The City Council meets Monday (Aug. 20) to vote on 56 resolutions and six ordinances. Review them here.
The meeting is 8 p.m. in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.
Attendance at these meetings has fallen off quite a bit from the old days. As some may recall, the council began tinkering a few years ago with its traditional schedule of two regular meetings per month, each preceded by an agenda-fixing session. All meetings were on Mondays. First the council moved to a schedule that called for a Monday agenda-fixing session followed by a Wednesday voting meeting, which drove away the residents who attend Wednesday Bible study at their churches.
Later the council reverted to all-Monday meetings, but only one agenda-fixing and one regular meeting per month, resulting in really long meetings, often running to midnight or even later. Council watchers detected a sense of overload that resulted in some topics getting short shrift, especially if a large group came out to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Reporters used to attend these meetings, but that also is a thing of the past. If a resident does not attend or watch the proceedings on local television stations 96 or 34, the actions of the governing body can only be followed through posts of a couple of bloggers. Plaintalker tends to pick out specific topics for stories, while Dr. Yood gives broader overviews of the matters at hand. Dan Damon also comments, though he seldom stays for a whole meeting.
Anyone interested in the workings of government should try at least once to look at the agenda ahead of time, maybe look up background documents for context and then attend a meeting to see how it goes. Young people or anyone hoping to run for office should especially take the time for this civic exercise.
As Councilman William Reid has stated, observers of council meetings often need some context to understand the brief titles of resolutions and ordinances. Usually the council president will call on the city administrator or corporation counsel for an explanation of new ordinances. Department heads will be asked at the meetings to explain certain resolutions. Dr. Yood and Plaintalker try to do this by reading all the background documents at the Plainfield Public Library on Saturdays in order to highlight significant new legislation at upcoming meetings.
Anyone with a computer can become a blogger almost instantly and, if so inclined, can learn how to be a "citizen journalist" as the traditional news outlets turn away from routine coverage of municipal government. It requires commitment and some slogging through documents to uncover the impact of governmental decisions, but it can be done. A good example of citizen action is Dump PMUA, in which citizens tackled a powerful authority and forced reform that has benefited the ratepayer.
More later on Monday's meeting, but meanwhile think about attending a council meeting sometime. Here is the meeting schedule.
--Bernice
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These Council meetings are more like theater, where the poobahs expound on things they have a limited understanding about, and where most issues that bring out the masses are never resolved.
ReplyDeleteCouncilman Reid is perhaps the worst time-waster of all. He performs a regular song and dance that smacks of moderation and concern, and then turns around and votes for the obstruction of truth and the waste of money, except for money that needs to be spent getting at the truth.
I am no fan of four meetings a month, with two agenda sessions and two business meetings. Council members should be using the extra time to attend meetings of the boards and commissions to which they are the appointed liasons, though this is hardly ever the case as far as I can see. The Council should also institute a round of departmental and division hearings beyond the once yearly budget hearings. In all, they should be utilizing their time to further their sadly limited understanding of what the city government is actually doing, or what they are voting on. Council sub-committee meetings should be publicized and open to the public so we can see how well our elected representatives are asking the questions that need to be asked, and if answers are forthcoming.
Four meetings a month for the ignorant to expound on their ignorance, or to squeeze out explanations that should have been explained already in detail, are at least two meetings too many.