Williamson to Update Council on PMUA

A new item for Monday's City Council meeting is an invitation for PMUA Executive Director Dan Williamson to speak. It brings to mind the fact that the council every year names liaisons to various entities and these liaisons should be able to update the council as well - that is, if they in fact attend the meetings of the organizations to which they are assigned. Soon a new roster of liaisons will be named, in addition to assignments for six council committees, only a few of which have given reports in 2014. The assignments are buried in a huge "Rules of Order" document that is passed each January and honored largely in the breach for the rest of the year.

For example, one rule is this:

1.3 Getting the Floor
Every City Council member desiring to speak for any purpose, whatsoever, shall address the
Council President, and upon recognition, confine him or herself to the question under debate,
avoiding personalities and indecorous language.

How often has that been ignored by certain council members?

Here is the whole 2012 Rules of Order, if you want to see it for yourself. Most of it, except for meeting dates and assignments, stays the same.

Anyway, it will be interesting to hear what Dan Williamson has to say on Monday. Here is the item from the agenda:

COUNCIL PRESIDENT BRIDGET RIVERS HAS EXTENDED AN INVITATION TO PLAINFIELD MUNICIPAL UTILITIES AUTHORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DANIEL A. WILLIAMSON, TO GIVE A BRIEF UPDATE ON THE ONGOING AF AIRS OF THE AUTHORITY. (VARIOUS INFORMATION ITEMS SUBMITTED FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO COUNCILMEMBERS UNDER SEPARATE COVER)

--Bernice

Whither Watson?

Monday's agenda arrived with no mention of action on Eric Watson's status. As some may recall, the former executive director of the PMUA and recipient of a large settlement for his service, was named acting director of the Department of Public Works & Urban Development. Watson held the same post before he became head of the PMUA in 1995. His starting date as department head was Sept. 15, 2014.

I kind of expected to see a resolution appointing him permanently on the Dec. 8 agenda, but there was none. The next council meeting will be an agenda-fixing session Dec. 15 for the annual reorganization, which is scheduled for Jan. 5, 2015. The only way action could be taken that night is if there is a special meeting in addition. Watson could be confirmed as director to serve for the balance of Mapp's term, or the council could approve another 90-day temporary appointment. But something has to be done by Dec. 15 if Watson is to stay on.

If I missed something regarding this appointment, please let me know. Here is what the Municipal Code says:

Sec. 2:3-4.    Interim appointments.

    (a)     Whenever a vacancy exists in any office required by the Charter or ordinance to be filled by the Mayor with the advice and consent of the Council, the Mayor may temporarily fill such vacancy in the absence of any contrary provision in the Charter or ordinance by appointing an acting officer, including the designation of himself or a Department Director as Acting City Administrator or the designation of the City Administrator as an acting department director. Any such appointment shall terminate no later than ninety (90) days after the date of appointment. Provided however that before the completion of an interim appointment as described herein and upon the written application of the Mayor, the City Council by a majority vote, may approve an extension of such appointment for an additional period not to exceed ninety (90) days. No person shall be eligible for a temporary appointment who has previously served a temporary appointment in the same office during the previous twelve (12) consecutive months.

    (b)     Such appointee shall have all of the functions, powers and duties of the office for ninety (90) days or for such longer period as may be approved and provided for pursuant to Subsection (a) above.

    (c)     In the event the City Administrator is designated as an acting department director, the provisions of Section 2:5-9(d) shall apply.

(A.C. 1969, 3.4, as amended May 5, 1969; MC 2001-46, § 1, December 19, 2001; MC 2004-24, § 1, October 30, 2002; MC 2011-07, August 8, 2011.)

--Bernice

Yvonne Begone

"Yvonne," a new commenter who seems to be an agent for Jerry Green, used my mention of Park-Madison in an anecdote to launch an attack on the Park Hotel. Gee, there must be an election coming up, as this is one of JG's favorite targets, dating all the way back to 2007, when he made an election pledge to close it..

I looked into the matter at the time and posted some facts regarding the status of the Park Hotel, along g with notes on other issues affecting the neighborhood. I also got an interview with the head of a social service agency that works with Park Hotel residents

Of course, that was in 2007 and some things have changed in the neighborhood, notably the departure of the juveniles who were always creating some kind of trouble.We still have quite a few homeless people and petty criminals at Park & Seventh.

As for the Park Hotel,  JG and his minions have long used it as a political brickbat against certain candidates and it appears 2015 will be the year to bash Cory Storch.

I am printing the comment here so people can judge for themselves where "Yvonne" is coming from.

Speaking about Park-Madison, let’s talk about the Park Hotel boarding home. The place is a rat hold; it needs to be closed down immediately.

The site has become a safe haven for criminals and hoodlums.

The people residing there come from other cities, serving no purpose or need to the residents of Plainfield. Plainfield is in crisis and needs all the support it can get.

Besides, the word out is that Councilman Cory Storch has cunningly used this facility to benefit himself. He works for Bridgeway, a rehabilitation center.

He is taking those individuals off the tax rolls. If they are not contributing tax dollars, that’s what happens.

But I wonder if they did anyway? They would probably see a refund as noted by the writer above.
"Yvonne" submitted two previous comments , one with a link to Jerry's blog. Jerry has cleaned up his blog and is trying to behave in a statesmanlike manner after his 2013 Election Day tantrum, so it appears he has handed off the mudslinging to others. If I do publish comments from "Yvonne" in the future, just take them for what they likely are - campaign stinkbombs.

--Bernice

Planning Board Approves Elmwood Gardens Redevelopment Plan

A redevelopment plan for Elmwood Gardens won Planning Board approval Thursday and will be forwarded to the Council for possible approval in January.

The shuttered former public housing complex on West Second Street will be replaced by 60 townhouse or flat units, each with its own front door and a gated front yard for security. The Housing Authority of Plainfield is pursuing three options for financing and will return to the board for site plan approval. The board agreed to a range of 1- to 3-bedroom units and asked architect Henry Myers to design the buildings so that the front doors would be visible from the street.

The emphasis on security came from concerns about the old layout, where apartments shared a common hallway. At times when drug dealers and other criminals invaded the complex, residents became afraid of opening their doors to the hallways.The hallways also made it hard for police to apprehend criminals. The complex is now vacant and boarded up, awaiting environmental remediation and demolition. HAP Executive Director Randall Wood said Thursday the firm of Remington, Vernick & Arango is preparing an environmental study.

The board and Brian M. Slaugh of the firm Clarke Caton Hintz discussed the terminology for the apartments at length. Slaugh first described them as "townhouse over flat" design, citing a plan used in Absecon. It features a two-story  over one-story dwelling, each with its own direct outside access. Planning Board attorney Michele Donato said "townhouse" refers to housing with no "above or below," so it would really be a two-story flat.

After some discussion, the board moved on to ask how many units were proposed. The authority previously talked about 55 units, but now wanted 60, 54 2-bedroom and six 1-bedroom units. Slaugh and Wood called it a "slippery concept,' as the project might include 12 3-bedroom units if HAP received affordable housing credits. The higher number of units will also mean an increase in density to 16 units per acre.

Planning Board Chairman Ron Scott Bey objected to the range, saying the redevelopment plan "shouldn't be open-ended." Councilman Cory Storch, the governing body's liaison to the board, asked "Why not?"

Donato said the plan could be flexible and Storch said, "They need the flexibility."

Bedrooms are not density, Donato said, explaining density as the number of units per acre.

"I'm concerned with the number of units," Scott Bey said. Told it was 60, he said, "I'm done then."

After more discussion, the topic drifted back to what to call the project concept. Slaugh offered the term, "stacked townhouse,' but Donato asked whether there was any reason why he used that term instead of "stacked flats." Myers suggested that "flats" means one family upstairs and another family downstairs.

Whatever they will be called,  they will all be in six buildings, which kicked off a discussion of what kind of view residents will have. The idea was not to have the front of a building facing the rear of another.

Other considerations before the motion was passed included "defensible space" and whether the new complex should be designed as traditional 19th Century architecture. The board decided it should "complement" historic architecture.

After the meeting, Wood hailed the approval as a milestone in a three-year phase of the Elmwood Gardens transition. He said the last residents had only moved out a year ago.

(My recollection was that talk of a change at Elmwood Gardens went back a while, and I found evidence in this 2008 blog post.)

--Bernice

New Latino Blog

OK Folks, you asked for it.

View the new Plainfield Latino blog

 here.

Norman's Bad Math and Other Misdeeds

The purloined photo.

The latest entry in the local blogosphere includes some very misleading numbers and misquotes me, for starters. I will excerpt some things for your amusement and edification.

Norman Ortega, recent school board candidate and former commissioner on the Plainfield Advisory Commission for Hispanic Affairs, posted a diatribe against me for, as he puts it, being "nostalgic" for the high-end retailers of Plainfield's past. 

"Bernice Paglia writes the Plainfield Plaintalker, a “hyperlocal blog” where most of the high-end nostalgics gather to support each other’s high-end grief," he writes.

Geez, if that's all I do, I certainly have lost a lot of time attending public meetings and staying up at night to report on them.

So then he emails me to let me know he quoted me and asks if he did it correctly. I tell him to look at the blog post he says he quoted and see whether he did it correctly.

He emails me back: "Done!"

Well, not quite.

Norman: In one of her blogs, Bernice asked “Do you shop downtown?” And admitted “to more online shopping and spending money inWestfield” rather than in Plainfield. Like many of her high-end readers, she believes that downtown “need a better mix of offerings”.

What Bernice wrote: "Do you shop downtown? I must admit to more online shopping and spending money in Westfield. Will new downtown dwellers find it to their liking? Does it need a better mix of offerings?"
My readers since 2005 know very well that I go out of town to get what I call Things You Can't Buy in Plainfield, like sturdy walking shoes, and I get all my black turtlenecks online from L.L. Bean. But enough about my pedestrian taste in fashion, let's talk about math.
Norman says, "At the time of the high-end departures in the 80s, the Hispanic population in Plainfield was about 3,291. From 1980 to 2000, the Hispanic population grew to a whopping 12, 203. That’s a 112% increase.

Even a math-challenged old lady can tell you that would be a 370 percent increase.

Worse yet for someone with political aspirations, Norman does not understand election results. He analyzes the school board election like this:

Candidates	Party	# Votes	%
Personal Choice		14	0.10%
Non - Dorien HURTT	Independent	1,321	9.62%
Non - Norman E. ORTEGA	Democrat	1,814	13.21%
Non - Tania CENTER	Democrat	1,922	14.00%
Non - Michael A. HORN	Democrat	1,953	14.22%
Non - Terrence S. BELLAMY	Democrat	2,012	14.65%
Non - Carletta D. JEFFERS	Democrat	2,318	16.88%
Non - David M. RUTHERFORD	Democrat	2,379	17.32%
Total # of Voters		13,733	100.00%

A total of 13.733 voters turned out to vote. Of those 13,733 voters, 1,814 voted for the Latino candidate (Ortega). If you notice, the Latino candidate had the least amount of votes, with the exception the Independent candidate, who received 1,321. If at least 500 of those Latino voters had come out to vote, the children who make up 70% of the student body of Plainfield would have had a Latino representing all their needs in the school system. And what are those needs? Effective teachers, after school programs, adequate books, healthy lunches, security and quality education. 

Norman forgets that each voter gets to make three school board choices. According to the Union County Clerk's official results, 7,981 0f Plainfield's 22,133 registered voters turned out at the polls on Nov. 4. His total would have meant a 62 percent turnout, when in fact it was more like 36 percent.

Well anyway, Norman, welcome to the world of blogging in Plainfield. But one last thing. If you are going to use one of my photos on your blog's Facebook page, it would be polite to add a credit.

Happy blogging!

--Bernice

City Missed ShotSpotter Renewal Target Date

ShotSpotter, the California-based provider of gunshot detection systems, billed the city in November 2013 for renewal of service, according to an invoice up for approval on Dec. 8.

The invoice was due by Feb. 1, 2014 and covers service from that date through Jan. 31, 2015. It was only after Plaintalker questioned the status of ShotSpotter service that the bill turned up, no doubt by coincidence.

From the Oct. 20 blog post:

The article also mentioned a shooting that was picked up by ShotSpotter. By chance, the top item on my "whatever happened to ..." list was ShotSpotter, the gunshot detection system that was first proposed in 2010 and last heard of in 2013, when the company president came to Plainfield to discuss "tweaks" in the system. Instead of a $1 million purchase, the city had agreed to a $169,000 grant-funded lease. So is there still a lease and is it still grant-funded? I guess I have to find out.

Actually I forgot to look up the details in the Dec. 1 packet, as I am finding the electronic version of the agenda more cumbersome than riffling through the paper version at the Plainfield Public Library. Each item has to be downloaded separately and I fear overloading the laptop.

The funding source is identified only by an account number, so I don't know whether it is grant-funded.

Anyway, the tardy payment of the ShotSpotter bill points up the fiscal disarray that the finance team of Mayor Adrian O. Mapp is trying to address. The bill for a $120,000 service renewal was dated Nov. 6, 2013, in the waning days of the previous administration, when Finance Director Al Restaino was on his way out. It was due for payment before Feb. 1, 2014. At least the Mapp team can handle the next bill, when the service subscription term expires in January.

While this may just have been an oversight, it is not uncommon for an outgoing administration to behave ungraciously to the incoming one, especially if political hostility is involved. From my days as a reporter, I recall a rather egregious instance a couple of decades ago where a lame duck mayor failed to inform his successor that the developer for the Park-Madison site had withdrawn. One also hears tales of document shredding at times of turnover and even glue in locks.

--Berniceually