By Amir Khan

Cities on an upward trajectory don’t need to ask county governments to take over vital services.

Yet the South Jersey political machine would have us believe both that Camden is “rising” – as a result of the work of its benevolent overlord, George Norcross – and that relinquishing core city functions to outside entities is a good idea.

The controversy began in November when Camden Mayor Frank Moran and the Camden City Council approved legislation that would allow the county police to supervise housing code enforcement functions.

Supposedly, the city can’t handle the task of ensuring safe housing for residents on its own and needs the county’s Metro police to step in and manage code inspectors.

The city’s elected officials rammed through a resolution authorizing this move despite the protests of hundreds of residents at a City Council meeting.

We are deeply suspicious that the move is an attempt by Norcross and his allies to hasten the gentrification of New Jersey’s poorest city. We are concerned that aggressive enforcement of the building code at the hands of Metro police will lead to ruinously high fines designed to push longtime low-income residents out of their homes to make their way for more desirable development.

We’ve already seen how Norcross, the unelected South Jersey political boss and insurance broker, and his elected allies in city and county government, view Camden’s future.

The Economy Opportunity Act of 2013, written ostensibly to boost Camden, instead funneled more than $1 billion of promised state tax incentives to companies connected to Norcross and his political allies. Large sections of it were written by Parker McCay, the law firm of George’s brother, Phil. And the bill was sponsored by his brother Donald, then a state senator.

These companies relocated to a new set of gleaming office buildings along the waterfront, employing largely suburban workforces in campuses cut off from the rest of the city by expanses of parking lots and guarded by a pervasive police presence.

Very few benefits have gone to longtime Camden residents.

While Norcross claims that he has worked tirelessly to help Camden residents under the “Camden rising” banner, it is becoming more and more clear that South Jersey’s political infrastructure treats the city more like a colony with resources ripe for extraction instead of a vibrant community worth investing in.

And their plan to transfer code enforcement powers to Metro police is another example of this.

The city’s fiscal overseers at the state have weighed in against the plan in the strongest terms, saying it could further damage Camden’s fiscal health.

Code enforcement is meant to be a revenue generator for the city, yet previous iterations of county-run code enforcement cost the city more than $1 million in payments to the far wealthier county.

These previous efforts “failed to yield the anticipated operational returns and revenues,” warned Melanie R. Walter, director of the state’s Division of Local Government Services, in a November 12 letter to Moran objecting to the program.

“The City’s already strained operating budget can ill afford to reinstate this costly program without changes reasonably calculated to yield different, more successful, results,” she said.

At the same time, Norcross’ policies have created the very fiscal disaster that prevents the city from adequately staffing its own code enforcement office.

Thanks to the Economic Opportunity Act, the headquarters of Conner Strong & Buckelew, Norcross’ insurance firm, as well as the other gleaming new waterfront office towers, are exempt from paying property taxes to the city.

Camden’s budget situation is supposed to reach a crisis point over the next five years, with a projected deficit reaching a staggering $139 million. This calamity is largely driven by the lucrative abatements Norcross secured for his company and his political allies, according to a state report, which found that more than $150 million worth of real estate is exempt from paying property taxes.

Norcross and his allies, under pressure from an ongoing investigation into the tax credit program by an independent team of investigators, is belatedly trying to reverse course.

Downtown businesses will soon be paying for increased services through a recently authorized business improvement district.

These token payments wouldn’t be necessary of Norcross and his business pals paid their fair share — and don’t equal the real estate payments they’re exempt from.

It’s time for Camden residents to ensure real accountability in a city government that is hollowed out and in hoc to a rapacious political machine.

Amir Khan is founder and president of the Nehemiah Group, a Camden-based economic development firm, and a longtime community advocate.

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