Readers beware! Plainfield Today is filching from Olddoc today, sort of.
Chatting at the Council meeting last night, after I remarked that Bernice was a reporter and I was a partisan (perhaps more accurately, a meliorist), Dr. Yood said that he saw himself as an impressionist.
That was definitely a good thing to be at Monday's Council meeting.
Besides scheduling a budget hearing, the Council held an agenda-setting session to set up the reorganization meeting slated for New Year's Day.
(The Council, which is the City's corporate entity, exists as an annual creature, expiring on December 31st of each year, hence a reorganization meeting, at which new members are sworn in, the calendar for the year adopted and appointments and other housekeeping items taken care of.)
But back to the impressions of a fly-on-the-wall.
Of interest was item 'VI. Discussion Items', which indicated the Council President would entertain comments from Council members during this segment.
Right away, it got interesting, as Councilor Annie McWilliams seemed to take the lead in the discussions, first raising a point, with Burney then asking others to chime in.
It was unusual because McWilliams is not usually the first one to speak.
It became more unusual after an item or two more were discussed in the same fashion, with Council President Burney deferring to Councilor McWilliams and then pitching the ball to the others.
Hmmmmm...
Were we witnessing the 'soft launch' of next year's Council President?
Just an impression made upon a fly-on-the-wall.
-- Dan Damon [follow]
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9 comments:
Why would they make McWilliams council president? Mapp would be a more sensible choice. Unless, of course, McWilliams needs the higher profile council president seat from which to launch her bid to take over Jerry Green's job in 2011, with the county's blessing. Let's hope she will follow Mapp's lead in being firm with the mayor and administration, because Burney waited far too long to develop the still-fragile glass spine I have seen of late.
7:45AM - On the Annie cheer leading: what you are saying is that if the County picks one of your politicians, then everything is OK. But if they pick someone else, someone not part of your tribe, then they are corrupt.
Same Annie one who did not support Adrian?
What exactly has Annie done for Plainfield? I have not heard a thing on the blogs.
I think she votes "yes" on everything.
Who cares? The entire city council should be holding the Mayor's feet to the fire...the Council President is a glorified parlimentarian...the current one doesn't do that job very well either. Isn't Burney the one hoping for Green's job? That's been the rumor and apparent to just about anybody that has seen the change in Councilor Burney since Al McWilliams unfortunate passing. Now the late Ray Blanco..he was "firm" and another unfortunate passing.
To 8:40, I don't have a tribe, and I certainly wasn't cheerleading for McWilliams who so far has been undistinguished, except for on a couple of issues. She hasn't even served a full year, so I am reserving full judgment of her, out of fairness. Now I do think that the county is corrupt. I also think the county wants to get rid of Green and Stender. I think the county wouldn't hesitate to replace Green with someone they think would be more popular, which McWilliams probably could be, and with someone they think they can control and manipulate, which they probably think they could do with McWilliams, since she is young and politically inexperienced. Look at the freeholders, young Van Blake and Jalloh are toeing the party line. And I didn't say the replacement would be with my blessing (I'm just a regular Joe with a single vote), but with the COUNTY's blessing. There's a big difference. I don't see how anything I said could be construed as "Annie cheer leading" by any stretch. I don't have politicians, by the way. I think they are elected to serve all of us, not just me. I think having "tribes" is part of what has destroyed our country, our state, our county, and possibly our city.
10:07 am comment, that's right, McWilliams did not support Adrian Mapp for mayor, which proves the point of 1:37 pm in regards to the county being able to control her.They didn't want her to publicly support him so she didn't. She never bothered to offer an explanation either, even when asked several times, which was pretty shoddy behavior. She also hasn't bothered to say anything about so-called "positive change" on her blog site for several months. We'll see what happens. As far as 12:32's comment, you are delusional if you think Burney would get RDO support for assembly from Plainfield. If he's jockeying for that, he's about 4 years too late in terms of trying to gain the confidence of the people. He has bent over backward to accommodate the Green/Robinson Briggs agenda and turned his back on the people of Plainfield for his own gain and hid during the last couple of elections. He may not even get the line for his city council run this time, given how unpopular he is.
To 3:32 of course he is delusional but that doesn't stop one from trying. My comment about the "change" in Burney stands...he was once very much in the Al McWilliams camp and has since gone out of his way to ensure Briggs/Green have a very comfortable ride. I, and it sounds like you, hope he is gone in the next election. I too agree he has turned on a lot of folks.
Burney seems to be the yes man of late. I cant see him taking over for JG any time soon. I also dont see Annie getting in any time soon. Too young, not enough experience, which in itself could be perfect given we now have too old and no experieince. She also has not kept us abrest of issues on her blog. No new postings since September?? This young lady should have lots to say to her public followers. Adrian has a bettewr chance of getting into JG's shoes, but will the county support him??
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