Foushee Makes Three for Trenton

-Bob Jagendorf

In 2011,  the Queen City was on the receiving end of governmental talent from the state's capitol and Plaintalker quipped, "Trenton Makes, Plainfield Takes?"

Now the talent is flowing in the opposite direction. Not only did Plainfield Public Works Director Eric Jackson return to Trenton as mayor, he named former Plainfield Corporation Counsel David Minchello his acting Law Director and, according to a report in nj.com, has just named Plainfield city engineer Jacqueline Foushee as his acting Public Works director.

In January 2011, Plainfield finally got a chief financial officer, Ron Zilinski from Trenton, after several years without one. Zilinski served for a year. Jackson became Public Works director in September 2011 and quickly won approval for his warm personality and professionalism. He was so popular that even after his term ended on Dec. 31, 2013, he was appointed to serve in the new administration of Mayor Adrian O. Mapp.

One City Hall staffer deemed him "mayoral material" even before he filed on March 10 to run for the office in Trenton. In fact, he had narrowly lost a 2010 Trenton mayoral contest to Tony Mack, who is now serving prison time for corruption

Jackson did not win the May primary outright, but received 55 percent of the vote in a July 10 runoff election. He had barely been sworn in on July 1 before he named Minchello acting Law Director. Minchello will retain his ties to Plainfield by serving as city solicitor.

As reported in nj.com, Foushee will be the first African-American female director of Public Works in Trenton.

Plainfield moved from an in-house engineering division to contracting for engineering services with Remington & Vernick about eight years ago. Foushee served most recently as the firm's representative and developed an encyclopedic knowledge of Plainfield's roads and other physical features.

Jackson and Foushee inherited one of Plainfield's thorniest problems, a supposed five-year road repair program from 2005 that had gotten so far off-course that officials began speaking of "phases" rather than years of accomplishment. Foushee's calm demeanor in explaining each road project seemingly did a lot to assure the public that progress was being made.

The next Public Works director and engineer will find road repairs an ongoing challenge and still a prime source of residents' complaints to City Hall. The Mapp administration recently consolidated unused bond funds in order to redirect them to road repairs.

--Bernice