Jackson Confirmed for DPW&UD

Plaintalker was envisioning Plainfield as a little "Trenton on the Green Brook" Monday after City Council President Annie McWilliams called for an executive session which would include discussion of Trenton's Eric Berry as city administrator. Chief Finance Officer Ron Zilinski served there and so did Eric Jackson, who was nominated to be director of the Department of Public Works & Urban Development.

Jackson won City Council approval Monday for the post and will begin work Sept. 26, Acting City Administrator David Kochel said.

However, the meeting concluded without any action on Berry. When Plaintalker inquired about the earlier mention of Berry, McWilliams said the council did not discuss him in the executive session.

Berry, Trenton's business administrator under Mayor Tony Mack, last month came under fire for polling council members there regarding their likely votes on other Mack nominees. Objectors saw the move as a blow for transparency in government.

Jackson was public works director under former Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer and was named assistant business administrator under Mack in July 2010 for less than a month. Zilinski had been Palmer's finance director and was comptroller in the Mack administration.

Unlike Plainfield, Trenton has a strict residency requirement. Jackson's appointment here included a residency waiver, putting him in the company of Police Director Martin Hellwig of Lake Hopatcong, department head Al Restaino of Nutley, former Public Works department head Jennifer Wenson Maier of Rahway and Zilinski.

Kochel is the city's third acting city administrator this year. His initial 90-day acting term was extended into November through special legislation, but then the post will become vacant again. A "permanent" city administrator, if named, would serve through the end of the current mayor's term ending Dec. 31, 2013.

--Bernice