Connolly Properties: Something the Mayor and Burney could do

If Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs had not pressed in the opening months of her term in 2006 to dismantle the ordinance requiring annual city inspection of multi-family rental units, it is most likely the Connolly Properties residents would not be faced with the multitude of issues uncovered by Courier reporter Mark Spivey's dogged investigation (see links at end of story).

The ordinance also required the landlord to pay for an inspection every time an apartment turned over, as well as provide floor plans of bedrooms (important in case of a fire, but which might also indicate illegal partitioning of rooms -- including basements and attics), as well as emergency contacts (required by state law, but often honored in the breach), the property owners' actual addresses (often not on file), and fuel oil and trash collection contacts.

A special team was set up within the Inspections Division to handle the process and was even equipped with handheld devices to record conditions in the field and download reports back in the office.

Owners of large multi-family rental properties, of which Connolly Properties is the largest, lobbied against the program.

Ray Blanco, my neighbor and friend who was Council President in Mayor Robinson-Briggs' first year (2006), told me privately that he was acquiescing in the rescission of the ordinance as an 'olive branch' gesture to Assemblyman Jerry Green and Robinson-Briggs, who wanted the ordinance repealed and the inspections program dismantled.

I have no doubt Mayor Robinson-Briggs is genuinely upset over the conditions that have come to light on her watch. But, her pledge to launch comprehensive inspections of all the Connolly properties (see here) smacks of locking the barn door after the horse is out.

Even Councilor Burney, who went along with dismantling the inspections ordinance in 2006, is now calling for 'strong enforcement from the City and [the] state' (see here).

In the spirit of making helpful suggestions that Assemblyman Jerry Green is always advocating, I offer the following:

Undertaking the inspections the Mayor seems to have in mind is probably not realistic, given the magnitude of the task. Far better would be to reinstate a PLANNED inspection program -- annual, with additional inspections of units as they turn over -- and STICK TO IT, rather than a Keystone Kops-style crash program which will go away as soon as the headlines do.

Mayor Robinson-Briggs and the City Council, under the leadership of Council President Burney, would do the residents, tenants and taxpayers of Plainfield a REAL SERVICE if they would reinstate the rescinded ordinance.

---

• Mark Spivey on Connolly Properties --
• 6/29/2009: "Tenants of Connolly properties decry conditions"
  
• 6/28/2009 --
  
• "Connolly Properties target of state DEP probe"
• "Pingry Arms tenants opened the floodgate"
• "Towne & Country residents speak out"
• "Photo Gallery"
  
• "Connolly defends company amid complaints, state investigations"
• There is also an editorial, but of course it's not online yet...
• 6/25/2009: "Workers pump raw sewage onto city street" -- Slideshow here.
• 6/24/2009: "Tenants describe, demonstrate poor living conditions"
• Councilor Burney: "Connolly: Shape up or ship out!"

-- Dan Damon

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