Lacking City Council action Monday, the reorganization of the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority will take place tonight (Tuesday) with the same board that split in January over a $725,000 settlement with outgoing directors.
Commissioners Malcolm Dunn and Alex Toliver and Alternate Cecil Sanders Jr. voted "yes" last month to settle with Executive Director Eric Watson and Assistant Executive Director David Ervin, with Chairman Harold Mitchell and Commissioner Carol Ann Brokaw voting "no." Sanders was able to vote because Commissioner Tracey Brown was absent. (See Plaintalker's post here.) With previous settlements, the two outgoing directors will receive a total of $1 million, which Mitchell said cannot be paid because the authority doesn't have the funds.
Dunn and Sanders were named to the board only in November and Mitchell also alleged that the pair went outside an ongoing arbitration process to cut the deal.
Appointment rosters offered by the mayor on Feb. 6 and for Monday's agenda would have put Brokaw off the board and demoted Mitchell to an alternate who could only vote if the board lacked a quorum. Mitchell was already a holdover whose term expired in February 2011. Now he and Brokaw, whose term expires this month, will both remain as holdovers, along with Toliver, whose term also expires this month. Sanders, who was named to a commissioner's term in the new rosters, will remain an alternate. Dunn's term extends to February 2014.
The lineup is unchanged because the council first decided not to add nominations as a new item Monday, but Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson said the mayor requested that the names be added. But then a roll call vote to add the resolution failed, falling short of the five votes needed. Council members Vera Greaves, Bridget Rivers, William Reid and Council President Adrian Mapp voted "yes" and Annie McWilliams, Cory Storch and Rebecca Williams voted "no."
At the PMUA reorganization tonight, three votes will be needed to choose a chairman and other officers for 2012. The authority, which provides solid waste and sewer services to the city, is at a crucial stage of transition in both its operational leadership and its fiscal viability. The board of commissioners for 2012 will face many hard decisions as well as an increasing public outcry for reform. The reorganization is 6 p.m. at PMUA headquarters, 127 Roosevelt Avenue.
--Bernice
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All the PMUA commissioners ought to resign or be forced to vacate their offices.
ReplyDeleteBrokaw, Mitchell, and Toliver participated in the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in healthcare benefits and other payments in contravention of MC 3:35-7 which limits compensation to $4500/yr.
Dunn and Sanders, meanwhile, subverted an ongoing arbitration process, according to PMUA Chairman Harold Mitchell, awarding PMUA's former top-two executives with a severance package worth nearly $1,000,000. They too should resign, and quitting execs Watson and Ervin (along with the PMUA attorney) held to account for their part in the theft of benefits.
There are also numerous questions that remain unanswered:
Who, and under what authority, was the Solid Waste lease formula in the Inter Local Agreement scrapped? This occured almost before the ink was dry on the ILA, and looks like your classic bait and switch. (Maybe Adrian Mapp, Dunn, or Mitchell know, as they represent nearly a quorom of the 1998 City Council, during which time the switch was likely made.) PMUA may actually owe the City millions.
Why does the sewer lease show up in the City budget as PMUA Revenue Sharing when the Authority's own financial statements say no revenue sharing payments have ever been made? What accounts for its portrayal as revenue sharing when PMUA hands over the check? (See http://ptalker2.blogspot.com/2010/06/council-pmua-meet-on-goals.html)
Where is the evidence? PMUA's own Resolution 232 says rate increases need to be validated by expert testimony and evidence at a Rate Hearing, with the opportunity for cross-examination. Why is no evidence ever provided, and the public shut-up when it asks for it?
Why are no answers forthcoming? Could it be there are none that would pass the smell test?
It may be the City Council (not just this one, but every one since PMUA's inception) is too tied up with personal conficts of interest to provide the necessary oversight. Obviously a majority of the current Council fits this bill.
PMUA, a racket? The longer you look at it, the more it seems the Authority is nothing but an organized municipal racketeering scheme.
Tonight's reorganization will be interesting. I doubt the commissioners will step down because most of our local public officials take us to be fools and rubes, too dumb to know what's going on, and too disorganized to do anything about it.
It will be very fitting if Malcolm Dunn rises to the chairmanship, like he rose to City Council President when the ILA was whacked and hacked. He has never met a public dollar he didn't want to stuff into his own pocket. That's PMUA's credo also, so it's a perfect match.
Well we now know where MAPP stands on the issue! Why he would have voted to approve holding the resolution is beyond me. Maybe he is now in concert with the Green.
ReplyDeleteMapp is learning quickly as he circumvents the New Dems and aligns himself with Jerry Green's crowd.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe he is voting with Greaves, Rivers and Reid.
Annie, Cory, Rebecca, hold the line! (no pun intended)
Sorry, I neglected to mention Rev. Tracey Brown among the commissioners who have partaken of the manna from heaven that comes in the form of illegal healthcare benefits.
ReplyDelete(http://www.dumppmua.com/files/Health_Dental_Payments.pdf)
Perhaps she'll run for City Council and bring PMUA's scofflaw doctrines with her.
Rev. Brown knows better. She avoided all meetings where votes were taken to approve the lucrative settlements. Just wait... their time will come!
ReplyDeleteDUMP PMUA DUMP PMUA DUMP PMUA DUMP PMUA DUMP PMUA
ReplyDeleteAlan, the rumor is that Sharon's minister is planning to run for the Council.
ReplyDeleteI dont think Rev Tracy Brown will run for city council. There is too much in her background, PMUA, to overcome. We see how that worked for Brokaw when she ran for mayor 3 years ago. Brown has been a bad commissioner, I can't believe Green would put her up to see her take a public thrashing over PMUA. I don't think her religion mixes well with politics either.
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