Mayor Adrian O. Mapp is proposing replacement of PMUA Commissioners Malcolm Dunn with Thomas Crownover and Harold Mitchell with Michelle Graham-Lyons in addition to filling a vacant alternate position with Carlos Ponton.
The nominations are up for discussion at Monday's City Council meeting, 7:30 p.m. in Municipal Court.
Dunn and Mitchell are both holdovers, Dunn since his term expired in February and Mitchell since February 2011. Ponton would succeed Cecil Sanders as Alternate No. 2, a seat Sanders vacated when he replaced former Commissioner Tracey Brown in January 2013. The PMUA board has five commissioners and two alternates, who can only vote when needed due to absence of a commissioner.
In the past, the council has interviewed PMUA nominees in public before moving their names to the agenda for a vote. As has also happened in the past, the council president can decline to move the names to the agenda.
Both Mitchell and Dunn were council members before serving on the PMUA and Mitchell also served four years as mayor.
Crownover is an attorney and is director of a municipal parking authority. He frequently attends PMUA meetings and was previously nominated for a commissioner's seat. Graham-Lyons is a senior investment research analyst employed by a data management firm and Ponton administers a research center with 35 employees and 20 interns, according to their resumes. Ponton is a member of the Plainfield Advisory Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
If confirmed, Crownover would serve an unexpired term to February 2019 and Graham-Lyons would serve an unexpired term to February 2016. Ponton's unexpired term would end on February 1, 2015. They would join Commissioners Carol Brokaw, Cecil Sanders and Charles Tyndale and Alternate No. 1 Charles Eke. See more information on the PMUA here.
--Bernice
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Mapp is going to privatize pmua and put all plainfielders out of work . But first he has to make the mayor of orange a commissioner.
ReplyDeleteSo if Mapp privatizes PMUA, who is going to do the work? It's the people doing it already!!!! The people losing their jobs are the management, who laid off the PMUA workers to begin with so Harold Gibson could get paid.
DeleteSounds like a good deal for the PMUA workers if you ask me.
Thank you, 10:57. It sounds like we have a Jerry and Sharon lover at 6:32. Who's up that early to be able to put anti-Mapp stuff on line?
DeleteWow, call me naive but I didn't realize that PMUA existed to provide jobs for Plainfielders. I thought it was supposed to provide services to Plainfield residents, ideally quality services at a reasonable cost. Maybe it's time to start putting the needs of ALL Plainfielders over the relative few who have jobs and think that the PMUA is fulfilling its mission by employing them (or their brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, friends, etc). It's this kind of attitude that keeps our political embarrassments in office and prevents new business from coming into Plainfield.
ReplyDeleteMayor Mapp has, during and subsequent to his campaign, stated that his desire was to reform the PMUA. Mayor Mapp has never endorsed dissolution.
ReplyDeleteA significant step toward reformation would be to replace Commissioners Sanders and Mitchell. The PMUA, as a government organization, can never compete with private industry. Even efficiently run it carries too much bureaucratic baggage. But it can be operated at significantly less cost. Given the improbability of dissolution reducing cost appears to be the realistic objective. The rank and file are secure. The men and women that get up at 3 or 4 AM and do the work sometimes under horrendous conditions, heat of summer and cold of winter, are essential. Plainfield will always require a sewer department. The jobs of these good people are not endangered by the desire to reform. Their jobs are not endangered by the people who are crying out for reform, rather, their jobs are endangered by the likes of Mitchell, Sanders and Toliver, and all of their political cronies who give away public funds, create superfluous jobs, and endorse benefits which are patently illegal. This conduct results in the necessity to increase rates, gives the PMUA an understandable black eye, that while remote, might result in dissolution. It is our hope that new leadership can lead the PMUA to more efficient, politically free, operations thereby reducing the costs to everyone which in turn will guarantee job security for those who are really working. Bill Kruse
Thanks Bill. Let's see if the City Council is listening.
DeleteThanks, Bill. It's nice to hear some reason instead of Jerry and Sharon's scare tactics. We need the voters in this town to use their brains and votes to improved this City and our lives. Let's do that in November. Ward 3 needs to vote Republican for City Council. I believe you need to vote for the best person, not the party. The best person in office will work for the people and not some boss.
DeleteWe need to get the dead weight off of the PMUA and the mayor is making a good start. We will see how our Jerry lovers on the City Council will vote. They seldom work for the better good of Plainfield, but for their master and the "King" of Plainfield. Let's put pressure on the City Council and speak up at meetings.
ReplyDeleteBernice, if Ponton or any of the other nominees are serving in a commission, they can't serve in another. The piece would have been interesting if you had included this fact.
ReplyDeleteIf approved, he would have to step down. Sorry you did not find the piece interesting.
DeleteBernice, I should have said even more interesting. :)
ReplyDeleteWe have an interesting statute, NJSA 40:14B-16, which provides that members of municipal authorities like PMUA shall serve, not only "for the term for which he was appointed", but also "until his successor has been appointed and has qualified". In other words, it is expected that local appointments will get bogged down in petty politics, so you can't get rid of holdovers, until the logjam of appointing new members is broken. Sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteWhy is Eric Watson back????? Mayor Mapp your just like rest!!!!
ReplyDelete