Trenton Mayor Tony Mack

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In  our July 19th post titled Another Mayor Under Federal Investigation, we reported that Trenton, NJ, Mayor Tony Mack had been served with a nighttime search warrant and was under investigation by the FBI for corruption.

Today NJ.Com reported that “Mayor Tony Mack was arrested this morning at his home by FBI agents on corruption charges linked to $119,000 in bribes for a parking garage project in the city, authorities said. ”  The news story was headlined Trenton Mayor Tony Mack is arrested by FBI on corruption charge.  Here is a link to the FBI complaint supporting Mack’s arrest today.

Trenton has a population of approximately 85,000 and is the capital of New Jersey. 

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Our July 19th post  included an excerpt of a civil lawsuit complaint in which a former Trenton official alleges she was subjected to an adverse employee action because she refused to cooperate or participate in unlawful conduct committed or condoned by her employer or who reported such conduct to a law enforcement authority.  In her written complaint, the former employee said:

• She was ordered by a city department head who invoked the authority of Mayor Mack and ordered her to provide HUD Community Development Block Grant money to a local athlete who was a friend of Mayor Mack but who had not submitted any of the required applications for that federal money.
• She was ordered by the Mayor to divert grant money into operational funds in order to fund a fund a concert being promoted by the Mayor.
• When she refused to divert grant money to fund the concert, she was then ordered to illegally divert city boat ramp maintenance fees to fund the concert instead.
• One of the Mayor’s confidants, Bishop Vaughan, was supposedly hired by the City as a Mayor’s Aide at an annual salary of approximately $39,999.96, but Vaughan was never required to show up for work or complete required paperwork documenting work hours.

It must be refreshing to live in Trenton, NJ, where neither the FBI nor the US Attorney are afraid to investigate, arrest, and prosecute corrupt local officials.

ADDENDUM at 11:00 a.m.:  Here is a link to the the press release from the US Attorney for the District of New Jersey reporting the arrest.

I was particularly impressed with the remarks made by the FBI’s Newark Division Special Agent in Charge:

“The citizens of New Jersey’s state capital deserve far better than politicians and cronies who aspire to the Boss Tweed-style, Tammany Hall politics of patronage, graft, and corruption,” said Michael Ward, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Newark Division. “Public service is not an open invitation to enrich one’s self via illegal means. At no time should elected officials have need for middlemen, ‘buffers,’ and coded conversations.”