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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Can Jerry pull his nomination chestnut out of the fire?


The choice now falls to the Democratic City Committee,
chaired by Assemblyman Jerry Green.
 
Plainfield's City Council failed on Monday to fill the vacancy left by Annie McWilliams' resignation.

The question now is whether Assemblyman Jerry Green can pull his nomination chestnut out of the fire.


When voting went down on the first name proposed, that of Hattie Williams, she was elected by a 4-2 vote, with Councilor Bill Reid voting yes by phone from home. (The vote was Reid, Williams, Storch and Mapp aye; Greaves and Rivers nay.)


Reid, however, later said he wanted to change his vote to one of the other nominees, Charles Eke.


This meant that Hattie Williams' election failed on a 3-3 split. The same 3-3 split meant that the other names were unable to be placed back on the agenda and no further vote could be taken.


The matter now goes back to the Plainfield Democratic City Committee for resolution.


While everyone knows that the decision will be made by Assemblyman Green, he will have to call a committee meeting to at least give a gloss of verisimilitude to the process.


To meet the Dems' bylaw requirement that members have five days written advance notice of a meeting, some fancy footwork will be involved.


If Green got the notices in the mail today (the 27th) and they were delivered tomorrow (hah!), the earliest date that would meet the requirement would be December 3.


That just happens to be the date of the Council's agenda-setting session.


Even if the final nomination were gotten to the Council in writing, it is not realistic to think of it being received in the Clerk's office before Tuesday, December 4 (best case).


Or perhaps you can see Assemblyman Green dragging Mr. Eke over to a Council meeting already in session in order to have him sworn in and seated on the spot?


How does Jerry avoid looking the laughingstock in such an
opera bouffe?

And what is the point of the exercise?



-- Dan Damon [follow]


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7 comments:

Maria Pellum, Plainfield Resident said...

I thought new people had to be nominated, thanks for the clarification. This doesn't make the council look good either! Yikes!

What is up for adoption on December?

And could it be that one of the council members will resign giving more time to whoever gets elected?

It is like a soap opera!

Dottie Gutenkauf said...

Dan, it wasn't the 3-3 split that "meant that the other names were unable to be placed back on the agenda."

The reason for that was not the 3-3 split. It was that after the 4-2 vote for Hattie Williams, the other two nominations were taken off the agenda.

After Councilman Reid changed his vote, the Council refused to put the other nominations back on the agenda and put the other two nominees up for a vote (they could have but obviously didn't want to).

The Council really distinguished itself this time, reaching new heights of nonsense.

Bob said...

If the Dem. City Committee is to choose, I don't think we all will choose Meeks. He has too much baggage on him. I would choose him and I'm on the committee.

Anonymous said...

Our highly efficient elected officials at work.

Makes one feel all warm and fuzzy.

We know the same efficiency and attention to detail will be applied to all the the city's problems.

Not!!!

Anonymous said...

New people are nominated by Jerry Green giving the committee the names and the committee lemmings saying yes.

As far as the council looking good, they haven't had credibility since Annie left.

Anonymous said...

Bye bye Annie, so sorry to see you go.

Plainfield thanks you for the going away present:

PMUA Commissioner MALCOM DUNN !

Anonymous said...

Why don't they put the Rev Brown in her seat a little early? What is the big deal?