Plainfield Politics: The "Strictly from Hunger" Games

Maybe Councilman William Reid said it best.

At Wednesday's special meeting, Reid said he had attended a conference of the National League of Cities where he met elected officials from all over the country. He was surprised to find that officials from as far away as Alabama and Tennessee had heard about Plainfield, but their question was, "What the heck is the problem with the mayor and council?"

Reid has managed to come down on both sides the current dispute, defending Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs while saying she should have apologized early on for using city funds to pay for a controversial radio broadcast in August 2010. After an investigation, the council unanimously voted to reprimand and fine the mayor. In a move to clear her name, she is now suing the council.


While still sticking up for her version of how the 2010 "town meeting" came about, Reid has volunteered to help get the mayor to back off the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, major city issues are taking a back seat to the infighting.

Though all the elected officials are Democrats, public meetings are often rife with dissension. Members of the public have been pleading for decorum, as the meetings can be widely viewed on local cable and fiber-optic stations. Part of the acrimony arises from past political battles, such as the 2009 contest between the mayor and Council President Adrian Mapp. The mayoral seat will be up for election in 2013 and lines are already being drawn among factions.

Mapp, the chairman of the New Democrats, recently accepted the party line for re-election to his Third Ward seat from Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Green. He won the seat in 2008 after knocking out the party's choice in the June primary. Mapp has endured political and personal attacks from Green for years. But the rapprochement did not usher in a new era of collegiality. Instead, Mapp caught more hell from those who had seen him as the pure-hearted public servant in contrast to Green's mean "boss" image.

The mayor took office in 2006 and began carrying a basket of candy around on her official visits. Meet her in City Hall, more candy was on the table. Her second term campaign featured handouts of snacks at the Senior Center and other locations. But somewhere along the line, the Lady Bountiful ploy gave way to an alleged habit of proclaiming "I am the f***ing mayor!" when crossed. Her cabinet developed a revolving door and in a pinch, she even took a turn acting as city administrator in charge of day-to-day operations as well as being the part-time mayor. Just before Christmas in 2010, she fired a city administrator who was about to give birth. The council overturned her decision. A series of mayoral vetoes for legislation on governmental reform ensued.

The administration and governing body spent countless hours dealing with a contretemps between a volunteer-led baseball league and a city-sponsored one. Verbal barbs from the mayor became increasingly prevalent at council meetings, on camera. It seems a bandolier of poison darts had replaced the basket of candy.

Plainfielders love a good political scrap, but things have devolved to the point that many are deeply  concerned about the city's image to outsiders and its viability as a good place to live. One close observer calculates it will take a decade or so of new leadership before the Good Ship Plainfield rights itself and sails ahead. How many citizens will simply disembark before then and leave the city behind for their own mental, physical and emotional well-being?

--Bernice