Posts May Be Filled Soon

Image: Purple Queen Tradescantia

Monday's City Council meeting included hints of key posts soon to be filled, but Council President Annie McWilliams called on the administration to give updates on all the major vacancies.

Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, who named herself acting city administrator after Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson's 90-day stint in the post ended, said Monday a new acting city administrator may soon succeed her. The candidate still needs to be bonded to serve as the person in charge of day-to-day operations of the city.

City Clerk Abubakar Jalloh said a name will be submitted Monday for the job of deputy city clerk, the title he held before former City Clerk Laddie Wyatt retired and he moved up to his current position. The clerk's office is entering a busy season with the June primary and the annual renewal of more than 30 liquor licenses. Council members have expressed concern that the office, which serves the City Council and maintains important records, has been short-staffed due to layoffs. Filling the deputy clerk position should ease the burden.

The city is still without a director of Public Works & Urban Development, but no successor to acting director Jacques Howard has been named. The title is one of three department heads mandated in the city's special charter, all reporting to the city administrator.

The regular meeting is 8 p.m. Monday (May 9) in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.

--Bernice

Notes on BOE Reorganization

New school board members Dorian Hurtt, Jameelah Surgeon and Alex Edache.

Before going into closed session to discuss "reduction in force" actions, Board of Education members including three elected on April 27 recited the entire 12-point New Jersey School Boards Association Code of Ethics. Read it here in a Plaintalker post from last April. There is one addition since Plaintalker copied it: "I will behave toward my fellow board members with the respect due their office - demonstrating courtesy, decorum and fair play at all public meetings and in all public statements."

Thus will be the watchwords as the board starts a year with Renata Hernandez as president and Wilma Campbell as vice president.

The "Grand Slam" winners of last year welcomed a slate they backed this year, Dorian Hurtt, Jameelah Surgeon and Alex Edache. Two incumbents declined to run in the election and one, Agurs Linward "Lenny" Cathcart Jr., lost to the slate. In remarks on their election, Edache warned incumbents up for election next year that they will face a similar challenge.

Speakers in public comment alluded to the district's two turbulent years under Dr. Steve Gallon III and hoped for a continuation of progress and stability under acting Superintendent Anna Belin-Pyles.

Dr. Yood has a good overview of the meeting on his blog, Doc's Potpourri, though neither of us waited out the board's estimated 10 p.m. return from closed session on the reduction in force. Bloggers Dan Damon and Maria Pellum and Courier News reporter Mark Spivey were also on hand for the meeting. Pellum and several others objected to the anticipated targeting or world language teachers in the reduction in force, but as mentioned above, this writer did not wait out the board's return from executive session on the topic.

Hernandez proposed having all regular board meetings at the centrally-located high school instead of at schools across the city, saying she had not seen an increase in the turnout at the alternate locations. The board agreed to the change. Another innovation announced at the meeting was a new law that requires boards to give a time by which they will return from closed session. On Tuesday, the board set a one-hour limit for the executive session, a welcome change from the open-ended situation that left the public languishing sometimes for hours awaiting the resumption of public session and possible votes. Having been out Monday until midnight at a council meeting, Plaintalker had to pass on waiting for the board to return last night.

Bookmark this link for future district news, meeting announcements and more. Agendas are posted online before meetings and bloggers have tried to highlight important items to encourage public turnout.

Congratulations to the new board members and officers and best wishes for a productive year in office. Affable "kingmaker" John Campbell pointed out that the slate might have had Plainfield spelled wrong on their campaign signs, but he said, "They certainly know how to spell 'win.' "

--Bernice

BOE Reorganizes Tonight

The Board of Education will hold its annual reorganization tonight at 7 p.m. in the Plainfield High School Media Center. Newly-elected members will be sworn in, a board president will be named and many other arrangements will be authorized, such as depositories, official newspaper, etc.

Click here to see the agenda. Between now and April 2012, many very important decisions must be made by this board. Plaintalker wishes them all the best in their service to the community.

--Bernice

IT Shared Services Progressing

A municipal phone service conversion stalled since 2008 will be solved today, IT Manager Chris Payne told the City Council Monday.

That and the promise of free Wi-Fi inside City Hall were two of the revelations as Payne gave the governing body an update on an IT shared services agreement with the school district. The city has paid out half of a $60,000 tab for the six-month plan that began in January with the goal of providing staff the city lacks while making Payne the manager of both city and district IT operations.

Payne presented a voluminous written report to the council, detailing the status of each of the services to be provided. The district’s “deliverables” included website development, user accounts for all city employees, completion of the Voice-Over-Internet Protocol phone system and media support for press releases, while the city was to provide several kinds of services related to local television broadcasting, offsite storage of Board of Education data for disaster recovery and sharing costs of district technical/media staff.

Many of the services were still works in progress and in comments after Payne’s presentation, Council President Annie McWilliams called for formation of an ad hoc IT committee to “share in prioritization of action items.” The committee would include three council members, Payne and someone from city administration.

Councilwoman Vera Greaves asked whether residents would ever be able to pay their taxes online and Payne said yes, though not saying how soon. Councilwoman Rebecca Williams questioned the use of various personal e-mail accounts by city employees and Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, who is also the acting city administrator, said all employees will soon use city accounts. Payne said the current plainfield.com address will be changed to a “.gov” suffix.

Williams also asked how soon the “humongous” council meeting packet could be distributed electronically and Payne said he was looking into it, with the goal “to do away with as much paper as possible.”

The discussion included other possible ways to save money by sharing services, but no specific action to follow expiration of the six-month agreement. The mayor said she has talked to Acting Superintendent Anna Belin-Pyles as well as officials in other communities and in Union County government. She said she will be discussing options “with our new acting city administrator.”

Later in the meeting, McWilliams noted the city has already had two acting city administrators this year and said there could not be another. But Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson said that was not true and a plan was in place to get an acting city administrator as soon as “technical issues on bonding” were resolved.

--Bernice Paglia

IT Shared Services Update Monday

Image: Barberry Bush flowers.

Dr. Harold Yood has hit all the expected highlights of Monday's City Council meeting in two posts over the weekend. Here is a link to his blog. He and I arrived at the Plainfield Public library Saturday morning with the same mission, to look at background documents in the packet for the May 2 meeting. We had a chat about some, which makes me feel I contributed a bit to his findings.

The item I am most interested in is the scheduled discussion of the shared IT services plan with the school district. See Plaintalker's post here from December. As noted, Councilman Adrian Mapp had strong objections and I await his usual incisive questioning on the update.

The presenter will be Chris Payne, who formerly worked for the school district when the city had a prior shared services arrangement. After Payne was hired by the city to handle IT and media, it turned out he had no staff to help carry out his mission. Somehow the new arrangement was supposed to help Payne by making district staff available for the shared services.

This report should be crucial in helping the City Council to decide whether to prolong the arrangement past the initial six months. Residents with any opinions on this subject should let their elected representatives know of their concerns, either by e-mail or by speaking in public comment before a further commitment is made.

The meeting Monday is 7:30 p.m. in City Hall Library, 515 Watchung Ave. The regular meeting is 8 p.m. May 9 in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.

--Bernice

Gallon's Plainfield Legacy Upheld

New blogger Kenneth Schuman has posted a veritable apologia for Dr. Steve Gallon III and his impact on the Plainfield school district. Schuman details the search that brought Gallon here as well as credits for specific accomplishments during his tenure. Click here to read the post.

Whether one believes Gallon's work was a success or that he failed in his mission to reform education in Plainfield, his chance to affect the district's direction has for all intents and purposes expired. The next chief school administrator is likely to want to make his or her own mark without reference to Gallon's legacy. Schuman's analysis may help Gallon in future endeavors by offering the positives and pinning the negatives on "politics." Indeed, the blog itself is titled, "The Politics of Plainfield, New Jersey."

So what effect might these words have on a new superintendent's search? Plainfield already has the reputation of a place beset with political snares and pitfalls. Those who monitor municipal government here are hoping the school district's well-known revolving door will not be reflected in a similar portal at City Hall, where vacancies and acting positions currently dominate the cabinet. On a map of administrative job venues, will Plainfield simply be marked "Here there be dragons" due to politics?

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Schuman's points about Gallon, he writes well and will be a blogger to heed as the district and its stakeholders continue the struggle for stability in leadership and success in student performance. Add http://politicsofplainfield.blogspot.com/ to your bookmarks or blogroll now and keep reading.

--Bernice

Facade Details Going, Going ...

A building in the 400 block of Park Avenue appears to be getting its ornate facade covered over with modern materials. As one who is frequently looking up at city facades to admire the details, I am sorry to see this one disappear behind a bland treatment, possibly that spray-on stucco stuff that is becoming more prevalent around Plainfield. This block has no historic preservation protections, so it is fair game for such exterior changes.

It just seems to take away some of the flavor of the city when these details get obliterated.

Over on Cleveland Avenue, the same owner covered up an Art Deco facade in favor of a uniformly smooth look. Click here for Plaintalker's post from July 2009. Someone who tracks down and tries to preserve such old automobile designs contacted Plaintalker about this building, but by then it had been covered up.

The Park Avenue facade appears to be stonework, but the trend makes us fear for the interesting terra cotta work on other facades. They deserve some documentation before they, too, get homogenized out of existence.

--Bernice