Who Will Be 2016 Council President?

If it's December, it's time for the annual lobbying for the seat of City Council president.

A president will be selected at the January reorganization, to serve for one year. The role is important for several reasons. It is the president who, with the city clerk, decides what goes on the agenda. The president can decide not to include an item, in a kind of pre-emptive veto The president can shut down speakers in public comment. With a bang of the gavel, the president can even have a speaker removed by police.

As noted in the council's Rules of Order, the president is also supposed to bar "personal reflections" by other members during debate and must immediately call to order any speaker who makes "offensive, derogatory or abusive remarks" in public comment.

Past presidents include Annie McWilliams, who served in 2010 and 2011; Adrian Mapp (now the mayor) in 2012; and for 2013, 2014 and 2015, Bridget Rivers.

Bridget Rivers, 2013

The council for 2016 will consist of Rivers, Tracey Brown, Rebecca Williams, Gloria Taylor, Diane Toliver, Cory Storch (starting his fourth four-year term) and new member Barry Goode.

Meanwhile, as previously noted, the Dec. 7 agenda-fixing session, Dec.14 regular meeting and Dec. 23 agenda-fixing for the January annual reorganization have been combined into one "special meeting" starting at 7 p.m. on Dec. 14 in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave. The reorganization takes place in early January.

--Bernice

Rushmore Building Will Become Self-Storage Facility

A century-old South Avenue building will be re-purposed to meet the storage needs of an estimated 1,000 nearby renters and to bring a new look to the neighborhood.

Built in 1908 to house the Rushmore Dynamo Works for entrepreneur and inventor Samuel Rushmore, the building is now marred by broken windows and overgrown, misshapen Plane trees out front. The trees will be removed and the Rushmore building's facade will be restored, according to plans presented to the Zoning Board of Adjustment Wednesday. A related building on Berckman Street will also be improved and another on the site will be demolished to make way for a modern one. In all, 850 self-storage units will be created.

Frederick Lackland, whose firm has built over 40 self-storage facilities, said the new operation will hire two or three office employees and one maintenance person. Board Chairman D. Scott Belin questioned whether the use would prevent creation of manufacturing jobs at the site, a concern shared by board member Frank Johnson until he decided a decline in manufacturing made it unlikely. Johnson said the new use would eliminate blight and the improvements would enhance the area.

Architect Gregory Waga said the windows now covered with corrugated plastic would be filled in with masonry having a colored veneer. The South Avenue building will be cleaned and restored to its original color. 

Other members praised the presentation that also included testimony from engineer Anthony Galleramo and planner Kevin O'Brien, who called self-storage "a much-needed service" in a city where 8,576 rental properties make up more than half of all households.

The facility will have normal office hours in addition to access to units by code from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Economic Director Carlos Sanchez thanked Lackland and his team and said he supports it 100 percent.

"It will definitely change that block," Sanchez said.

--Bernice

Three Meetings Rolled Into One

Monday's agenda-fixing session, the regular meeting of Dec. 14 and the agenda-fixing session for the January 2016 reorganization will be combined into one session on Dec. 14, according to a notice today from City Clerk Abubakar Jalloh.

CORPORATION NOTICE

CITY OF PLAINFIELD

PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 2, SECTION 2:2-10(A) OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE CODE OF THE CITY OF PLAINFIELD, 1971, A SPECIAL MEETING IS HEREBY CALLED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PLAINFIELD AT 7 O’CLOCK P.M.ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2015 IN THE MUNICIPAL COURT-COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 325 WATCHUNG AVENUE, CITY OF PLAINFIELD.

THIS SPECIAL MEETING SHALL BE HELD IN PLACE OF THE DECEMBER 7, 2015 AGENDA FIXING SESSION AND THE DECEMBER 14, 2015 REGULAR MEETING.

CONSISTENT WITH THE OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT A PUBLIC NOTICE CONTAINING ALL MATTERS BEING CONSIDERED AT THE SPECIAL MEETING SHALL BE FORTHCOMING.  

BE FURTHER ADVISED THAT THE DECEMBER 21, 2015 AGENDA FIXING SESSION HAS ALSO BEEN RESCHEDULEDTO TAKE PLACE ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2015 AT 8:00 P.M. OR AS SOON THEREAFTER AS THE SPECIAL MEETING HAS CONCLUDED.  

BY ORDER OF THE PLAINFIELD

MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

BRIDGET B. RIVERS, PRESIDENT

Revert to April BOE Elections?

This post was inadvertently left in draft form Tuesday.

Whoops! When did the notion of changing the school board election back to April come about?

It was in the back of my mind that this is the fourth year, but I missed hearing any announcement.

So meanwhile here is a link on reverting to April elections. Note that it can be done through a question to voters at the general election, or by action of the school board or the governing body.

Some may recall that the governing body moved to change the election calendar in 2012, setting off political fireworks. The district was in the process of searching for a successor to disgraced Superintendent Steve Gallon III and then-acting Superintendent Anna Belin-Pyles tried to smooth the roiled waters.

The two entities were mostly at peace until recently and now, to a casual observer, it's full battle mode. More on that later

--Bernice

Commentary on Change to April BOE Elections

David Rutherford has published a post that confirms the school board's decision to move Board of Education elections back to April.

He also mentions Mayor Adrian O. Mapp's desire, expressed at a recent conference of mayors, to have the ability to appoint the superintendent of schools.

As I recall, the only appointive power once held by the mayor was to appoint board members. In Plainfield, the opportunity attracted a large number of candidates, but over the years the number dwindled to a few and I believe there was one year where not even three people filed for the three open seats and the county superintendent had to appoint someone. In 1988, The New York Times reported on the issue of appointed vs. elected board members.

As far as having a mayor name the superintendent, that might require legislation. Also, school board searches for superintendents tend to be exhaustive and costly. The process would have to be examined for all these factors before changing who appoints a superintendent.

It is easy to see why a mayor may be anguished over the state of public schools. Every data base on a municipality includes a rundown on the school system. If home buyers have to factor in the cost of private education when selecting a place to live, the towns with better public schools will win out. Even if schools improve, turning around a decades-long perception is daunting.

Right this minute, the decision to change school board elections from November to April comes at a time when the two major entities in Plainfield, city government and the school district, appear to be at leggerheads over who has the power to do what. In 2012, the governing body used its power to move the election, but under the law had to notify the board of its intention. The board only has to notify the county clerk of its decision 85 days prior to the third Tuesday in April to take effect for the 2016 election. The matter did not appear on the Nov. 17 business meeting agenda as far as I can tell. Let me know if I am wrong.

So now it is a fait accompli with just the whiff of a "gotcha."

There is much more to say about all of this, but the bottom line has to be how Plainfield can change its image from a city fraught with political land mines to one of collegiality among those in charge.

--Bernice

In Memory Of Tony and So Many More

from the AIDS quilt - Tony LoPilato, lower left

Thinking of Tony LoPilato on World AIDS Day. He became a hospital patient at a time when little was understood about AIDS and those who had it were stigmatized and shunned. Friends who went to visit him reported indignities such as food trays left at the door for fear of contamination. 

To break the chains of ignorance and fear, a band of carolers went to Muhlenberg and sang for Tony and everybody, a lesson on good will. Gay men and those who loved them went on become pioneers in education, activism and care for people with AIDS and HIV. 

AIDS took out a whole echelon of Plainfielders-by-choice, who had moved here with high hopes for the Queen City and saved many of its architectural treasures for posterity. Those who recall the times remember their enthusiasm and commitment, a wellspring cut off in full flow when the so-called "gay plague" struck the community. 

I remember going into a store that Donald Morris opened on Park Avenue and seeing him whisper to someone a secret he didn't want me, a casual customer, to hear. But I guessed why he looked stricken. All too soon, he was on that sad roster of those who didn't make it.

We'll never really know how much more Plainfield would have gained had current treatments been available in the 1980s. All we can do is remember and wonder.

--Bernice

Development Costs Add Up

 Two Landmark projects on East Second Street will add 32 apartments to the downtown mix. Eighty senior apartments are rising a few blocks away on Roosevelt Avenue. Sleepy Hollow Developers received Planning Board approval of 212 apartments, and a new proposal for South Second Street could add 90 more units.

At $2,130 per unit for sewer hookups, the tally must be thrilling for the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority, which recently launched a count of all new housing units to make sure the revenue stream flows over to PMUA headquarters at 127 Roosevelt Avenue.

Add the cost of environmental remediation for sites such as the five acres slated for mixed-use development on South Second Street and installation of sprinklers replacing fire escapes in rehabbed buildings and pretty soon you're talking about real money.

It's something to keep in mind when balancing what the city wants from developers with what they face in doing business here. Maybe they face similar expenses in other municipalities, I don't know, because I have not done a town-by-town comparison. Certainly they have investigated the costs and factored them in to their decisions to do projects here.

Most of the upcoming negotiations on financial agreements will take place in closed session, but the resultant documents will go before the City Council for approval. Let us hope for fairness all around in the outcome.

--Bernice