The last scheduled session for budget deliberations is 7 p.m. tonight (Thursday, May 10) in City Hall Library and includes numerous fiscal divisions as well as Information Technology and the City Clerk's office.
Parts of the Department of Administration, Finance, Health & Social Services have already been discussed. It is the largest of the three departments mandated in the city special charter, not in terms of personnel but in the number of functions assigned to it. As Plaintalker previously noted, it was once purely fiscal but had social services grafted on during the Fury administration to suit a director whom the mayor had in mind. It is now even more diverse with the addition of the Division of Information Technology and Media, which itself has a number of related but quite varied functions.
The list for Thursday's session is AFH&SS Department, Tax Assessor, Tax Collector, Audit & Control, Purchasing, Personnel, Information Technology and City Clerk. The department also includes the Senior Center, Plainfield Action Services, the WIC program, the Bilingual Day Care Center and the Health Division, which were discussed on May 1.
The department director is Al Restaino, who was the director of the Office of Community Development within the Department of Public Works & Urban Development and is still handling responsibilities for that division. Given the high turnover of AFH&SS directors over the past six years and the long-term lack of a full-time chief finance officer, this department may have lacked the oversight it really needed.
Information Technology got lumped in after it became apparent that Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs wanted IT Director Chris Payne to report directly to her, in violation of the charter. Payne was formerly with the school district and came to city government about two years ago. Click here to read a post about his plans then for the new IT and media operations.
I hope the City Council and Citizens Budget Advisory Committee will be able to get some answers on the current functioning of fiscal operations and the IT and media aspects, enlarged a bit more now that the city has hired a new public information officer. City Administrator Eric Berry, to whom all three departments report, only came to the city on Nov. 28 and is still grappling with Plainfield's unique governmental structure under its special charter.In addition, his title itself was held by six individuals in the past six years, three in the last year alone, which means there may not been the kind of consistent management and oversight that keeps a municipality running smoothly.
I will miss the meeting due to my trip to Seattle, but I look forward to any comments from those who attend.
--Bernice
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Have a happy birthday and safe trip, Bernice. Keep Plainfield in your prayers.
ReplyDeleteWell, here are some observations.
ReplyDeleteBoth Bridget Rivers and Bill Reid left early
Rivers and McWilliams came in late
Rivers said nothing and left early, McWilliams stayed
Technology put in "just in case money" in the budget. There was money in the salary line which included additional staff, and then money in the outside consulting line. The thought was that if additional staff was not approved, then money for outside consultants could be used.
Also, there was a double entry in the purchasing budget for 15K. Could explain one entry, but not the other.
Which spells out that God help us if we ever have people on the council who do not have a clue what a budget is and how to read it. Currently, I believe, we have 3 on the council who would not be able to spot any discrepancies, and our taxes would go up, and no one would know how it is spent.
The tax collector talked about having checks in her desk for months and pleaded for more personnel. Reid was in favor of giving her whatever she wanted, but never thought that perhaps the office was run inefficiently.
Reid also spoke to the Tax assesor about how people in Plainfield are holding on by a thread, and is there anything that can be done to help them out. Funny comment for a person who would not ask the PMUA to reduce their billing to the people.
Hope you had a great time.