Burney, Fury Give Charter Views

Plaintalker is tempted to advise readers to wait for the minutes of Thursday's Charter Study Commission meeting, at which former Mayor Mark Fury gave a bravura performance, blending history, personal anecdotes and allusions to secret opinions in his answers to 22 questions. But maybe some aspects can be reported.

Fury called Plainfield "a unique place" and "the center of the universe" even as he recounted the many shifts in its demographics and fortunes since he grew up here. He wove in tales of African-Americans' and other ethnicities' migrations to the city for jobs at Mack Trucks and linked the plant closing to dissatisfaction and economic loss that set the stage for the 1967 upheaval, calling Plainfield "the smallest city to have a race riot before it was cool."

As mayor, he said, "I quit a $100,000 job to take a $10,000 job," but said he had a responsive council and nothing in the charter hindered him from "reshaping government," referring to his reallocation of several divisions under the three mandated departments.

Fury led an earlier Charter Study Review Committee that he said he "used as a platform to become mayor." He said he met with former Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson on Wednesday, telling him he owed Williamson and former Mayor Harold Mitchell an apology, because he thought they "were the problem," but he did not explain the comment further.

At one point, he raised his voice and growled a complaint that he wasn't allowed to take control of the school system while he was here.

Fury did answer the commission's questions in his own way, but said, "The problems in Plainfield are not in the charter."

Former Councilman Rashid Burney was the first interviewee Thursday and called the study "an exercise that is well due." He said the charter's authors were aiming for "a balance of power," but likened the checks and balances to an anchor that could cause things to "get stuck."

Burney approved of the ward system, saying there must be "representation from all geographical neighborhoods." If all council members were elected at large, he said, they might just come from a single neighborhood.

Saying the role of the council is to make laws, he said it would help to have staff to research legislation, noting his own struggle to look up other municipalities' tree commission ordinances to put one together for Plainfield.

Regarding public safety, he said the city's Fire Division came in number one in comparisons with other municipalities, but it was the opposite for the Police Division. Burney alluded to issues with the role of the police chief, a title that was abolished in 2008.

Burney said he found that the corporation counsel "works for the mayor" and could not also serve the governing body, as stated in the charter. He said there should be separate legal representation for the council.

He also found fault with the charter and municipal code in that he feels the budget process starts too late. He suggested it should be introduced at the end of the previous year, rather than in the first quarter of the budget year.

Burney also said government planning should be outsourced to citizen groups and there should be a full-time mayor whose role would be "to sell the agenda."

The commission will meet next on March 28 and expects to interview former City Clerk Laddie Wyatt and former Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson. On April 11, scheduled interviewees are former Corporation Counsel Rowand Clark, Republican Party Chairwoman Sandy Spector and former City Administrator Hank Kita.

Read minutes and see other details on the Charter Study Commission blog (click here). The answers of previous interviewees are posted in the minutes.

--Bernice