Plainfield Dems make smooth transition to Mapp chairmanship

Buick introduced its battle-tested automatic transmission
to the general public with the 1948 model year.

 

The Dynaflow transmission earned its spurs in battle
as the drive train for the M118 Hellcat tank destroyer,
the most successful in World War II.

Though the room was an execrable space in which to meet, the Plainfield Democratic City Committee's reorganization on Monday evening went so smoothly I was reminded of the old Buick Dynaflow automatic transmission.

Dynaflow was GM's Buick Division's automatic transmission introduced in the 1948 model year. It had been developed for, and battle-tested in, the famous WWII M118 Hellcat tank destroyers manufactured by GM at its Flint, Michigan plant.

Dottie Gutenkauf was perfectly cast as the bridge between the old and the new and conducted the election of the new chairman and other officers after introductory remarks by outgoing chairperson Assemblyman Jerry Green.

Green, who never stood at all during the meeting, spoke so softly that people beyond the first couple of rows strained to hear him. Finlly someone turned off the air conditioning, but even that was not much help. Several people commented to me on how frail the Assemblyman seems, and there are reports he is no longer driving himself but has a driver.

Green was gracious in defeat and Mapp was gracious in victory. How the promised cooperation works out we will have to see. (David Rutherford has posted a very informative map showing the new committee configuration with PDO and RDO designations, see here.)

As conducted by Dottie G., the nominations and election of officers one by one went smoothly, with only the candidates nominated by the Mapp forces brought forward, and all elected by loud voice votes, with no 'nays' when offered an opportunity to object.

The new officers for the next two-year cycle are --

Chair: Adrian O. Mapp
1st Vice Chair: Rebecca Williams
2nd Vice Chair: Charles McRae
3rd Vice Chair: Joylette Mills-Ransome
4th Vice Chair: John Stewart
Recording Secretary: Carlos Ponton
Corresponding Secretary: Carmencita Pile
Treasurer: Mary Burgwinkle
Sergeant-at-Arms: Siddeeq El-Amin

Chairman Mapp's first action upon assuming office was to appoint Dottie Gutenkauf the group's parliamentarian.

He also appointed a committee to study the by-laws for conflicts and inconsistencies and report back to the PDCC. That group consists of Mary Burgwinkle (chair), Jeanette Criscione, Joylette Mills-Ransome and Ron Scott Bey.

The group broke out by Wards and elected the following Ward leaders --

Ward 1: Eric Graham
Ward 2: Jim Spear
Ward 3: Robin Bright
Ward 4: Neville Greaves

Chairman Mapp proposed to expand the Executive Committe by including the Ward leaders in that group's proposed regular monthly meetings.

Tonight, the Union County Democratic Committee reorganizes at 7:00 PM at L'Affaire on Route 22 in Springfield.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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