With corruption very much in the air during the current campaign season, the administration of Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs may have wondered if it didn't smell gunpowder in the air as residents Harold Yood, MD, and Dottie Gutenkauf stepped to the microphone at Monday evening's Council meeting to exercise the citizen's prerogative of bumping items from the 'consent' agenda, in which a blanket vote covers items considered 'routine and non-controversial'.
The items so bumped were all contracts. And it is the awarding of contracts -- the doling out of large dollops to those nuzzling their snouts up against the public trough -- where the most obvious abuses occur.
Later in the same meeting, the Council signaled that the days of the Robinson-Briggs' administration's use of the 'fair and open process' (which is in reality anything but 'fair' and 'open') to award contracts may be coming to an end.
Councilor Storch raised the twin issues of open public bidding of contracts AND information on vendors' political contributions both during the series of resolutions on contracts for various attorneys offered by Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson, and the proposal by the Division of Public Works and Urban Development to give yet another contract (this one for $140,000) to engineering firm Remington & Vernick.
The discussion was inchoate and somewhat disjointed, mixing the two issues, which did not make it easy to follow (even for Council President Burney, who wanted to continue the discussion on halving the R&V contract even though a superseding motion to table the item had been made by Councilor Mapp and Councilor Storch withdrew his amendment to halve the contract amount).
Notwithstanding the confusion, this is an important breach in the manner of awarding contracts from the public purse that this administration has become accustomed to.
Perhaps, if the Council does some homework (Perth Amboy, Somerville and North Plainfield have taken or are considering actions that are pertinent; wheels are littering the landscape, no need to invent one's own here) on the campaign contributions disclosure issue, the Robinson-Briggs administration can see the wisdom of more disclosure and transparency.
It's a small but significant start.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Council turns up heat on awarding contracts
-- Dan Damon
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7 comments:
This council is giving Plainfield the hope that it needs. What the administration does not understand is that, I believe, the council wants to be an ally, not a foe.
The administration has been so used to having non thinking people on the council, that it does not know what to do.
Hopefully, the administration will see that we are all looking out for PLAINFIELD's best interest, and will start working with the council, sans chip on their shoulder.
Don't you think that the City could provide the Council President and the Committee Chair copies of Roger's Rules for parliamentary procedure. I favor Sturgis but that is not the designated book.Never the less no matter what motion is on the floor a second motion to "table" takes precedent and is not debatable.
Actually, there's a little laminated 'cheat sheet' available for the most common parliamentary questions. Got one at 'Clerk U'. In many places, the governing body defers to the Clerk in matters like this, as the Clerk is statutorily their main resource. The Corporation Counsel gave the correct ruling, so no harm done.
The assumption that the administration is looking out for Plainfield's best interest is naive. Politics in Plainfield, for decades, has been about self-interest! The city is in a heap because the elected have not had the inclination, and more often or not the skills, to run a city. Instead, they have been exploiters and takers who hide behind the quote "we have learned our lesson well." This has been the rationale for keeping our people down and robbing, with the help of a battery of attorneys, the tax payer. It looks like the party may be over; however, if they continue to voice platitudes, about the motives of politicans, I won't hold my breadth. Stay tuned!
Dan,
What are we supposed to think? Look at all the money they have donated to Green's campaigns! They also donate to republicans, so they are at least smart enough to hedge their bets with both parties. However, how are we to believe that all this money doesn't influence politicians? Why not make Green GIVE BACK ALL THIS CASH? This is why he doesn't want pay to play. How much money has this firm donated to the mayor? This is sickening. They should NOT be given contracts. This is clearly unethical and should be illegal.
REMINGTON & VERNICK ENGINEERS INC 232 KINGS HWY E
HADDONFIELD, NJ 08033 2,600.00 5/19/2008 GREEN, GERALD,
PRIMARY, 2009,
STATE ASSEMBLY,
22ND LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT,
DEMOCRAT
REMINGTON & VERNICK ENGINEERS
232 KINGS HWY E
HADDONFIELD, NJ 08033 1,000.00 9/21/2007 BUSINESS/CORP MONETARY
REMINGTON & VERNICK ENGINEERS INC
232 KINGS HWY E
HADDONFIELD, NJ 08033 1,600.00 11/6/2007 BUSINESS/CORP MONETARY
REMINGTON & VERNICK ENGINEERS INC
232 KINGS HWY E
HADDONFIELD, NJ 08033 500.00 4/6/2006 BUSINESS/CORP MONETARY
REMINGTON VERNICK & VENA ENGINEERS INC
9 ALLEN ST
TOMS RIVER NJ 08753 10/20/2005 $2,600 MONETARY GREEN JERRY
(22ND LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT)
Dan, why don't you post the contract the prvious admin gacve to Shoor de palma....... Talk about pay-to-play. They got $1M for making a measly 5,000 contribution to Storch and other New Dems.
To 9:13 PM --
If you wanna run with the big dogs, you gotta do your homework.
Do like 4:54 PM and check out the ELEC for contributions and itemize them, and if there were contracts with the city check out the dates, purposes and amounts.
Otherwise, you aren't even a lot of hot air.
BTW, you're not a 'birther' are you?
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