Camden's new mayor ready to get down to work

By KIM MAIALETTI
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN

Mayor Gwendolyn Faison said Wednesday that she will work over the next five months to bring resources into this poverty-stricken city, which she envisions as becoming a mecca for education, health care and small business.

The newly appointed mayor said she will look to her directors for guidance and will tap into a statewide network of friends she has made during her 16 years as one of Camden's strongest political leaders.

"I'm going to work with anyone who wants to help this city," said Faison, 75. "I wouldn't dare say I could do this by myself."

Faison is taking over at a tumultuous time for Camden.

City council appointed her to the mayor's seat Friday, a day after a federal jury convicted former Mayor Milton Milan of 14 corruption charges.

Moreover, Camden has been under state supervision, the highest degree of state oversight allowed without special legislation, since May.

Gov. Christie Whitman's administration has been pushing for legislation that would strip local leaders of their power and allow the state to take control of Camden's day- to-day operations.

Regardless, Faison feels confident she can broker a cooperative relationship with the state and restore integrity to the mayor's office.

"We needed leadership, so here I am," Faison said from behind her desk in her fourth-floor City Hall office. "We' re going to work together."

Faison vowed to hold employees accountable and said she is considering a merit-based pay system.

"I'm a hard taskmaster," Faison admitted.

Even when she was raising three children, Faison was organizing other young mothers on Ormond Avenue - where she still lives - to help keep their street clean.

The fifth of nine children, Faison grew up in what she describes as a "loving, religious, poor family" in Clinton, N.C.

She attended Shaw University in North Carolina for a year before her minister father fell ill and could no longer afford his daughter's tuition.

At 19, Faison moved to Camden to live with her sister and has been here since.

An avid football fan who can rattle off the names of Eagles players without hesitation, she worked as an assistant supervisor for RCA for a number of years and then as a data entry administrator for GTE in Mount Laurel. She retired in 1987, a year after her husband died.

Her political career began in the 1970s when former Mayor Angelo Errichetti tapped her to be a Democratic committeewoman.

She ran for the city Board of Education and lost, but was appointed to the council in 1983, and later to the freeholder board, where she became the first black female freeholder from Camden.

She was defeated by Councilman Ali Sloan-El in the June 1995 primary and retired from the council at the end of that year. However, she returned in 1997 to win back her seat.

Faison confirmed Friday that she will run for mayor in the May 8 municipal election. She is the third candidate to enter the race; Councilman Gilbert "Whip" Wilson and former city spokesman Keith Walker are also running.

Faison would not talk specifically about the advantage she has by already being in the mayor's seat.

"I'm just going to do the best job I can in the next five months," she said.

Faison has the support of City Council President Angel Fuentes as well as leaders across South Jersey, including longtime political ally state Sen. John Adler, D- Camden.

"We're going to work with Gwen. We're going to work with her administration," Fuentes said. "In order for her to get her job done she needs the cooperation of this governing body."

Adler, who has known Faison for at least 15 years, called her a consensus builder who will be able to forge a cooperative relationship with the state.

"I think there's going to be a spirit of cooperation that's been lacking for a while," Adler said. "You're not going to have intentional confrontations on either side. I have no doubt she'll be a fine mayor."