NOTE: The State Health Planning Board's July meeting, originally set for July 23, has been canceled. (Update, Sunday, 7/19/2009.)
Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has called a community forum for Tuesday at which the new Community Advisory Group for Muhlenberg will be 'formalized'.
There is something odd going on here.
Actually several odd things.
In case you haven't heard about the forum, you should toodle on by the city website and check out the forum notice (see here).
Odd thing #1 is the press release put up on Thursday afternoon (see here -- PDF).
Press releases posted on the website are composed in MS Word in a template that includes an image of the city seal, like this --
Oddly, the 'press release' for the forum features a PHOTOGRAPH of a plaque of the city seal, propped against a wall on top of a cabinet or bookcase of some sort. Here is a screen shot of the 'press release' --
-- and a closeup of the 'seal' image.
Kinda makes you wonder if the press release came from some place other than the Mayor's office. Some folks might think it was NOT news that the news doesn't actually come from the Mayor's office. Call me naïve.
At any rate, Mayor Robinson-Briggs' forum will address the advisory group for Muhlenberg (and also ongoing road work).
Odd thing #2: Some people were confused when the announcement of the advisory group came from Assemblyman Jerry Green instead of Mayor Robinson-Briggs (see here), leading Maria Pellum to comment on same on her blog (see here), causing Jerry to respond (see here).
Get out your Excedrin.
As I pointed out earlier (see here), the Robinson-Briggs administration was publicly upbraided at the June State Health Planning Board meeting for not having put this advisory group together to that point, and Heather Howard's representative said if the matter was not addressed before the July meeting, it would be taken out of the Robinson-Briggs' hands. (Mayor Robinson-Briggs had promised Commissioner Howard last September that she would name the group by the end of THAT MONTH -- see here.)
You'll be pleased to know that that '2x4 upside the head' seems to have gotten someone's attention.
But was a group actually appointed? You may want to reread the list and Assemblyman Green's blog on the matter (here) a couple of times and see if you can figure it out -- but remember that Excedrin I told you about? Get it out. Take it.
What on earth took so long? Except for the hospital representatives, the others are no-brainers and shouldn't have taken more than five minutes to list and recruit. (Well, maybe except for Salavarrieta, but that's another matter.)
At any rate, Assemblyman Green and Mayor Robinson-Briggs have come in under the deadline laid down last month -- by a whisker, the State Health Planning Board's July meeting is Thursday, the 23rd.
Which leads us to oddity #3, the venue for the meeting: Washington Community School. Using the school is not that unusual; in fact, Robinson-Briggs seems to find it almost the only place she likes to use besides City Hall.
What is odd is that she didn't think to hold the community forum at Muhlenberg's Centennial Hall.
Centennial Hall is still available for community use, at no cost, so why wouldn't she go THERE to make her big deal announcement that she has not only organized an advisory group, but that she made sure NO Solaris representation was on it. (Though I don't think that excluding Solaris is such a smart move.)
But maybe that's not so odd after all, since she has yet to take up her seat on the Muhlenberg Board and here we are staring her second term in the eye.
Amazing, isn't it?
COMMUNITY FORUM
Tuesday, July 21
7:30 PM
Washington Community School
427 Darrow Avenue
(Parking available in the Spooner Avenue lot)
Tuesday, July 21
7:30 PM
Washington Community School
427 Darrow Avenue
(Parking available in the Spooner Avenue lot)
Posts
3 comments:
I went to the Jerry Green website as your article directed and lo and behold according to JG --George Bush is responsible for Muhlenberg closing!
What an "easy" way to pass on the blame -- its all the fault of the feds and has nothing to do with state and local foul-ups. I guess we can also blame George for the Connolly properties poor management while we are at it.
Hi Dan,
I also saw the picture of the City Seal on the press release and thought ii was really tacky, but hey!
There is one thing that I have been wondering about this group, are the community appointed people really supporters of Muhlenberg, as: Do they go to Muhlenberg for medical care? It is easy to say "I support the cause" but have they ever actually done it? It's too bad, and sad, that those residents who really showed their commitment were bypassed.
Thanks for bringing more light into this, and more, community issues.
Maria Pellum
It's George Bushes fault..vote for Corzine. I had to write something.
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