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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Governing is not running: Learning to take the long view


Both President Kennedy and President Nixon were fond
of treating the ideogram of 'crisis' as 'danger' plus 'opportunity'.


An opportunity was missed at Monday night's special meeting of the Plainfield City Council, as both Councilor Cory Storch and activist Dottie Gutenkauf observed.

They were referring to the 5-2 decision in four separate votes not to confirm as commissioners of the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority (PMUA) Mayor Adrian Mapp's nominees Nan Anderson-Bennett, Thomas Crownover, Charles Tyndale and Thomas Kaercher. (Only sitting commissioner Carol Ann Brokaw was confirmed, 6-1, with Councilor Greaves voting nay.)

The five Councilors who voted as a group are now saddled -- for good or ill -- with their vote and any outcome it may have, whether higher rates for service (from which all beg relief), or from potentially embarrassing findings in a forensic audit of the PMUA currently being conducted by the state.

One more opportunity to learn that governing is not running, and that Mayor Mapp's success will come from patient fortitude and taking the long view.

As Sun Tzu long ago said, 'He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious'.
guess.


-- Dan Damon [follow]

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dan the sitting Mayor Mapp, Cory Storch, Rebecca Williams, and Annie McWilliams VOTED down all of The former Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs appointments to the PMUA and you didn't blog about it. I just wonder WHY

Bob said...

It's interesting that the whole Council backed Sharon's choices to give her a chance. The, now, five stooges can't get past their own special needs. I'll be happy to work for their removal,since they obviously don't work for Plainfield. I wonder who's pulling their chains. Does anyone else need to be removed from the mix?