Task Force Report Alone Not a Cure

Tonight residents and officials will hear the results of a 10-month inquiry into workings of the Plainfield Municipal Authority. The City Council's PMUA Task Force will give its report at a special joint meeting, 7 p.m. at Washington Community School.

Born into controversy, the authority that handles the city's sewerage and solid waste emerged from early litigation to become the city's fifth largest employer and part of the community's fabric, offering an Environmental Fair each fall. But at a meeting in 2009 with city officials, Executive Director Eric Watson was edgy, defensive. True, rate hikes earlier that year had brought an outcry from residents and caused formation of a ratepayers' watchdog group, but Watson's dramatic tone seemed to reflect a personal hurtthat didn't jibe with the reasoned presentation of PMUA attorney Leslie London to the governing body.

At this juncture, the leadership of the PMUA is in the hands of an interim director, Duane Young, who impressed the council last fall with his pledge of cooperation and transparency. But he may or may not have the post permanently. Watson and Assistant Executive Director David Ervin are gone, albeit it with a parting settlement so controversial that Gov. Chris Christie wants an investigation. The board of commissioners is split, as are the governing body and the mayor over appointments. And as the DumpPMUA group continues to uncover dubious use of the ratepayers' money, the drumbeat for dissolution of the authority has intensified.

But will tonight's report resolve anything?

Not likely. It is a report from a volunteer task force, not a mandate. The governing body will have to decide what action, if any, is warranted now that the state is looking at the authority. At the local level, the issue of the PMUA's future is almost too clouded by politics to permit any rational action. As an autonomous body, the authority is expected to solve its own problems, unless, as several close observers feel, they are so fundamental that only disbanding the PMUA will suffice.

The PMUA is undoubtedly the most-studied entity in the city's history, with volumes of data on the DumpPMUA web site and more emerging every day. What this report could do is put the main issues into sharp focus. The money wasted or misspent is gone and not likely to be recouped, unless the state somehow strikes down perhaps the most egregious example, the $1 million settlement. The issues of leadership in the organzation and on the board of commissioners will not be resolved by an external report. In and of itself, the report cannot make the PMUA go away.

The report does deserve close attention from all tonight and further study in days to come. No doubt a copy should go to the appropriate party at the state. But let us all remember that it is not likely to still the boiling cauldron of controversy over how basic services now in the hands of the authority should be delivered to the city's 16,000 households. Impatient as everyone is for closure, it will not come tonight, despite the hard work of the task force.

So listen well, ask questions, take notes - and  perhaps the PMUA web will be untangled sooner rather than later.

--Bernice