Legal Notice on Muhlenberg

Muhlenberg Redevelopment Plan To Be Discussed on April 24

Attention!

The JFK Muhlenberg redevelopment plan will be discussed at a Planning Board meeting, 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 24 at duCret School of Art, 1030 Central Ave. The public is invited to attend and participate.

The Planning Board meeting previously scheduled for Thursday, April 20 is canceled.

Rally Saturday At Cedar Brook Park

The location is the cricket field near the Shakespeare Garden.

Challenge Knocks Out One Council Candidate

City Clerk AJ Jalloh has found one Democratic primary slate's slogan improper and one City Council candidate's petitions invalid as of Wednesday, the last day to challenge April 3 filings for the June 6 primary...

In addition, one City Committee candidate's petitions were found to be invalid, though eight other challenges failed.

The City Clerk's office received petitions on April 3 for four mayoral candidates, four candidates for the unexpired Second & Third Ward at-large City Council seat and three for the Fourth Ward City Council seat. A slate using the slogan "Plainfield Democratic Organization" was not entitled to it, but cured the problem by changing it to "Plainfield Democrats for Change." However, the slate's candidate for the unexpired term, Ellen Carter Haygood, submitted petitions with 53 names but fell short of the required 50 names after Jalloh found 10 duplicate names and signatures.

Stanley Haygood's petition was found to be invalid because he did not state what office he was seeking, and Dematra Wallace's petition for the Ward 3, District 9 City Committee seat was deemed invalid because she is unaffiliated, and only a member of the same party can circulate a petition for a seat in a primary contest.

Here is the new slate list for mayor and council:

REGULAR DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION OF UNION COUNTY
Mayor, Four-year term: Adrian O. Mapp
City Council, Second & Third Wards Unexpired Term: Joylette E. Mills-Ransome
Fourth Ward, Four-year term: Steve Hockaday

DEMOCRATIC PARTY UNITY CANDIDATES
Mayor, Four-year term: Dr. Henrilynn Davis Ibezim
City Council, Second & Third Wards Unexpired Term: Cameron E. Cox
Fourth Ward, Four-year term: Elliott Simmons

DEMOCRATS OF PLAINFIELD 
Mayor, Four-year term: Bridget Rivers
City Council, Second & Third Wards Unexpired Term: Alma Blanco
Fourth Ward, Four-year term: none filed

PLAINFIELD DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION
Plainfield Democrats for Change
Mayor, Four-year term: Tracey L. Brown
City Council, Second & Third Wards Unexpired Term: Ellen Carter Haygood
Fourth Ward, Four-year term: Terri Briggs

All the challenges were submitted by Mayor Adrian O. Mapp, in his role as chairman of the Plainfield Democratic City Committee.

--Bernice

Peter Price Sets 2-6 Record Straight

Peter Price

Hi Bernice,

To set the record straight, I wanted to take the opportunity to explain what occurred in the 2-6 Democratic City Committee race where my petition was removed and replaced with Assemblyman Jerry Green's petition as the male 2-6 candidate in the June 6 primary.  On March 25, my running mate Jeanette Criscione and I filed our notarized petitions for re-election as the male and female candidates for the Democratic City Committee in the 2-6. 

As a reminder, in 2016, I was appointed by Mayor Mapp to fill out the 2-6 male term that became available when an apartment fire caused the male 2-6 member David Rutherford to relocate his home out of 2-6. 

After our petitions were filed on March 25, the Mayor called me and told me that he had been in touch with Assemblyman Jerry Green who said Mr. Green wanted the 2-6 male seat for himself and that the Mayor should secure this for him and have me step aside.  

The Mayor told me that he was deeply saddened by Mr. Green’s request but had no choice but to ask me to step aside and let Mr. Green have the seat – thus his name and not mine would appear on the June 6 ballot.  How this squared with my signed petition and that of Jeanette Criscione’s filed hours earlier was unclear to me and even now I am not sure who physically removed it.  What was clear to me based on the phone call was that my petition was being removed or voided or both – in order to accommodate Assemblyman Green to make way for him to submit his own petition in time for the April 3 filing deadline.  I should also add that after this move my running mate Jeanette Criscione gathered signatures on a second petition of her own fearing that the first petition having both of our names on it would be considered invalid.

It is important to state that I took the Mayor at his word (and still do) that this was a difficult and sad move that he needed to take.  My wife and I have been staunch supporters of the Mayor and his team for many years – and consider him, his wife and family, friends. 

While I could fill up this blog post with many reasons why I find this move by both the Mayor and Assemblyman as troublesome and unfair, I choose not to do this.  However, I can tell you that this decision has upset many of my neighbors and friends not only in the 2-6 but across the City of Plainfield. Despite this, my wife Libby and I continue to support the reelection of Mayor Mapp and his running mates Joylette E. Mills-Ransome and Steve Hockaday because we believe they will continue to make the important strides we need to move Plainfield forward.

I also want to make it clear that I have not mounted any formal write-in campaign.  If my neighbors and friends choose to do this, I am deeply honored and if I should win through such an effort, I am happy to serve. 

On a final note, I have on many occasions both on your blog and in public, voiced my concern over the tone of politics in Plainfield and the lack of civility and respect we show each other when expressing our hopes and desires for a better Plainfield.  I am convinced that side deals will only continue to erode our already fractured and fragile system. I am taking the opportunity of what has transpired with me these past few weeks, to once again ask for a more civil political discourse where we honor and respect differences as a bridge to a better future for all of our citizens.

Thank you for all you do and allowing me space on your blog.

Brown Mounts Challenge To City Committee

Initial filings for Plainfield's 68-seat Democratic City Committee reveal plans for a palace coup.

In 2015, Mayor Adrian O. Mapp's team won enough seats to wrest the chairmanship away from longtime Chairman Jerry Green. Running off the line and winning meant Mapp's "Progressive Democratic Organization" candidates became members of the Regular Democratic Organization, kind of a play on the old "we have met the enemy and it is us" joke.

Fast forward two years and the RDOs are now seeing a challenge from another PDO, mayoral candidate Tracey Brown's "Plainfield Democratic Organization."

As all good political observers in the Queen City know, there are 34 voting districts within the city's four wards, with male and female seats in each one for a total of 68. Every two years, Democratic voters get to choose city committee members in each voting district and the winners become a subset of the county committee. In 2015, Mapp won 48 of the 68 seats and became the new chairman.

The 2017 filings presently show 68 RDO candidates but also what looks like 32 Tracey Brown PDOs (two are in red, whatever that means). The factions can challenge each others' candidates and the tally is not yet final. So it looks like a PDO takeover may be out of reach, but the effort was strong compared to another one this year. Councilwoman Bridget Rivers is running with the slogan Democrats of Plainfield, and there were two DOPs in the First Ward, namely the Tolivers; one in the Third Ward and four in the Fourth Ward, including Rivers and her boyfriend.

Challenges to candidates' petitions should be resolved this week. Voters will see slates on their primary ballots that include the City Committee candidates in each district. On the Monday following the primary, the winners of City Committee seats will meet to vote on a chairman to serve for two years. The Regular Democratic Organization oral of Union County, comprised of all the municipal committees, meets the next day to elect a county chairman for two years, Jerry Green is the current RDO county chairman.

Primary Day (June 6) is also when any independent candidates file. Former mayoral candidate Mustapha Muhammad has already declared on Facebook that he intends to file for mayor this year as an independent, noting that the primary will whittle the Democratic field down to one for the November 7 general election.

--Bernice

Happy Passover

Happy Passover

to all our

friends and neighbors

of the Jewish faith

It is important that all of us know more about each others' holidays and significant dates. Click to learn more about Passover.