m not saying volunteers shouldn’t be welcome to work on this (I’ve repeatedly volunteered to help and to no avail) however leadership should come from a cabinet level city employee (or at least a paid consultant).

• Slow down and begin operating from a core set of management principles

One of the observations I’ve made about Tony Mack over the years is that he seems to manage in the minutia.  I remember him offering marketing tips to the Marriott when his central complaint was about the ownership structure.  People like this are often shooting from the hip.  Great chief executives don’t do this.  Rather, they operate from a well communicated set of core principles (e.g. integrity in government, create a positive business environment, be fair).  Then they focus on developing and managing their subordinates and fostering communication.  I wrote an article,  “Trenton as a Turnaround Opportunity” a couple of years ago that Mr. Mack will find worth reading and perhaps discussing with his advisors.

On to more important things.

A few weeks ago, Trenton made two uneconomic decisions right in the thick of the election.

1. It approved the receipt of HOPE VI funding to replace Miller Homes, and
2. It approved a tax abatement for Escher Street SRO, a halfway house

Both decisions are emblematic of the path Trenton has been following for the past 20 years and both run counter to the focus on economic recovery most of our candidates espoused.

In 2004, the South Trenton neighborhood comprising the Lamberton Historic District fought against HOPE VI funding which would have replaced one housing project, Kearney Homes, with another. They hoped for better and they’ve gotten it with a 100% market rate development from Ryan Homes.

In the course of that battle two astonishing observations were made concerning the agenda of the Trenton Housing Authority and the City administrations.

1. When asked whether an economic impact analysis of the project had been done, neither the City nor the THA had done one. They had no idea whether the project would be economically good or bad. At one point in the meetings between the neighborhood and THA, I asked about this and a THA official suggested that I prepare the analysis for them. It was a flippant comment, but I went ahead and did it. Sure enough, that project would have been a drain on the city.
2. THA set up meetings with citizens to get input on the project. About ¾ of the way through one of these sessions, several of us realized that no one from THA was actually capturing notes from the input they were supposedly getting from the 100 or so neighbors in the room. It was a rude awakening to the callousness of bureaucrats towards the communities they serve.

I don’t imagine the neighborhood around Miller Homes was nearly as organized as the Lamberton group (I certainly haven’t heard about them). So I doubt there was anybody to raise issues about HOPE VI this time around. And I am sure that no one in the current administration or city council asked for an economic impact analysis. Going forward, let’s please do better.

The abatement on Escher Street SRO was even more ironic. All through the campaign, candidates including the three on the current city council have bemoaned Trenton’s structural deficit and the high number of non-tax-paying non-profit owned buildings in Trenton. They were talking about buildings exactly like the halfway house which had had a previous abatement but had ran out. When it came time to do something about it, city council folded. They passed the abatement measure in the same session where they were forced by the state to actually pass a budget which represented the failed policies of the past. Their actions didn’t measure up to their words when they granted an extension on Escher Street thereby extending Trenton’s structural deficit.

The problem with both of these decisions is that they ignore the basic economics of our city. Trenton is awash in costs for the poor and has no tax base to support those costs. We all know that our per capita income and therefore our ratables are very low, dangerously low.  And yet these two projects add to overall structural deficit.

A HOPE VI project will generate far more costs in the form of school, police, inspections, recreation and social services costs than it will ever generate in the form of property taxes.  As politically difficult as it sounds, the project will be an additional drain on the city.  This is the challenge that a politician faces in Trenton. We can no longer afford to do the cuddly, feel good thing.  We have to make hard choices, and our current council and administration failed to do it with Miller Homes.

The halfway house is even worse. I’m sure the home would have had to close. But presumably it would relocate to a community better able to subsidize its existence. We need halfway houses in this world, unfortunately Trenton can’t afford them at this time. Perhaps, when we’re healthier.

I point all this out to illustrate the kind of difficult decisions our next government faces.  We, as citizens, need to understand that we can’t afford to do everything we might want and that economic analysis can help us separate the good from the bad.  We’re like airline passengers that have lost pressurization in the cabin.  We need to put our oxygen mask on first before we worry about saving everybody else.   

Most importantly, we need to focus ourselves, as well as Council, on economic recovery and away from racial politics.

So I was thinking about what I do for a living, and that I am a municipal public employee… and how I see so much waste everywhere. I also really dislike the perception that we are all just lazy bastards. So how do we really change the City of Trenton employee image and while we are at it, how can we change the image of Trenton? Us, how can we do it as well???  I did some research and wrote this up…

It’s just a few days away now — Election Day. Regardless of who is elected Mayor on June 15, the City of Trenton will close one chapter of its history and begin a new one.
Hopefully the new administration will bring new ideas to the challenges we face as Trentonians: challenges that are economic, challenges that are sometimes uncomfortable, and even though in some cases we will flat out disagree with policy, we hope that the greater good is served.

It has always been a mantra of mine that we are a service-driven industry but, what does that really mean? Those of us that work for the City of Trenton probably feel that we know our job, our role and the responsibilities that come with it. But maybe it might be a good idea to have a refresher course and take the lead from some great groups. At the Disney Company, they recognize that a key element in creating the best environment for engaged employees is great leadership. Leaders take responsibility for creating a vibrant employee experience, understanding that their own behavior and vision drives the creation of a work environment in which employees can be fully engaged. This is needed in the City of Trenton, from all employees.

We also need to take a look at what some folks believe is a sound business plan for public service employees:

• Improved effectiveness – more oriented to identifying and producing results.
• Greater service orientation – developing a culture in which the delivery of an outstanding service to the public is accepted as the norm.
• Improved accountability – performance must be effectively managed, measured, and failure to meet standards should be recognized and dealt with
• Improved financial accountability – the competent management of resources according to a strong “value for money” ethos as a hallmark of the public service. The public needs to see their money is not wasted
• Improved flexibility – a greater ability to work in teams across traditional departmental lines. Especially now with little funds and shrinking departments.

These are just a few things we can do as employees and hopefully  be part of an engaged municipal government. We will all be part of the team that works on behalf of Trenton, from paying our taxes on time, the upkeep of our home or business, to sweeping the street in front of our home – and it is up to all of us to work with the new leadership to tackle those challenges.

However, I live in Trenton and own enough property so that high taxes and declining value could be a substantial economic blow.  I am not alone in this precarious situation.  Every home and building owner in Trenton is at risk as our city’s budget comes closer to falling into the financial abyss.

I’ve listened to the candidates and just don’t hear a serious “by the numbers” explanation of how they think we can rescue ourselves.  Instead, I hear a lot of blame being laid on the State.

I also know that many of our candidates have been in public life for many years but have never jumped up and down screaming about the fact that we were so dependent on the State.  Even now, several of the candidates are asking for votes so they can do more for the poor citizens of Trenton.  We’re sinking, as a city, and yet there are candidates talking about new social programs.

There are candidates who either believe or know that citizens want to hear, “that fixing the schools will revitalize Trenton”.  That notion is absurd and tells me that I’m listening to a “Know Nothing”  politician.  In order to magically fix the schools, we’d have to start with the young kids and put them into some magical environment that hasn’t even been invented, wait 12 years, and then perhaps we’d have a graduation rate worth bragging about.  It could be decades before Trenton’s schools are better than surrounding suburbs.  Nobody moves to a city for the schools that are “almost as good”.  Trenton schools need to be “as good, or better”, but we can’t make that happen in time to save our city.

We need a no-nonsense, and dare I say pragmatic (another word for Republican) approach to our problem.  We need a “Bull in the China shop” much like Chris Christie has become for NJ.  We need to do the opposite of what we’ve been doing in Trenton for the past 20 years.

We don’t need balance, we need imbalance.  Trenton has gone out of its way to be attractive to the poor for quite some time and has done little to attract middle class and high income residents.  We’re going to have to change that balance.  We’re actually going to have to find a way to appeal to people with disposable income and lots of them.

As I look at the candidates and at myself,  I’ve come to the conclusion that I have something to offer Trenton.  As a Management Consultant, my job is often to help organizations improve and to do the best things first.  We help our clients manage by the numbers.  As a volunteer in Trenton, I find myself drawn towards the challenging problem of urban revitalization.  It’s one of the great challenges of our time and I want to be a part of meeting that challenge.  ReinventTrenton.com is all about that as is TrentonLofts.com and FixTrentonsBudget.com.

Running for mayor is a thankless job and being mayor would involve some personal and financial pain for me and Michelle (Michelle doesn’t like the idea).  However, if voters look around and decide they just can’t tie their futures to any of the existing candidates and would prefer to take the opposite approach, I will serve.  Probably only for one term, but I’d serve long enough to give the opposite approach a chance to take shape.

I understand that many Trentonians have been fed a diet of rhetoric on revitalization over the years and I’ve written quite a bit to debunk much of it. But, just so there aren’t any surprises, a few of the ingredients a Dodson administration include are listed below.  If you can’t depart with the notion that these sacred cows need to be cast out, then don’t vote for me:

• Create and institutionalize a meaningful budget process
• Reassess on a 5 year cycle and adjust our tax rate accordingly
• Lift the residency requirement for all city workers (we need the best minds possible on the case)
• Call in outside law enforcement support to augment our police
• Reinvent our city processes to enable our staff to have a bigger impact for less
• Make every aspect of Trenton the MOST business and development friendly in the US
• No support at all for subsidized, deed restricted, housing
• Negotiate a fair deal with the State, to gradually get us off of state aid
• Lobby, maybe through the US Justice Dept., for integration of schools in Mercer County and NJ (that equates to busing)

For those that have read my blog over the years, none of this is new.  I just want to make it clear that my firm belief is that protecting the above “sacred cows” is in the way of Trenton’s progress.  Adopting the above is the “opposite” of what we’ve been doing and the “opposite” of the positions for many of the current candidates.

In the end, it’s the voters choice. If called I’d serve and would love the challenge.