In about two weeks, the board of commissioners of the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority will hold its annual reorganization. The current chairman, Commissioner Harold Mitchell is a holdover whose term expired in February 2011. The terms of Commissioners Carol Brokaw and Alex Toliver expire on Feb. 1, but under authority law they can remain as holdovers. Commissioner Malcolm Dunn was named to a vacant term in November and only began attending meetings in December. Cecil Sanders was erroneously given a five-year term in November when he succeeded an alternate - his term that began in November technically is up Feb. 1. Perhaps that is why the mayor wanted to offer his name again this month, to give him a proper new term from Feb. 1, 2012 to Feb. 1, 2014. According to city records, Rev. Tracey Brown has a term to Feb. 1, 2015 and her former term as alternate is vacant.
So how did the very significant vote on the Watson-Ervin settlement break down?
Dunn, Toliver and Sanders voted "yes," while Mitchell and Brokaw voted "no." Brown was absent. As an alternate, Sanders only got to vote because only four of five commissioners were present. If present for the vote on the chairman, given the alliances over the Watson-Ervin vote, Brown holds the deciding vote.
Political pundits will point out that Brown is the mayor's pastor and good friend and that the mayor plans to run for a third term. This could color the vote, depending on who is supporting the mayor. Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Green, the mayor's mentor during her first term, has stated he is not endorsing anyone at this time.
Dunn is coming to the board with lots of ideas and a track record of entrepreneurial fervor. There may even be a few more reasons why he would feel the mantle of power belongs to him. The City Council did nothing with the mayor's "intention" to name new people to the board, so for the immediate future the players will remain the same.
Meanwhile, Watson's successor as executive director, Duane Young, is attempting to get the PMUA off on a new footing of transparency and responsiveness to the ratepayers. At the same time, DumpPMUA founder Philip Charles is uncovering more settlements and questioning the authority's need for existence even more vigorously than when he began three years ago. Who wants to step into this whirling maelstrom of conflicting directions? More importantly, who has the votes? We'll soon see.
--Bernice
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Close down this cesspool of corruption.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Watson had yearly contracts -- then suddenly a longer contract that essentially says he gets paid even if he decides to quit -- didn't the Commissioners SIGN OFF on this?
ReplyDeleteIf they agreed to it, they were NOT looking out of the interests of the community.
What about the legal advisers to the PMUA? Who are they looking out for? Didn't they advise the commissioners the implications of the contract?
I agree with people who think this was orchestrated. It just doesn't make good business sense.
As more and information is extracted through OPRA inquiries the case becomes stronger that the the million dollar bonus given to Watson and Erwin were premeditated and a conclusion to a long planned and well executed conspiracy participated in by some. if not all, sitting Commissioners, and the award recipients.In the first 2 days the petition supplicating the Governor to intercede has met with overwhelming support. Please, if you have not already affixed your signature please do so on line ( Dump PMUA ) or manually on petitions which are being hand circulated. The first batch of signatures will be submitted today. As additional signatures are obtained they will follow. A letter to the Governor' office would add further support:
ReplyDeleteHonorable Chris Christie
Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
The content might be as simple as:
Dear Governor:
We respectfully ask your intervention to prevent the payment of approximately $1,000,000 recently awarded to the Director and Deputy Director of the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority, who retired of their own volition, for reasons which the Authority refuses to reveal to the Public. We pay the highest rates for sewer and disposal in the county, possibly the State, and for these and other reasons too numerous to enumerate we ask for your immediate intervention.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Very truly yours,
A second option of effective protest is to Opt Out of the PMUA program and engage a private hauler. If enough households follow this path the economic pressure will eventually compel reform. Also, it sends a clear message as to our discontent with the PMUA management. Their wanton conduct does the greatest disservice to the platoons on great men who get up in the dark of night and in all weather perform their jobs, and secondly to the 12,000 households, many of whom are struggling to hang on to their homes.
Oh dear ..... I hope it is not a Republican like Frank Meeks or John Bramnick. They would work against everyhing this great Democratic town has accomplished !!
ReplyDelete