A City Council meeting that might have been over in half an hour soon became a marathon of special pleas for causes ranging from tax breaks for seniors to the unsettled question of who should lead public safety.
Councilman William Reid stirred the pot first when he questioned what Tax Collector David Marshall presented as a standard set of penalties for tax delinquencies. Reid questioned why the city had to conform; Marshall said 99 percent of municipalities did so. But Reid traced his own home ownership in Plainfield to the days "when the gag was released from us in the sixties" and said taxes had now got out of hand for seniors, "especially citizens that made this city."
"Now you are penalizing people," Reid said.
He said Marshall should come back in February with lower penalty rates.
Councilwoman Rebecca Williams disagreed, saying the penalties were on people who already owed back taxes and those who paid on time "will have to bear the burden of those who are delinquent."
But Councilwoman Tracey Brown said most people who were delinquent didn't want to be, and Councilwomen Gloria Taylor and Vera Greaves joined in expressing sympathy for their plight.
"Seniors should be given a break from this," Greaves said.
"I think we need a balance," Taylor said, advocating a reduction in the penalties.
Marshall explained that investors who purchase tax liens and pay the taxes might be deterred by lower rates. In addition, he has been able to increase the tax collection rate from 93 percent to 96.42 percent and said the penalties are a deterrent to delinquency.
As the council decided not to move the resolution to the Jan. 21 agenda, Marshall, City Administrator Rick Smiley, Mayor Adrian Mapp and Corporation Counsel David Minchello all stressed the importance of passing the resolution.
"This puts us in a situation that we were not prepared for," Minchello said.
Mapp said the resolution was "common and standard practice for very good reasons," and not adopting it was "not in the best interest of the city."
Marshall appeared flabbergasted and said he had just sent out 780 delinquent notices. If people come in to pay, he asked, "What do I do?"
Reid's solution was to take the money and refund it later, if necessary.
Minchello had suggested a recess to discuss the resolution, but Council President Bridget Rivers said the resolution could be brought back as a new item next week.
Once public comment opened, the public safety leadership question emerged.
During the past administration, the council abolished the title of police chief in favor of "police director" and Martin Hellwig, who was already the director of the Department of Public Affaiars & Safety, assumed the other title as well. When Hellwig went out on final leave at the end of 2013, Police Captain Michael Gilliam was named acting public safety director. On Dec. 16, retired Police Captain Siddeeq El-Amin was among interviewees for cabinet posts but did not emerge as a nominee. On Jan. 1, retired Union County Prosecutor's Office Captain Carl Riley was named acting police director. Mayor Adrian O. Mapp asserted his support for Riley as police director and El-Amin as director of PA&S, but at the Jan. 6 reorganization, the council declined to confirm either.
At left, Siddeeq E-Amin and Faheemah El-Amin. Center, John Metz and Omega Psi Phi members.
On Monday, a row of men wearing purple and gold Omega Psi Phi jackets looked on as fraternity representative John Metz detailed the group's good works in Plainfield, including blood drives, mentoring, Martin Luther King Jr. programs and involvement with the Boys & Girls Club. Members were at the meeting in support of Gilliam, he said, calling him the "apppointed and approved director of Public Safety."
"We ask that you give him your consideration for a permanent appointment," Metz said to the council.
El.-Amin came to the microphone with a prepared statement:
Statement
Members of the City Council, Mayor Mapp, friends and community members. I hadn’t planned on attending this meeting but circumstances have caused me to change my mind.
At your last council reorganization meeting at the high school auditorium, there were many things said about me to you in executive session and in other private meetings, which I was not invited.
At the conclusion of the Reorganization Meeting, councilmembers made comments about my being
nominated for Director of Public Affairs and Safety to effect that you received disparaging information about my character and leadership. And it was stated that these issues needed to be investigated before any action could be taken regarding giving advice and consent to the Mayor’s appointment of me.
Well, I don’t know what this was about but I began making calls to schedule appointments with those councilmember that I did not have an opportunity to meet before that meeting. Let me digress a moment to say that during the Executive Session of the City Council on Dec. 16, no council member ever asked me any questions regarding my character or leadership. Nor were any “issues” raised before I was excused from my “interview.”
Let me take a moment to address a couple of items already stated in the public.
First, it has been said that Siddeeq El-Amin is not connected with the community. My community
involvement is documented.
I serve as a Trustee at my place of worship (Masjidullah Plainfield) which is located in the heart of the Fourth Ward; I serve as Board Chairman for the Neighborhood Health Services Corp. (formerly the Plainfield Health Center) also in the Fourth Ward; my wife and I are the Administrators for the Muslim Community Soup Kitchen in Plainfield (in the Fourth Ward) that serves over 60 free meals every Saturday from 1-2 PM; and my wife and I have a Pre-School Child Care Center in the First Ward that serves 30 3 & 4-year olds since 2010. Before all of this, I served on the Educational Support Team of Dr. Ron Lewis, former schools superintendent in the 1970’s; for two years before I joined Plainfield’s Finest Police Division, I coached the eighth and ninth grade football teams. Some of those players are adults in Plainfield and still refer to me as “Coach.”
Second, it is said about Siddeeq El-Amin that he’s disconnect from the rank and file police officers and has been out of policing for three years. I will address this from two aspects. The first is that since about 1994-5, I have been an Instructor at the Union County Police Academy, known as the John H. Stamler Police Academy. Twice a year I spend two days at the police academy teaching ALL the new recruits, not just those from Plainfield. So from that time on, every Plainfield Police Officer that has attended this academy has had me for an Instructor. Connected.
Now when you reach the level of Lieutenant, Captain and above, yes you do become more distant from the front line officer. That is because now your job responsibilities demand that you deal with more policies, reports, and the supervision of fewer direct reports to you, such as the Sergeants and Lieutenants. But depending on your command assignment, your unit may small enough that you have direct contact with first line officers in your unit.
The second aspect is about being disconnected from policing. Since about 1988, I have been attending law enforcement executive training conferences, initially at my own expense. Further, I have at my own initiative, sought out other advanced training course and workshops to increase my knowledge to enhance my career. I became a national board member to two major law enforcement organizations. Even after my retirement, I continued to attend law enforcement executive training conferences with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) at my own expense. I have continued to stay engaged in the most current issues of law enforcement. What can my detractors say about their careers?
I’ve been told that the Fire Division has an issue with me but in speaking with some of their Union Officers, I was told by them that in a meeting with the Mayor, they told him they would support whoever he picks for Director of Public Affairs & Safety. If that has changed, it has not been brought to my attention to address.
I was successful in meeting with Councilmember Gloria Taylor and I addressed every questions and concern that she raised to, I believe, her satisfaction, clearing up any and all misconceptions she may have had or be told regarding me being the Director of PA&S. I continued and called Councilwoman Tracey Brown on Jan. 10 at 9:48 AM to schedule a meeting and left a voice message on her cell phone. I called again on Jan. 11 at 2:32 and left a message. This, after she said to me on Monday the 6th that “We need to talk.” However, this afternoon Councilwoman Brown called me back and we had the start of a good conversation, but more needs to be covered.
On Jan 10 at 8:13 PM I called Council President Rivers and we schedule a meeting for Saturday afternoon, the next day, for 2:00 PM. She told me that she didn’t have any other plans for Saturday. As background, this was the fourth (4th, after the Reorganization Meeting, ) scheduled meeting we both agreed to have, and President Rivers cancelled each shortly before we were to meet.
Councilmembers, if as you have publicly stated, you are aware of serious issues regarding my appointment that need to be investigated, and I have willingly tried to make myself available to you for a face-to-face interview to give you an opportunity to question me about those “issues,” why then have you not followed through with meeting with me? You have apparently been told certain things, and alluded to them in public as being very serious, yet some of you have taken no initiative to get to the truth.
You, and others, have called my reputation into question; others have made egregious statements, and not given me the opportunity to clear it with you and the public. So now I stand before you this evening and ask you to publicly state the issues you’ve been told about me so that I can clear them up in public, where I have been accused in public.
I am a professional law enforcement executive and as such deserve to be treated in a professional manner.
If leadership qualities are being called into question about me, what does the behavior of some of you
demonstrate? Each of you, with the exception of Councilwoman Taylor, received a letter from me in
November while you were attending the Municipal League of Cities in Atlantic City. I included in the
envelope my professional resume and a two-page listing of professional references of law enforcement executive form across the country. Not one of them has been contacted by any of you.
Yet the citizens of Plainfield are under the impression that you are conducting an investigation of the “issues.”
Someone asked by this question, “Siddeeq, why does the PBA union feel about you the way they do?” I could only answer that you will have to ask them to tell a reason. I continued by saying that if it is just their feelings, then trying to answer the questions would be like trying to grab piece of a cloud. You can see it, and describe it, but when you reach for it and close your hand, there is nothing there. The same goes for fog. Everyone has an interpretation of what a cloud may look like but not one has yet been able to touch it, weigh it, or describe its texture.
So where does that leave us . . . . Leave you? I stand here before you as a physical being, a professional being, not a cloud, not a fog, and not a feeling. I can be examined, weighed, and my texture can be felt. I am asking you to begin your investigation here and now in an open forum, since you have insinuated that there are “major issues to be resolved,” or call for an Executive Session tonight and conduct your interview of me in closed doors. Either way is fine with me. After all, the public too would like answers.
Thank you.
Siddeeq W. El-Amin - BS, MPA.
The council made no reply and several others spoke before adjournment.
Plaintalker expects to have a commentary on the public safety question later and will also report on several serious issues raised by citizens.
--Bernice
