New sign outside Municipal Court
The big sign on Watchung Avenue makes it easy to see how long a council meeting took. Monday's regular meeting might have been shorter but for some pre-primary politicking.
All the proposed festivals and events won approval, though an unsuccessful bidder for a concert in Cedar Brook Park convinced the council to rescind the resolution to hire another organizer. Corporation Counsel David Minchello pointed out there is no guarantee the the unsuccessful organizer will get the contract if re-bid.
Plaintalker will follow up later on the subject of "festivals and decibels," as retired Police Captain Siddeeq El-Amin dubbed it. Details were lacking on the proposed parade along Front Street in September and El-Amin suggested more should be provided to avoid "a rolling fiasco."
Veterans pleaded for their own building, as they have for some time. A Veterans Center at 400 East Front Street has never been used due to contractual terms of the development that included a new senior center and condos. Veterans are using the senior center for meetings, but have to be let in. They want their own place with their own key and suggested there might be a vacant city-owned property they could have.
Most importantly, Council President Bridget Rivers said she wanted to have a special meeting to pass the 2014 budget this month, but just in case it doesn't, the council passed a temporary budget for June as a new item.
The council's budget consultant recommended eliminating all new positions, which supporters of Mayor Adrian O. Mapp see as a mortal blow to his vision for the city. The budget has yet to be amended and a hearing must be scheduled on any amendments, after which the budget may be passed.
Former Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs testified on Mapp's perceived lapses as a councilman and again said he should choose between having a job and being mayor. (The mayoralty is part-time and all previous mayors except Robinson-Briggs have held jobs outside City Hall. ) There was more, but no doubt it will turn up on YouTube or PCTV cable channels.
--Bernice
The council passed a resolution unanimously, and then a self-interested vendor and friend of the former mayor comes forward to whine about not getting a contract. NOTE: Last year, THE CONTRACTS WERE NOT PUT OUT TO BID. All of a sudden, some of these councilors have a problem and need more information...which means that they voted YES on something that they knew nothing about. Their willful obtuseness is frightening. Yes, this pre-primary politics being played--most brazenly by the appointed councilwoman, Taylor, who says constantly that she doesn't know anything, "since I'm new" (her words), further illustrating that she is totally clueless as to what her responsibilities are and has no interest in learning how to actually serve on the governing body--she would rather serve Jerry Green. She keeps making digs at me about politics, but she is the one who is, indeed, playing politics, along with some of the others. Shameful. Regarding the Independence Day concert--one of the vendors chosen last year--an outfit from another city, called Infinite Media--received their business registration certificate just weeks before the concert, but since they were being aggressively pushed forward by Council President Rivers behind the scenes, it didn't matter that they had no track record before. They are not from Plainfield, either. I guess when it's your friends receiving contracts all the so-called concern for "fairness" goes out the window. What the council president said then was, basically that it didn't matter--they did a good job, and that's "the bottom line." You might remember how last year the council president lit into me when I asked questions about that particular vendor--asking how the contract was awarded, was it bid, etc. She even made up stuff about me--it was all caught on tape--another embarrassing spectacle. I wrote about it on my blog on July 4, 2013. They talk out of both sides of their mouths--"we want to hire Plainfield businesses first"--EXCEPT when it comes to their cronies, including the former mayor, whom the people of this city rejected. Yet, they are happy to see her come back and misrepresent her failed administration. Her time was extended twice--so, we see that they are clearly trying to derail the new administration once again. In addition, the absolute lies she told about me regarding the armory were reprehensible. My position was clear--I blogged on it at least twice, so my views are clear. That she lied to the people about me throughout her tenure as mayor is well-known. Reprehensible.
ReplyDeleteRebecca
So they voted against it, after they voted for it. They do that a lot. People of Plainfield, please, use the brains that the good Lord gave you. Vote these people out!
ReplyDeleteCouncil women Williams you seem upset are you hiding something?
ReplyDeleteAre you serious? Obviously, you have not been to council meetings, or you would understand the discussion.
DeleteThe people of Plainfield are being held hostage to some very petty political bickering, with the game itself far outweighing the results. Life in the city goes on apart from this cockfight, but that's despite it all. When I think about how much time and money was wasted on wallpaper like WBLS, while the foundation and frame are permitted to be rotten to the core in so many places, it's distressing. The City Council is an incoherent hypocritical mess, today as it was yesterday. Even if an administration could fix the house given a fair chance, the governing body will see that it can't. That show, and it is entertaining in a sort of morbid yet comic way, keeps on churning itself out, episode after episode. Reruns are on all the channels, and the lousy actors never retire.
ReplyDeleteGloria Taylor is clueless. Back when her husband was Mayor she utilized a city vehicle as if it was her own, Frequently she was seen driving to and from the grocery store and the hair salon. What a hypocrite. Guess when you don't pay taxes you can say and do whatever you wish since she never has to PAY the consequences of her action or inaction. Could Ass. Green not have picked a more informed candidate for the third ward. I am sure that there were plenty of more qualified candidates. But after all this is Plainfield or better yet GREENFIELD
ReplyDeleteLet us not forget that an OPRA request showed that she did not pay her PMUA bill for all of 2013, but she continues to cast votes the affect the PMUA.
DeleteI am so disgusted with this mess of a Council that I will take action in June. We voted in an administration, because we were tired of the ineptitude of Sharon and this Council, Rivers, Greaves, Taylor, and Reid are purposely harming the people of Plainfield for their petty gains. I truly hope people open their eyes and give these four and their puppeteer and resounding "NO!" to their behavior.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's up with Sharon? She didn't care about us when she was mayor, why is she pretending now. She is still that albatross around our neck even though she is out of office. I wonder who is pulling her strings? Hmmmm.
The council meetings would be a great reality show, except people would think the council was acting. They would never believe what goes on.
ReplyDeleteActually I HIGHLY recommend the average citizen come out to at least one Council meeting a year ... just to be thankful they do not have to go to more than one, as some of us do !!
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DeleteAlan, Shut up, or run for office.BLAH,BLAH,and BLAH. That is what people think of your comments.
ReplyDeleteSMH!
DeleteIt all comes back to Jerry Green. He personally picked Councilors Brown, Greaves, Reid, Rivers, and Taylor to follow his orders in running the City for his own benefit and that of his allies. The only way to change Jerry Green’s Plainfield program of waste, abuse, corruption, and dysfunction is to vote against Jerry’s chosen candidates for City Council in June. After four months, it is clear that Jerry’s council majority is going to block any improvements the new administration will propose. Over the last 20 years, the other communities in our area have moved ahead, while Plainfield is as dysfunctional as ever – just the way Jerry and his pals want us to be. Dysfunction makes for easy pickings. If we don’t vote out Jerry’s candidates in June, we can expect many more years of “Jerry’s World.”
ReplyDeleteTom Kaercher
It seems to me that the Mayor being an absentee Mayor is paying others to do his job for him.
ReplyDeleteWhen I posted this question to the Plainfield Today Blogger he did not/will not post my question or answer this question???
@Anonymous @ 2:28 pm - Your true colors are showing. Are you afraid of change? Are you happy with the same old Plainfield? Enough with the coward comments and, tell us who you really are.
ReplyDeleteYou have people who geninuely care about Plainfied and yet and still people post anonymous negative comments, for what?
Hopefully one day (real soon I hope) the people of Plainfield wake up and realize that Green and his 4 stooges are doing more harm than good.
Veronica Belton
Please note,this is a fact, Rev. Brown was not hand picked by The Green Machine. Rev. Brown was convinced to run for council by her cousin the late Rev. Danielle Bush.Once the decision was made she was approached by the power's to be.She accepted the line now with Big Regrets, I know for a fact if she decides to run again it will be off line.I was in a room after the meeting at her church for Liberty village she was called a big mistake by the powers to be.She has expressed being fed up with politics and does not think highly of the new admin.or The Green Machine.I would leave my name but one of these jokers need to give me a job.
ReplyDeleteBut then in November vote the straight Democratic Party line [As Jerry Green will want us to] !! That is the only way Plainfield will move forward.
ReplyDeleteTom, Oh Please, you don't have a clue.You are hand picked by Mapp.Hard to tell the lesser of the two evils.
ReplyDeleteCorrection from me, Bernice--I meant "quotes"--not bids. The threshold is lower, so they are not bids. Yet, there were 3 quotes. All of my other commentary stands--the obstructionists are trying to bring back relics from the past. It's quite disheartening to see their machinations.
ReplyDeleteRebecca