Those who would like to see a forensic audit of city finances might be interested in this article from the New Jersey League of Municipalities.
Since 2006, the city has had a high turnover in directors of the Department of Administration, Finance, Health & Social Services in addition to lengthy vacancies in the office of chief financial officer.
Former City Administrator Norton Bonaparte was the first fiance director in 2006, but left to become the first city manager of Topeka, Kans. City Administrator Carlton McGee tacitly covered the department until he left in November 2006. Raiford Daniels became head of AFH&SS in December 2006 but left in November 2007, leaving new City Administrator Marc Dashield to cover the department.
Douglas Peck was the next AFH&SS director, serving from April 2008 to December 2008. Dashield again had to do dual duty until Bibi Taylor was hired in July 2009. In January 2010, Taylor became city administrator in addition to being acting head of AFH&SS.
Since November 2010, Al Restaino has held the post, first in acting capacity and then as permanent department head. He also retains his original job as director of Community Development, a division of the Department of Public Works & Urban Development.
The city's longtime chief financial officer, Peter Sepelya, left at the end of 2007. The city was without a CFO for three years until state officials threatened daily fines for the mayor and council. The hiring of Ron Zilinski in November 2010 warded off the fines, though Zilinski did not start work until January 2011 for 28 hours a week. He left after a year. In February 2012, the council approved hiring Glenn Cullen as a part-time CFO while a search was conducted for a permanent CFO. Cullen is still serving on a part-time basis.
With such a long list of people in charge of city finances and several periods of vacancy in key posts, a forensic audit might be hard to do unless very good records exist.
--Bernice
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Will the corruption of the Inter Local Agreement under the administration of Al McWilliams be looked at? What it says is not what we do, in a material way. It happened in secret, immediately upon taking office, and before the ink was dry. It gutted transparency and fiscal controls, and reversed the direction of payments fraudulantly. Today it covers over $21 million of cash flow in the city. There are many people in town who nod their head and keep silent. What forensic audit will go there? The one the campaign literature is promising?
ReplyDelete... All should be looked at..go back 12, 15 years if need be and have the inaccuracies as well as deficiencies pointed out as a good starting point for MOVING FORWARD.
ReplyDeleteTreat it as a lesson learned about how not to operate.
Do I believe SERIOUS IN DEPTH INQUIRY WILL occur ??? Absolutely not.. The Republicans who've been running the show would not want that exposed. The thought of the people finding out that they are simply inconsequential to the Republican Party here in Plainfield and in City Government is way too much humiliation for the local and county Republicans to white wash over.
Unless things change, it'll always be party first.. ( and it's not our current Mayor who is the cause, she's simply a symptom )
The administration, specifically the mayor, is responsible for creating her organization. Clearly she has not, and can not. How can anyone vote for her? I still do not understand what this mayor has done to make this city better.
ReplyDeleteShady Sharonda has done nothing to make Plainfield better. I teach accounting and often use Plainfield's Administration as an example of what not to do and how people in accounting get arrested and fired for doing such a poor and less-than-honest job. I hope the future will bod well for Plainfield with a new mayor and more responsible government. We do need the audit to help us go forward.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with Rob about Sharon being a "symptom". She is a current cause and there is no excuse for her or her irresponsible behavior. How she got a second term is beyond me and how she thinks people want her for a third is mind boggling.
ReplyDeleteBob Bolmer
How she got a second term is beyond me and how she thinks people want her for a third is mind boggling.
ReplyDeleteBob Bolmer
---- Gee whiz Bob.. maybe people like you who feel they are going to be FORCED to vote for another party for the first time in their lives hence telling us all who you voted for previously with blind allegiance to some national ideology which has nothing to do with the day to day operations of this city??
Maybe it's the party mouth pieces who pound their bully pulpit praising to all on high to vote the Party Line.. Party above all else???
Mapp, Damon, Storch to name a few of your other "intelligent???" voting booth buddies??
... She's here because you asked her to be here.
She's here because everytime you walked into a voting booth in the last 20-30 years you didn't think about the candidate you simply pulled a lever under a letter.
She's here because much like a third world Eastern Bloc Soviet influenced nation you voted for who you were told to vote for.
Keep wondering Bob... You keep wondering.. Dan Damon can keep wondering.. Cory Storch can keep wondering as will Adrian Mapp. They'll wonder, like you in public, but much like when you look in the mirror you all will be very much aware of the reason she is here.
She's here because of blind faith in what a party boss told you to do. Sharon's no fool, she at least got paid to be Jerry's puppet..the rest of you???