Getting to Know the Candidates: Gerald Brown

Incumbent Mayor Gerald Brown has served as mayor of the City of Trenton for ten years. He was first elected into the mayor's office in 2001.

He served on the from 1990 to 2001 and is a 29-year veteran of the . He served as chief of police for his last seven years of service.

Brown served in the U.S. Air Force. He has a bachelor's of science degree in criminal education and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

He and his wife of 42 years, Cheryl, have two adult daughters and six grandchildren.

Trenton Patch editor Nate Stemen asked each candidate the same three questions. Brown's responses are as such:

Why run for the position you are running for? What can you offer that no one else can?

I’m running for the position of mayor in Trenton because I feel strongly that I am the most qualified candidate that the voters have to select from.  I have proven my leadership ability over the past 10 years and have done so in an open, fair and consistent manner. 

I bring to the position multiple years of experience in dealing with employees, budgets and infrastructures.  I have shown time and time again, that I'm very capable of making tough decisions when it is necessary to do so.  I have exercised fiscal responsibility throughout my time as mayor and millions of taxpayer dollars have been saved as a result of this. 

What do you think is the number one problem facing the city of Trenton? How do you intend to resolve the problem?

The number one problem facing the City of Trenton is the shrinking tax revenues and the state revenue sharing dollars that are needed to provide the residents of Trenton the services that they have become accustomed to and deserve. 

Resolution to this problem is to maintain the methods of fiscal responsibility that have been successful in keeping the City of Trenton in the favorable financial condition that it presently enjoys.  Spending priorities, always evaluating vacancies in the various departments for need of replacements and working with the unions to mutually agree upon wages and benefits are methods of fiscal responsibility that have been successful.   

With the budget getting more and more difficult to balance each year, what are you willing to cut to keep the city’s budget balanced? What aren’t you willing to cut?

Reducing line items in the city budget is a very difficult task to perform.  I know, because we have experienced budget reductions for my entire ten years as mayor.  It was 2001, in my first year in the position, that we learned that the state was going to reduce the revenue-sharing amount for the first time ever.  It has continued ever since and each time we have dealt with it and still remained fiscally sound.  The obvious line item to take a look at is the permanent employee amount in each department throughout the city.  Employees' wages and benefits account for approximately 80% of the city's budget in any given year.

Areas of the budget that would be difficult to reduce any more than what they are now, would be the public safety departments.  Over the last several years, it has been necessary to reduce a large amount of our employees in both the police and fire departments and any further reductions would likely reduce these departments' abilities to provide the same level of service that they currently provide.