Finance Director Ron West said the coordinator had brought in $1 million in grants. The coordinator monitors grants through the application process, awarding of grants and timely use so the money is not lost.
Council President Bridget Rivers asked whether the grants coordinator also writes Mayor Adrian O. Mapp's weekly newsletter. West said the coordinator does not write it, but proofreads it.
"Under oath?" Rivers asked regarding his answer.
Rivers said she was told the grants writer writes the newsletter. Kaercher said the council had approved the grants coordinator for just what West said.
After more discussion of the budget, the focus shifted back to the vehicles for the mayor and city administrator.
Councilwoman Gloria Taylor spoke about the legislative and administrative branches, deploring the vehicle purchase "and then the City Council knows nothing about it."
As for the grants coordinator, she said, "You don't use the grants person to do the mayor's newsletter. If someone says they are doing this for the mayor, that's ridiculous. We don't want to do tit for tat, but what else can we do? This is the kind of crap that goes on."
Later Rivers asked, "When will the budget hearings be aired - after the election?
She suggested taking money from the budget elsewhere so they can always have the budget meetings taped and aired..
Councilwoman Tracey Brown said the meetings were not being aired because of politics.
West said the meetings are not being aired right now, but added, "We have thirty days for them to be aired."
Rivers said the council might have to hire its own person to tape and air the meetings.
The next step in the budget process is for the council to make amendments, which will be the subject of a public hearing at a special meeting, 7 p.m. on
This administration is nothing but transparent. They are the worst thing that have happened to this great city of Plainfield
ReplyDeleteIsn't June 8 the date of the Dem Com reorg? Ought to be a fun evening!
ReplyDeleteMs. Taylor, do YOU not recall when YOUR husband was Mayor that YOU drove a city vehicle! Many of Plainfield's citizens DO! Selective memory serves YOU and YOUR master well!
ReplyDeleteok so let me get this strait the grants coordinator cant write a newsletter but says jerry because lets be honest this is jerry saying this not the puppets on the council
ReplyDeleteBut jerry green staff can do election stuff in his office have petitions filled out in his office and have his staff member send out democratic committee letters mailed from his office oh ok gotcha jerry have staff on state government time call people to come make phones calls at headquarterswhile they in his state office but they use cell phones to do it ok gotcha jerry he must not heard of caller id
An event occurred yesterday which was unreported in Clips but relevant to the budget. Bids for removing the demolition debris from the North Avenue site were opened. The low bidder was the Yannuzzi company with a price of $75,800. Had Yates been permitted to complete the work the unbilled balance of Yates contract was $139,500; some $63,700 more than it is now costing! How much Yannuzzi would have bid to do the Phase 1 demolition performed by Yates, for which has billed $75,000, we will never know. It will be intersting to review the proposals submitted by law firms to conduct the investigation of the award to Yates , and more interesting to see the results of that investigation.
ReplyDeleteThe Council, not content with having made its objections known, persists on spending its time reiterating ad naseum what they view as the outrage over the purchase of 2 cars in an attempt to skewer Mayor Mapp. Perhaps someday they might consider examining in depth just a few of the other 10's of millions of dollars which they are responsible for administrating? Bill Kruse
Plainfield - TAK to Bernice on CBAC Report 5.28.15
ReplyDeleteHi Bernice,
Thank you for covering Citizens Budget Advisory Committee (CBAC)’s Report to Council. There are a few other key points from the CBAC Report that people need to know.
First, the Council gave the CBAC five specific goals:
1. Compare Plainfield’s budget expenses, revenues, and service to municipalities of similar size and demographics.
2. Identify possibilities for shared service agreements similar communities have agreed to.
3. Identify core services, as defined by residents, and rank in their priority order
4. Identify structural budget imbalances caused by one time measures and recommend strategies to eliminate them
5. Make a set of budget recommendations for the 2015 Calendar Year Budget.
Next, for 2015, the budget review period was only two weeks long and covered only 11 of the 36 department or expense categories in the city budget and did not review any of the Revenue side of the budget or the City’s Debt Finance Plans.
Since the CBAC had only a partial view of City Budget and only a few weeks to work, the CBAC was not able to work on Goals 1, 2, 3 and 4 and was not able to do a comprehensive job on Goal 5.
As a result, the CBAC made four Budget Process Improvement Recommendations to the Council.
1. The CBAC should be formed in January and begin meeting as soon as the prior year’s books are closed and actual data is available. This would give the CBAC time to work on Goals 1 to 4.
2. A schedule of Budget Review Meetings should be set early in the year, even before the budget is available, to maximize the attendance from all stakeholders (Council Members, Departments heads, and CBAC Members) at all meetings.
3. There should be a much longer budget review period so all departments can be reviewed in detail, the Revenue side of the budget can be reviewed, and the City Debt Finance Plans can be reviewed
4. All Departments’ prior year Goals & Accomplishments and current year goals, should include the actual impacts (Cost savings, Efficiencies, and increased people served) that have been achieved by the things they have done.
Some of these items are carry-over recommendations City Council from prior CBAC committees. The 2015 CBAC hopes the Council and Administration will work together to implement these recommendations to ensure more comprehensive and thorough budget reviews and improved cost savings and efficiencies throughout Plainfield city government in the years to come.
Tom Kaercher
2015 CBAC
Sounds like the only people who don't need to curtail spending is the City Council.
ReplyDeleteThey are going to spend money on someone to tape and air the meetings. They are going to spend money on their own accountant to review the budget. Sounds like they are going to be spending a lot more than 26K on their own interests. Oh well, since many of them don't pay their taxes or their PMUA bills, it is easy to see why they don't care about the budget. They don't pay for anything.
as entertaining as it is to see people make fools of themselves.. Bridget and Gloria.. Awesome job FYI with your blatant political spin on monetary matters .. the company you both keep shines the true light on your motives. Although it works for the mindless knee jerk Democrats who do exactly as your puppet master instructs, it shows your weak willed, below average intelligence and self serving motives...save the rest of us the "gas" next time and remain silent.. Let Sharon do her own political stomping on her own..she already has a do nothing job as her payback, let the rest of us move forward ( ....and speaking of political payback, I'm sure the two of you are rubbing your palms together at the thought of what you've "earned" )
ReplyDelete