Plainfield Today readers may have guessed I am mightily irked over the $287,000 surprise bill for 'outfitting' the new Senior Center delivered to the Council at its business meeting April 12 (which I wrote about here).
As Council President McWilliams noted, it was not previously discussed by the Council before presentation of the resolution and, further, there was no money to pay for it.
The work covered by the now-tabled resolution took place last year, while Marc Dashield was City Administrator and Councilor Burney was council president and chair of the finance committee.
I think the public deserves an answer to the question of who knew what, when.
Surely Dashield must have known the work was going on. Even in Plainfield, SOMEONE must give the order to spend from the public purse -- even if they are in violation of the law by not securing the Council's approval first.
Was it Mayor Robinson-Briggs? Or did Dashield do it on his own authority?
Were public bidding laws illegally circumvented?
And what was Councilor Burney's role?
Did he know about the work being done without Council approval and fail to raise the alarum?
Or, as council president and chair of the finance committee, was he in the dark?
Either way, taxpayers have a right to ask if Burney was guarding the public purse -- every Councilor's sworn duty.
It's time for the Council to stand up and tell this Administration money does NOT get spent without Council approval. That's the law, period.
Let's hope we get some answers next Monday night.
- Plainfield Today: "Council not happy with Senior Center bait-and-switch"
-- Dan Damon [follow]
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16 comments:
There has been too much voodoo with the public money and someone needs to pay for their illegal activity. Thanks to Annie McWilliams and you for keeping on it.
Smoke ? Mirrors ? Anyone..anyone?? I for one am shocked and surprised something like this could happen...IN well run cities...But not here in Plainfield. No sir, no surprise.
I wonder if the Red Shirt Brigade will turn out to support Mayor Deception on this ??? Glass of Kool-Aid anyone ?
So Dan, I guess we know who you're supporting in the 2-3 at large race?
How about a list of the companies/people who got the money? If it was for sensible things the arichtect left out ... sue the architect !!
Pat asked
alarum?
my, my
I hope Councilman Burney will set the record straight as his seat is up and the primary is in a month.
If we get no response from the councilman, one can only assume that he did know what was going on and was involved in a cover up. Hopefully, that was not the case and the councilman will set the record straight. Either way, the taxpayers have a right to know.
The mayor and Dashield knew, Green knew, which means Burney knew. He told us it only cost a dollar but as a real estate pro he knew it wasn't free. He let it slide so that the mayor would win reelection. Is this part of a deal made with the developer? They all need to go!
The Mayor and the Seniors should have a bake sale to pay the bill! The Mayor thought by buying lots of new things for the Senior Citizens Center, she would gaurentee their VOTES at election time.
As always, the Mayor spends what she wants,does what she wants,and hires her friends to work for the city,without enough money in the bank. The council president should not sign the check to pay the bill.Send the bill back to the Mayor to pay out of her pocket and not the tax payers of Plainfield.In her mind she will just raise our taxes and layoff longtime city employees to pay the bill.
Give the Seniors tin cups and have them start walking the streets DONATIONS DONATIONS ! Remember you get what you vote for.
Oh, it looks like Monday is going to be a really busy night. Not just because of the Senior Center, but Queen City Baseball League had evening games last night, but one of the games had to be cancelled because Dave Wynn locked up the bases at the Rock Avenue complex and made sure to make himself unavailable (he changed the locks and didn't tell anyone nor did he provide a key).
How petty!
How this man remains in his position is a mystery (or not).
The Plainfield children just want to play baseball.
Talk about a slick deal!
The developer gets the property for a $1
The developer gets yearly fees from the city for the Senior Center.
The developer gets big bucks to "outfit" the Senior Center.
We as citizens and the council should have an exact accounting for what the money spent on.
Want to take bets everything is inflated ... a la $20 nails?
Corruption, sweetheart deals, closed-door dealing.
ILLEGAL!! People need to go to jail.
The comptroller is required to certify the funds before the contractor can get paid. Without the certification that funds are available, the comptroller cannot authorize the payment. So funding has to be approved prior to any payments. If the comptroller authorizes payment of funds without the approved funding source, they could lost their state certification.
So this looks like a two step approach. First, the council has to provide for the approval of funds for the project. Then, and only then, can any payments be made against the approved funding.
Who ever was responsible for authorizing the contractor to proceed with any work prior to funding being in placed, should be held accountable.
If noone is held accountable for this, then I would advised Helwig to file an appeal of his suspension for his actions as "severe and unjust punishment". When someone can walk away from spending $250K without approval by City Council and not as much as a hand slap he would win his appeal without question.
I am keeping a growing tab on infractions committed by this administration. Governor Christie may wind up having an annex in Plainfield.
You are exactly right when you noted that the council under the presidency of Mr. Burney did not do a good job of monitoring the administration in this respect. Unfortunately in Plainfield we appear to need a Council which can watch every move the Mayor and her staff make. Open and transparent operation of city government will never happen under the administration of Ms. Robison-Briggs, and it is difficult for anyone to see beyond the smoke and mirrors. How much is reasonable to expect from the Council? It is not their job to run the day-to-day operation of the city, but it is reasonable for them to insist that the mayor behave responsibly. I would recommend a recall election of the Mayor except that such a move is nearly impossible to achieve. I rather urge the council to not approve this expenditure, and see what happens next. Somebody has got to put real pressure on the mayor to behave in the best interests of the residents and taxpayers of this city. If laws have been broken, then those who broke them need to suffer the legal consequences.
I am in agreement with Dan and the other commenters. Look around, So.Plainfield has a free-standing Senior Ctr which belongs to them. No., Plfd has their own Senior Center.
The original plan was for the same in Plfd. Somehow the project never got off the ground. Along comes a promise that if the City gives away a plot of land for $1, the City will be provided with a place in the bldg for a Senior Center plus a Veteran's Center.
Through the process of "bait and switch" the City now has to pay the developer thousands of dollars for "improvements" and the City is still on the hook for "condo fees"!
I resent the City officials telling all how wonderful this Center is and what it is worth.
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO COST ONE DOLLAR!!!
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