Council Prez. wants to call out non-profits over water bills
TRENTON » Isn’t that called blackmail?
Council president Kathy McBride threatened to publicly out more than 100 organizations, many of them nonprofits, that are delinquent on their city water bills.
Warning that she possesses a list of all the laggards, McBride told The Trentonian after Tuesday’s meeting that she’s giving the administration a month or so to beef up collection efforts or she’ll expose everyone.
“If they don’t make any progress, I’m going to move forward,” she said.
Estimating the total uncollected amount at $1.5 million, McBride said some of the unknown organizations owe tens of thousands of dollars, or more, in unpaid water bills.
“We have all these nonprofits that refuse to pay their water bills,” she said, without naming them, during civic comments. “There’s only two ways: You either pay us, or we’ll put you in the paper and demand our money publicly.”
The council president’s threat was prompted by West Ward resident Michael Ranallo’s revelation that the shuttered Lafayette Park Hotel and Suites in downtown Trenton owes more than $72,000 in unpaid water and sewage fees.
Ranallo provided The Trentonian with a copy of the hotel’s Trenton Water Works bill, which he obtained through a public records request, showing the hotel owed $72,332.92 by Jan. 11.
More than $63,000 of
that amount was past due, according to the bill.
The council president attempted to go all David Pecker when she addressed Ranallo’s disclosure in her closing remarks.
While McBride’s extortionist shakedown was definitely a low blow to the organizations on the list, it didn’t exactly rival the one leveled against Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.
Bezos was threatened by the Pecker-owned National Enquirer with literal exposure of belowthe-belt selfies he sent to a mistress unless he admitted the tabloid’s explosive investigation into his personal indiscretions wasn’t politically motivated.
McBride said her motivation isn’t political but economical.
She admitted she wants to avoid releasing the embarrassing document but might be forced to because city residents face an 11cent tax increase, possibly more, if the legislative body doesn’t approve an accelerated tax sale ahead of the end of the fiscal year.
The accelerated tax sale measure, unanimously voted down last year, has become a political hot potato between the council and Mayor Reed Gusciora, leading to threats of mass police layoffs and firefighter brownouts unless a compromise is reached.
Another resolution to approve the accelerated tax sale is back on the Thursday agenda.
McBride spoke as if she will vote against it again, saying the city has been too dependent on the accelerated tax sale to supplement the budget. The city has held one every year since 2004.
The administration said it expected to haul in $2.6 million by selling liens to investors at this year’s accelerated tax sale.
Absent that, business administrator Adam Cruz warned, residents could face another 10-cent bump in the municipal tax rate, on top of the proposed 11-cent increase.
McBride suggested the city should offset the need for a tax sale by collecting on the outstanding water bills.
She offered to provide The Trentonian a redacted version of the list later this week.
“Right, it’s going to get out,” McBride responded when advised the newspaper planned to obtain an un-redacted version under the state public records law. “I’m just saying I’m willing to give the administration until April 2.”