Entering 4th year, Robinson-Briggs administration still not ready for prime time

A regular smorgasbord of issues uncovered by sharp Council questioning at Monday's agenda-setting session showed that, even as it enters the fourth and final year of Robinson-Briggs' term, this administration is still not ready for prime time.

Here's the bill of particulars --

WITHDRAWN FROM AGENDA

• Nomination of former Councilor Don Davis to PMUA board. (Widely regarded as a problematic nomination in light of Davis' issues with abuse of travel and reimbursement expenses brought to light last year.)
• Submission of Layoff Plan to the State. (With a budget gap that may mean staff reductions, Robinson-Briggs was rumored to have crafted a one-person layoff plan, covering a staffer slated for full retirement benefits in another year. Punitive?)

SLOPPY PREPARATION

• Board Nominations (1): When asked about a conflict in an appointee's address, showing both a Plainfield and a North Plainfield address, Mr. Dashield said he 'didn't know' the person's correct address.
• Board Nominations (2): Two nominees to a board were listed for four-year appointments, which Dashield corrected at the table to TWO-YEAR appointments.
• Surveillance Camera Contract: A lengthy explanation of why it was a no-bid contract that revealed the original memo given to the Council misstated the reasons for the exemption. Nobody screened the memo before the Council got it?

In the old days, every resolution and ordinance used to have TWO sign-offs on the bottom before the document got to the Council: one by the Corporation Counsel attesting that a legal review had been done, and one by the City Administrator that the item had been reviewed for correctness and completeness from a business perspective. In other words, real people really reviewed documents before shoveling them at the Council. Of course, that would mean ADVANCE preparation, which seems to be an habitual issue with the Robinson-Briggs administration.

THREE I WILL ADDRESS IN FURTHER POSTS

• Take-home City vehicles. To which the Emergency Management argument has been added.
• Big-ticket contracts. And why the Administration keeps dodging the Council's displeasure with 'fair and open' contracts.
• East 6th Street Playground. In listing how the design was arrived at, the Administration never mentions citizen input.

As for the Council's discussion and conduct of the meeting, there were a couple of items that deserve attention --

CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY ACT

Though enacted several years ago in an effort to ensure an open and transparent process to citizens to volunteer for board and commission service, it has never come to fruition. The Council discussion made this seem more difficult than I think it really is. It's a very straightforward process (though a little time-consuming in setting up): 1) List every board and commission and its mission and membership requirements per the Charter; 2) List all seats, who holds them, and when their terms expire; 3) Provide an online form for submitting a request to be considered and a resumè. The concern that the information is private when submitted is easily addressed by having the submission form designed to be read only by authorized personnel in the Clerk's office. (Note though that once nominated, the information becomes part of the public record.) Time needed to create lists? Couple of work days by an existing City staffer at the most. Time to create web page? An hour or two once data has been set up. Cost? Data prep by in-house staff; web page consultant should cost less than $300. What is so frigging hard about all this?

COUNCIL COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS

Council President Burney assigned various members to eighteen different committees. In an effort to focus on the most important assignments, he asked that the Board of Ed and PMUA liaisons and the Finance, Economic Growth and Code Enforcement Committees meet and prepare 2009 goals for presentation to the full body. Given the dire economic straits the country is in and the impact on the Plainfield business environment, I was struck that the SID liaisons were not included in this task, especially since this is a partnership between the merchants and the City in which the merchants have voluntarily assumed an extra tax burden to promote Plainfield's businesses.

CONDUCT OF THE MEETING

Time was when any input was needed from staff or consultants at agenda sessions, the relevant people were summoned to the Council table at the commencement of that item on the agenda. This had several advantages: a) all of their remarks were clearly and properly recorded by the microphone placed on the Council table, b) they were formally introduced at the beginning of their testimony so everyone knew who they were, and c) they had all the documentation at hand that would be necessary to answer Councilors' questions until discussion of the item was concluded.

All in all, it was a much more professional and dignified method than the one on display where, as last evening, the Administrator and the engineer call to each other from across the room and over the heads of the Council.

Tomorrow, I will begin taking up the three items (open bidding on contracts, citizen input on projects, and take-home City vehicles) that deserve separate attention.

GRADING THE MAYOR:

ITEM	GRADE	COMMENT
Preparation of documents for Council	C	There is no excuse for not checking before submitting.
Withdrawing Resolutions	C	Half-fast is not the way to go.

Robinson-Briggs will be graded on an item-by-item basis, and a permanent 'Report Card' will be available for all to see here.

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-- Dan Damon

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