This story is published in partnership with the nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization The Jersey Vindicator. Learn more about their work at jerseyvindicator.org. When the city of Trenton set out to reclaim a mile-long Delaware River park from decades of neglect, it took an unusual route. Rather than publicly advertise for work crews to compete for the job, it hand-picked a contractor who had done catering jobs at the home of a top city administrator. Amid the summer’s brutal heat, a crew of a dozen men hacked brush with machetes. In October, 10 weeks after the work began, Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora and his parks chief, Paul Harris, showed up to shoot a promotional video. Shouting above the din of the laborers’ leaf blowers, they promised concerts, picnics, and more for Stacy Park’s 33 acres. “People have said for years, ‘We want access to the waterfront,’” Harris said in the video, posted to Facebook. “We’re excited to have a local business – Trentonians – doing the work.” Neither Harris nor Gusciora, though, mentioned a key detail: The brush removal, without any disclosure to taxpayers, cost almost $200,000. City Hall had paid in installments that weren’t large enough to trigger a round of transparent public bidding, as state law requires. “Nothing is perfect in government,” Mayor Reed Gusciora told The Jersey Vindicator. “I guess the project got away from us.” Top city officials offer conflicting accounts about many aspects of work at Stacy Park. What’s clear: The city’s handling was irregular from the start. Trenton’s Stacy Park c. 1970.(Courtesy of City of Trenton) Hearings were never conducted for public input on the removal of more than 400 trees and shrubs, a step required by city ordinance. The city council, which is supposed to approve such spending, wasn’t asked to weigh in. Also unaware was a team of fiscal watchdogs appointed by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs to monitor $47 million in taxpayer aid so that Trenton, the state’s capital and one of its poorest cities, can balance its annual budget. In February, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection ordered the project stopped due to a lack of permits. In recent years, the Delaware has breached at least five times, leaving the park under water, blocking hundreds of residents from their water-damaged homes, and closing a state highway, Trenton’s downtown Capital District, and a water treatment plant that serves 225,000 customers in five towns. Work on Stacy Park, state regulators found, had destabilized the riverbank. “It’s horrible what they did – not doing permits, not having a plan, and all the potential shenanigans that went on,” Jeff Tittel, the retired head of the state chapter of the Sierra Club and one of New Jersey’s most influential environmental activists, told The Jersey Vindicator. “Government that hides from the public view is never doing the public’s business.” City Council President Crystal Feliciano, whose neighborhood abuts Stacy Park, declined to speak to The Jersey Vindicator. Her neighborhood, called The Island, was part of the riverside spruce-up. Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, a former city councilwoman who now represents Trenton in the state Assembly, also had no comment, according to Ed Gittens, her chief of staff. She is vice chairwoman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which evaluates billions of dollars in proposed state spending. Lisa Ryan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Community Affairs, said Trenton’s fiscal monitors don’t review expenditures that fall below the bidding threshold, which is $44,000. Newly aware that the brush-clearing bill totaled almost five times that amount, the department took action. “When DCA learned that Trenton City administration paid a vendor for park work in increments instead of all at once, we advised the City of Trenton’s governing body that it must pass a resolution on the full amount of all the contracts,” Ryan said in an email to The Jersey Vindicator. Asked by The Jersey Vindicator for any written communication with the city about that order, Ryan said the instructions were given verbally. In the mid-20th century, Stacy Park was Trenton’s crown jewel of recreation, with walking trails, a ballfield, and easy river access for fishing, boating and swimming. In the late 1950s, though, amid a national wave of destructive urban planning, half of it was paved to create a four-lane state highway. The park slid into decay. Gusciora, a Democrat in his second term, pledged to renew Trenton parks, calling them crucial to residents’ health. One in four Trentonians lives below the federal poverty line and the childhood obesity rate is 28%, double the statewide figure, according to the Trenton Health Team. Gusciora said “99% of the people” who have contacted him are thrilled to see Stacy Park rising from what was a jungle of invasive vines, dead and diseased trees, and a thicket of undergrowth that completely blocked the water view. Whoever asked the Department of Environmental Protection to investigate is among “a handful of agitators” who have personal disagreements with him, and who are eager to see his administration fail, he told The Jersey Vindicator. Still, he said, Stacy Park will persevere. Once the state signs off on permits, the city will contract for hydroseeding and tree planting. It’s not clear, though, how the city is paying the Stacy Park bills, which have totaled almost $300,000 for work by three contractors. Gusciora said American Rescue Plan Act money was the funding source; Harris, though, insisted that no federal or state grant money was used. City Hall also is hazy on how the work was awarded to E&E Outdoor Maintenance Service, whose owner was identified by city officials as Julio Mercedes. Mercedes, whose company was paid $195,300, didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from The Jersey Vindicator. E&E’s invoices lack a phone number, and City Hall officials declined to provide contact information. Its business address is an Ashmore Street apartment above Sabor Latina restaurant. A restaurant manager on March 27 took written questions from The Jersey Vindicator and said he would give them to Mercedes, who didn’t respond. Among the questions: Who in the city administration had contacted and hired E&E for the job? Maria Richardson, the former parks chief who now is the interim business administrator for the city, said the job was authorized by Harris, her replacement. Harris told The Jersey Vindicator that it was done on Richardson’s watch. In an interview, Richardson acknowledged that she knew Mercedes and his wife personally: She was a patron of Sabor Latina, where both had worked. During the pandemic, Richardson said, they lost their jobs, and Julio Mercedes “asked me for work at the parks over the weekends.” Richardson said his fine work on smaller tasks made him a good candidate for Stacy Park. It was of no consequence, she said, that Mercedes and his wife had done private catering jobs for her. Speaking about the administration and E&E, Richardson said: “Neither one of the parties involved decided, ‘We’re going to screw the city.’” In an interview, Harris said city officials invited E&E Landscaping and other contractors to submit estimates for brush removal. He declined to name those companies and wouldn’t specify how and when word went out. He told The Jersey Vindicator that his 15 years in many City Hall roles made him familiar with a fair price for the job. “It wouldn’t have been done for less” money, Harris said. “Historically we’ve gotten a good deal from this vendor.” This story is published in partnership with the nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization The Jersey Vindicator. Learn more about their work at jerseyvindicator.org. ...read more read less