A little light and more heat Monday
Where to start with Monday’s City Council meeting?
Appointments proposed by Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs did
not go forward. A resolution to give Housing Authority holdover Rickey Williams
a five-year term was tabled after concerns were expressed about whether the
expiration date, given as July 1, 2016, was correct. Five mayoral nominations
for seats on the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority were removed from the
agenda following Council President Adrian Mapp’s statement of concern over a
state investigation into a $1 million settlement for two former PMUA executives.
An ordinance on new ID regulations for anyone handling
liquor in bars and restaurants was tabled. It was up for final passage after an
initial vote last month, but representatives of bar owners said they only found
out about it last week. They asked for another month to assess its impact.
Robinson-Briggs also asked the council to table it. Police Sgt. Kevin O’Brien
said the new rules would not go into effect until license renewal time in July
and the new photo badges would help officers quickly identify legitimate
employees, thus saving time on inspections. But the council agreed to allow the
extra time.
A new item Monday was introduction of the 2012 budget, with
a proposed municipal tax levy of $50,495,050. The document was only completed
at 3 p.m. Monday, auditor Bob Swisher of Supplee, Clooney said. The council
approved introduction and can now hold budget deliberations. A public hearing
on the introduced budget will be held April 9. Mapp asked City Clerk Abubakar
Jalloh to advertise dates for budget deliberations as soon as possible.
Midway through the meeting, the mayor began making comments
off-mike while Councilwoman Rebecca Williams, pressed into service as temporary
chairman of the whole, was reading out the resolutions for council votes. When
Williams asked the mayor to be quiet, the mayor lashed back by saying, “You sit
there every meeting and grunt and sigh, and you won’t even do the Pledge of
Allegiance.”
The remark brought a ripple of reaction from audience
members later identified as veterans. Mapp responded to the mayor’s outburst by
saying, “People are supposed to ask to be recognized.”
Williams stood by her right not to pledge and said the mayor
was wrong “to mock that.”
“Let’s move on,” Councilwoman Vera Greaves said, but
Councilwoman Bridget Rivers, taking part by phone from a National League of
Cities conference, chided her colleagues for “getting nothing done” and said
they should get some training as she was doing at the conference.
“My light is shining here, but my stomach is hurting,”
Rivers said in reaction to the dissension.
At the end of the meeting, longtime resident and Democratic
Party stalwart Dottie Gutenkauf said the mayor and council were both
being “unprofessional” and reminded them they were on camera for cable
broadcast statewide.
“Every citizen in New Jersey
can see what is going on in Plainfield
Plaintalker will amplify on some of these topics and others
in future posts.
--Bernice
Mapp tabled the nominations until after primary elections to be specific.
ReplyDeleteNot to belabor this, Bernice, but as I was attempting to introduce the resolutions, the mayor's constant whispered heckling became very distracting. It was the first time I have ever served as chairperson (pro tem), so to have the mayor ridicule my efforts to assist in conducting the business of the people was especially insulting. She does this during virtually every meeting, and I usually am able to ignore it by not looking her way at all, but this time, it was worse, as SEVERAL witnesses can attest. Dottie's suggestion--that I put my finger to my ear so as to shut out the mayor's voice--is inadequate, and doesn't respond to the problem at hand--which is the mayor's continual grandstanding and pettiness and playing to her crowd of supporters.
ReplyDeleteI was deeply offended when she called my patriotism into question, because my religious beliefs preclude me from pledging allegiance to ANY flag. That she would pander in this way to the audience, which included some veterans, shows how truly contemptuous she is of the First Amendment. By now, no one expects any better from her. She is truly a disgrace. PMUA Commissioner Toliver then decided to get up to the mic to berate me as well, saying, in effect, that I wasn't fit to serve. To hear that coming from a commissioner who voted in favor of a PMUA settlement of over $1 million that is so egregious that it is now being investigated by the state...well, that is rich. I think the only thing to do is to change my seat.
Rebecca
Well said Rebecca.
DeleteYou should not have to move from your seat. If the Mayor can not behave Council President should remove her from the audience, (he should make sure he has lots of Po po around first).
Oh Rebecca PLEASE! You were out of line as much as the Mayor! It's obvious NONE of you respect the Mayor but you MUST respect the position! The public spoke about the behavior of you all! And for ONCE Bridget Rivers made the most sense out of all of you! You are ALL a disgrace to this town, with your personal agendas, vendettas and nasty attitudes! Come on November so we can VOTE and make our voices heard!!
ReplyDeleteRebecca, changing your seat might help--at least it would get you and Sharon out of each other's hearing range. My problem is with childish and unprofessional behavior in public--yours, Sharon's, and that of others. I only spoke of you and Sharon because of last night's episode. (I did include everyone else in my remarks, as you know.) All of this nonsense, as I said last night, deflects everyone's attention from our community's many critical problems, so those don't get dealt with sensibly, and when they are done everything has to be done in a hurry and get messed up. A former boss of mine used to quip, "There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over," and how right he was. The problem is that our elected leadership seems to miss the time to do it right, and the do-overs are messy, incomplete, don't solve the problems, and make matters worse and problems more difficult to solve. Members of the administration and the governing body must put personal issues and old political wars aside, stop being distracted by this kind of BS, and get to work at the jobs Plainfielders elected them to do. That's some of what I said last night and I still mean every word. There's also a lot I didn't say and probably won't, at least in public, but I want, and the city needs, leadership that consists of grown-ups who know how to behave in public, not kids on a school playground.
ReplyDeleteNext week Joe and I will celebrate 48 years of marriage--to each other--and while we have had many disagreements over the years, we have NEVER washed our dirty linen in public.
Good for you Rebecca. It is not hard to make the Mayor out to be an idiot. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteRemember Dottie this is your PARTY speaking.
Yes...both wings of it, the "Regulars" and the "New Dems." And I wouldn't call what happened last night "speaking."
DeleteTo be honest here, I have heard the mayor whisper loudly while members of the Council and audience were talking. She is a rude person in general and even ruder to people she doesn't like.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to see this escalate, but the mayor should have apologized and let it end there. Our mayor is not known for mature or rational behavior. A little help from both parties would have been nice, but there we are. Let's hope everyone learned something here.
Bob, very often I have found your comments to be "rude" as well. It is nice to see that you have calmed down your rhetoric some recently, but your continual name calling, an example of which is in your comment above; "She is a rude person", still continues and only fuels the feud.
DeleteHow does this feel Bob? YOUR AN IDIOT! , see I shouldn't have said that, I should have said 'your comments are idiotic'.
I don't take issue with you calling the Mayor's comments rude, or that she acted rude in a particular setting.
As you mentioned "let's hope everyone learned something here".
Good luck with that!
I heard about this. It is a slap in the face of every citizen when a member of the government refuses to acknowledge the very government she CHOOSE to be part of. As someone who fought for this country, and risked my life, I find it deeply offensive.
ReplyDeleteThis is suppose to be a Council Meeting. - Council should control the meeting and if he Mayor can not keep her big fat mouth shut, she should be removed from the meeting. PERIOD!
ReplyDeleteWHOA PEOPLE!!!!
ReplyDeleteIsn't this the town that won't even THINK of voting outside the Democratic line?
Vote Repbulican? NEVER!
Vote off the line? NEVER!
What in goodness name do you expect? Same stuff different day.
Will we finally get some people with a spine and brains vote for Plainfield instead of a party?
To 9:28AM - it is YOU'RE an idiot, not YOUR an idiot.
ReplyDeleteI am ashamed of the antics of our leadership
ReplyDeletebut sometimes we have to express our strong heated passionate combative selves in order to establish or re establish order...
Now I believe that our Mayor and only a few others have never complained that the positions they hold are (PART TIME)!!!
But I heard it from others in leadership
so I have come to a conclusion that the reason for all this dysfunctional behavior rest on one item (reward), MONEY received for service
Let us explore this as a valid piont prior to
remarking on the (BIZZ BAMM BOOM ) of the last
or round 2 or council meeting..hahahhaha
Yes, yes, yes !!! I sure can see my taxes going down as long as we can continue to only have Democrats on the Council. Happy Days are here to stay !!! P.S. No independents need apply either
ReplyDeletewell...I'll say this...it's nice to see one New Democrat on the city council who doesn't fold like a cheap suit and throw their principles out with the trash.
ReplyDeleteWay to go Rebecca!
This mayor is an embarassment to herself and to the city. I can only hope and wait to see if enough residents are fed up with her lack of tact, intelligence, and ability to move this city forward to get her out of office...I know how I'll be voting!
ReplyDeleteThe only reason Adrian Mapp changed his tone is because of the letter from the state. Otherwise he was all for it. He was even trying to get his brother in-law a seat on the commission. He didn’t show any opposition to it before that. Wasn't he in favor of the latest appointments thus going against the other "new dems". Mapp continues to show himself as a sell-out and flip-flopper! Mapp only cares about Mapp and being this city’s next mayor, which he doesn’t deserve to be mayor or even 3rd ward council. Say NO to Mapp in the June primary and in November.
ReplyDeleteYou said it!!!
ReplyDeleteWe are tired of Bipolar leadership
Adrian Mapp GOOD BYE, GOOD RIDDENCE
We will be voting soon thank you
Adrain you are a great family man and your
ability to exercise decorum during public sessions is to be admired...your replacement will indeed mirror your mannerisms in terms of professional behavior...but will not be BIPOLAR!!! The person whom will be in your position soon will be of one sound mind and will not ever complain about the reward for being in leadership...This person will reflect the Good,Bold,Proud and Loyal attributes of us
Plainfielders
Please let us help our First ever Female CEO
ReplyDeleteof the City of Plainfield
Maybe we can become more valuable to the discussion by actually implementing her vision of UNITY!!!!
In my humble opinion,one of the most important items in her plan was for creating local neighborhood Associations. This apparatus has been and will always be an effective tool for empowerment anywhere!!!
I am so proud of the residents of Plainfield who continue to ask their neighbors to join these groups...But there are some of us who are too busy and will not be apart of anything
but will be first to become outspoken critics of others who are trying to do the right thing
The question I am posing to all today is
Are you a member of your neighborhood Block Association?
IF NOT.
WHY NOT?
If Adrian Mapp wins the election for Mayor, it's time to move out of Plainfield! If you think Sharon Robinson-Briggs is bad, wait until you see Adrian Mapp's pompous hind-quarters! Well, not as if we haven't seen it already! He's THE biggest sell-out, flip-flopper next to Mitt Romney! You think Plainfield is in bad shape now?? HA! If Adrian wins, the town will SURELY be worse off! He's a disgrace to his Caribbean culture and to the citizens he was elected to serve!
ReplyDeleteFor the sake of the young people being raised in Plainfield I hope our leaders grow up and set a better example.
ReplyDeleteHow can we expect them to behave in a civilized way if we cannot do it ourselves?