Even though I had it marked on my calendar, somehow I managed to forget all about the 3 p.m. PMUA meeting Friday. If any readers attended, I welcome your comments.
As Dr. Yood has noted, bloggers have only touched upon a few of the many topics that came up at Monday's agenda fixing session. I confess that I have too many personal distractions currently to pay proper attention to blogging. I am only attempting to catch up a bit right now because the cat woke me up at 3 a.m.
Regarding the Chief Financial Officer vacancy, City Administrator Eric Berry said Monday the administration is "actively searching" for a CFO. Berry called on Finance Director Al Restaino to give details. Restaino said three other individuals (presumably besides the person just hired as city treasurer, who had first been considered for CFO) applied for the post. Two had salary demands as much as 30 percent higher than allowed in the city's salary ordinance for the job, which has a maximum of $125,000. Another only recently secured the title of chief municipal financial officer.
Restaino said the city was posting the job with the League of Municipalities in hopes of developing a larger pool of candidates. A check just now showed this posting, apparently just made yesterday (third one down). The job posting alludes to more details on the city web site, but that link has the old maximum salary of $114,801.
Restaino said prior efforts have yielded only candidates with higher salary requirements or not enough experience. Asked what the city is doing in the meantime, Restaino said the new treasurer, Diane Sherry-Buono, has "really hit the ground running" and is the "lead person in that office." It was not clear whether she is acting as CFO.
Former CFO Ron Zilinski left the city in January after serving one year. He held both titles, but only got paid $15,000 as treasurer for pension reasons. The city later hired Glenn Cullen on a part-time basis at $800 for five to eight hours per week. Considering that the city got in trouble with the state Division of Local Government Services for not having a CFO as required by state statute, the current seeming drift in addressing this problem is worrisome. The state cracked down in 2010 after a three-year vacancy in the post.
Observers got the impression Monday that the city would attempt to recruit a CFO at the League of Municipalities conference, which takes place in November. But perhaps the reference was just to placing an ad in the League's job listings.
(The lack of precision in fiscal matters was also apparent when Restaino was asked to state the current tax rate and say whether it had gone up. He said taxes had increased, but could not state the current rate. Surely of all facts, a finance director should be able to recite the tax rate when asked. The city is adrift and so am I. Anybody want to take up blogging about Plainfield government?)
--Bernice
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No offense is anyone suprised that no one wants to work for this mess of a City. Especially since this administration has 16 months and counting left.
ReplyDeleteRestaino did say that the two of them would be making personal contacts at the League's meeting.
ReplyDeleteThe people of Plainfield have more money than God. They could care less how it is spent, and when their taxes go up by 100% because the Abbott funding is gone, they will either hardly notice, or keep electing the fools who waste their money.
ReplyDeleteHow come Restaino never seems to be able to answer direct questions? He is, after all, the head of the department and ought to know!
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