The Trenton Times published the following article on July 8, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
Trenton directors ask for more money to keep departments afloat
By Mike Davis/The Times
on July 08, 2013 at 9:27 PM, updated July 08, 2013 at 9:35 PMTRENTON — As the city council prepares its next municipal budget, city directors are asking for more funds to keep departments afloat.
Housing and development director Walter Denson recommended hiring two full-time employees, including a real estate manager to oversee about 20 properties the city owns and often fails to maintain.
“Years ago, the city decided to abandon that position,” Denson said at an afternoon council meeting today. “The same amount of work remained, but nobody designated anyone for those specific responsibilities.”
The real estate manager would also oversee regular auctions of city-owned property, which Denson said would help provide cash for the employee’s salary.
“This was a functioning division when it was abandoned,” Denson said. “Given the skeleton crew that’s there now, I think it’s imperative. They can generate enough revenue to pay for their salaries and then some.”
Councilman Zachary Chester was wary of the idea, instead suggesting that the same strategy be applied to the inspections department.
“How is it that we can look to hire two positions here, but we can’t do that for inspections,” Chester said. “They generate income as well, and we need more inspectors.”
Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson said the city shouldn’t “be in the landlord business,” and Denson agreed.
“With a real estate manager, you can make the decision to not renew leases and sell vacant buildings,” Denson said. “We don’t want to be landlords.”
Chester suggested the city look at hiring an outside firm to do the work, which Denson estimated would be more than quadruple the cost of doing it in-house.
Council members later gasped when Denson requested $20,000 to fund professional services and legal fees for the planning board. That amount was $12,000 more than was provided in the 2012-13 budget.
Denson explained that the board‘s expenses had been running in the $20,000 range for the past several years but that the money had been drawn from several different accounts.
Redevelopment coordinator Marc Leckington said funds from the city’s Community Development Block Grants had been used over two years to fund professional services, which he said was inappropriate.
“With some of the changes in leadership at the director’s seat, the previous interim administrator may not have been looking very carefully at sign-offs,” Leckington said.
“This is distressing, to know that this has happened,” Caldwell-Wilson said in response.
The council also heard from city clerk Leona Baylor, who warned that a series of irregular elections would likely lead to a huge increase in her office’s budget.
Mercer County usually bills the city about $17,000 to fund workers and equipment for primary and general elections, Baylor said.
But this year’s special U.S. Senate primary election in August and general election in October have added two more events to an already-busy election year.
“We’ve heard there is going to be reimbursement. There just hasn’t been a mechanism for how or when,” Baylor said. “But even if they reimburse us, we have to spend the money first.”
“The governor wanted to have a special election and the state should pay for that for the entire state, not put a burden on the municipalities,” Chester said.
And in May 2014, the city will also hold its municipal elections, in which Mayor Tony Mack and all seven council members are up for re-election. Baylor advocated for moving the city’s municipal elections to another date because of the costs, which Caldwell-Wilson called a “conversation for another day.”
Contact Mike Davis at (609) 989-5708 or mdavis@njtimes.com.