TRENTON -- Trenton Mayor Tony Mack emerged from his house this morning and denied any wrongdoing hours after FBI agents conducted a predawn raid at his home and left with two boxes from a four-hour search.
"We have not violated the public trust in any way," Mack said, as he departed his Berkeley Avenue house wearing a suit with his son Tony Mack Jr. at his side. He declined further comment and asked the swarm of media to leave his neighborhood.
FBI agents alerted Trenton police at 1 a.m. that they intended to serve a search warrant at Mack's house, police said. As many as 10 agents participated in the search, which concluded at about 6:15 a.m. when they loaded two boxes into SUVs and left the house.
FBI spokeswoman Barbara Woodruff said she could only confirm that a search warrant was executed at Mack's house, but declined to speak further about the investigation.
Rebekah Carmichael, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey, said, "We cannot confirm or deny our involvement at this time."
Mack's two-year tenure as the mayor of New Jersey's capital city has been marked by tumult with a budget crunch that forced mass layoffs, a revolving door of cabinet appointees and lawsuits filed against the city.
A citizens' group tried to recall Mack last year but was unable to get sufficient petition signatures by a deadline to force a special election.
Mack, however, has not been identified as the target of any criminal investigations to date. It remains unclear what prompted the FBI agents to search his home this morning.
Mack's half-brother, Stanley "Muscles" Davis remained outside the house this morning while agents conducted the search. He refused to speak with a reporter when approached.
Davis, a former supervisor at the Trenton Water Works, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of official misconduct after he admitted to using water works crews to perform private side jobs using city equipment. He also billed the city for the hours.
Davis faces six years in prison when he is sentenced. In making the plea, Davis agreed to forfeit his job at the plant, lose his lifetime benefits, and cannot accept public employment again.
Former Trenton business administrator Bill Guhl has said that Mack ordered a change at the Trenton Water Works in September 2010 that gave Davis the ability to authorize emergency overtime for repair jobs.
Guhl said during a February 2011 interview that he believes the move by Mack was intended to benefit his brother.
During a meeting with The Times of Trenton's editorial board in December, Mack said the city was conducting an internal review after a former recreation department employee filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city.
Mack said during the December interview that the "internal controls review" led to information being turned over to the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office, though no further information has been released since.
“There were some internal issues that kind of correlate and resemble the allegations that are being made that we had already begun reviewing,” Mack said in December. “I don’t know the level of charges, but we believe mistakes were made.”
In addition to the recreation department, Mack said the city’s review included operations in the Department of Housing & Economic Development and the water utility.
The civil lawsuit alleged corruption, cronyism and mismanagement under Mack and acting public works director Harold Hall, a co-defendant in the suit. Among other things, the complaint alleged Mack stole 12 city-owned tents, that permits for the city’s boat ramp went missing while thousands of dollars in permit fees went unrecorded, and that Hall sought to bypass public bidding laws for construction projects.
As he entered City Hall this morning, Hall said he didn't know what the FBI was investigating.
"I have no knowledge of it," Hall said . "I have no idea what it's about."
Separately, in February 2011, officers of a political action committee called Partners for Progress were interviewed by the FBI after the group's $7,200 donation to Mack's campaign account become the subject of controversy, the organization's treasurer said at the time.
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