Jerry and Plainfield cable subscribers. What's wrong with this picture?

What's wrong with this picture?

Plainfield 'cable' subscribers appear about to get the shock of their lives, if a bill passed by the Assembly yesterday is also OK'ed by the Senate, as seems likely.

And what have you heard from Assemblyman Jerry Green about this? Nada.

I say 'cable' in quote marks because the bill will impact not only traditional COMCAST cable subscribers, but also VERIZON customers, as well as LANDLINE PHONE COMPANY customers (see NJ Spotlight coverage here, and Ledger coverage here).

The bill, which passed the Assembly 66-7 with 4 abstentions and three not present, will relieve Plainfield and NJ subscribers of the following consumer protections --

• OUTAGES: Credit to consumers for outages over four hours would be abolished;
• BILLING ERRORS: Law requiring correction of billing errors is lifted;
• DISCRIMINATION: Law ensuring against discrimination or refusal of service is lifted;
• SLAMMING: The prohibition against switching a consumer's phone company without permission would be lifted;
• RATES: Cable and phone companies would be free to raise rates on basic services at will (they must currently be approved by the BPU).

The state's Ratepayer Advocate, who opposes the legislation, holds that 3 million households with basic cable and 1.4 million with basic phone service (local area and emergency calls only) will be left to the tender mercies of the telecom companies (see here statement here, in PDF; and video of an NJN interview here).

And there's a special kicker for MUNICIPALITIES: telecom companies would no longer be MANDATED to provide PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNELS, such as our Comcast and Verizon ones, to local communities.

I don't know if Assemblyman Green voted FOR the measure (the roll call wasn't posted yet when I looked online; see the bill here). If he did, he owes his constituents a full explanation of his support for killing these consumer protections; if he didn't support the bill, why hasn't he been crowing from the rooftops?

Approval by the Senate is the last step to the stripping of these consumer protections.

Here is contact information for the 22nd District's legislative team --

• Sen. Nick Scutari
  1514 E. Saint Georges Ave., 2nd Floor, Linden, NJ 07036
  Phone: (908) 587-0404
  Fax: (908) 587-9312
  
  
• Assemblyman Jerry Green
  17 Watchung Ave., Plainfield, NJ 07060
  Phone: (908) 561-5757
  
  
• Assemblywoman Linda Stender
  1801 East Second St., 2nd Floor, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076
  Phone: (908) 668-1900
  Fax: (908) 668-9962
  

---

• Legislature:  "A3766: Marketing competition and consumer choice act"
• Ratepayer Advocate:  "Statement on S2664" | "YouTube: NJN Interview"
  
• LNJ Spotlight:  "Legislature looks to deregulate telecom, cable companies"
• Ledger --
• 2/17/2011:  "NJ Assembly passes bill to deregulate telecomm industry"
• 1/31/2011:  "NJ Senate panel clears bill decreasing telecom regulation"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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City, schools skip how-to on Courier's new community outreach tool

The logo for the Courier's new online Plainfield 'microsite'.

There was no representation from either the City of Plainfield or the Plainfield Public Schools at last night's citywide informational on the Courier's new community outreach tool, its Plainfield microsite.

I am told the District's community relations person intended to come out but was kept on a District project at the last moment, making it impossible to attend.

Both Plainfield beat reporter Mark Spivey and the Courier's general manager and editor Paul Grzella were on hand to outline the microsite's benefits to the community and to answer the questions of the attendees, among whom was a heavy sprinkling of the regular Plainfield bloggers (Bernice, Olddoc, Maria and Dan, as well as Lamar Mackson, who publishes the PCTV advisory board's blog).

Spivey had sent an email invitation to his Plainfield contacts several weeks ago, giving the details of the event, and was eagerly anticipating who might attend. Besides the bloggers, folks came out representing FOSH, the YMCA, the Drake House and Historical Society, the Plainfield Public Library and the Friends of Muhlenberg, all of whom were excited at the prospects of broadening their community outreach.

The Plainfield microsite (see here), which has been up since September (see my sneak preview here), is a truly revolutionary tool for any Plainfield organization to get out the word about its activities, plans or offerings of interest to the wider community.

For everything from notices of theatrical productions to sports team schedules, from solicitations for charitable causes to the explication of public policy initiatives, and all sorts of notices from the City and the school district, the microsite offers a free and easy-to-use outlet to get the word out about what's going on in Plainfield.

Grzella pointed out that Spivey, who edits the microsite, culls items posted to it for both writeups as new stories to appear in both the print and online editions of the paper, and as brief items to be forwarded to the person who assembles the 'Community News' page for the print version of the paper.

After the lambasting (unfair, by my lights) both the Courier and the Ledger had to endure at Monday's Council meeting, I thought that what Grzella and Spivey showcased was the perfect tool for just those critics -- a totally self-empowering tool for those who feel Plainfield's 'good news' stories get short shrift to put in their own 2-cents-worth by posting their own online news AND PHOTOS at any time of the day or night from their computers.

When asked by a participant about the scarcity of 'Plainfield' items on the community briefs pages, Spivey said could only recall receiving ONE such brief from the City in the past year. Wardlaw-Hartridge was cited as an example of an area institution that is making good use of both the microsite and, by extension, the print edition of the paper, to reach out to the widest possible audience with news of importance and interest to its constituents.

This is a wonderful opportunity for both the City and the schools to get the 'good word' out about what is going on in Plainfield of interest to its residents.

Let's hope they will be able to get up to speed on this valuable new tool as soon as possible.

---

• Website:  "Plainfield.InJersey"
• Plainfield Today: "Sneak peek of Courier's new Plainfield microsite"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield's cable TV station down for over 3 weeks. Who knew?

Plainfield's cable TV station (channels 34/FIOS or 96/Comcast) has been down for over three weeks. Who knew?

I must confess I'm not a regular viewer, but I do check the station out from time to time.

Over the past couple of weeks, I would get a slide-show of various Plainfield scenes and contacts, with a crawl on the bottom of the screen: "Due to technical difficulties, PCTV's regularly scheduled programming is down. Programming will resume as soon as possible..."

Turns out the system has been down since a 'brown out' on September 7th took out two servers.

Now, I'm not an IT pro, but this is mystifying as servers are supposed to be protected from power surges and 'brown outs' AS A MATTER OF COURSE.

Why the servers are down, how long they will be down, and what is being done to get the station back in functioning order are mysteries at the moment.

Will have to do some more checking.

Meanwhile, you can get an idea of the programming you are missing by checking the PCTV schedule (here, PDF) or its page on the city's website here.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield under siege. What is Mayor Sharon doing?

Plainfield is under siege.

In the past few days I have received emails concerning dramatic police actions involving pullovers of motorists with multiple police cars -- marked and unmarked -- racing to the scene with sirens and lights flashing.

Streets mentioned are Leland Avenue, Richmond Street and Netherwood Avenue.

Yesterday afternoon, I witnessed two such incidents on Front Street, one on the edge of the downtown shopping district.

Last week's shooting/cop chase/accident (see Courier story here and pictures here) is another case in point. On my way to that incident, I passed an empty compact car, its driver's side rammed in, blocking the eastbound lane of West 3rd Street between Spooner and Grant Avenues. A solitary police car was sitting sentinel. When I retraced my steps from the Grant/South Second accident scene, hoping to get a picture of this vehicle, it had been towed away. No mention by the police of this vehicle ever appeared in the print stories. Was it the car originally shot at? Was it an innocent driver caught in the melée?

Lastly, reports of gunshots continue unabated.

There was an email in my inbox at 5 AM today reporting gunshots in the area of Park Avenue and Woodbine.

Earlier this month, residents learned from police that several gun casings had been found in the street near Hillside and Prospect Avenues.

Is Plainfield under siege by drug dealers and gangs duking it out over territories?

It's impossible to tell.

But there is one way that Plainfield IS UNDER SIEGE: By not keeping the public informed about what is going on, Mayor Robinson-Briggs and her administration are leaving Plainfielders under siege by doubt and fear.

Why not do something about it?

Why not put her crack communications team to work posting regular updates, say weekly, concerning police activity and crime fighting on the city's website?

What would be the harm in that?

Unless, of course, Mayor Robinson-Briggs doesn't want to talk about crime.

What do you think? Vote in the poll at the top of the right-hand column: 'Does Mayor Robinson-Briggs have a duty to update the public weekly on crime fighting?'

---

-- Dan Damon

The Daily-Ledgord News-Times?

Coming soon to Plainfield newsstands: All the latest from Buffalo?

Under increasing financial pressure from rising costs and declining ad sales and readership, mainstream news media are fighting back.

Five large newspapers in the NY-NJ area have formed the Northeast Consortium to share news stories and photos: The Star-Ledger, the Bergen Record, the NY Daily News, the Albany Times-Union and the Buffalo News.

All the news that's fit to print from Buffalo?

Actually, it could work out fairly well for news junkies who live in New Jersey.

The real news here is that the Ledger and Record are merging their statehouse operations. This will give New Jersey the largest statehouse press corps in the country and, hopefully, restore the in-depth coverage of Trenton that New Jerseyans cannot get from either the New York or Philly press (especially since the NYTimes virtually shut down its New Jersey operations).

Additionally, Jerseyans will get ace coverage of New York State's legislature -- whose activities impact us in many ways, from shared quasi-governmental agencies like the Port Authority to laws and regulations affecting New York City, where many NJ residents work.

And Buffalo?

Well, we can get all the latest on the Buffalo Bills and chicken wing recipes.

And watch the live cams of the ice melting in Buffalo Harbor, which usually disappears by the end of May.

Yes, May.

I grew up in the area and know whereof I speak.

---

• Ledger: "The Star-Ledger, Record merge N.J. Statehouse reporting"
• Record: "Record, Star-Ledger to combine Trenton bureaus"
  
• NY Times: "5 Big Papers to Share Articles and Photos"
• Editor & Publisher: "NJ's Largest Papers to Combine Statehouse Bureaus"
  

-- Dan Damon

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What are kids saying in text messaging?

Plainfielders puzzled by their kids' texting -- and what they might be saying in those cryptic messages -- may want to check out a workshop being offered at the Dunellen Public Library.

Literacy Programs of NJ is hosting a free workshop on text messaging on March 30. Space, however, is limited and anyone interested in the program should call (732) 432-8000 to reserve a seat on a first-come, first-served basis. The Dunellen Public Library is at 100 New Market Road, Dunellen. Visit the library's website here.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Ch-ch-ch-change is coming to Plainfield Today

I've been tinkering under the hood of Plainfield Today for some time now in response to reader requests to expand the blog's usefulness.

Here are three of the improvements you've asked for that will be coming online shortly --

AN EXPANDED CALENDAR

Several organizations that plan out their events a year or more into the future have wanted to have a sort of 'date bank' so that they and others can get an idea of how things look farther down the road than the week or two that has normally been included in the 'What's Happening' listings. I was made sharply aware of this a couple of years ago when one weekend had FOUR events scheduled by major community organizations with overlapping audiences and important fundraising goals that were somewhat dented by everyone having the 'tin cup' out at the same time. The expanded calendar will be a tool for planners to help avoid such situations in the future.

CLASSES AND SERVICES

There are organizations, clubs and individuals throughout the community that offer classes or services to residents and others that have asked Plainfield Today to help spread the word. Once again, it becomes clear that the 'What's Happening' listings don't really fill the bill to keep ONGOING, REGULAR activities in a handy place where readers can refer to them as the need arises. Plainfield Today will make an area available where both individuals and organizations may post for free listings of classes and services, whether or not fee-based, as a community service.

CLASSIFIEDS

Folks have yard and garage sales and want to get the word out. They have stuff to donate, sell or that they are looking to buy. Others may have needs such as room rentals for student housing. Plainfield Today is setting aside a corner where individuals (no businesses, please) can put up a listing for FREE to put PT's many readers in the loop.

These are just a few of the changes planned for 2009 to improve the usefulness of Plainfield Today for its ever-growing readership.

Stay tuned.

---

-- Dan Damon

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The PMUA: A communications model for Plainfield to copy

The PMUA's new website has bright, inviting graphics.

The Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority's newsletter arrived in Saturday's mail. Once again I was struck at what a good model it provides of a print communications strategy for the city.

And once again, I was struck by the Robinson-Briggs' administration's failure to pick up on it -- despite inking an interlocal services agreement that should enable it.

A round-up of what you'll find --

• A front-page story on how rising costs can impact PMUA rates.
• Profiles of Shiloh Baptist Church's pastor, Dr. Gerald Lamont Thomas, and League of Women Voters president Herb Green.
• A profile of the newest PMUA commissioner, Rev. Tracey Brown, who takes Councilor Reid's seat.
• Two-page color spread of the 2008 Environmental Fair and Contest winners.
• Recycling facts for single- and multi-family properties.
• Spotlight on problems caused by grease poured down sinks.
• And a profile of employee Judy Ramos, the agency's communications manager.

I have always wondered why the PMUA never got around to having a website after all these years.

Lo and behold, the newsletter says they have a new website up -- www.pmua.info/.

It's sensibly organized, and though clearly in process of being built out, it already beats the botched City website (www.plainfield.com/).

Check it out.

And if you didn't get your newsletter, give the PMUA a call at (908) 226-2518, or stop by the agency headquarters at East Second Street and Roosevelt Avenue.

---

-- Dan Damon

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The School District teaches the City a lesson

Under Plainfield's new superintendent of schools, Dr. Steve Gallon III, changes are reinvigorating the district from top to bottom.

One of the most prominent to my mind is the new emphasis on timely communications with the district's stakeholders, which includes the whole community.

And thereby, the district is teaching the City a lesson.

With about a month under his belt, Eric Jones, who is coordinating the district's public information, has not only STARTED a blog (PPS News ... Online!), but has POSTED TO IT REGULARLY (including at least one weekend post), with A VARIETY of brief and lively posts.

In his first twenty 'stories', I have noted --

Communications from Dr. Gallon	1
Agendas	1
Event Notices	4
News Items	7
Personnel Introductions	3
Comments/Feedback Roundup	1
Photo Essays	3

The purpose of the blog is clearly stated at the top of the right-hand column, and there is both a link to send an email and a contact phone number.

As if all this weren't enough, Jones outlines a number of different featured posts we can look forward to --

1) CLOSE-UP (a guide to an instructional program)

2) ASK THE 'SUPER' (Dr. Gallon will answer readers' questions)

3) INSIDE RM: __ (A 'sneak peek" inside a classroom, featuring engaging lessons and activities)

4) UP CLOSE & PERSONAL (Interviews with students, staff, parents, and administrators.)

With adaptation to its peculiar circumstances, this is a recipe for communications success that could readily be put to use by the City if it wanted or had the ability.

---

-- Dan Damon

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AOL users of Plainfield, you have nothing to lose but your misery

Emailing to hundreds of AOL users every day, there used to be relatively few problems with delivery of the CLIPS emails.

Occasionally, one would bounce back because the user's mailbox was full.

But in recent months, AOL has more and more frequently been taken over by its evil email twin.

In the past week or two, I have had to resend AOL emails to many readers a second time, which seemed to work OK.

Friday, however, we entered a brave new AOL world -- nearly one third of all AOL readers' emails bounced. Upon resending them (chore!), they bounced again.

Then I started to check out the messages given by AOL as an explanation for the bounce. All said either 'Mailbox not found' or 'Null' (meaning AOL it could not interpret the transmission).

Frustrating for me, and maybe for you -- but of course you won't even realize it was sent and bounced.

Worse for you has to be the worry that OTHER AND MORE IMPORTANT EMAILS TO YOUR AOL ACCOUNT ARE BEING REJECTED BY AOL.

What to do?

Some have added webmail at sites like Yahoo!, Google or Hotmail.

Another hassle, but it might serve you better if AOL is not.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Time to lay down the law on Channel 74?

Plainfield residents have not been well-served by their Public Access Channel in recent years.

That could begin to change tonight at the Cable TV Advisory Commission's meeting -- especially if members of the public come out. The meeting is at 6:30 PM this evening, in City Hall Library, 515 Watchung Avenue.

Much of the programming has been recycling of old -- and sometimes VERY OLD -- material.

The only recent material appears to be a promo piece for the new boxing gym at East 5th and Roosevelt. Otherwise, the freshest programming is supplied by outsiders like the Union County Freeholders Forum.

When the Administration proposed an ILSA (interlocal services agreement) between the City and the PMUA recently for editorial and other help with getting the City's message out, City Administrator Dashield told the Council the agreement was necessary because of all the time it took the public information staff to edit tape for Channel 74 -- 12 hours of editing for one hour of tape, he said.

Well, if the staff was complying with the law (the Federal Cable and Telecommunications Acts of 1984, 1992 and 1996, to be exact), this wouldn't even be an issue. Which leads one to wonder if the staff even knows the law regarding Public Access Channels.


PUBLIC ACCESS: AN OVERVIEW

In the 1960s, as cable access was sweeping the country, cable companies strung their wires (coaxial cabling) literally everywhere -- using telephone and streetlight poles and draping them across streets, parking lots and other public spaces.

Eventually, communities wrung from the cable companies the right to have free access channels of three sorts -- Public Access, Educational, and Government, hence 'PEG' -- in exchange for running all that wire along the public right-of-way.

The laws cited above enshrine the responsibility of the cable operators to provide local communities with equipment and sometimes training to enable residents of the communities to produce their own programming and show it on their own local cable channel(s). And the local government is SPECIFICALLY BARRED FROM CONTROLLING OR EDITING THE CONTENT OF PUBLIC ACCESS PROGRAMMING. (The ONLY exception is that it can refuse to broadcast material deemed pornographic or slanderous.)

Plainfield has two channels granted in the current franchise agreement -- an Educational and a Public Access channel.

So, you might ask, why isn't Channel 74 being RUN as a Public Access Channel? And isn't it about time that it was?

When PCTV-74 was set up as a result of the most recent franchise agreement, Comcast provided grants for the purchase of thousands upon thousands of dollars of equipment for the station. This was of two sorts: equipment needed for the operation of the station, and equipment to be used by the public to produce content.

That included such items as videocameras, lighting equipment, editing software and copying facilities. All of which should be readily available to the public for its use. One problem is that we don't even know where the equipment is or whether all of the original equipment is still in place (there were rumors in the early days of the Robinson-Briggs administration that a good deal of the movable equipment had simply vanished).


PLAINFIELD'S CABLE ADVISORY COMMISSION

I have heard rumors for months now that the Cable TV Advisory Commission feels hamstrung about getting anything going with Channel 74 for a couple of reasons --

• that the Administration wants to control all decisions relating to management, production and broadcast scheduling; and
• the staff complains of how long it takes to edit submitted tapes.

The truth of the matter is that the Administration should certainly not involve itself in matters the law reserves to the public -- specifically, what can be produced and the editing of community-produced material.

The Cable TV Advisory Commission is in the perfect spot to assert the public's rights and to begin to ensure that they are honored by the Administration.

How to get started?


BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING

• Inventory the existing equipment and compare to the original equipment list, replacing anything needed;
• Join the NJ public access channels user group (no need to re-invent the wheel when others have already don it);
• Follow best practices in setting up a membership and training program (see links at end of post) so the public can begin to exercise its rights under the law;
• Since the City's website is so unwieldy, the Cable TV Advisory Commission could set up its own BLOG (free and easy) and keep the public informed on a regularly-updated basis, without waiting for someone else to update the City website, and lastly
• Once a membership and training procedure is in place, set up a public forum for all interested individuals and groups to let them know how things are moving forward and what THEY need to do.
  

A final word: The Cable TV Advisory Commission is, like ALL municipal boards and commissions, subject to both the 'Sunshine' law (Open Public Meetings Act) and OPRA (Open Public Records Act), meaning its meetings must be regularly scheduled and noticed and its records must be available to the public.

It can begin to establish that necessary bond of trust between the Public Access Channel and the community by --

• Publishing its legally-required schedule of regular meetings;
• Putting out its contact information so the public can make inquiries, and
• Publishing its minutes (here is where a blog is perfect), so the public can see what progress is being made.

With these few simple steps, Plainfield could be on its way to having a truly world-class Public Access Channel and everyone could begin to take real pride in PCTV-74.

---

• Membership: "Troy, MI: Public Access FAQ" -- An overview of a well-organized Public Acess Channel's structure.
• A Public Access Channel Website: "Santa Barbara Channels" -- And a well-organized Public Acess Channel's website.

-- Dan Damon

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Your disappearing emails from Dan

A reader's curiosity was piqued at finding her regular CLIPS emails failed to reach her inbox and sent the following message --

I've noticed over the past month or so that CLIPS comes into my gmail spam filter despite having the address in my address 'book'. A bit of further reading seems to indicate that Google often marks email with the same sender and recipient as spam. You may already know this, but since the rules for getting black-boxed keep changing (at my office we had to stop sending large mailings with people in the bcc field, as this is now a trigger), I thought I'd go ahead and mention it. At some point, you may have better luck with a low-cost mailing service, though low-cost isn't free, and maybe that would depend upon reader support. I've gotten used to CLIPS coming into the spam filter instead of the Plainfield filter every day, but some folks don't look in their spam filters.

She is not the first to mention that these daily emails sometimes go amiss, and I think she has a good point.

I have a good news/bad news story. I am currently moving the email list over to an online service. That's the good news. The bad news is that I have to do it by hand, one name and address at a time. So, it's taking a while.

For now, if your CLIPS goes missing from your inbox, I think a good clue would be to check in your 'spam' or 'junk' (or whatever you call it) folder and see if your email program has a mind of its own. The first step would be to make sure and put me in your email address book (just right-click on my email address on one of the CLIPS emails -- as in the image above -- and select 'add to address book').

In the meantime, I will try to tinker and see if there is a workaround.

Again, thanks to all for the supportive comments -- I ran into several people at both the candidate brunch and the Muhlenberg rally on Saturday who said they are regular readers and how much they enjoy the blogs. Compliments are good pay!

---

-- Dan Damon

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Come on, Jerry, mentor these people!

Barely three weeks before Assemblyman Jerry Green faces the voters (ho hum), you'd think he'd want a little press about cracking down on crime, right?

Especially since we've had a little 'wave' lately -- three shootings in the West End and links to the Dunellen bar brawl, according to Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig. As well as an attempted armed robbery reported at a Zoning Board hearing that I'll bet you never heard about.

So, you'd think we'd be told there was a big bust if it happened, right?

Wrong.

In order to learn that, you would have to read deep down into the County crime stats story in the Ledger this morning to find out that 19 -- count 'em, NINETEEN -- arrests were made over the weekend. Who knew?

Maybe the Assemblyman shouldn't be photographed patting people down, but that doesn't mean the mentor can't crack down on the Administration to get its highly-paid scribblers scribbling.

To quote Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint, 'Come on, people!'

---

Today's Ledger: "County records decrease in crime - but not Plainfield"

Dunellen --

Story 1- CN: "Bar brawl in Dunellen sends 3 to hospital"
Story 2- CN: "Dunellen brawl not gang-related, police say"

Plainfield Shootings --

(1) Last Wednesday - SL: "Man, 20, is shot while riding bicycle"
(1) Last Wednesday - CN: "Police seek suspect in Plainfield shooting that left one man hurt"
(2) Last Thursday - SL: "Sanitation worker shot riding truck in Plainfield" (Notes this is THIRD shooting; linked to two groups brawling in Dunellen)
(2) Last Thursday - CN: "City utilities authority worker shot on back of garbage truck"

Unreported Armed Robbery --

Neighbor brought up previously unreported armed robbery attempt at truck driving school (W. Front near Clinton) at Zoning Board meeting.

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/

Cosby and Poussaint fight Black victimhood

Actor Bill Cosby and Harvard professor Alvin Poussaint got a whole hour on Tim Russert's 'Meet The Press' Sunday to discuss their new book, Come On People, which lays out their analysis of the problems facing Black Americans and the duo's thoughts on what can be done to 'save the soul of Black American', as NY Times columnist Bob Herbert says.

Cosby and Poussaint have been traveling the country for three years with their message, which has just been released in the book, which is available from Amazon and other retailers.

Links below to Herbert's OpEd, a video from Meet The Press, and Come On People at Amazon.com.

---

More on Cosby and Poussaint's crusade --

• MSNBC (video): "Cosby and Poussaint on 'Meet The Press'"
• NY Times: Bob Herbert: "Tough, Sad and Smart"
• Amazon: "Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors"
  

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/

City emails: No protocol, no policy, no problem?

Plainfield city emails have been on my mind lately, especially since U.S. Attorney Christ Christie subpoenaed emails in the investigation into the housing renovation program in Linden earlier this month (as reported by the Ledger) --

[The U.S. Attorney's office] subpoena was all-inclusive, seeking everything from bidding processes used to hire contractors to e-mails and telephone messages from the past five years.

Federal prosecutors issued similar subpoenas last fall to New Brunswick's Neighborhood Preservation Program in an ongoing probe that has resulted in bribery and corruption charges against several officials and contractors.

Every morning when I fire up my laptop to get started with the day's blogging, I find a bounced email with a timestamp of 4:00 AM in my mailbox from a subscriber who uses a 'plainfield.com' mailbox.

I have reported earlier on the bounces of emails sent to the 'info@plainfield.com' mailbox on the City's website.

The City has no protocol about email addresses, and since the City website does not post an email directory, one has to track contacts down -- only to find that some are using personal emails, some are using 'yahoo.com' webmail, and some have non-working 'plainfield.com' email addresses.

This last situation cropped up when Bernice was trying to contact Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig about the Operation CeaseFire program (another story, another time). She used the 'plainfield.com' address she had and got no reply. After reading about the story on the blog, Hellwig chided her VIA EMAIL, at which time Bernice discovered he had a different -- and new -- email address.

Who knew?

The city needs consistent email addresses on a working email server. It needs an email policy that lets employees know the boundaries of such things as 'personal' use and what constitutes a public record and must be archived. It ought to publish an email directory as other communities do. It wouldn't hurt to have departmental mailboxes -- we used to have them -- which someone checks on a daily basis and forwards to the responsible party for action/resolution.

And the City should have all this in place in case Chris Christie comes calling.

Otherwise, instead of requiring copies of emails, they will just take away the computers.

And then how will anybody get any work done?

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/

'Ledger Litter' relief now a phone call away

Many consider Thursday's 'Ledger EXTRA' a nuisance.

The Ledger has come through on its promise to make it possible for homeowners to stop deliveries of its Thursday 'Ledger EXTRA' driveway-delivered shopping circulars.

Though some of my neighbors love the ads, coupons and other offers, many people consider it 'Ledger litter'.

Well, now you can get it stopped if you want. The snapshot above is of the wrapper on this week's delivery. You can clearly see the number for 'questions concerning delivery': 1-888-782-7533.

One less thing to complain about.

---

Background info --

• Plainfield Today - 6/23/2007: "Ledger Litter - you can get it stopped"
• Plainfield Today - 2/11/2007: "Those Ledger bags - Sales pitch? Invasion of privacy? Invitation to burglary?"

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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This may be the 'new' Plainfield website folks!

City Administrator Marc Dashield is no longer
identified as Carlton McGee.

Finishing my morning posts, I had a chance to take another peek at the City's website -- seems this may be the real relaunch.

But is it 'new'?

I'm thinking more like what Muhlenberg's thrift shop would call 'gently used'.

But, hey, if the stuff is there, that's better than the last 10 months.

Please, make that PLEASE, toddle on over and give a gander.

AND come back and log on your comments -- appreciation, questions, suggestions, puzzlements, whatever. Just click on the 'comments' link at bottom of the page, type, ID the little puzzle characters, and hit 'submit'.

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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PSO Children's Concert in PCTV-74 loopland

Plainfield's public access channel -- PCTV-74 -- may be suffering from a dearth of community-supplied content.

That might explain the very frequent replays of the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra's free children's concert from April 15, 2007.

The concert -- pleasant enough in itself -- has been airing quite regularly for the past couple of weeks --

• Monday to Friday: 10:00 - 11:00 AM
• Monday to Friday: 5:34 - 6:34 PM
• Saturday: 3:34 - 4:34 PM

Besides running the station, the city is supposed to be encouraging community programming by --

• purchasing and maintaining equipment to be available on loan to the community to tape programs,
• offering training workshops for community organizations and individuals interested in producing programming, and
• making use of all media -- newspapers, radio, web, flyers, etc. -- to promote availability of training, equipment loan and how to submit programming.

Now that the website is (sort of) fixed, you can at least access the station's contact information. However, if you click on the link to the PCTV-74 Schedule you will be startled to find that you are not taken to a web page, but to an Excel spreadsheet -- which you will have to download, save to your hard drive, and then peruse by opening Microsoft Office.

All those who do not know or have access to Excel, please raise your hands.

You may stay after class and help wash the blackboards and clean the erasers.

---

More info --

• City of Plainfield: "PCTV-74"
• PSO: "The Plainfield Symphony Orchestra"

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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Trash talk torpedoes Cranford's online bulletin board

Screenshot of Cranford Talk's front page.

As I prepared to post about the changes to the 'Comments' function on Plainfield Today, I learned from CountyWatchers that Mark Dingelstedt's nearly 10-year-old Cranford Talk bulletin board is being shut down.

The reason?

Anonymous rudeness has hijacked what was once sort of a community water-cooler.

One of the sad downsides of allowing anonymous posting (which is what I allow on PT), is that you get a certain amount of people who use the anonymity to make personal attacks, spread false information and rant in ways they wouldn't if their identity were known. Naughty words turn out to be the least of it.

This is progress?

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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Gannett news poses questions for Plainfield

Readers of yesterday's Plainfield Today post on the Courier News situation need look no further than this morning's paper for an indication of what's going on.

A front page Plainfield story on the conviction in a 2005 murder case has the byline: "Staff report". Such a byline is often used when an item is rewritten by a staffer from a press release and where a reporter has not actually been present to cover the story, though a phone call or two may be placed to fact check or for a quote. (Contrast this with the Ledger coverage of the same story, where two reporters get a shared byline for blending actual courtroom (Lucas) and community (Friedman) coverage.)

Secondly, convicted former Senate president John Lynch's being stripped of pension benefits is covered in both the Courier and the Home News Tribune with an AP item, suggesting staffing is thin. Especially at the Home News Tribune, which is Lynch's hometown paper.

Thursdays are usually the day when Gannett's reportorial staff is running at full speed, with the front page and the state page carrying items from the Gannett State Bureau.

Today's front page, in addition to the Plainfield story, carries three others, all with reporter bylines. The state page highlights five stories of statewide interest, ALL by the AP. All of these are indicators of how thin the reportorial staffing is -- to a great extent in response to difficulties in the newspaper industry generally.

Comments on yesterday's Plainfield Today post also indicate industry pressures having a local effect. (I cannot vouch for their accuracy.)

One comment focuses on staffing --

"A short time after [juggling around the printing of the Daily Record and the Courier News], Gannett had another change of heart -- and either laid off or moved the entire CN production staff. Meaning the presses there are now silent, and nothing is printed in Bridgewater."

and another on pressures to merge papers --

"This may well be a management consolidation that leads to a single newspaper."

Meanwhile, in the Business section there is a story on Gannett's second quarter performance. Net profits increased, driven by sales of several newspapers, but --

"Gannett cited weaker advertising for the lower results, partly due to a slowdown in real estate in several of its markets, a category that had been very strong a year ago."
...

"The slump in Gannett's newspaper results is part of a broader decline in advertising across the industry which has been accelerating in recent months. Readers and the advertising dollars that chase them are increasingly turning to the Internet for news, information and entertainment.

"We see no signs that a turnaround in newspapers is anywhere on the horizon," Morgan Stanley analyst Lisa Monaco told investors in a note Wednesday, adding that after seeing the second-quarter results, she is further convinced that Gannett and the industry overall will "continue to lose share to new media for the foreseeable future."

All of this should be of concern to the administration of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs. If the Courier eventually is folded into the Home News Tribune, Plainfield will face even sharper competition for news space, including against towns like New Brunswick, where communications is handled professionally and as one of the highest priorities.

By the way, did I mention the business item on Gannett was an AP story?

---

Courier --

• 7/19/2008: "City man faces life sentence in fatal stabbing"
• 7/19/2008: "Jailed ex-senator loses most of state pension"
• 7/19/2008: "Gannett 2Q net increases on asset sales, but weak advertising drags down results"

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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