Robinson-Briggs offers half a banana at Council reorg

Plainfield's City Council reorganization got off to a leisurely start on Friday with a small-town feel as residents gathered, exchanging New Year's greetings, hugs and kisses.

Once the Council reorganized, with Councilor at-large Annie McWilliams elected as Council President, Ward 3 Councilor Adrian Mapp elected chair of the committee of the whole, and Ward 4 Councilor Bridget Rivers sworn in and seated, Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs was given the floor to deliver her 2010 State of the City Address. (See Bernice's take on the day here; and Olddoc's here.)

Mercifully spared yet another PowerPoint presentation, attendees were showered with a 40-minute recitation of accomplishments and happenings -- both large and small -- that had taken place during the final year of Robinson-Briggs' first term (the Address is online here; in PDF).

(By way of contrast, New York City's Mike Bloomberg covered the details for his somewhat larger burg in just 14 minutes.)

There were little nuggets in the Address if one listened closely --

NEW SUPERMARKET

Mayor Robinson-Briggs announced that a 'major supermarket' would be coming to Plainfield by April 2010. Noting that the City had been trying for many years to bring a big-name player to Plainfield, she showed a board of pictures of the proposed location on South Avenue (the now vacant Drug Fair, which many will recall as the one-time home of a popular and busy Foodtown), adroitly sidestepping the fact that it was the West End which was supposed to benefit from a new supermarket in a development proposed for West Front Street across from the Drake House -- an initiative that fell by the wayside during the Mayor's first term. A sudden drop in her voice as she named the store left many in the room wondering what chain it was. All I heard was '...town'; Olddoc misheard it as Foodtown, but I was told by someone behind me that it is C-Town (I'll have more on that later).

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 'DIVISION'

Robinson-Briggs noted that she would be 'increasing the level of communications to our residents by enhancing the information technology infrastructure', by creating an IT 'Division' in 2010. Those who understand bureaucratese will immediately recognize the 'D' word as a sign that Robinson-Briggs will proposed to add not just an IT slot, but STAFF to go along with it. While the Robinson-Briggs administration adamantly denied that a person had been preselected for the IT job, word in the street is that the deal is in and that the new hire will be who everyone thought it would be all along, a staffer from another city organization. Meanwhile, one has to wonder about these new 'Division' employees -- are we looking at the hiring of friends, relatives or girlfriends to feed at the public trough? As I said way back when the Council started down this road, there needed to be a Needs Assessment by an outside, independent professional to assure we were not going to be ripped off. Stay tuned on this one.

RADAR BLIPS

There were a few roses strewn, the brown spots on which were glossed over --

• -- TAX COLLECTION: While the collection rate was a laudable 96.11% (the highest ever, the mayor said), there was no acknowledgment of the oppression of our property taxes or any attempt to control them, nor the difficulties homeowners have had this past year, arguably the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s;
  
  
• -- SWINE FLU: While holding two vaccination clinics was heralded, there was no mention of the total number of shots administered; I suspect we have plenty of unused vaccine and wonder if we will have another clinic -- open to all -- but no mention was made;
  
  
• -- SENIOR CENTER: Mayor Robinson-Briggs went to some pains to tell the audience that the 'dedication' of the new Senior Center back in May, during the height of the Primary season had been scheduled so that Charles Nelson, the ailing chair of the building committee, could see the fruition of his efforts, but that sadly he had 'gone on to Glory' that very day. This could be contrasted with media coverage at the time, which pointedly noted the challenge to the Mayor and Assemblyman in the upcoming primary. Left unspoken was any acknowledgment that the Mayor and Charles Nelson were about as far-removed from each other as could be, and that Nelson had sometimes been a burr under the mayor's saddle;
  
  
• -- GOLDEN GLOVES TOURNAMENT: Mayor Robinson-Briggs repeatedly noted that the Golden Gloves Tournament had been held in cooperation with the Plainfield School District, and that there had been 'no disturbances'. Why that had to be noted was left unsaid, though the mayor did say she would 'like to see [the event] reported on the blogs'. Was she unaware that that is really the bailiwick of the Plainfield Sports News blog (see here), a beat which the rest of the bloggers don't normally cover?

The mayor was stunning in a gold jacket under which she wore an outfit in her trademark bright red.

Though in many ways what was offered was half a banana, that's better than none at all, right?

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• Plainfield Website: "2010 State of the City Address" (PDF)
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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