How Many Deciders for Primary?

Three people want your vote Tuesday if you live in the Second or Third wards.

Incumbent Rashid Burney, former Councilman Don Davis and veteran campaigner Rebecca Williams are vying for the Democratic party line in Tuesday's primary.

According to the latest Voter Registration Summary from the Union County Board of Elections, there are 7,384 registered Democrats in the two wards. There are another 4,322 unaffiliated voters in those wards who can declare a party affiliation up to and including Primary Day. Click here to see the entire summary.

Burney has the backing of Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Green, Councilwoman Linda Carter and Councilman William Reid, while Williams, running as a New Democrat, has been endorsed by Councilmen Adrian Mapp and Cory Storch. Councilwoman Bridget Rivers is the campaign manager for Davis.

The winner of the primary will face former Republican mayoral candidate Jim Pivnichny in the November 2 general election.

The First Ward City Council seat is also up for election this year. Reid, the Democratic incumbent, will face a November challenge from Republican Sean Alfred.

Independents can file for either of the two seats on Primary Day.

If you are eligible, please be sure to vote Tuesday. The polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

--Bernice Paglia

Why No Finance Director?

Six months into 2010, there is still no permanent director of the largest of three city departments, Administration, Finance, Health and Social Services.

In the mayor's first term, this post was filled by an array of directors and sometimes by the city administrator doing double duty. During the last six months of 2009, Bibi Taylor held the title and impressed the governing body with her expertise.

As the mayor's second term began, Taylor was named acting city administrator and acting AFH&SS department head, initially just for January, as she was expected to leave for an administrative job in another municipality. Council members were pleased when she decided to stay on as city administrator and quickly confirmed her for the job.

As for holding the additional post of department head, nothing was spelled out, but Taylor tacitly kept that responsibility as well.

For some time, there has been a rule that acting positions should be held no longer than 90 days before a permanent person is named. This rule has been ignored at times in the mayor's first term and it is now past time this year to find a permanent department head.

The city charter calls for three department heads to whom all divisions report. Besides AFH&SS, there is a department of Public Works & Urban Development and one for Public Affairs & Safety. During the Mark Fury administration in the mid-1990s, several divisions were moved from Public Affairs & Safety to other departments. Besides the offices of the tax collector, tax assessor and chief finance officer, AFH&SS included purchasing, the municipal court and audit and control. The realignment under Fury put the finance director additionally in charge of the Health Division, the Women, Infants & Children nutrition program, Animal Control, the Bilingual Day Care Center, the Senior Center, the Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies program, Personnel, Dudley House and Communicable Diseases.

Fury's reason at the time was that he wanted to put a person with a social services background in charge of Administration & Finance. The individual soon proved to be not up to the task, but the new arrangement remains to this day.

In the mayor's first term, AFH&SS had several directors, and two different city administrators held the post in acting capacity for many months. Coupled with the lack of a permanent chief finance officer since the end of 2007, the situation set the stage for lapses such as the $1.7 million error in the FY 2009 budget.

The state Division of Local Government Services has set a deadline for the city to come up with a chief finance officer, a statutory position required for municipal government. The department head is required by the city's special charter, so it may be up to the governing body to press the mayor for action on filling the post permanently.

Taylor has come across to the public as extremely qualified for either of her current roles, but the burden of dual responsibilities can wear anybody down. And surely in these hard fiscal times it would be good to have the checks and balances envisioned in the charter by having three separate department heads reporting to the city administrator.

As for taking another look at the arrangement of divisions under the three department heads, that is an issue that needs to be examined separately. It is 20 years since a Charter Study Commission gave its report to the City Council, which at the time declined to act on any of its recommendations. Since then, Public Affairs & Safety has had all its former divisions removed except Police and Fire. The Fire Division still has a chief, but the police chief has been replaced by a police director. The department head and the police director are the same person currently. Inspections and Recreation are now under Public Works & Urban Development.

Because the charter was created by state legislation, any major changes must be made the same way. It would take two years or more to do so, even if the city started the process now. Meanwhile, the current mayor's second term just began in January and runs through 2013. Finding a qualified permanent finance director (and hiring a CFO) early on could bring more stability to city government in these uncertain times.

--Bernice Paglia

Kitchen Repairs Not Complete

Today is my fourth day without use of the kitchen, as repairs continue following Wednesday morning's ceiling collapse. While the response was swift, it is a bit disconcerting not to be able to cook or wash dishes in the usual way. The contents of some cabinets had to be packed up and stuff is piled around the front room. Prior to this latest mishap, we had several others, about one a month for the past year, so there was already disarray.

So I am taking a day off from blogging today. If the work is finished today, I will have a big clean-up job on my hands, as the work has generated a lot of dust and debris and more is expected.

So have a lovely day, go to the concert in Cedar Brook Park, admire the Shakespeare Garden and be glad your ceiling did not collapse this week!

--Bernice

Three BOE Meetings Coming Up

From the NJPA Public Notices:

PLAINFIELD BOARD OF
EDUCATION

MEETING NOTICE
The Plainfield Board of Education shall hold the
following meetings:
TUESDAY JUNE 8, 2010 6:30 P.M.
EXECUTIVE SESSION PHS CONF. ROOM 950 PARK AVE.
8:00 P.M. WORK & STUDY MEETING (ACTION MAY BE TAKEN) PHS CONF. ROOM 950 PARK AVE.

TUESDAY JUNE 15, 2010 6:30 P.M.
SPECIAL MEETING/EXECUTIVE
SESSION PHS CONF. ROOM 950 PARK AVE. 8:00 P.M.
BUSINESS MEETING PHS CONF. ROOM 950 PARK AVE.

TUESDAY JUNE 22, 2010 6:30 P.M.
EXECUTIVE SESSION PHS CONF. ROOM 950 PARK AVE. 8:00 P.M.
BUSINESS MEETING PHS AUDITORIUM 950 PARK AVE.

Gang Forum Offers Hope

Yvonne Watts displays a homemade gang shirt.

A coalition of churches and community groups successfully launched “Project Hope” Thursday, an initiative to explore the causes of youth violence and possible solutions.

A very diverse audience filled the Parish Hall at First Unitarian Society of Plainfield to hear the perspectives of Newark gang specialists, local law enforcement and school security representatives, Plainfield High School students, urban fiction author J.M. Benjamin and Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs on gang activity. Although the event was planned months ago, a spate of gang-related shootings made it especially timely.

Before the forum began, Carl Heath of the church’s Racial Justice Committee said his group saw the need for a community-based response to youth violence in order to become “the city where youth get a fair chance.”

Partners in the venture include Grace Episcopal Church, Shiloh Baptist Church, Covenant Methodist Church, Watchung Avenue Presbyterian Church, Plainfield Friends (Quakers), Angels in Action and the Plainfield Youth Council Teen Center.

Panelists described the lure of gangs as offering respect and love that young people may not be receiving at home. But once in a gang, speakers said, an individual was sworn to loyalty, with personal harm or even death as punishment for breaking the code. Middy Murdock, a self-identified Crip, said lack of knowledge and self identity can lead to gang allegiance because a young person just wants to be “part of something.” Bloods member “Loose” said gang members consider themselves family, greeting each other with “bro” and “cuz” to signify their ties.

But students Benny De Leon and Darwin Juarez spoke of their fear at being accosted in the high school for wearing the wrong color clothes or for not understanding gang overtures.

Plainfield Truancy Coordinator Yvonne Watts displayed homemade gang T-shirts and said they are confiscated from students who wear them to school. Watts and other youth mentors urged parents to learn more about signs of gang activity or interest and to follow up by checking their children’s rooms, backpacks, notebooks and language for telltale indications of involvement.
Young people may be assigned gang identities simply because of where they live, former gang member Larry Brown said. Now a Plainfield police officer who works with the N.J. State Gang Investigating Unit, Brown estimated there are about 25 gangs in Plainfield, with seven different Crip sets and four different Blood sets that may even battle internally as well as with enemy gangs.

Robinson-Briggs named a number of city efforts to support young people and deter them from gangs, including summer employment, a re-entry program for youth offenders, motivational programs and even her personal talks with youth in parks and playgrounds.

Among the problems faced by law enforcement are a lack of cooperation from gang members, even those who have been harmed, due to a “no snitching” code. Police may know all the details of an incident, but cannot get anyone to give statements or testify in court for fear of reprisal, Brown said.

Speakers from the audience deplored what some called a lack of interest in schools for the concerns of both youth and parents regarding gangs, as well as a perception of unsafe neighborhoods. But Brown and Security Officer Terrence Davis said police will listen to young people.

As the discussion pointed to a broad-based community effort as the first line of defense against youth gang involvement, Heath wrapped it up by urging all present to fill out an evaluation form that ended with a pitch for further involvement with Project Hope.

Anyone who missed the event but is interested in Project Hope can call First Unitarian Society of Plainfield at (908) 756-0750 and leave contact information.

--Bernice Paglia

The Sky is Falling!

Well, actually it was kitchen ceiling that fell, making an ungodly mess and disrupting our daily routines. The new owner of the building responded quickly, but we are in for another day or so of not being able to use the kitchen.

How bad was it? Ask the cat, who cowered under a skirted chair while workers ripped out a large section of the ceiling, fixed a pipe and promised to put everything right later today.

The news from the outer world was not so hot either Wednesday. The school board meeting sounded like more of the same confusion that existed before the election and the notion of a gang war in the West End was guaranteed to garner more "bad news" headlines for the city.

Amidst all the disarray, I found myself speaking on the radio on behalf of the First Unitarian Society of Plainfield, which is hosting a forum tonight on the issue of gang violence. I had called the station's number mainly to verify it for someone who wanted to know how to contact WKMB, but then was asked to say a few words on air. There will be another speaker on the subject of the forum on a show that begins at 11:30 a.m. today, I am told. Harvest Radio is at 1070 AM on the dial, if you have a chance to listen.

"Project Hope: Addressing Teen Violence in Plainfield" is a community forum sponsored by a coalition of churches and community organizations. It will be held from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the church, 724 Park Avenue, with parking in Municipal Lot 7 off Park Avenue. Terrance Davis, Security Officer for the Plainfield Public Schools will moderate. Panel members include J.M. Benjamin, Plainfield author; Larry Brown of the NJ State Gang Investigating Unit; and Yvonne Watts, Coordinator Training-Support Services for the Plainfield Public Schools.

A ray of hope is certainly something the city needs right now. If you are able, consider attending this forum.

--Bernice Paglia

Why No Crime Story?

Someone has asked why Plaintalker did not cover the shootout at the cookout.

First of all, neither Plainfield Plaintalker nor Plaintalker II ever purported to be a full-service news outlet. And when it comes to a crime story, anecdotal reports are not considered to be official news. Only the jurisdiction involved can release official statements, in this case being the Union County Park Police, who did release a statement today. There was a brief item in the Star-Ledger online and a longer story in the Courier News tonight.

Some readers may recall that this writer gave up driving a couple of years ago. My reports on doings of municipal government are accomplished by walking to City Hall or Municipal Court. The new blog and the old blog also include other coverage, but solely at my ability or inclination to do so.

So take the blog for what it is. There has been breaking news on the blog, which other bloggers and the print media have followed. But not every story needs to be chased by all the bloggers, especially the ones that require cooperation from official sources that don't recognize blogs as news outlets.

With all that said, it is extremely important that the issue of gang violence is met with a joint effort of city, county and even state law enforcement to ensure the safety of law-abiding citizens going about their daily activities. The First Unitarian Society of Plainfield is holding a forum Thursday on the causes and possible solutions to youth violence, starting at 6:30 p.m. Five other churches and various community organizations will take part, along with city officials. The church is located at 724 Park Avenue and parking is available in city parking lot 7 across the street from the church.

--Bernice