The agenda for Monday's City Council meeting includes the proposed appointment of nine people to the Plainfield Cable Television Advisory Board, an important item now that the city's franchise with Comcast of the Plainfields is up for renewal.
The board is supposed to have 13 members in six categories, but all seats are currently vacant. The resolution before the council names Finance Director Ron West as the mayoral designee and Lamar David Mackson as the representative city official. Mackson, formerly chairman of the board, was hired in 2013 as managing director of the city's Media Division.
Plainfield Public Library Director Joseph DaRold is nominated to represent the library on the board. The roster allows for a Board of Education representative and three council members, though none are named in the resolution. In the citizen category, nominees are Timothy Thompson, Teron Dow, Jan Massey and John Jewczyn, with Carmencita Pile and Richard Lear as alternates.
In 2009, Mackson as chairman of the PCTVAB outlined an ambitious program for revitalization of the board. By degrees, the board went fallow and Mackson focused more and more on production aspects.
I am going out on a limb here and stating my objections to having Mackson in both a managerial capacity and an advisory capacity. Feel free to holler at me. First, Mackson made a strong commitment to revive the advisory board and followed through, up to a point where he began to blend professional opportunities with oversight. As I recall, I made my views known to him as the shift began.
In giving his credentials, Mackson lists both the city title he acquired in May 2013 along with his ongoing position as president and CEO of his own company, Nonstop Entertainment Group, Inc. By coincidence, three members of the past PCTVAB board he put together are officials in the company with titles such as VP of sales and marketing, senior producer and senior event consultant and VP.
I realize Plainfield often functions like a small town when it comes to alliances that blend personal and professional ties, but even Mayor Adrian O. Mapp's Transition Team found cause for concern about the blurring of boundaries in the PCTV sphere. A municipality has certain checks and balances as well as arms-length rules for its employees and officials which must be taken into account.
Mackson may well be the most qualified city official to represent the city on the PCTVAB. He might just need a sit-down with the city administrator or corporation counsel to talk about parameters.
--Bernice
There is plenty of potential for PCTV, and I've seen the seeds for some excellent programming beyond the usual fare of meetings. After all, we are a city of many stories.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as you wrote, " A municipality has certain checks and balances as well as arms-length rules for its employees and officials which must be taken into account." That is certainly true, and it's made all the more apparent with the frequency it's ignored. The participation in last week's debate and voting for new PMUA commissioners by former commissioners now sitting on the City Council is a case in point. They each have a pronounced personal interest in avoiding close scrutiny of the Authority, and their actions and words are out of alignment with their fiduciary roles on the governing body. There is no doubt their participation influenced the outcome.
When it comes to conflicts of interest and ethical lapses, upholding certain ordinances and the terms of some very important city contracts, both of the most recent Corporation Counsels have shown a greater allegiance to protecting individual officials than the City Corporation itself.
Without accountability the lines are blurred further, and there are no clear boundaries. As a result, we get to witness similar situations crop up with regularity.
As a member of the last PCTV Advisory Board, you are correct in stating that we undertook an ambitious goal of reinvigorating the PCTV. This included updating the Policies and Procedures and a defined effort of engaging the citizens of Plainfield and leaders at the Board of Education and Charter Schools to encourage the creation and submission of content for dissemination on our Public Access TV Channel. We made great strides in a short period of time, as referenced by: Mr. Rutherfords post on January 10th. http://plainfieldview.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/pctv-advancing-plainfield-through-media/
ReplyDeleteI am proud to worked with Lamar Mackson and all of the members from the the last PCTV AB and I hope that the next round of members will continue the work that was started.
As for a potential conflict of interest relating to Mr. Mackson's current role as a city employee and continued involvement with or on the AB board, that is for corporation council to work out (as suggested). But I will say that it has been a long time since PCTV has had a leader with the experience and know-how in a position to run the media division and hopefully transform PCTV into what many other local municipalities have done with their stations.