TRENTON – The Little League ceremony quickly turned bush league.
And a Freudian slip that set off Robin Vaughn made it certain that the water doctor got upstaged at his own awards ceremony.
East Ward councilman Joe Harrison, who rarely speaks during council meetings, was telling residents why he supported giving Dr. Shing-Fu Hsueh a merit award for his efforts so far rehabilitating Trenton Water Works.
“He’s been coming up here speaking from his heart. I’m not sure why that’s a big deal,” Harrison said at Thursday night’s meeting.
He wanted to know what was up with the “reaction” from colleagues, but flubbed and said “radioactive,” before correcting himself.
He was obviously thinking about “Radioactive Robin” when giving those remarks.
And the West Ward councilwoman didn’t let him forget when it came time for civic comments.
“There’s a council person [up here] that you don’t even know who is going to show up from time to time,” Vaughn said in her thinly veiled shot.
Just in case anyone missed it, she confirmed she was talking about Harrison, who was peeved and attempted to respond.
Council president Kathy McBride waved him off and interrupted Vaughn and then closed by warning council members to stop putting the “I” in City Council.
She reminded council members they can’t get anything done without four votes.
By that point, the West Ward councilwoman already had called colleagues “hypocrites,” slammed one, without naming him, as a career opportunist attempting to exploit his political fame, suggested in third-person that people don’t support her on council because they don’t “like Robin Vaughn” and pounded her chest about single-handedly saving the water department from certain takeover through her advocacy.
Most of the council members had glossed-over looks on their face as Vaughn waxed acidic, taking away from what was supposed to be a glorious moment for Hsueh, who other members of the legislative body said worked his buns off to restore a modicum of trust back to Trenton Water Works after years of neglect under past administrations.
But at-large councilman Jerell Blakeley hammed it up for meeting-goers, proudly flashing his pearly whites and giving a quick salute as Vaughn appeared to attack him.
Prior to Vaughn’s meeting-closing mic drop, the council voted 5-0 with two abstentions to give Hsueh, the retired state water quality expert tapped by Mayor Reed Gusciora to right the ship at TWW, his participation trophy.
Vaughn and at-large councilman Santiago Rodriguez abstained.
The council also voted to authorize issuing $15 million in bonds for the city to replace 2,600 lead water lines in the water distribution system with copper pipes, part of a mandate from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The city is currently under a stringent Administrative Consent Order with DEP, which has slammed the city over its repeated failures to address water quality and operational issues at the troubled public water utility.
The mayor brought on Hsueh to try to fix the problems, but things took a turn in the last couple weeks when rumors floated that Hsueh may walk off the job.
He was apparently flummoxed after Vaughn aggressively questioned him about the bond issue at a prior council meeting.
For his part, Hsueh threw cold water on any talk he was going to walk in an interview this week.
But council president McBride, who was the ghost-sponsor of the gold-star resolution for Hsueh, felt it was important to recognize his hard work.
The council voted on the measure separately. And not everyone appeared on board.
South Ward councilman George Muschal, who eventually voted yes, said he often did work and never was recognized.
“I don’t see any papers saying I did a good job,” he said. “I don’t go out every morning looking for praise. If you want to give one person an award, you should give everyone an award because the city was down on its back.”
North Ward councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson applauded Hsueh’s herculean work ethic and slammed Vaughn for challenging him at a previous meeting “almost to a point of harassment.”
Blakeley called the water doctor a “giant” who came out of retirement to help Trenton for an “un-competitive salary.”
Vaughn, closing out the meeting, cautioned residents to remember how much support Hsueh has been given by the legislative body when it assesses whether he accomplishes his mission.
“Remember that number,” she said, referring to the millions in bonds. “I’ll be asking every council meeting. I will hold this administration accountable like I have been doing from Day 1.”
