Practically breaking their arms patting themselves on the back, Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs and PMUA execs held a press conference Wednesday at City Hall outlining points agreed to between the city and the agency after it became the subject of intense scrutiny this past spring.
The PMUA had come to make nice.
The festivities are reported in today's Courier (see here) and Ledger (see here).
That scrutiny was fueled by the grassroots DumpPMUA organization (see their website here) and a plank in his mayoral campaign platform by Councilor Adrian Mapp calling for the PMUA to be reintegrated into the city to effect cost savings from administrative overhead (see here).
At the time, Assemblyman Green thumped his chest and called for a state investigation.
Eric Watson, the PMUA's executive director, was at first unrepentant -- especially over the issue of staff travel. Carol Ann Brokaw-Boles, the Authority's chairwoman and a candidate in the mayoral primary, came across poorly on the subject during the candidate forum held at the Plainfield Public Library.
Concessions have been made -- check Councilor Burney's blog (here) for a detailed list -- and that will no doubt ease some of the pressure on the agency.
It is interesting to note that the chief spokesperson for the agency in this case appears to have become its attorney, Leslie London, whose considerable communications skills were put to good use on the agency's behalf. (Haughtiness and arrogance on the part of agency leadership are among the top citizen complaints.)
It is also interesting to note that Councilor Mapp's principal contention -- that there is a lot of fat and waste at the PMUA that could be removed by reintegrating it into the City -- is not on the agenda of either Mayor Robinson-Briggs or Council President Burney.
Which means that the ratepayers will continue to be saddled with the agency's ever-growing overhead (for a good outline of how Topsy has grown, see DumpPMUA's website here).
That leaves in place DumpPMUA's lawsuit against the agency, and Assemblyman Green's call for a state investigation of the agency.
How much you wanna bet we won't hear anything more about a state investigation?
And can Robinson-Briggs and Burney mark their files 'Mission Accomplished'?
The Council's PMUA discussion set for July 27 may provide some answers to that question.
- Courier: "Authority announces changes in wake of public criticism"
Ledger: "Authority responds to growing resident concern"
DumpPMUA: "DumpPMUA website"
Councilor Mapp --
- "Plainfield must rein in PMUA excesses"
- "My PMUA proposal for positive change"
- "Mapp posts on the PMUA" -- All posts on the PMUA and various issues surrounding it.
- Councilor Burney: "An agreement with the PMUA"
Posts
3 comments:
Dan,
Why is Annie McWilliams quiet on this matter? Being our council person at-large, I would expect and I am sure I'm not alone, that this would be an appropraite topic for her to comment on. Hope springs enternal.
Burney loves to take credit for proposals initiated by others, it seems. To say that he didn't want to say anything about PMUA because it would be viewed as "political" shows what he thinks the people of Plainfield. He is up for reelection now as Jerry Green said when he tried to get the city committee to support Burney next year. The committee said "NO." Burney is a political opportunist who has really done nothing but cave in to everything Jerry and the mayor tell him to do. What has this deal actually accomplished? If it weren't for Dump PMUA, Burney wouldn't have tried to do anything. Too bad the other councilpeople, except for Storch and Mapp, don't voice any opinions on anything until after they see which way the political wind is blowing.
Hopefully the over 2000 people who received the lid not closed, extra bag charges, and cart returns will get a FULL REFUND without having to ask for it.
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