Call it the power of the press ...packet.
By the time I got home from the 7 p.m. budget presentation and the 8 p.m. City Council meeting, a story on Mayor Adrian O. Mapp's first budget had already been online since 6:30 p.m.
The secret was a professionally written press release by new Director of Communications Rebecca Perkins with all relevant details of the 2014 budget and some quotes from the mayor. Readers knew even before I set foot in the Senior Center that taxes will increase by about $129 on the average home valued at $113,000 and that the mayor's major goals include increasing revenues and re-branding the city.
Perkins was present for both meetings Thursday night and got a whiff of the sulfurous discord that sometimes wafts in the atmosphere between the administration and governing body.
From the point of view of someone covering the council for about 30 years, the budget presentation by Finance Director Ron West was tip-top, but at the second meeting the council found gristle in the temporary emergency appropriations and will hold a special meeting next week to chew it over once more.
I am tempted to put the laptop to sleep without imparting my account of events, but I have to do something to make up for the time and energy spent hustling to two meetings on foot and taking my own notes on the action. It's good to know, though, that news from City Hall will henceforth turn up in the digital and print media and that the city web site will become a news source as well. (Pardon the style - can you tell I am reading Middlemarch?)
--Bernice
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Bernice, where did you see news of the budget online at 6:30 pm?
ReplyDeleteWhen I got home from the meetings, there was already a full article online at mycentraljersey.com, time-stamped 6:30 p.m. It is on the front page of today's print edition.
ReplyDeleteAs you point out in the first line it's not news, it's a press release. Neither bad nor good but we must always be alert to the inevitable spin.
ReplyDeleteHi Bernice,
ReplyDeleteJust a minor point of clarification. The story had a time stamp of 6:30 (which is when the story was saved) but it did not go online until 8:01 p.m., which is when the city published the same data on its website.
It's not unusual for the administration in a big town like Plainfield to give the press a heads up on a budget or proposed ordinance or other plan before it is presented at a council meeting. This is done as a courtesy to give us time to report the story and get it into print on the morning after a late council meeting.
Thank you for all you do to help keep people informed!
After eight years of Sharon and her "stooges" running the city into the ground, it will take time and money to get up up-and-running so we are a proud and profitable city. It seems that Rivers and her stooge friends have trouble getting over Sharon's loss and have little vision for the city's future. I hope the City Council can read a compromise that will benefit all of Plainfield's citizens and that they will stop thinking of themselves and work for all of us.
ReplyDeleteBob, Every time you make a comment like this I am going to remind everyone of the real culprit, the one who is still in our midst and continue to wreak havoc on our city. That one is Jerry Green, the one who runs this city and the city council. Now that’s how we can move this city up.
DeleteKS