Dear Residents,

I know many of you are concerned by what appears to be tension between my administration and the City Council.  I want to assure you that while we may be at odds regarding the budget, we have made a lot of progress together in moving Trenton forward over these past 10 months.

I wanted to take a moment to share with you some of what we’ve been able to accomplish. By working together we have:

1. Negotiated the purchase of the 30 year abandoned Cook School for redevelopment;

2. Secured the awarding of an Economic Development Authority (EDA) Challenge Grant to begin the planning for an Innovative Learning Center (involving the five area colleges: Thomas Edison; Mercer County College; The College of New Jersey; Rider University; and Princeton University);

3. Worked with the 15^th Legislative Delegation to once again propose the restoration of the Capital City Line-Item in the State’s budget;

4. Secured the increase in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the amount of $2.7 million and negotiated the release of certain block grant funds frozen since 2016;

5. Secured the grant funding from the National Resource Network for assistance in future budgeting;

6. Rolled out the planning and release of $11 million in funds for demolition and rehabilitation of housing that was in danger of a claw back for not being utilized since the Christie Administration;

7. Increased additional demolition funds by $1.1 million from HUD by obtaining matching funds for adhering to federal demolition standards for that amount;

8. Secured over $2 million in Transportation Trust Funds (TTF) for future road projects, compared with zero dollars for the previous year;

9. Secured over $2 million in recreation grant funding, enabling us to expand recreational programming for city youth;

10. Secured increase in direct State Aid from $9 million (previous fiscal year) to $16 million for 2019.

In addition, we’ve been able to recruit top talent from across the region to lead our departments and provide top-quality services for Trenton, including:

• Fire Director Derrick Sawyer, a 31-year veteran of the Philadelphia Fire Department who served as the city’s 19^th Fire Commissioner, overseeing 2,400 members. He received his MS in Homeland Security from Saint Joseph’s University.
• Police Director Sheilah Coley, who served in the Newark Police Department for 25 years, holding every rank, including Police Chief and Police Director. She also served as Public Safety Director for East Orange, earned her Master’s Degree from Farleigh Dickinson University, and is a United States Air Force veteran.
• Business Administrator Adam Cruz, who has 25 years of experience in local and federal government, including two years as the Business Administrator of Perth Amboy and six as Assistant Business Administrator for Newark.
• Water Director Dr. Shing-Fu Hsueh, a water quality expert who worked for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection for 28 years, served as Mayor of West Windsor for 17 years, taught courses in water quality at Rutgers University for 25 years, and received his PhD in Chemical/Environmental Engineering from Rutgers University.

I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to achieve in less than a year, and I hope you will all join me in working towards even more progress for Trenton in the years to come.