A Look Back at PMUA

In 2005, Plainfield Plaintalker posted an interview with PMUA executives. Perhaps it is worth another look now that the authority has become such a focus of residents' concern. Click here to read the post on the authority's 10th anniversary.

The authority has had its troubles over the years, but now seems to be hitting an all-time low with the public. This is happening in a state context of suspicion over the utility (pardon the pun) of authorities in general, as several have been exposed lately for wasteful spending and nepotism. So it is not just a PR problem with PMUA, it is a general question about proper stewardship of certain vital services.

At last week's Town Meeting, Councilman Cory Storch and Councilman Adrian Mapp came up with contrasting views on what should be done about the PMUA. Plaintalker's post on the meeting generated many comments that show residents' increasing frustration over having to deal with the authority.

Plainfield is fortunate to be the home to many highly-qualified professionals with expertise in finance and even with authorities and how they should function. Whatever talent base exists within the the PMUA and its board of commissioners, the current impasse almost demands some outside help. The offers given Wednesday should be considered, because it is not evident that the administration or governing body currently has clarity on how to proceed. If things can't be sorted out locally, Gov. Chris Christie may take action.

More later on PMUA. As those monitoring the authority have noted, the PMUA meeting previously scheduled for Tuesday has been moved to Thursday, April 14, 6 p.m. at PMUA headquarters, 127 Roosevelt Ave. The web site as of this moment still has Tuesday's date. Even though the PMUA publishes an annual calendar, it seems to be revised each month. Coupled with the new 6 p.m. meeting time, the frequent date changes leave the impression of making it hard for the public to follow authority business.

--Bernice

A Tribute to Edna

When flowers bloom in our yard, my neighbor and I recall our former neighbor Edna, who brought many lovely plants back from her South Carolina hometown. This array of daffodils is a perfect reminder of her generosity, amiability and love of beauty.

Edna was refined without being snobby and always pleasant and charming in our encounters coming and going. She set a standard for neighborliness that we have seldom seen since. When we see these gifts she left behind when she moved back down south, we give thanks for the years that we had her in our lives.

--Bernice

Sick Day - With Musings

Friday found this writer laying low, trying to gauge whether stomach rumblings and chills meant I was coming down with the flu or just reacting to a couple of tumultuous days.

The facts are not in after most of a day in bed, but as of this hour I have only the vaguest notions of a blog post.

One thing that kind of jarred me out of my malaise briefly was a comment from someone who is waiting for a candidate's "Greatest Hits" before deciding how to vote in the primary. After being an observer of the Plainfield political scene for 25 years, I would suggest that being one of nine or seven elected officials does not yield "Greatest Hits" of accomplishment as much as a "Top Ten" roster of things a person stands for.

Of course, this does not prevent some politicians for taking singular credit for new roads, a downtown building or even a winning basketball team, conveniently forgetting the role of others in bringing these things about.

I just looked through some old campaign flyers and those in which candidates talk about things they "worked for," "supported" or "advocated" more accurately describe public service than claims of single-handed success.

After Monday's filing date, we are in for about eight weeks of campaigning until the June 7 primary. Common wisdom in Plainfield is that the Democratic primary winners will prevail in the November general election, so competition will be fierce. I for one will not be looking for "Greatest Hits," but for the qualities that a candidate will need to in his or her political tool kit to advance, together with colleagues, the city's most important goals.

--Bernice

Candidates Declare for Primary

Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Green gave the line for the June primary to incumbent appointee Vera Greaves in the First & Fourth Ward at-large race and to Tony Rucker for the Second Ward at a party committee meeting Thursday.

Others who declared their candidacy were incumbent Councilman Cory Storch and newcomer Danielle Bush for the Second Ward and Delois Dameron for the First & Fourth Ward at-large seat.

Green said he acted as one of 21 trustees who decide who gets the line for the Regular Democratic Organization of Union County. Committee members had no role in the selection Thursday.

Green, who represents District 22 in the state Assembly, also permitted others to speak before naming his slate. Storch said he was planning to run in the primary, but not on the line. Storch said the city is facing many problems in a time of limited resources but said there are “serious disagreements” on how to use those resources.

“We have to learn how to come together and not fight,” he said. “We have to make government more effective than it is now.”

Storch said he wanted the primary to be about issues, not personalities, and notdivisions along lines such as race and class.

“I’m standing for honest competition,” he said. “I think the Democrats have to stand for new ideas, progress and change.

Storch cited a controversy over recreation programs as an example of the need for change.

“If you are satisfied with the number of children served, you probably don’t want to vote for me,” he said.

Noting past attacks on his family, he concluded by calling for a “clean campaign.”

Councilwoman Rebecca Williams asked whether there would be a vote after the presentations, but Green said thre would be no vote.

Next, Bush, a minister and health professional, named crime and safety as some of her major concerns, along with health care. She said funding that could have been channeled to Plainfield “left and went to another county.”

Bush said there was plenty of funding for mental health, which could help the city deal with gang violence. She cited the city’s HIV rate as “catching up with Newark.” She mentioned a city needle exchange program and also said she had talked to gang leaders in Plainfield.

On employment, Bush said there are corporations who guarantee employment to people with records.

“What I have done all my life is bring about change,” she said.

Rucker described how he came to Plainfield by way of Connecticut and Vallejo, Calif. and said his wife is a Plainfielder. He said he had heard of the city’s potential for many years and called council members “”all talented and all eager to make Plainfield a better place,” but said they are struggling with “group cohesiveness.”

Rucker said the city does have a master plan, but people have to get involved.

Having been a president of the Netherwood Neighborhood Association and been involved in church and youth work, he said, he wants to create an “exchange” for all those with good ideas, a place “like the New York Stock Exchange” where buyers and sellers come.

“Another thing I am passionate about is kids,” he said. “You can tell a lot about a community by its quality of life for children.”

But he said there is not a lot for children to do here and said he wants to create “a series of community centers.”

As the city competes with neighboring communities, he said, “We cannot fight with each other while they look at us in the rear view mirror.”

Citing what he learned from a recent visit to Oakland, Calif., Rucker said, “If we come together, it’s a beautiful city.”

“I am ready to work as hard as I can to make the city better,” he said.

Referring to Storch, Green told the audience, “I did not hear one thing he accomplished in eight years.” He said he was “very impressed” with Bush, but there is “more about Plainfield she needs to know.”

Green said he got offended when he did not hear candidates talk about “what happened last week,” alluding to a championship game.

“I’m so proud of the kids,” he said. “Nobody talked about this.”

Green said that’s why he decided to support Rucker, adding he did not make up his mind until that evening.

Two candidates for the First & Fourth Ward at-large seat spoke.

Greaves, appointed after Councilwoman Linda Carter vacated the seat in January to serve on the Union County Freeholder Board, said she has lived in Plainfield over 30 years. If elected, she said, she would serve both wards equally. Greaves said she wanted to start a program for young people “8 to 18” to channel them and said she is working with churches in her neighborhood to help youth.

“I cannot do it by myself,” she said. “I am asking everyone to pitch in.”

Greaves said on the drug problem, “We need desperately for something to happen.” She said she was hoping to work with police and “all those in charge” to “bring people back – not even back, but to a better place.”

Dameron also declared her candidacy for the First & Fourth Ward seat. Saying she came to Plainfield six years ago when her father became ill, she said seniors are faced with taxes that are too high. On a fixed income of $18,000, she said, her mother pays $12,000 in taxes.

As a member of the Citizens’ Budget Advisory Committee, she said she feels the budget is out of control and spending is out of control.

“I believe we can change Plainfield,” she said. “We cannot allow Plainfield to decline.”

Dameron said she had helped in campaigns for Green, Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs and Congressman Frank Pallone and was “always available.”

She said she did not consider herself a politician, but was “merely a servant.”

“I believe we can work together,” she said, to help youth and “mostly our seniors.”

By helping the seniors, she said “that will in turn help our youth,” she said.

After Dameron spoke, Green called for a motion to adjourn the meeting, but then said Dameron she had not come to him about her candidacy.

“Not one person in this room is my enemy,” Green said. “My enemy is in Trenton.”

Green said Rucker had been a “New Democrat” and so was Greaves, whereupon longtime committee member Rosemarie Cathcart called out, “Why can’t we be one party?”

Green then said of Greaves, “I have never seen a woman work harder. A lot of people say she’s got a lot to learn.”

But Green called her “a good learner” and said, “I feel she is not going to be a disgrace to us.”

Greaves said, “When I am committed, I am committed 100 percent. I will work 110 percent for the benefit of Plainfield.”

Committee member Frank D’Aversa attempted to bring up the matter of a slur-filled flyer that turned up in employees’ mailboxes at City Hall this week, but Green shut him down.

After a slam at city bloggers, Green said, “That letter did not cross the line” (Clarification: Olive Lynch reports that Green based his comment on a review by the Union County Prosecutor's Office) and added a bank parking lot will be opened for day workers before adjourning the meeting.

After the meeting, Plaintalker asked Dameron whether she was running on a slate. She said she is running as a “New Democrat.”

The official deadline to file for the primary is 4 p.m. Monday. All 68 Democratic City Committee seats and all state legislative seats are up for re-election this year.

--Bernice Paglia

New Attorney to Probe WBLS Event

The long-delayed investigation into costs of an Aug. 1, 2010 "town meeting" may resume with the expected hiring a new attorney on Monday.

Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson said at last Monday's agenda session that a resolution to hire attorney Ramon Rivera of the law firm Scarinci Hollenbeck will be on the regular meeting's agenda. The meeting is 8 p.m. in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.

A city check for $20,000 was paid to WBLS for the event, which featured an appearance by Rev. Al Sharpton. Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs later said $15,000 of the fee for the event was paid by an anonymous donor, reducing the city's cost to $5,000. Click here for Plaintalker's most recent post on the matter.

The need for an attorney points up a divide between the administration and the governing body that has persisted for many months and most recently surfaced this week when a harshly-worded flyer turned up in City Hall mailboxes. The anonymous author condemned certain council members for allegedly "attacking the mayor" and also heaped insults on bloggers, a city activist and a reporter. Robinson-Briggs denied any knowledge of how it happened, but some council members called for an investigation of the incident and whether any city copy machines or computers were used to create or disseminate the flyer.

--Bernice

Residents: Disband PMUA

Residents’ frustrations with the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority boiled over at the Second Ward Town Meeting Wednesday, with many calling for it to be disbanded.

For attorney Bill Michelson the tipping point was a calendar change that left him stuck with bottles and cans, while his paper recyclables carefully placed at the curb Wednesday went untouched.

“I was never an enemy of the PMUA,” he said, “then came the last 24 hours.”

For others, it was the fees, the board holdovers, the failure to produce outside revenues, the costly trips and lunches on the ratepayers’ dime.

The meeting was the one of four scheduled by the governing body to hear citizens’ concerns across the city, whether specific to a ward or general. The PMUA is an autonomous authority created by the City Council in 1995 to provide solid waste and sewer services to all households. Previously, property owners hired private carters for trash and paid sewer taxes to the city.

In 2009, PMUA rate increases of 20 percent for solid waste and 14 percent for sewer services sparked formation of Dump PMUA, a group that uncovered excesses in authority expenditures and protested charges. An additional 61 percent increase in shared services charges this year has prompted calls for Gov. Chris Christie to investigate the authority.

On Wednesday, some residents pledged their professional expertise in law and finance to help reform or dismantle the PMUA and many cited much lower rates in surrounding towns for trash disposal. Many wanted sewer services to be brought back under city control in order to take tax deductions. Speakers also questioned the number of holdovers on the PMUA’s board of commissioners and called for new appointments.

Resident Bill Amirault called PMUA the top issue among members of the Hillside Area Neighborhood Watch. When he called for a show of hands in favor of disbanding the PMUA, arms went up across the Cook School auditorium.

“Do it,” Amirault said, getting a burst of applause.

“Hillside is much too calm about this,” resident Thomas Crownover said a few minutes later, saying property owners are “being gouged.”

“You folks ought to know how easy it is to dissolve” an authority, said Crownover, the executive director of one in Metuchen who has seen another disbanded. “It isn’t that hard, it’s just a matter of desire.”

“You can rid us of this menace,” resident Tom Kaercher said. “We as residents hate this albatross around our necks.”

Councilman William Reid, a former PMUA commissioner and a council liaison to the authority, said state law would have to be changed to allow tax relief to ratepayers. Councilwoman Rebecca Williams noted the council’s subpoena powers to bring PMUA officers before the governing body and said,, “That might be the next step.”

Authority commissioners resisted requests to meet with the governing body last year, asking at one point to do so after the November election and then simply refusing to meet at all.

Councilman Cory Storch said dissolution would bring employees back to the city at undetermined cost and he was not convinced the city could do a better job. As for bringing in outside revenues, he said, “We hoped it (PMUA) would be more entrepreneurial and it hasn’t happened yet.”

Councilman Adrian Mapp drew applause when he said, “I have absolutely no objection to disbanding the PMUA and bringing it in house.”

Mapp said he believes the premise for creation of the authority was false. Besides getting rid of illegal dumping and replacing old sewer lines, he said, “It was also supposed to generate revenue – it will never generate revenue.”

He also dismissed the argument about the city falling heir to PMUA debt: “I don’t think the PMUA won the lottery. Who is paying the debt?”

The audience joined in the answer: “Us!”

By bringing it back to municipal control, Mapp said, the city could “get rid of some of the bloated bureaucracy” and more.

“The reasons for bringing the PMUA in house are tremendous,” he said. “All we are lacking is the will.”

Noting large crowds that came out to put pressure on the council over recreation issues, he called on people to “rise up” and do the same over the PMUA.

Reid demurred, saying “the city does a lousy job in servicing us” and the time was not right to bring PMUA under city control.

Councilwoman Vera Greaves found little fault with PMUA service, but said, “I am for whatever we can do to reduce the bill.”

As liaison to the PMUA, Councilwoman Bridget Rivers offered her phone number to listen to citizen concerns. Council President Annie McWilliams said she was disappointed at the attitude of the commissioners, saying their unwillingness to work with the council “leaves our hands tied.” Dissolving the authority now looms as an option, she said: “They don’t want to work with the people who created them.”

--Bernice Paglia

Emergency Funding Passed, Transition Proposed

Notice posted on mail room door at City Hall.

At Monday's special meeting, the City Council passed a resolution authorizing an "emergency appropriation" of $58,000 aimed at supporting the Recreation and Purchasing Divisions through the June 30 end of the 2011 fiscal year.

The move averted an April 15 scheduled layoff of staff in the two divisions, but council members then questioned what will happen as FY 2012 begins July 1. Normally, the city would have the first three months of the new year to work on introduction of the 2012 budget while using funds equal to 25 percent of the 2011 budget to operate the city.

Speaking by phone, Chief Finance Officer Ron Zilinski mentioned a six-month "transition year" budget to bring the city back to a calendar year budget as it had before a 1991 change. Zilinski said in the short term people would be kept to the end of the fiscal year and through the six-month transition year.

Then it can be decided whether or not the city needs the Purchasing Division, he said. In answer to a question from Councilman Adrian Mapp, who first proposed that Purchasing could be folded into the CFO's office, Zilinski said after the calendar year it could become part of his office, but a qualified purchasing agent would be needed.

Zilinski was hired in 2010 after state officials threatened to fine both the mayor and each council member $25 daily for failing to appoint a chief finance officer after three entire years without one. The CFO post is one mandated by the state, but after former CFO Peter Sepelya retired at the end of 2007, no replacement was named.

Zilinski, retired last year from a finance post in Trenton, was only hired after the city passed a salary ordinance for the title of city treasurer and agreed to let him have that title with a 28-hour work week. When Mapp pressed for dissolving the Purchasing Division and adding the responsibility to Zilinski's office, the mayor gave the council a letter from Zilinski saying it would be a burden and she hinted that he might quit if the duties were added to his office. If so, she said, she would expect the council to pay her $25 a day penalty for not having a CFO.

On Monday, Councilman Cory Storch questioned how the city could change to a calendar year. Zilinski said he had some preliminary budget projections for the transition period and the calendar year and said, "It looks like it is a good idea for the City of Plainfield."

Storch asked what the city would have to do and Zilinski said a resolution and ordinance would be needed "probably very soon," prior to July.

Numerous fiscal year municipalities have recently changed back to a calendar year.

Before the vote on the emergency appropriations, Mapp said he could not support it because no statutory emergency existed. He had suggested transfers in May for the two divisions. Storch said he would support the resolution but believed the city could have provided the services "with or without these funds."

Storch noted that through past layoffs, other divisions have managed to operate and noted the financial struggles many taxpayers are suffering. To say that the city could not manage Recreation or Purchasing, he said, was "completely untrue."

"The timing will only make things worse next year," he said.

The city will enter the 2012 fiscal year with what Zilinski projects as a $3.5 million shortfall.

Storch once again called for cooperation between the administration and governing body, but said, "I don't see that cooperation coming from City Hall."

At the vote, the measure passed 5-1-1, with Vera Greaves, William Reid, Bridget Rivers, Storch and Council President Annie McWilliams voting "yes," Rebecca Williams voting "no" and Mapp declaring himself "present but not voting."

--Bernice Paglia