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What does Magic 8-ball say? |
Plainfield's City Council gathers in a special meeting tonight with three items of business -- filling the vacancy created by the resignation of Mayor-elect Adrian Mapp from his Ward 3 council seat, and the appointing of members to the newly created African-Caribbean Commission and the Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT).
Attention will naturally be focused on the Council seat, where the Plainfield Democratic City Committee is offering three names arrived at at a meeting this past Friday: Don Davis, Gloria Taylor and Veronica Taylor (no relation).
Davis is a former Councilor for Ward 3. Gloria Taylor is a retired educator and the widow of the late mayor Rick Taylor. Veronica Taylor, known to all as Roni, campaigned tirelessly for Assemblyman Green's slate in the 2013 primary and general elections.
The smart money is betting (Attention! Spoiler alert for Mr. Spear!) on Gloria Taylor.
If the retired educator is selected, the Council would have a veto-proof block of five Councilors (Brown, Greaves, Reid, Rivers and the expedted newcomer) closely aligned with Plainfield Democratic Party chair Assemblyman Jerry Green.
This would leave Councilors Storch and Williams as the only New Democrats, down from high of four seats just over a year ago.
It would also make Plainfield unique for having women filling five of the seven seats. That fact alone, however, would not guarantee a more irenic atmosphere.
Which leads us to the other items of business tonight.
One of the complaints about the original CERT nominations was that the nominees were mostly from the same neighborhood (coincidentally that of outgoing Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs).
Another concern expressed by some was that the African-Caribbean Commission, heavily weighted toward African members, seemed to be intended as a political vehicle for Charles Eke, a PMUA commissioner who has shown an interest in elected office.
If these nominations move forward in their original form with no adjustments, it would be fair to wonder whether a modus vivendi has been worked out between the new mayor and the new Council.
And that would suggest the tone of relations between the executive and the legislative branches in Mapp's first year.
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3 comments:
Roni isn't a professional politician
If Plainfield is truly on the road to recovery, she is the only choice, Veronica Taylor must be the new council member-- a truly bright, efficient, classy, qualified Plainfielder
Gloria Taylor said she would keep an open mind. Is she lying?
Awww...Poor poor Mapp. He wanted to be Mayor. Now the women are ruining his life.
Aww...poor poor Mapp. Bad bad Taylor.
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