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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Council Vacancy: Jerry deals Council a bad hand


"Cards of no merchantable value...for advertising purposes only...including Joker."
Plainfield City Council is slated to take up the matter of filling the seat vacated by Linda Carter at tonight's business meeting.

Plainfield Democratic City Committee (PDCC) chairperson Jerry Green has dealt the Council a bad hand. A
REALLY  bad hand.

Even as he presented his personally-picked slate of candidates at the PDCC meeting January 7th, questions began to swirl.

It is common knowledge the Chairperson wants the Council to seat Vera Greaves, who lost a bid for the line for the Ward 4 seat to Bridget Rivers in the June primary election.

The mayor's confidential aide, Barbara James, had been told to bring her resumé along to the meeting as Chairperson Green was considering her as one of the three names he would propose. To her surprise, she was not named, Green instead selecting Planning Board member Willie Faulks and the Rev. Jason Greer, nephew of baseball legend Joe Black.

That was after beating back an attempt by PDCC executive committee members Rebecca Williams and Christian Estevez to open the floor to individual nominations.

Jerry was dead set against it, and in a vote the PDCC backed the Chairman, 33-26. (The meeting was captured in a video, which will probably surface at some time in the near future.)

Soon, however, rumors were swirling that Jerry's slate contained ONLY ONE BONA FIDE REGISTERED DEMOCRAT.

It was subsequently confirmed with Union County election officials that, as of the date of the PDCC meeting, only one candidate was a registered Democrat; one was a registered voter but 'unaffiliated', and one was not on the voter rolls at all.

This presents the Council with an interesting problem.

Should they reject the list out of hand as not meeting the statutory requirement and select a person of their own choosing to fill the vacant seat?

Or should they avoid a court fight and opt for the Chairman's choice, the only person who was a registered Democrat when the slate was named? Which would be Vera Greaves.

It is a simple thing to check the voter rolls, which are freely available from the County as an Excel spreadsheet.

Whichever way the Council votes tonight, Chairman Green has embarrassed himself by not doing his homework.

Not only himself, he has embarrassed all those members of the Plainfield Democratic City Committee who put their trust in his leadership and deferred to the Chairman on the slate which he put together.

And it can't be pleasant for the County Democratic Party to learn that the machine's affairs in Plainfield are being handled in such a sloppy manner.

After all, Green has to stand for re-election this year.

If he isn't going to retire.




CITY COUNCIL BUSINESS MEETING
Council vacancy to be filled


Tonight · January 18
8:00 PM

Council Chambers / Municipal Court
Watchung Avenue at East 4th Street


-- Dan Damon [follow]

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20 comments:

Anonymous said...

You cannot be serious! He selects people who are not registered Democrats - and is the head of the PDCC.

I actually do not find this hard to believe. His style is bullying, and not at all thinking that he has to abide by the rules that the rest of us do.

But don't worry, Jerry will talk about he a certain group "disrespected" him (he likes using that word - although it does not apply to him and how he treats others)and lied.

This is getting real old. Retire already!

Anonymous said...

incorrect information as always. All of the canidates selected were registered democrats.

Bernice said...

He already embarrassed himself by holding a meeting on the vacancy before it occurred.

Dan said...

@ 8:08 AM -- They may be registered Democrats now, but they were not the night that Jerry put the slate forward.

How do you know otherwise?

Alan Goldstein said...

The PDCC has been corrupted by the Chairman. The least is faulty, if not purposefully fraudulant. Toss it out. Time has expired.

It's the Council's turn to leave the seat vacant or make a temporary appointment. Leave it vacant and make the temporary appointment after the primary.

None of the 33 committee members who voted in favor of the slate are worthy of re-election. Politics has gotten the better of their responsibility to the welfare of the city.

Anonymous said...

One would hope that the council would closely scrutinize the qualifications and if they fail to meet the requirements, as written in law, reject them. The incompetence of the Jerry Green, as head of the PDCC, shines as a beacon and reflects on everyone in Plainfield. Approval of his nominations will make us the laughing stock of the county and the state. Recently, He has gone out of his way to tar registered Democrats who disagree with him as closeted Republicans and worse, Tea Party’ers. Yet, he is hypocritical enough, when it suits his own ends, to nominate two people who are not registered Democrats. One should ask: who is the closeted Republican, who is the closeted Tea Party’er, Jerry?

Anonymous said...

Since they were not registered Democrats at the time of the slate election, do they meet the requirements?

Don't they have to be registered Democrats for a period of time before they can hold office?

Bob said...

I have believed for years that Jerry Green has to go. I hope if he doesn't retire the voters retire him by voting him out. He has used his influence to get all his relatives and friend great paying jobs with the county, city, and state and cares little about what Plainfielders want. Good bye JerrY!

Daniel said...

Jerry Green continues to be in the way of allowing Plainfield to move forward - - he is a hinderance to this city. He's had enough time to make his mark and nothing to show for it, other than bullying and nasty politics. We need to put this man into retirement and move on, please, for all our sakes!

Anonymous said...

The dictator has spoken and you will seat his selection because he knows best (sounds like Stalin and Lenin to me)(political favor pay off). I know there is some excuse floating around but I guess I have to ask. Since the citizens and taxpayers elected the individual previously, we should have a say in who the replacement is. We have allowed this political pandering to go on too long and its time we take back our rights. If the taxpayers and citizens of Plainfield continue to allow this, we deserve to be robbed, swindled and made fools of. These political trough feeders need to be stopped now.

Anonymous said...

Oh Dan, any excuse will do, won't it, for you to attack Jerry Green.

Anonymous said...

As a Democrat, I am annoyed that Jerry by-passes fellow Democrats, who believe and work for the party, to nominate people who aren't even affiliated with the party.

Talk about being disrespected. I feel Jerry owes an apology to all PDCC members and Democrats in Plainfield.

In my opinion, this proves that Jery has no loyalty to Plainfield or the Democratic Party. It's Jerry doing what is best for Jerry.

Rob said...

And the Democrats in Plainfield are surprised at this slow motion car wreck that is Jerry Green why ??? Or does everyone pretend that each time is the firs time when he does this.
Oh, by the way, Mayor Sharon made another stupid gaffe...could the shock and surprise begin again...

Anonymous said...

To 9:13 am I think it's good that Dan shines the light on the bottom feeding crooks in Plainfield, maybe he should name all of them and then the State of Feds can come in and lead them all out handcuffed together, that would be a grand day in Plainfield.

Anonymous said...

I am always surprised by people who stick up for Jerry. They never have anything to say except, "stop picking on poor Jerry." I hear nothing concrete about what he has done for the city. And, I think he is such a fool for saying how he has been in Plainfield and look what he has done. Talk about someone being delusional.

Anonymous said...

I'm very curious to know who this anti-Jerry group proposes to run for the Assemblymans seat whether he retires or not. It is one thing to constantly complain about others work, but who is your candidate to assume the seat or are you willing to lose the seat to a Republican in the next election?

Anonymous said...

Jerry did his homework. This was intentional. He outsmarted the council on this one.

Anonymous said...

Charlotte Defilippo is said to be hopping mad at this latest embarrassment by Jerry Green! It's gonna hit the fan now, because he has embarrassed the county for the LAST TIME! Time to go Jerry.

Unknown said...

Has anyone ever seen a comment that is PRO GERRY signed by anything other than Anonymous? Why are they afraid of being known?

Wil

Anonymous said...

Why do the members of the PDCC keep putting a crown on Greens head? Why dont VOTE for change? This city is a mess becouse of King Green and his royal court!