PMUA Reorg: Perfidy has its rewards

The 8-ball knows.

 

Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority (PMUA) Commissioner Cecil Sanders was rewarded at last night's annual reorganization for his role in the perfidious gift of $1 million in ratepayer monies to departed PMUA executives Watson and Ervin.

As part of a slate nominated by Commissioner Malcolm Dunn, Sanders was made chairperson of the Authority for the 2013 year (which runs to January 31, 2014). The other officers are: Commissioner Alex Toliver as Vice Chair; Commissioner Carol Brokaw as Secretary; and Commissioner Malcolm Dunn as Treasurer. Just like high school, the boys get to showboat, the girl gets to be 'secretary'.

The reorganization agenda itself was a model for how these things should be done (are you reading this, Mayor?).

Annual appointments were made for engineers, general counsel, labor counsel, and financial services consultant.

The annual calendar was established, as well as designation of official newspapers, official depository and cash management plan, appointment of a records custodian, public agency compliance officer and JIF commissioner. (Appointments to committee assignments was put off until the next meeting.)

All of these items should have been addressed in the City's reorg meeting, as has been the custom for years before the current regime.

And Corporation Counsel Minchello, who objected to the Council's notion that the engineer's contract should not be subject to public bidding, should note that both the sewer engineering consultant and the solid waster engineering consultant contracts were awarded based on public bids (8 bids, and 9 bids, respectively). So, why is it the City can't do the same?

Executive Director Dan Williamson asked the PMUA management team to stand and introduce themselves to the Commissioners and the audience, and Chairman Sanders introduced the new alternate Commissioner, Charles Eke, to all.

Among issues that were discussed, Williamson noted the interest on the part of Council President Bridget Rivers in putting into effect the quarterly meetings between the Council and the Commissioners as specified in the Interlocal Agreement.

Resident Alan Goldstein pressed the issue of the annual payment by the City to the Authority of $1.2 million, for which he can find no warrant in the Interlocal Agreement. Hopefully, this issue will get the attention it deserves, with a clear explanation of the facts of the case and clarification of the kind of language to be used in describing the (annual) transaction.

Lastly, Commissioner Dunn, who was on the City Council when the PMUA was originally set up, argued that the Council's intent was that 50% of the excess over operating expenses was to be contributed annually to the city, and that such procedure was 'thwarted' for 15 or 16 years, until Williamson took the helm. Now, that's an interesting argument, since it implies a criticism of Mr. Watson, for whom Dunn so readily subverted the arbitration process in which Watson and the PMUA were engaged in order to hand over a tidy $1 million squeezed from the ratepayers.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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