PARSA is one of three authorities that deal with city sewage. The Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority is in charge of the 110-mile sewer system within the city. PARSA conveys sewage from Plainfield and seven other municipalities to the Middlesex County Utilities Authority for treatment. All eight municipalities are supposed to have commissioners on PARSA to represent their interests, but Plainfield's representation has been in dispute for several years.
The Municipal Code currently limits Plainfield appointments to PARSA to either the executive director or a member of the PMUA. The ordinance amends the code to allow the mayor, with advice and consent of the City Council, to make PARSA appointments, the rationale being language in the city's special charter that says in conflicts it prevails over other laws.
Although there can be one Plainfield commissioner and two alternates, all seats are vacant. PMUA's Assistant Executive Director, David Ervin, retired from the authority in 2011 but remained on PARSA as a commissioner until his term expired in January 2015, based on provisions of the state municipal utility law.
The last two alternates were former PMUA members William Reid, whose City Council term ended on Dec. 31, 2014 and Harold Mitchell, a PMUA holdover until June 2015.
Once Ervin's term expired, Mayor Adrian O. Mapp nominated Thomas Crownover to serve on PARSA, but the appointment failed due to the conflict over how PARSA appointments had to be made.
The ordinance was added to Tuesday's agenda as a new item. At the end of the Jan. 11 meeting, the council went into executive session. I did not stay for any outcome of the executive session, but apparently the council emerged and agreed publicly to add the ordinance to the agenda. That would seem to bode well for passage on first reading Tuesday, but it will still have to pass on second reading and it will not become effective for 20 days later. The timing means no appointment can be made until March at the earliest.
--Bernice
The City Charter allows for appointments when the means for an appointment is provided for in either the Charter itself or the Administrative Code. Because the PARSA appointment is contained within the municipal code, this limitation is not at variance with the Charter. It also makes complete sense that PMUA, as the direct PARSA customer, and established by the City as our sewerage agency, should have representation at the table. Authority leadership, regardless of how dismal it has been over the last 20 years (to put it mildly), still knows more about the sewer business than most Jane Does or Joe Blows walking the streets of Plainfield. This wouldn't have been an issue if the City Council hadn't first rejected the highly-qualified Mr. Crownover for a PMUA seat, opting instead for a batch of commissioners with little or no knowledge of PMUA business, and supplemented by a couple of commissioners who either were a party to PMUA abuses or publicly dismissive of the need for substantive reform at the agency. Now that all seven PMUA Board members are Mapp appointees, just what does the mayor's rejection of any of them, along with their newly hired executive director, really say about how the administration views the Board? If they are good, why not any of them? If they are bad, why nominate them in the first place? It looks as if having a PARSA representative is playing second fiddle to the mayor's appetite for authority, and he is so impatient that he will not wait for the legal proceeding to work itself to a judgment in February. That judgment is costing us thousands in legal fees, as taxpayers are picking up the full freight of arguing both sides of the issue. If the City Council had been doing its homework, its legal team would have requested a new judge because of the deficient manner she handled the lawsuit against PMUA in 2009-2010, just a few months after being promoted to Union County Assignment Judge following a career in Family Court. However she may rule, and although I think this legal battle is a terrible waste of money, it has progressed this far, and we should wait for the opinion. Until that time, the City Council should not be cowed into precipitous action. It is legally on strong ground, in my view. Moreover, it makes complete sense that PMUA's executive director, or one of its commissioners, be the City's PARSA representative. If none of these individuals are satisfactory or trustworthy, maybe it is time to just shutter and disband PMUA.
ReplyDeleteConsider -
ReplyDeletePMUA primary consideration Solid Waste
PARSA primary is Sanitary Sewerage
Who cares? Just wait till you get your next bills.