Plainfield resident John Brinkley sent along an email noting that Honey Brook Organic Farms is
willing to provide boxed produce to Plainfield residents, providing
twenty residents are willing to sign up and participate in the program.
More information is available on the Netherwood Neighbors website (see here), including a registration form.
But you must hurry -- the deadline is tomorrow.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Last minute chance for organic produce deliveries
Sharpton skipping Sharon's campaign event
Robinson-Briggs has invited popular MSNBC journalist
Rev. Al Sharpton to her illegal campaign event.
The event, which Robinson-Briggs is trying to disguise as a 'community forum' first came to public attention at last Sunday's NAACP candidate forum and was reported by Bernice.
Though Robinson-Briggs has taken great pains to make sure the event is clearly NOT city-sponsored (no use of the city seal or listing of the city as a sponsor), there are clear indications that is is a CAMPAIGN EVENT and not a true community forum.
Consider these facts --
- The title: 'Partnerships, Priorities and Progress for Plainfield' echoes Robinson-Briggs Primary Election slogan;
- The only 'hosts' are
mayoral candidate Robinson-Briggs and PMUA employee Kim Montford, who
is running on the same slogan as Robinson-Briggs for a Ward 1 committee
seat';
- A community videographer has been denied permission to tape the meeting, though it is supposedly 'public'.
My source suggests that Robinson-Briggs did not inform Sharpton that this was an illegal campaign event, nor that the circumstances surrounding his prior visit at her invitation (the $20,000 WBLS matter) led to an investigation of her conduct with regard to its financing, and that the Attorney General's office has yet to exonerate her from any criminal liability in the matter.
Meanwhile, Sharpton's situation has changed greatly since 2010, when he was spent a few minutes at a true community forum (councilors and other mayors were present as participants). Sharpton has since become a popular journalist with MSNBC, which jealously guards the purity of its brand and would likely look askance at such damaged goods as Robinson-Briggs.
So, one of Robinson-Briggs' last hopes for generating any forward momentum in her re-election campaign may come to naught.
Would anyone be surprised?
Is Sharon fatally wounded by her no-show at debate?
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| Sharon and Mapp were to debate last night, but she was a no-show | |
Have Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' chances of re-election been fatally wounded by her no-show at Wednesday evening's mayoral candidates forum?
The Plainfield Public Library's meeting room was packed to the gills with a crowd eagerly anticipating the first -- and only -- opportunity to see and hear the incumbent mayor and her challenger, Councilor Adrian Mapp, face-to-face.
Organized by FOSH and co-sponsored by the Plainfield chapter of the League of Women Voters, the event was emceed by FOSH president Pat Turner Kavanaugh and guest LWV moderator Dawn Clark, who has filled that role at several Plainfield forums.
When the appointed time came, the audience was asked to be patient pending the arrival of the Mayor. Kavanaugh gamely filled in the time with a series of 'community service announcements', several of which drew rounds of applause from the audience (especially notice of the FOSH plan to erect signs in honor of PHS Cardinals' two state championships). Eventually, however, Clark made the decision to pull the plug and the event was shut down about 7:30 PM. At that point, candidate Adrian Mapp announced that he was prepared to stay and answer questions from attendees as long as they wished.
As some were making their way to the exit and others to the front to speak with Mapp, longtime mayoral go-fer Barbara James arrived with a note from the Mayor, explaining her absence was due to a medical condition (Bernice and the Courier were said to have been given copies, not moi).
After all the titillation dies down, the burning question is whether Sharon's failure to show will be fatal to her re-election hopes.
Bearing in mind the maxim that each person in attendance will influence between 10 and 20 others' perceptions of the events (and that was before the days of bloggers, FaceBook and Twitter), the negative fallout to Robinson-Briggs runs into the thousands. (Keep in mind that very few people were aware of her explanatory note, which arrived as things were breaking up.)
Add to this the fact that Robinson-Briggs is not walking the districts door-to-door -- it is just not her style -- and she is left with appealing to niche groups that she has fallen back on before.
Though she has called for a 'community forum' for Friday evening, that is a barely concealed campaign event and using a school facility as its venue is being protested (see my other post here).
One local operative with years of experience estimates that Robinson-Briggs has only about $10,000 in funds on hand. That would be barely enough for printing and mailing just one citywide piece, with nothing left over for the final get-out-the-vote push which is so essential to winning an election.
Even if she has backers secretly (and illegally) bankrolling many of her campaign expenses, there are limits to anyone's resources, unless of course they have a million dollars to spend to help a drinking buddy.
Add to this that we are going into a long holiday weekend, the official beginning of summer, and many folks will not be focused on politics until everyone is back at work on Tuesday. That leaves Robinson-Briggs with precious little time to engineer any recovery of lost forward motion by her campaign.
Are her chances fatally wounded?
By her own doing, I'm afraid.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Robinson-Briggs to endorse Christie?
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Sharon and Christie ... perfect together? |
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Is Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs preparing to endorse Chris Christie for governor?
While Plainfield Democrats were noshing and swaying to the beat of a Caribbean steel band on Saturday evening at Councilor Mapp's home, breakaway candidate and incumbent mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs is said to have been busy schmoozing it up with her supporters at a fundraiser for Republican Assembly candidate John Campbell Jr. at Plainfield's BUF complex.
Christie has crowed about several Democratic endorsements of his candidacy in recent days, and the Paterson City Council president's endorsement yesterday created quite a stir (see story here).
Campbell's candidacy is just a mosquito-buzz of an annoyance during the Primary, but Robinson-Briggs could return to her GOP roots and endorse Christie for governor.
The question is, how many Democrats are likely to vote for her for mayor in the Primary if she does endorse Christie?
Tonight's Mayoral debate: Clash of Titans?
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The 2010 fantasy-adventure movie could hardly top Plainfield politics. |
Will tonight's debate between Plainfield mayoral candidates incumbent Sharon Robinson-Briggs and challenger Councilor Adrian Mapp be a 'Clash of Titans'? You won't know if you're not there.
The debate, originally planned by the Friends of Sleepy Hollow (FOSH) is now being jointly co-sponsored by the Plainfield chapter of the League of Women Voters. The two-candidate event is technically a forum, since the candidates will be answering questions posed in writing by audience members.
The event will be the only chance voters have this election season to see the candidates face off.
A debate planned earlier this month by Plainfield High School students got snagged in politics at the school district and never came to fruition. For that debate, a date was actually set and candidate Mapp showed up at the appointed time and place only to learn that it had been mysteriously cancelled.
Cancelled by whom was never made completely clear, and when a campaign representative emailed school district officials -- including the students' faculty adviser Jeffrey Truitt -- they were not even given the courtesy of a reply explaining why the event was not being rescheduled.
This is a sad comment on how adults in the school district are failing to be proper role models for our young people -- especially given that the students have shown an abiding interest in participating in the political process and expect to be out in force at tonight's forum.
The forum gets under way at 7:00 PM tonight at the Plainfield Public Library, Park Avenue at 8th Street. League of Women Voters rules apply.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Candidate forum Wednesday is centerpiece of busy week
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With Democratic Mayoral Primary, 2013 budget, and Charter Study, Plainfield is at a crossroads moment. |
A candidate forum on Wednesday pitting incumbent Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs against challenger Adrian Mapp is the centerpiece of a busy week.
With the June Primary just two weeks away, the tension is mounting for the two mayoral campaigns. Candidate Mapp, who is the Plainfield Democrats' standard-bearer, has been busy campaigning door-to-door across the city and blanketing voters with mailings. Those traveling through downtown will find it hard to miss Mapp smiling down from a billboard above the Plainfield Donut Shop at East 2nd Street and Watchung Avenue.
The mayor, on the other hand, is not a 'hoofer', so the Wednesday forum (put together by the Friends of Sleepy Hollow with the assistance of the Plainfield chapter of the League of Women Voters) is one of her few opportunities to show her stuff to the voters.
The forum gets under way at 7:00 PM Wednesday at the Plainfield Public Library, Park Avenue at 8th Street. League of Women Voters rules apply.
BUDGET DELIBERATIONS TUESDAY & THURSDAY
Budget deliberations tonight and Thursday will bracket the Wednesday candidate forum.CHARTER STUDY COMMISSION THURSDAY
This evening, the Council will take up the Department of Public Works and Urban Development. That will take place in the large meeting room of the Plainfield Senior Center at 400 East Front Street at 7:00 PM.
Thursday evening, the Council will take up the Department of Administration and Finance, the city's largest department. That meeting will also take place at 7:00 PM, but the venue has been changed to the Plainfield Public Library (the Senior Center is having a billiards tournament).
The Citizens Budget Advisory Commission members will be in attendance, and opportunity will be provided for residents to ask questions.
Plainfield's Charter Study Commission continues chugging along, with a meeting Thursday that will feature a presentation on the Faulkner Act forms of government by Dr. Ernest Reock. Dr. Reock, who is a professor emeritus at Rutgers and the retired Director of its Center for Government Services, is considered the go-to guy on the structure of local governments in New Jersey. It will be an interesting and informative evening, setting the stage for the Charter Study Commission's own exploration of Plainfield's Faulkner Act options.DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES MEETING FRIDAY
The public is warmly invited, and there will be ample opportunities for questions. The Charter Study Commission will meet at 7:30 PM Thursday in the City Hall Library.
[Note: This is a corrected post; the meeting is for PDO candidates and supporters, it is NOT a meeting of the City Committee as stated in error.] Capping a week of nonstop meetings will be a gathering of the Plainfield Regular Democratic Organization nominees Friday evening. Assemblyman Jerry Green, chairperson of the local party, will gather the troops for a pep rally as we head into the Memorial Day weekend and the final week before the June 4 Democratic Primary.
This year, Democrats will choose party candidates for offices ranging from Governor at the top of the ticket (Barbara Buono is the nominee) to neighborhood District leaders at the bottom of the slate. 68 men and women are on the ballot for District representatives in Plainfield. Assemblyman Green, Assemblywoman Linda Stender and Senator Nick Scutari are also up for the party line, as well as Plainfield's own Linda Carter, who this year serves as Chairperson of the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
The meeting will take place at 7:00 PM at campaign headquarters on West Front Street (next to the Dunkin' Donuts). Guests and supporters are most welcome.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Sharon breaks election rules, but compliments Mapp
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In knocking off Mapp's 2009 Mother's Day card, Sharon pays him the ultimate compliment. |
Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs seems constitutionally unfit to follow any rules and election rules are no exception; however, she still finds room to pay her opponent, Councilor Adrian Mapp, a compliment.
As for the rules, folks around town report seeing Her Honor using her city-issued SUV to lug around campaign signs and materials and to attend campaign events. That's a no-no.
The permission she has for a 24-hour vehicle is that it is to be used for City business and she gets it overnight because she is 'on call' 24/7, so to speak. It is not a substitute for her personal vehicle, which is the only sort of vehicle in which she should be hauling campaign mterials and signs. (I myself have seen her SUV with 'MG' plates parked in front of her campaign headquarters while she dashed in and out with materials.)
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Sharon gloms onto the President... |
Less flattering for Sharon though, are the circumstances around the Mother's Day mailer. When I first laid hands on a copy, I noted its surface flashiness first, and then on closer examination that it was really shoddily produced.
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What is that quote under Michelle Obama?.... |
Then, I pondered why it would be delivered in an envelope, with a 46-cent stamp hand-applied? This is very odd.
Campaigns are very sensitive to postage costs, the are a significant amount in the overall picture. I cannot think of when I've seen full-freight postage used for a mailing piece. The discount on bulk mailing can exceed 40%, and that's a lot of savings when you're doing thousands of pieces. If 5,000 pieces were mailed to identifiably female recipients from a voter list, that would come to $2,300 in 46-cent stamps. So why splurge?
Could it be that one or more of her supporters are trying to skirt the ELEC requirements for contributions by buying postage with cash and then simply giving the stamps to the campaign with no record that they constitute a contribution?
It certainly could, since at least two of her supporters might be embarrassed or embarrass Sharon if too visible. I am thinking in particular of former PMUA exec Eric Watson (he of the $1 Million Payday) and Malcolm R. Dunn, appointed by the Mayor to the PMUA Board of Commissioners (and the architect of Watson's 'payday').
But to be sure there was no hanky-panky, we would have to be able to check Robinson-Briggs' campaign fund reports filed with ELEC which would show all the costs associated with the mailer, including the postage. Except that as of July 20 -- two weeks after the most recent report was due -- there is no 29-day pre-election report posted to the ELEC website.
One more rule that Sharon feels she is exempt from?
To paraphrase Leona Helmsley: Rules? Only the little people follow rules.
Ward 3 Town Hall tonight
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Burning questions? Bring 'em on... |
The third of four Town Halls hosted by Plainfield's City Council takes place this evening at Cedarbrook School on Central Avenue.
Conceived as a means of getting input from residents and taxpayers on issues of concern to the community, the Town Halls have been invaluable as an opportunity for residents to speak out without the formal constraints that hold during regular Council meetings -- plus giving an opportunity for back-and-forth with Councilors.
While they are held in each of the city's four wards, they are meant to be opportunities for anyone from the community to come out and share concerns at any (or all) of the meetings. In fact, each has had representation from all across the city, and the same is expected for this evening's meeting.
Topics are whatever is on the mind of attendees, and almost always include property taxes, crime and policing, the PMUA, the responsiveness of city government and budget concerns.
Tonight's Town Hall is the next to last for this year; the final Ward 4 meeting takes place next month.
Parking is available in the school lot or on the street (the easiest entry to the Cafetorium is from Central Avenue).
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