The Trenton Times published the following article on May 23, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton council questions Mayor Tony Mack’s proposal for summer employees

By Jenna Pizzi/The Times of Trenton 
on May 23, 2013 at 8:50 AM, updated May 23, 2013 at 12:01 PM

TRENTON — City council members are questioning a proposal by Mayor Tony Mack and his administration to transfer money set aside for a director to oversee two historic city-owned buildings to instead fund the hiring of several summer employees in the recreation department.

The resolution, slated go to vote at the council meeting tonight, would allow the administration to shift $13,650 in the city budget to pay for a director of the Trent House and City Museum to hire a summer food service director and four employees for the summer pool program.

In a letter sent yesterday to city council, mayoral aide Anthony Roberts said representatives from the recreation department chose to transfer the funds from the Trent House and City Museum budgets because “the funding has not been used and will not be used” by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson said the money for the Trent House and City Museum was placed in the budget by council to fund a director to work at both locations.

“Council felt that our history is an important asset to the city and we should put our
money in the budget for those salaries,” Caldwell-Wilson said.

She said the administration, which is in charge of hiring for the city, didn’t fill the position.
The Trenton Museum Society, an independent group that oversees operations and exhibits at the City Museum in the city-owned Ellarslie Mansion, and the Trent House Association, have brought on part-time director Bob Sands to oversee operations at both locations and are funding his position with their own funds, said Carolyn Stetson, former board member for the Trenton Museum Society who still volunteers at the museum.

“He has excellent museum credentials,” Stetson said. “He was a natural to fill that spot.”
The society hired Sands after former full-time director Brian Hill was laid off by the Mack administration in 2011. The administration replaced Hill with an intern.

Stetson said there has been limited communication between the Museum Society and the administration regarding city funding for the director’s position.

“In terms of creating a budget, there is no communication,” she said.

Business administrator Sam Hutchinson told city council at a meeting on Tuesday that the administration had not consulted with representatives from the City Museum or Trent House before presenting the resolution.

“The Trent House and Ellarslie have been nothing but cooperative to try to keep these properties open,” Caldwell-Wilson said. “Why wouldn’t you have a dialogue with them?”

Caldwell-Wilson said she intends to vote against the resolution because while she is supportive of recreation and sees the importance of the city’s pools and summer food service program, the administration should have included the additional funds in the recreation department’s budget.

“It should not have been an afterthought,” she said.

The Summer Food Service Program, set to begin on July 1 and run through Aug. 30, has been an annual offering in the city for the past 25 years, Roberts said in a memo.

He said last year the program served 58,000 breakfasts and 75,000 lunches to children.

The funding would be used to hire the program’s director for training starting in the beginning of June at a salary of $23 per hour.

The pool program coordinator, assistant coordinator and two lifeguards would also be paid through the transferred funds if it is accepted. Roberts said the pool staff would be paid between $10 and $20 per hour and work to paint pools, power wash the pools, maintain pool equipment and prepare them for inspection. The pools will be inspected the last week of June, Roberts said.

He said no one has been hired yet to fill the food or pool program positions.
“Without the approval of this transfer resolution these programs are in jeopardy,” he said in a memo to council.

Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.