City Clerk

It would seem to be a dubious prize - running a city that is $25 million in the red, a city where 40 desk cops had to be put on the street to fight crime, a city whose civic center burned down 15 years ago, a city where blacks and whites inhabit separate enclaves and cast ballots on the basis of race. But Trenton is the prize that Douglas H. Palmer had wanted all his life. On Tuesday he achieved that goal, in a runoff election, becoming the city's first black mayor by a margin that gives the lie to the argument that an individual vote counts for nothing in American politics.

Burlington City officials are scouring the town for a building that could serve, at least temporarily, as a new city hall. At a closed meeting Thursday, the City Council authorized the city clerk to look for new quarters for municipal offices, Council President William Tillinghast said in an interview this week. The current city hall, built in 1842, would require nearly $1 million in repairs to remain the seat of local government, Tillinghast said. The council must decide whether to move city offices to another building, build a city hall or relocate temporarily while the hall is repaired.

Gloucester City has asked Trenton for a 30-day extension before it unveils this year's budget to the public because city officials have been unable to reconcile proposed expenditures and revenues. Declining to say how much money the city's finance committee has been talking about in its draft version of the budget, city clerk Tom Kilcourse said this week that the largest proposed increases are in salaries, insurance premiums and sanitation costs. "What do you do? You get an eraser," Kilcourse said.

The Gloucester City Council on Tuesday postponed considering a request by administrator Gary Ruggierio to hire an attorney to represent him in a lawsuit filed against him by three members of the City Council and the city clerk. The council is expected to take up Ruggierio's request at a caucus at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the municipal building at 512 Monmouth St. The city attorney, William Ruggierio of Marlton, who is Gary Ruggiero's brother, ruled that the council could not discuss Gary Ruggierio's request at Monday's special meeting because the matter had not been published in the city's official newspapers as required by the state's Sunshine Law. Gary Ruggierio said he sent a memo to city clerk Thomas Kilcourse the previous Thursday asking that his request be included on the agenda as an "emergent matter" and said it was Kilcourse's responsibility to notify the newspapers.

A group of Burlington City residents will have their second day in court tomorrow in an effort to get city officials to accept a petition calling for a change in the city's form of government. If accepted, voters will decide in November whether or not to reduce the 12-member council to five members. The five-member group, which calls itself the Burlington City Taxpayers Association, has taken the city to court in an attempt to have the petition accepted. On Thursday, attorneys for the residents and city presented arguments to County Superior Court Judge Martin L. Haines, who postponed his decision on the case until tomorrow.

City Clerk of Quarter Sessions Peter D. Truman, who controls millions of dollars in bail bonds, deposited $41,000 earned from investments made with bail money and used it as an office petty-cash fund. City officials said Truman had no authority to spend the money. The money, interest that was earned from four bank certificates of deposit totaling $1.25 million, should have been deposited into the city's general fund, city officials said. Truman instead opened an interest-bearing checking account, which he controlled, in the Glendale Bank of Pennsylvania on March 1. He used $2,197.

In Beverly City, as in many Burlington County municipalities, the workload has become so heavy during the last 20 years that the city clerk can no longer keep up with the mounds of paper work required for daily operation of the city. In fact, officials in Beverly City have said that they are beginning to think a part-time clerk is not enough. The City Council is considering creating a new post of full-time clerk/administrator, said Councilman Dominick Gioffre. Gioffre said an experienced administrator is needed "to mind the store," while the city's nine council members and mayor are busy at their full-time jobs.

Mayor Mary Sheridan ran this hamlet on the Delaware River single-handedly for 50 years without a word of complaint from anybody, thank you. Then, a couple of young fellows from the state came snooping around, sticking their noses into the shoeboxes stuffed with receipts, asking a lot of prying questions about missing pension funds, unauthorized bank accounts and the like, and, next thing you know, everyone on the City Council wants to have his...

After working for six months without a contract, about 60 unionized employees of Burlington City were granted a 5 percent across-the-board salary increase Tuesday night. Nonunion employees also received raises under the 1987 salary ordinance approved by the City Council. "We are satisfied with this pay raise," said John Lazzarotti, president of Local 1044 of the Communications Workers of America, which represents about half of Burlington City's 125 municipal employees. "However, much too much time has been taken to get this ordinance passed.

Public smoking is now prohibited in the municipal buildings in Burlington City after the passage of a resolution by city council last week to comply with state law. "Employees are permitted to smoke in two lounges, both on the second floor of city hall," said city clerk David Vechesky, "and one lounge at the (former) Stacy School," which houses additional city departments. "There is no smoking at all for the general public" in the two buildings, Vechesky said. He said city employees were furnished copies of the resolution and there were no complaints.