A compromise close to midnight saved a recreation program after coach Lenny Cathcart vowed to bring hundreds of young athletes to the next City Council meeting.
At issue was a resolution for budget transfers in 17 categories, including police salaries, recreation, crossing guards and economic development. In rejecting the transfers because they included $131,091 for controversial police promotions, the governing body also rejected everything else.
The council was holding a combined agenda-fixing and regular meeting Tuesday. In public comment during the first portion, Cathcart made a pitch for approval of the budget transfers, citing athletes in sports on major television channels who all came up through Plainfield recreation programs. But current youth programs faced shutdown for lack of funding for staff and increased gym fees.
"We only ask for gyms, balls and whistles," Cathcart told the council. "If our kids ain't in the gym, I got 400 kids that go to the streets."
Corporation Counsel David Minchello declined comment on Cathcart's assertion that a Recreation Division employee faced layoff by Nov. 19, but Council President Bridget Rivers asked incredulously, "You cannot comment on taking programs from children? I have a problem with that."
The emotion and rhetoric escalated from then on, with allegations all around.
"Find the money for these children," Rivers insisted.
The regular meeting did not begin until after 10 p.m. When the resolution on transfers came up, Councilwoman Rebecca Williams sought to amend it by removing the funding for the Police Division. The motion to amend failed, with Williams, Cory Storch and Adrian Mapp voting "yes" and Vera Greaves, Tracey Brown, William Reid and Rivers voting "no." A lengthy discussion on the police promotions ensued (which Plaintalker will cover in a separate post). The vote on transfers then split 4-3 again, but failed because it needed a five-vote super-majority to pass.
As soon as it failed, Cathcart began yelling from the audience.
"Did it fail? No recreation now!" he shouted.
The council moved on to other votes important to Mapp, who won the Nov. 5 mayoral election and will take office Jan. 1. In 4-3 votes as above, the majority voted "no" on increasing the salary band for the title of chief financial officer, then for a proposed chief of staff. Minchello said the council should not vote on a salary band for chief of staff, as the vote to create the position had failed.
Mapp linked the rejections to his "no" vote on the transfers, a notion that upset Brown and Rivers.
"I feel very disrespected by my colleague," Rivers said.
Later, Storch called for reconsideration of the transfers, asking approval for recreation and five other categories.
Rivers then alluded to a "shutdown in Washington, D.C." where "what they wanted to do was pick and choose and the president said no."
"Let's do it right," she said, asking approval for all the transfers.
But Williams seconded Storch's motion. City Clerk Abubakar Jalloh said the proper order was to reconsider the entire motion and then amend it. The motion to reconsider passed with Mapp, Greaves and Reid voting "no" and Brown, Storch, Williams and Rivers voting "yes."
The process bogged down for a while over which of the 17 items to leave in or out, prompting Rivers to remark, "We're looking like the Keystone Cops up here."
After a 10-minute recess to sort out the numbers, the motion to amend failed and Williams deplored the loss of recreation and school crossing guards while reiterating her concerns about the police promotions.
"It's just a sad day," she said.
Cathcart yelled, "We shut down tomorrow!"
When Rivers said she understood his feelings, he shouted, "You can't understand! This has been my life!"
In public comment later, he apologized for his outburst, but said, "You're saying no to kids ... y'all are saying no to this? I've never asked nobody for nothing. I'm saying open these doors for these kids."
He pledged to bring them to the next meeting.
After another recess, the council reconvened near midnight to amend the resolution again, this time only for recreation costs totaling $36,000, to be offset by surplus in worker's compensation. The amendment passed unanimously, and then all voted "yes" on the amended resolution except Reid, who said, "No, because I don't understand it."
The meeting adjourned with no indication of what would become of the other $1,079,176.60 in proposed transfers.
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whatever became of local hiring ord, remember those 400 kids have parents many who can use the job ord. and jobs to pay into the recreation program that their children are a part of.
ReplyDeleteMr. X - local hiring ordinance was tabled because the ordinance as written was terrible and opened the city to lawsuits - which opens taxpayers up to more spending which opens council up to cutting parks and rec and other departments to pay for the legal bills etc. Just because a concept is good doesn't mean it is good in any form. It was one of the rare smart moves from this council to table this for further consideration. This group is known for many things but thoughtful legislation isn't one of them - maybe it will be a trend.
DeletePetty, sneaky, and vindictive sums up the Sharon era. Her body language alone last night provided a Greek tragedy of near epic proportions. The frailties of the Council were evident; it has often looked the other way and covered for the most egregious faults, jumped at bad logic, and fiddled while Rome burned. A few lionesses roared. The journey through stormy seas will continue with the Sirens song luring us to danger. When the clock struck midnight we had passed by more or less unscathed.
ReplyDeleteThe City of Plainfield telling kids they cant play basketball is as backwards as it comes... Forget the political lines you must vote with because they got you elected... Vote for the Youth! and besides, I attended that basketball tournament in August,, NO COPS, NO SECURITY, NO STAFF, NO REFEREE'S... 6 teams has shirts, it was a DJ and some food was purchased.. NO WHERE NEAR THE AMOUNT that Im hearing was taken out the budget to fund this event!
ReplyDeleteHow about being concerned about their education. Does everyone in Plainfield think their kids are going to be NBA, NFL, and baseball stars? Not going to happen.
DeleteHow about using your brain before you try to speak down on children. It's not about are those kids going to be future professional athletes but children experiencing some physical education in their youth. Im pretty sure you dont speak like that towards the south plainfield community who have the same programs for children. No doubt Education is a HUGE PROBLEM when it comes to Plainfield.. thats why they do have new charter schools available for FREE and also have various programs for children to continue learning outside of the classroom. Dont be a jackass... if you dont approve thats your problem. Dont try to bring down others with your negative remarks because you dont believe in our youth like we do.
DeleteIt is the Keystone cops. Concern about the kids - laughable!!
ReplyDeleteThese kids are failing in school, and does Mr. Cathcart go to the BOE meetings screaming that they must have better education? Probably not. This town is delusional with their raising of kids.
The schools are failing, the people put the same contract greedy people back on the BOE, but all they want are basketballs and whistles. What is wrong with this picture?
Are you someone that sits around and wait for people to do something then question it? What have you done to better the education of the Plainfield student? Its easy to point a finger and laugh at someone DOING SOMETHING... Have you ever heard that Students do sometimes achieve better grades when they are apart of something.. School grades tend to shift upward when the football and basketball teams are doing well? I have.. and no im not saying that's the case in Plainfield, but if people such as Cathcart dont stand and fight for kids, who else would you have to talk about anonymously on a blog? Bad Grades in the inner city is a Much bigger issue and would take much more to change, Hopefully we all are around when it happens.
DeleteAre there Volunteer Tutor positions the average citizen can take part in or does the teacher's union frown on that?
DeleteWhat???? Bad Grades in the inner city is a Much bigger issue and would take much more to change, Hopefully we all are around when it happens. So do nothing and hand them a basketball?
DeleteAnd, by the way, I don't wait for people to do something and question it. I try to be proactive and get the right things done. Like, trying to get people to pay attention to the BOE. Do you? Are you happy with the board and the way our children are being taught? Are you OK with the fact that they cannot speak or write correctly or clearly? Are you OK with the fact that their lives are severely limited because they don't have an education? Is that OK with you?
Unfreakingbelievable.
ReplyDeleteIs Adrian Mapp attempting to create a new post of Chief of Staff to reward his lackey John Stewart?
ReplyDeleteHe is not even Mayor yet and he is trying to expand government and raise our taxes.
And would such a position conflict with the City Administrator?
Do we really need this?
Read the description. It creates a position to help with the strategy of Plainfield. I say we need all the help we can get.
DeleteInteresting choice of word - lackey. In Corporate America, when someone does a good job, they are rewarded through promotions. In politics, if you try to do a good job you are a lackey. Sort of makes you understand why things are so messed up in government.
The fact that NOBODY in the city called a single councilman to tell them the basketball program was going to have to be shut down because of missing funds is very telling. The fact that the city council took so long last night to restore the funds to keep one of the few worthwhile programs in the city alive is another laughable matter. The fact that nobody on that council said more than two words about the fact that the parks and rec budget was fully funded but somehow is missing (to this point) $39,000 is yet another joke. That department is about as poorly managed as anything I have seen and my guess is that the former director and possibly others in the administration would likely face criminal charges for misappropriation of funds should an audit be performed is yet another issue. Would anyone like to place bets on the possibility of an audit being performed for parks and rec? Just the effort of explaining what an audit is to Ms. Greaves would require four council meetings.
ReplyDeleteBernice,
ReplyDeleteAs you noted, the provisional promotions for the 7 "lieutenants" trumped concerns about the running of the city. There were a number of other items in the budget transfer resolution and, as it stands, the money to pay the crossing guards, who are a major part of the public safety of "our kids" and others, was left out of this resolution. The mayor created this mess--her desire to reward her friends (many of whom have made disparaging comments about her behind her back) as she goes out the door has stalled the workings of our local government on a day-to-day basis. The fact that no one from the administration was there to explain the rationale for the police promotions (NO HELLWIG, NO RESTAINO--NO ONE) is quite telling. As I noted in my comments, Dir. Hellwig said that there would be no more promotions in the current administration. I have reported on public safety on a monthly basis. The department, which was top-heavy to begin with, is even more so now. I will not support these "promotions," and I think they should be invalidated.
Also, folks should keep in mind that just because there was a budget transfer to Recreation last night doesn't mean that the mayor won't once again misappropriate those funds for another use, as she did during for her August event, where she took money from Recreation and tried to get permission from the county to use CDBG funds to pay her buddies--the county said "NO." How are residents to know that she doesn't have something else unethical up her sleeve and that she won't have more of the slippery "budget transfers" to fund her going-away gifts?
As I sit near the mayor at the council meeting and have to endure her childish, foolish, petty, and now, extremely BITTER, remarks (there were many last night), she said (to no one in particular) that she couldn't wait to be on the other side of the bar, at the microphone, so she could speak her mind. She said there was a lot she couldn't say just then, since she is the mayor, but to wait until she becomes a regular citizen.... Perhaps the mayor will offer some kind of justification/rationale for her incompetence, dishonesty, misuse of funds, obfuscations, and for allowing corruption to fester under her watch and with her implied consent. My fear is that the city will have to endure her silliness even after she has been vanquished. Clearly, she is not thinking about her future. I guess she has no job prospects if her most fervent desire is to come and complain at the bar. How incredibly pathetic. I would hope that she would find something productive to do with her life and leave the city alone, or just...leave the city.
Rebecca
P.S. For those who think I am harsh, think about all the mayor has done over the past 8 years to ruin our city...her legacy of corruption, cronyism, dishonesty, unlawful activities, financial irresponsibility, theft, incompetence, demoralization of our police force, misappropriation of funds...I think I am being kind.
I'm not an attorney but if an elected official publicly accused me of: "incompetence, dishonesty, misuse of funds, obfuscations, and for allowing corruption to fester", not to mention: "corruption, cronyism, dishonesty, unlawful activities, financial irresponsibility, theft, incompetence...misappropriation of funds" I would sue for libel. Perhaps Ms Williams has some protected status. Too bad. Nasty, vague allegations, with sketchy proof at best, intended to harm, should not be tolerated.
DeleteProbably not incorrect statements but they are petty and a bit of a waste of time. She is/was a terrible Mayor - she is leaving office very shortly - we get it - now can we get some roads paved?
DeleteLets not forget Rebecca she is still serving food at her cheerleading meetings at City Hall. She seems to have money for her rather large feedbag.
DeleteInteresting that the Council President, Bridget Rivers, let Cathcart run the meeting. She never called for his removal, or even for him to be quiet.
ReplyDeleteNext time I have a point to make, I am speaking to Mr. Cathcart.
It's good to see Council President Rivers get something right: "Keystone Cops."
ReplyDeleteIt's disappointing to see Alan muddle his metaphors, jumping from fiddling while Rome burned Lionnesses to Sirens.