Plaintalker asked citizen activist Philip Charles of DumpPMUA to comment on some current issues the group is working on.To learn more about DumpPMUA, click here.
Q. Gov. Chris Christie is looking into the practices of certain authorities with an eye to reform. What would you ask him to do regarding the PMUA?
--Bernice
Dump PMUA 2011 Q&A
Q. DumpPMUA previously challenged the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority directly with OPRA requests and a court case. For 2011, it appears that your new goal is to encourage residents to seek the aid of city and state elected officials to reform or abolish the PMUA. Is that correct?
Q. DumpPMUA previously challenged the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority directly with OPRA requests and a court case. For 2011, it appears that your new goal is to encourage residents to seek the aid of city and state elected officials to reform or abolish the PMUA. Is that correct?
A. Our goals of making the PMUA more fiscally responsible, transparent, and accountable to the residents of Plainfield have not changed. They are just naturally evolving and progressing. Our first step was to work with the PMUA which did not yield any results. We then forced the PMUA to make some changes to their operations through the lawsuit and subsequent settlement. We have added another layer by trying to work through the City while keeping other options outside the City open. We continue to closely examine the operations of PMUA both through OPRA requests and by regular attendance at their meetings and rate hearings. It is apparent to us that despite changes to some practices, the PMUA has not made all of the changes required in order to insure that all Plainfield residents are treated fairly and that rates are competitive. Because we do not have much confidence that all City officials will take a hardline stance with the PMUA as needed, we are also pursuing other avenues at the county and state levels.
Q. Was the 61 percent increase for shared services the catalyst for your current campaign regarding the PMUA?
Q. Was the 61 percent increase for shared services the catalyst for your current campaign regarding the PMUA?
A. No, We have continuously worked on the issues with the PMUA for approximately 2 years. As a result of the lawsuit, the PMUA now publishes proper notice of rate increases which included the most recent 61% increase to the Shared Services Fees. Shared Services amounts to $331 per year per household or $5 million per year. Once the public became educated that those fees are for services provided by the PMUA to public areas in the City they did the simple math which does not compute. As a result, many residents have been contacting us once again to see how they can help us or how we can help them. It is the involvement of many residents, including business owners, which brought the issues to the forefront again including the article in the Courier News. We at DumpPMUA have always been working on the issues.
Q. The PMUA declined to meet with the governing body last fall and has yet to set a meeting date. What do you want the City Council to do about that?
Q. The PMUA declined to meet with the governing body last fall and has yet to set a meeting date. What do you want the City Council to do about that?
A. We want the City Council to hold PMUA's feet to the fire. It's quite simple. Either the City and PMUA come to an agreement for the benefit of all Plainfield residents and bring the PMUA rates within rates which are comparable to other towns or the City works to abolish the PMUA which is well within their rights and is their obligation to the residents!
Q. Gov. Chris Christie is looking into the practices of certain authorities with an eye to reform. What would you ask him to do regarding the PMUA?
A. We would like for Governor Christie to appoint an investigator to come into Plainfield and look at the operations of the PMUA from top to bottom including their contracts, spending, consultants, employees and their relationships with PMUA officials and other City officials. There is so much that needs investigating and we as members of the public can only scratch the surface. When one looks at the fact that the PMUA's budget went from $10 million in 1999 to over $23 million in 2011 despite the fact that there has not been substantial development in Plainfield and that that PMUA continues to benefit from a lower disposal rate than private haulers, red flags should immediately be raised and questions should be asked.
Q. A stalemate continues over filling the PMUA board of commissioners. What do you want the mayor and council to do about that?
Q. A stalemate continues over filling the PMUA board of commissioners. What do you want the mayor and council to do about that?
A. We know of at least one resident who submitted his name for consideration and did not even receive a response from the Mayor. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that this resident has been vocal in his questions of the PMUA and those types of individuals are not seen as valuable to the Board of Commissioners. That in itself is the problem. If we want reform of the PMUA, we need to appoint commissioners who see a need for reform. Past candidates that were considered and wanted to hear from residents about our concerns were taken off the list for consideration. The continued stalemate just demonstrates another reason for the City to seriously consider abolishing the PMUA.
It is important to note that abolishing the PMUA would not have to result in every PMUA employee losing their job. In fact, most of the rank and file employees would still be necessary to continue the vital service of garbage collection and disposal as well as sewer system maintenance. It would allow for elimination of the bloat at the PMUA. Many times we hear the argument that the City would have to assume the debt of the PMUA but those people seem to forget that whether we have to pay the PMUA's debt as ratepayers or as taxpayer of the City, the debt is ours and unavoidable. We are hopeful that something is done because we do not want to have others take care of our mess. When you don't clean it up yourself, you don't always like the way someone else does it.
It is important to note that abolishing the PMUA would not have to result in every PMUA employee losing their job. In fact, most of the rank and file employees would still be necessary to continue the vital service of garbage collection and disposal as well as sewer system maintenance. It would allow for elimination of the bloat at the PMUA. Many times we hear the argument that the City would have to assume the debt of the PMUA but those people seem to forget that whether we have to pay the PMUA's debt as ratepayers or as taxpayer of the City, the debt is ours and unavoidable. We are hopeful that something is done because we do not want to have others take care of our mess. When you don't clean it up yourself, you don't always like the way someone else does it.
--Philip Charles
Philip has done a superb job of keeping the heat on PMUA. Thank you. Perhaps Philip should request to be on Tony Rucker's radio show and discuss PMUA with Tony also.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bernice, for doing the interview. It is very apparent what a good reporter you are. Plainfield is lucky to have you.
Plainfield's current CFO Ron Zilinski is key here. He should be able to give the council an idea of what the long-term financial costs would be to the city if PMUA operations were brought back under municipal control. In addition the CFO should be able to inform the council and quantify for the property owner what absorbing PMUA liabilities and personnel costs would do to their taxes.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that I have never heard of any government entity in any state in the USA being able to run a business enterprise as well as the private sector!
ReplyDeleteI live in a condo complex in town and since we have gone from Waste Management to PMUA . . . the service is shoddy at best! Where WM used to send one truck with one worker, PMUA sends one truck with 3 or 4 workers followed closely buy supervisors in a pickup truck and they leave trash all over the roadway! The Dumpsters are smaller than before and by the time of pickup , they are overflowing!
They cut back by one pickup day per week now and want to raise the rates . . . we need WM back!
My feeling is you would get the 'party' line from Zilinksi, and only an independent assessment would be adequate for making a judgment.
ReplyDeleteOff the top of my head, you could at least eliminate the paid commissioners, one CFO (the City and PMUA each having one), probably one of the Directors, if not both, and there would also be savings with the consolidation of the City's and PMUA's 'back-office' support staff. I'm certain there is much more on the expense side that can be cut, and, of course, we can't forget the tax savings accruing to property owners when the expense of solid waste and sewage become tax deductible once they are again part of our municipal taxes. Quality of service has to be explored, as does the impact of debt ratings and such.
There are many issues that are in need of exploration, as many have already done. This cannot be a one-sided affair however.
For the sewer, add in PARSA & MCUA. Then don't forget UCUA over in Rahway. Many fingers in the pie as Gov Christie has pointed out, and no Republican to blame.
ReplyDelete@ 3:44: UCUA, MCUA, and PARSA already get payments through the PMUA. Those payments are minimal and have stayed relatively the same since the PMUA came to Plainfield. The biggest chunk of the pie goes to PMUA's consultants, engineers, attorneys, and lucrative contracts. Between the 5 top executives, the PMUA kicks out nearly $750,000 in salary, benefits, travel, car allowances, etc.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone ever wondered why your PMUA bill is mailed to Boston, MA when PMUA has over 150 employees?
Have you ever wondered why/how MILLENNIUM SALES gets payments for translation services in excess of $7k and yet the company operates out of a house in Elizabeth?
http://dumppmua.com/files/April10-May10_Bills_Listing.pdf
Simply put PMUA is a bloated agency similar to Passaic Valley.
$800 a year for sewer service is ridiculous.
ReplyDeletePMUA has unilaterally changed the terms of the agreement with the City. The original terms were for PMUA to receive 1.2 million in exchange for 8 yearly bulky waste pickups, weekly recycling, disposal of brush, and disposal of trash from public areas. No City council member or administration would have ever agreed to the payment of over $5 million for waste which the city is responsible for. The current council members have the power to STOP the PMUA at any moment.
The PMUA maintains that illegal dumping is a problem. Wasn't this the main reason they were created? With sewer and solid waste services no longer affordable or run efficiently, the City needs to look at alternatives. The PMUA is no longer working towards their mission of..."providing and managing environmentally friendly, comprehensive, and cost-effective collection, transport, recycling, treatment and disposal services for municipal solid waste materials and sanitary sewers."
SNOWY DAYS = NO COLLECTION! Let us not forget all of the "snow" days the PMUA has helped themselves to this winter as us poor slobs go off to work in the morning to come home to aborted collections of both trash and recycables. Yes it has been a tough winter, but if there is no collection due to the weather, one would hope residents would get a credit or the rules of one can for the next collection would not apply. Try and call the PMUA after one of these "snow days" and you will get so many lame excuses like "the collectors got started late"; "the roads were impassable" etc. After one recent storm, I check the PMUA web site for an update -- there it was grammer and misspelled words for all to see stating the collection for the day would not take place "Do two the snow..." My newspapers and magazines are now frozen to the sidewalk -- waiting for the spring thaw. DUMP PMUA...PLEASE!
ReplyDelete