Faison will ditch Milan's `Mayormobile'

By CLINT RILEY
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN

Camden's new mayor has scrapped the biggest and flashiest symbol of her now-imprisoned predecessor.

Mayor Gwendolyn Faison said Thursday she has no plans to use the ``Mayormobile,'' a black GMC Yukon sport utility vehicle leased by the city for former Mayor Milton Milan.

``I don't need all that,'' insisted the 75-year-old grandmother, who became mayor a week ago after Milan was convicted of 14 federal crimes and stripped of his office.

In addition to doing away with the Mayormobile, Faison said she intends to redeploy the controversial, full-time city police security detail commanded by previous mayors.

``I don't need anybody sitting around looking at me,'' Faison said. ``I have my own baseball bat.''

Camden Police Officer Keith Hicks will be assigned to work out of the mayor's office as part of the city's community policing unit. Officials say he won't be a personal bodyguard and chauffeur, as was the case for Milan' s detail during much of his 3“-year reign.

Hicks occasionally may accompany Faison to meetings, but they will travel in a used sedan already in the city's vehicle fleet, city spokesman Luis Pastoriza said.

State auditors for nearly a decade have criticized mayors in New Jersey's poorest, most violent city for their use of city police as personal bodyguards. Auditors have found the mayoral detail resulted in high costs and limited benefits to the public.

At one point during Milan's administration, two police detectives were assigned to the mayor's office at a cost of more than $100,000, including thousands of dollars in overtime the officers accumulated driving Milan around in the Mayormobile.

A two-year lease the city signed for the Mayormobile expired more than a year and a half ago. Still, the city continued to pay $619.34 a month to lease the vehicle.

The Mayormobile was returned Thursday to a city garage where city equipment, including police lights, were being removed so the vehicle can be returned to the leasing company.

Ulrich ``Al'' Steinberg, director of the state Division of Local Government Services, welcomed the changes Faison is making.

``We believe it was not an efficient or proper use of public resources,'' said Steinberg, whose agency has direct control over city finances.

``I applaud Mayor Faison's rationale to do away with these things.''