Interim City Administrator Sought

The city will consult with a Cranford management group this week for possible recruitment of an interim city administrator, Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs said at Monday's City Council meeting.

The firm, Jersey Professional Management, lists among its credits the placement of Bob Casey in Plainfield as temporary director of Administration & Finance in 2008-09.

Robinson-Briggs took on the role of acting city administrator as of March 30, when Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson's stint as acting city administrator expired. Williamson had served since Jan. 1 and had reached the city's 90-limit on an acting term. In assuming the role herself, the mayor cited a section of the city's Municipal Code that permit her to serve for 90 days as acting city administrator.

Former City Administrator Bibi Taylor was appointed Jan. 1, 2010, but was fired in December by the mayor for unstated reasons. The City Council voted to restore her to the position. She was expected to return from maternity leave at the end of March, but instead took a Union County post to succeed retiring Finance Director Lawrence Caroselli.

--Bernice

Homophobic Flyer Circulated in City Hall

City Council members targeted by an anonymous homophobic flyer laced with personal insults are demanding an investigation on how it came to be distributed in City Hall mailboxes.

“This has all the markings of a hate crime,” Councilman Adrian Mapp said Monday night as he called for both an internal investigation and informing Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow of the flyer.

Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, also serving as acting city administrator at Monday’s council meeting, said she only saw the flyer when a member of the media showed it to her.

“We don’t condone that type of behavior,” she said. “We love and accept everybody.”

The mayor said the flyer was not prepared or distributed by city employees, but Councilwoman Rebecca Williams called for a look at all the city’s copy machines and computers, saying similar racist and homophobic material had been distributed before.

Williams said under Title 7 any worker could hold the city liable “for permitting this atmosphere.”

The flyer, titled “The Scarlet Letter,” appeared yesterday, calling Mapp, Williams, Council President Annie McWilliams and Councilman Cory Storch “a lethal combination of gay and lesbian elitists who are destroying the city.” The flyer calls them “the voices of NO and HATE, just like the republican led house (sic) in the United States.”

Three city bloggers and an activist were also charged with “destroying our community” and a reporter was called “an equal opportunity racist.” After a series of harsh individual attacks, the text concludes by saying “This year and next years (sic) elections are critically important. THE THREE VOICES OF NO MUST GO!”

Storch is up for re-election this year in the Second Ward. McWilliams and Mapp must run next year for re-election. Along with Williams, who took office Jan. 1, the four are a New Democrat majority on the seven-member governing body.

Cynthia Smith, president of the Plainfield Municipal Employees Union, said the mailroom in the basement of City Hall was kept locked when the city had a mail clerk, but now it is open for employees to pick up their mail.

The controversy comes just as the April 11 filing date for the June primary looms. Two City Council seats, all the Democratic City Committee seats and the Democrat Party chairmanship are at stake in a year already marred by ongoing political clashes between Democratic factions. In public comments Monday night, residents deplored the abrasiveness caught on videotape at council meetings and broadcast on local television channels.

--Bernice Paglia

Monarch Performance Bond Up for Release

Council watchers had a bit of a task trying to decipher this item on Monday's agenda:

"APPROVE AUTHORIZATION FOR THE RELEASE OF THE PERFORMANCE GUARANTEE ASSOCIATED WITH DEVELOPMENT LOCATED AT BLOCK 324 LOT 10.01 COMMONLY KNOWN AS 342-406 EAST FRONT STREET/341-403 EAST SECOND STREET. –PLANNING DIVISION"

Those who went to the Plainfield Public Library to look at the City Council packet found out the property is The Monarch, which includes the Senior Center, Veterans Center and 63 condos. The developer, Dornoch Plainfield LLC, posted a performance bond in the amount of $334,089 with a $37,121 cash deposit after receiving Planning Board approvals in July 2007.

Now, according to the Planning Board's engineer, "there are no deficiencies" and the bond may be released.

Here's the interesting part to Plaintalker: The "Board Engineer" says the applicant should post a "maintenance bond" equaling 15 percent of the "cost of improvements" for a period of two years. The improvements are what got built on the land. The value, or cost, is not stated, but the developer early on alluded to a $15 million project. Because the building was split up into condo entities - the senior center, the veterans' center and the 63 residential condos - it is not easy for a layperson to confirm the "cost of improvements."

This is the sort of thing that someone in the cabinet might be called on to explain, but with the mayor as city administrator and no one named to replace Jacques Howard as acting director of Public Works & Urban Development, Planning Director Bill Nierstedt may be the explainer.

After all the "whereas" clauses, the action to be taken is to release the "performance guarantee and cash deposits listed therein." So what about the maintenance bond, we ask? Is that something new and separate, or not?

Maybe we shall find out Monday.

Another proposed resolution calls for a new resolution to fund four "seasoned police officers" to serve in the Urban Enterprise Zone. According to the full resolution, a prior application to the Urban Enterprise Zone Authority cited amounts that did not take into account changes in the police salary schedule. So R 441-10 must be rescinded and a new resolution must be approved for the application.

The curious thing is that both resolutions cite the same amount requested from the UEZA, which reviews applications and grants or denies use of accumulated sales tax from certified retailers in the city's Urban Enterprise Zone. The formula includes a gross amount, a 20 percent city match and a balance to be requested. As described in the new resolution, the total amount is $343,803.75 and the city's 20 percent match is $68,760.75, leaving $275,043.

The resolution to be rescinded was for a total of $335,621. The 20 percent match was $67,124. The difference is $268,497, according to Plaintalker's wee solar-powered calculator. Could the $275,043 cited for R 441-10 thus be an error? One would have to check the original of R 441-10 to see what numbers it actually had.

Maybe this can be clarified before the governing body votes on it. If it is a typo, it can just be fixed. But the council should be given correct information, even on such a small thing as a change in numbers.

Some may recall the $1.7 million typo in the FY 2009 budget. It took some fancy footwork to make it all better, but a closer look at the document before submission to the state Local Finance Board might have spared the city some trouble and embarrassment. Perhaps any document submitted to the governing body for approval should be vetted for errors before some nosy blogger or curious citizen gets into the administration's business.

--Bernice

Constable Nominations Resurface

Among matters up for discussion at Monday's City Council meeting, Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has nominated three city men for appointments to the office of constable.

Two - Sheldon Green and Frank Rokins - were previously nominated in March, but their names were withdrawn before a vote. Now the name of Tommie Ingram has been added to the list. All are nominated for four-year terms ending March 14, 2015.

Plaintalker raised several questions about the role of constables and the Police Benevolent Association took a stand against appointment of constables last month.

Click here for Plaintalker's posts on the topic. (This one will be included.)

The City Council meeting is 7:30 p.m. Monday in City Hall Library, 515 Watchung Ave. There will be a special meeting preceding the agenda-fixing session. There is only one item for the special meeting, an appropriation of $58,000 to support operations of the Purchasing and Recreations divisions through the end of the fiscal year.

--Bernice

Beware of Invasives

The sparse fringe of yellow blossoms to the left is all that remains of two formerly robust forsythia bushes. Asiatic Bittersweet, the brown vines to the right, overwhelmed the forsythia.

There are also some large weed trees in the mix. The landlord we had from 2000 to 2010 cut back on landscaping to the point where we got about 15 minutes of grass cutting about every two weeks with no attention to shrubs and bushes. Previously, we had full landscaping services every Monday.

The new landlord inherited a big mess which will take years to rectify.

If you have any Asiatic Bittersweet on your property, the time is now to eradicate it. You may have enjoyed its pretty orange berries in the fall, but each berry holds the seeds of a new vine. These vines can climb many feet in a season and they choke out your valuable ornamentals and trees by blocking sunlight with their leaves.

Click here for more information. Here is an overview with more links.

--Bernice

Special Meeting Monday

There will be a special City Council meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, one topic only:

1. RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING AN EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION FOR $58,000 THAT WILL ENSURE THE SUCCESSFUL ADMINISTRATION OF PURCHASING AND RECREATION FUNCTIONS.

There is also an agenda session Monday to follow.

--Bernice

Wanted: City Administrator

News came Thursday that Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has taken on the role of acting city administrator. If a full-scale search for a permanent city administrator is to be conducted, it still behooves the city to get a highly qualified interim city administrator to keep up day-to-day operations.

The New Jersey Municipal Managers Association and the New Jersey League of Municipalities could both assist in finding a city administrator. Click here and scroll down to see what the NJMMA offers.

Normally a department head is named acting city administrator, but as someone said on another blog, the bench is thin. One department head already holds the titles of director of Public Affairs & Safety as well as Police Director. Another was only recently named head of Administration, Finance, Health & Social Services and is still running a division in another department. Public Works & Urban Development is being covered by a division head who did not distinguish himself at a recent council meeting by giving the governing body erroneous information while requesting approval for a community event.

The 2012 fiscal year that begins July 1 will demand a solid administrative team if the city is not to sink further into disarray. Cabinet talent has been diverted, if not squandered, on matters such as disputes involving Senior Center members and Recreation Division staff. The mayor herself has shown a tendency to put the Recreation Division fray front and center when more basic money matters need the administration's full attention.

Anyone who is well-versed in city administration is not going to be attracted to a situation where personalities take precedence over performance. A candidate should not have to bring a chair and whip to City Hall as management tools.

As always, the public has to wait and see how this new situation unfolds. There is already a backlog of important, unresolved matters and new issues looming. It would be a lot easier to "keep calm and carry on" if we had a strong city administrator at the helm.

--Bernice