Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Three PMUA Commissioners Appointed

Late in Tuesday's City Council meeting, three new commissioners were named to the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority board.

Jacinth Clayton-Hunt a former public information officer for the city and a publicist for the PMUA, will replace Harold Mitchell for an unexpired term ending on Feb. 1, 2016.

Clayton-Hunt's appointment was previously the only item on the agenda for a June 2 special meeting called by Mayor Adrian O. Mapp. Approval required at least four votes, but only Councilman Cory Storch and Councilwoman Rebecca Williams attended. After 15 minutes, Deputy Clerk Sherri Golden declared the meeting adjourned for lack of a quorum.

City Administrator Rick Smiley sought to add Clayton-Hunt's nomination to the agenda on June 10, but Council President Bridget Rivers rejected it as a "walk-on" item. As Smiley tried to explain, Rivers ignored him, saying, "Moving right along ..."

On Tuesday, Rivers said the resolution had been submitted on time, but had inadvertently been left off the agenda by Deputy Clerk Sherri Golden, so it was being accepted as a new item.

The other nominees were Robin Bright, to replace Alternate No. 1 Charles Eke, and Pedro Estevez, filling the vacancy. Bright said she is a buyer in the book industry and she also manages budgets. Estevez said he is a retired businessman.

"You wouldn't happen to be Christian Estevez's father," Rivers asked.

"Yes," Estevez said

Both alternates will serve terms expiring Feb. 1, 2017.

--Bernice

8 comments:

  1. It is wrong of this city to 'walk-on' these appointments without any prior notice. It is wrong, and a violation of the City's pay-to-play ordinance he himself advocated, for Mayor Mapp to take campaign contributions from PMUA's auditor, and the City's auditor as well. I am happy the commissioners jettisoned PMUA's General Counsel, McManimon, Scotland & Baumann, and stopped the payment of illegal commissioner compensation, although the resolution doing so was a sham. I am dismayed the first appointee of the administration was into 6-figures of the illegal take during her tenure. Another appointee may have been the go-between that enabled the disastrous consequences of the North Avenue demolition. Now the latest batch includes a former employee who has publicly dismissed legitimate criticism of the Authority, as well as two Column C allies, slipped in at the last minute. Their independence is questionable, and the mayor, who keeps secret many of his motives regarding PMUA, will not be wholly believable until he calls out the fraudulent solid waste cash flowing from the City to PMUA, which he undoubtedly has known about since he first took his seat on the City Council in 1998.

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    1. Alan, yes I did run for a committee seat under column C (won by a 3 – 1 margin) I guess that would put me in alignment with the Mayor. No man is a island! Please do not assume that I am not an independent thinker and my decisions would not be my own. As a homeowner, I reserved the right to opt out of PMUA, but I didn’t. I pay for PMUA services every quarter and my payments are always current and on time. However, as a citizen and stakeholder I see the value in the services they provide and any and all decisions I make will be based on the needs of the city and it’s residence. I am very detail oriented and an analytical thinker, one of strong points and current job functions is to negotiate and make decisions, which I do very well.

      Robin Bright

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  2. I'm on the floor alan, mapp bamboozled all of y'all. Him.and watson been had this planned. Mapp complained about eric than embraced him and crew.

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  3. What a joke the Jazz appointment is :) Those in the know, know what that is about. Good move EW I am not mad at you

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  4. Very True Anonymous 10:52am most of us know what that is about.

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  5. Ew is used a Jedi mind trick on mapp.

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  6. Who is Christian Estevez? Why would being his father make the candidate qualified?

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    1. You must understand Council President logic. You should know how she thinks by now.

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