LWV Forum Coming Up

Rupert Crawford, president of the League of Women Voters of Plainfield, invites all voters and the general public to attend a City Council Candidates' Forum on Oct. 27.

The event is 7 p.m. at Emerson Community School, 305 Emerson Ave. The forum will be conducted according to LWV guidelines and will be moderated by Louise Ballard of Hillside.

Candidates are Democratic incumbent William Reid and Republican Sean Alfred, vying for the First Ward council seat; and Democratic primary winner Rebecca Williams and Republican former mayoral candidate James Pivnichy in a contest for the Second and Third Ward at-large council seat. Winners of the Nov. 2 general election will go on to serve four-year terms beginning Jan, 1, 2011.

Crawford, a retired stockbroker and semi-retired educator, was named president of the Plainfield league at its annual meeting in June. He is the League's second male president. The first was Herb Green, who served at the age of 83 in 2008 and had previously served at the age of 53.

Crawford is married and has four daughters who have attained a total of 12 degrees.

"Being a first-generation citizen, I am extremely proud of that," he said.

Crawford is also pleased to be serving in a year that marks both the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in August 1920, and the founding of the Plainfield league in May 1920.

The local league has thus been a service provider in the area of voter education for 90 years, he said.

(Disclaimer: I am a member of the LWV of Plainfield.)

--Bernice Paglia

Demolition Site is Settling

After the demolition of a 124-year-old building on North Avenue, the site was filled in. These vaults under the sidewalk could clearly be seen. In a previous North Avenue demolition, similar vaults were supposed to be closed off before fill was placed on the site. That site, at Gavett Place, and North Avenue, has been showing signs of settling at the edge of the sidewalk for some time.

Given the presence of Remington & Vernick engineers at the March 2010 demolition site, I thought maybe these vaults would be walled off before fill was dumped on the lot.

Apparently not, because some big gaps have opened up at the sidewalk line.

The one-day demolition and months-long cleanup were done at a cost of almost $200,000, which was charged against the SFY 2011 budget as an emergency appropriation. No plans have been mentioned for the empty lot, but a look at the sinking fill indicates that the lot would have to be stabilized somehow before anything, even a pocket park, could be placed on it. Even with a fence in place, the holes at the sidewalk's edge appear to present a hazard.

--Bernice

"Nightclubs" Now Banquet Halls

Although a legal notice on a proposal to redevelop the PNC Bank building referred to five nightclubs, I am told that at the Oct. 6 Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting the use was restated as "banquet halls."


I had a conflict and could not attend the meeting (see post here). A series of misfortunes has prevented me from listening to the tape, but I am still wondering about parking. Developer Frank Cretella is not required to provide parking in the central business district, but realistically speaking, banquet attendees need somewhere to park. The parking garage on the Park-Madison block is a logical possibility, if city authorities can work out an arrangement with the Union County Improvement Authority, which owns the garage.

After my vacation I still hope to review the tape of the meeting for more details.

--Bernice

Power Issues Prolong Meeting

Veteran council watchers could tell something was up when they spotted some controversial nominees in Tuesday's audience, although none of their names were on the agenda for votes. The mystery did not start to unfold until late in the evening, after the the governing body held a two-hour closed session with employees who had received layoff notices.

Upon reconvening, Council President Annie McWilliams said she wanted to talk about two issues. First, she sought to clarify remarks made at the Oct. 4 agenda-fixing session regarding the administration's stance on council-appointed citizen committees. She produced copies of e-mails on the issue, but Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs said she had not seen the e-mails. McWilliams passed them to her.

"You stated the administration refused to work with you," the mayor said."We did not refuse. You asked if there was a discussion. I said no."

At the previous meeting, Robinson-Briggs said "no" just as McWilliams said "yes," setting off titters from the audience. On Tuesday, the mayor held up the sheaf of e-mails and said, "This is not a discussion."

One of the issues was whether council-appointed citizen committee members would take up staff time with various requests for information. The mayor said Tuesday any such requests would have to go through the city administrator. The two then traded comments about whether "secret meetings" had been held and the mayor reiterated that all requests had to go through the city administrator's office. McWilliams sighed.

The second issue had to do with the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority. McWilliams said several "action items" had been sent to PMUA Executive Director Eric Watson with no results. The requests included more transparency on the authority's web site and for research on billing to be sent to the governing body.

The authority has several holdovers on its board of commissioners, but the council has not voted to confirm the mayor's nominees. Meanwhile, authority Chairman Harold Mitchell declined the council's request for a joint meeting, asking that it be put off until after the Nov. 2 general election.

On Tuesday, McWilliams said in deciding who to put on the authority's board, the council needed more information on the state of the PMUA.

The authority has been under close scrutiny by a citizen group, DumpPMUA, and was the target of a lawsuit over some of its operating practices. While the PMUA prevailed in the lawsuit, it also made several operational changes sought by the citizen group.

In order to put the nominations on the agenda at Tuesday's meeting, a council majority would have had to agree, which did not happen. There was also the question of holding interviews with nominees. The mayor asked to speak and said the two items - the state of the PMUA and naming commissioners - were "totally separate."

Referring to PMUA nominees Hugh Smith, Charles Eke and Norman Ortega, the mayor said, "If you want to interview them, they're here and ready."

But when McWilliams invoked the council's need to be accountable to constituents, the mayor retorted, "I represent 50,000."

When McWilliams again stated the council's right to seek needed information, the mayor repeated that the two issues were separate and added, "You're hurting the residents."

At that point, Councilwoman Linda Carter interceded, saying she didn't think the council had the five votes needed to put the item on the agenda.

"It is quarter to eleven at night," she said, noting the council still had the deal with the agenda.

With that, the council moved on to public comment. It was not until near midnight that the council began voting on the 30 resolutions and seven ordinances on the agenda.

In retrospect, the mayor's push to get the nominations on the agenda seemed to challenge McWilliams' statement on Oct. 4 that, as council president, she has the power to decide what items are placed on the agenda. Recently the mayor had used her power to veto two key pieces of legislation that McWilliams had proposed for greater fiscal responsibility and which the council approved. Very late in the meeting Tuesday, one of the vetoed items, reduction of the bid threshold, was reintroduced. City Administrator Bibi Taylor began to raise objections, but McWilliams noted the administration did not support the measure and asked, "Is there anything you would like to add?"

--Bernice

To the Readers

My computer is back but not yet hooked up. A nice Verizon man called me on my cell phone yesterday to report the landline was fixed. There is still a hole in the kitchen ceiling, but the leak from upstairs has been repaired.I still have quite a bad cold and cough. These various disruptions have interfered with my ability to concentrate on blogging, which is why you saw several short posts with images I have been collecting over the past week or so.

Just now I am trying to sort out some of the undercurrents of Tuesday's meeting, which seemed to reflect an escalation of tension between the administrative and legislative branches. So please bear with me in this rough patch. As always, it has been somewhat comforting to me to see the cycles of nature, such as the annual butterfly migration and the fall flocking of geese and blackbirds, that go on no matter how tangled our daily human lives get.

--Bernice

A B C, 1 2 3 ...

Repairs and restoration are going on at the YMCA. Workers removed panels from two walls flanking the entrance, marking one side with letters and the other side with numbers for accurate replacement.

Take a look if you happen to be passing by. The building is part of the Civic Historic District that includes City Hall and the War Memorial, and so especially deserves preservation.

--Bernice

Gotta Ask the Right Person

The two-hour wait Tuesday for the City Council to come out of closed session afforded a lot of time for folks to chat. Somebody mentioned how certain things got fixed after they showed up on the blog, but I mentioned the case of the parking meter and concrete base that got dislodged in front of 606 Crescent Avenue. Two workers tried to replace it last week, but couldn't budge it.

"It'll be fixed by tomorrow," said the certain somebody.

And darned if it wasn't, when I walked past today. No more hole ready for a trip-and-fall, conceivably saving the city a few thousand dollars.

Now there's a person who can truly boast, "I am Somebody!"

--Bernice