Flood zones among concerns residents air at Town Hall

Emerson Community School's cafetorium was the site of City Council's first Town Hall meeting in a series of four set over the next few weeks.

The point of the meetings is to get participants' views on their concerns and what the Council can do to address them. Council President McWilliams conducted last night's in an informal manner which invited good back-and-forth between both the audience and the Council and among audience members.

Topics of perpetual concern came up -- teens hanging out late at night, drug activity, taxes, speeding, street plowing, pothole filling, taxes, police presence (or lack of it), the PMUA, taxes, break-ins (including an attempt at Freeholder Carter's home), and more. (You can read Tony Rucker's account of the meeting here. He and I were the only bloggers there.) Did I forget to mention taxes?

Prospect Avenue resident Tom Kaercher kicked off a lively discussion about the PMUA, and suggested a local attorney who had experience in shutting down two local utilities authorities, saying it was not as difficult to do as folks make it out to be. This is likely to continue to be a lively topic.

Among the issues unique to First Ward residents is the matter of FLOOD INSURANCE, which also generated a lively discussion.

The vast majority of residential property owners who must have flood insurance are in the First Ward, with many fewer in Ward 2, a sprinkling in Ward 3 and practically none in Ward 4, where the Green Brook tends to flood the North Plainfield side of the brook (with the exception of Green Brook Park).

Councilor Storch held out the prospect that some of those with flood insurance -- where annual policies range from $2,000 upwards -- could get rebates when the City finishes submitting its revised plan to FEMA.

It became clear from the comments of several in the audience that it would be useful for the Council to provide a variety of handouts at these meetings: meeting schedules (Council, Board of Ed, PMUA) and contact information (phones, emails, websites, addresses) for the various bodies. It was pointed out that some do not have access to computers, and the handouts would be convenient.

There was also some back-and-forth over what number should be used to report incidents to the police. Councilor Williams reported that attendees at a recent block association meeting were told to use 9-1-1 to report all problems; Freeholder Carter and others advised folks had been told before to use the non-emergency number (753-3131) to report incidents that were not emergencies.

Sounds like something that should get public clarification, especially if the message is being changed or is unclear.

Mayor Robinson-Briggs' confidential aide, Barbara James, answered several questions addressed to the Administration, and advised that the Mayor had a schedule conflict and was at a meeting at Hubbard School.

It would be nice to have Public Works and Public Safety leaders at these meetings, as many of the questions are addressed to them, but this is in the Mayor's bailiwick to designate attendance.

The next Town Hall is at Cook School on Wednesday, April 6. See full information below.

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Council Town Hall Meetings:  Ward 2
Wedesday · April 6 · 7:00 PM

Cook School
Leland Avenue at Berkeley Avenue
Parking on the street, with very limited parking in in the school lot.
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Council Town Hall Meetings:  Ward 3
Wedesday · April 20 · 7:00 PM

Cedarbrook School
Central Avenue
Parking in the school lot and on the street.
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Council Town Hall Meetings:  Ward 4
Wedesday · May 11 · 7:00 PM

Clinton School
West 4th Street at Clinton Avenue
Parking in the school lot and on the street.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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WBLS Affair: Who gave that $15,000?

The WBLS affair is back in the air -- again -- with recent posts by Bernice (see here) and Olddoc (see here).

My gridge? Tippy-toeing around the question of the source of the $15,000 'donation' that Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs says was made toward the $20,000 expense of having WBLS broadcast last summer's town hall meeting.

Word in the street for months has been that the 'donor' was Investor's Savings Bank, which happens to be one of the city's depositories (and which increased its deposits when other banks backed out of holding municipal deposits).

Time for Mayor Robinson-Briggs to own up. Was it Investor's Savings Bank? And if not, who was it?

And if it was, why try to keep it from the public's knowledge?

Surely, the state has banking regulations that do not allow banks to make 'anonymous' contributions?

Just where did that $15,000 come from, and what was the reason the donor gave it, if they didn't think it was for the WBLS broadcast.

Let's let some sunshine in here, since it's Sunshine Week.

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• Plaintalker II:  "WBLS issue drags on"
  
• Olddoc:  "Council Meeting #3"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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State: PMUA's lack of financial details its glaring website weakness

Despite lack of financial info, PMUA website beats the city's by a country mile.

The Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority (PMUA)'s lack of financial details on its website (see here) puts it in cahoots with 569 of the state's local authorities that DO NOT POST FINANCIAL INFORMATION to their websites, or 97% of the total of such organizations.

The information is found in a just released report by the State Comptroller's office on transparency in authorities' websites (the full report is available here, in PDF).

All of the state's local authorities are measured against the following criteria --

• Website
  
• Meeting Information (posting of agendas AND minutes)
• Financial Reports (budgets, audits, bills, check registers, etc.)
• Officials Listed (Executive staff, Boards of Commissioners)
• Contact Information (address, phone, fax, emails)
• Mission Statement

Amazingly, at least 195 local authorities DO NOT OPERATE A WEBSITE at all.

Considering that these authorities mostly operate relatively unobtrusively, it is troubling that there is so little ONLINE FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE, given that collectively they spend about $5 billion a year, not to mention many millions in bond indebtedness (for all of which the taypayers are ultimately responsible).

Here is a table of the local authorities with which Plainfielders have some sort of contact --

Agency	Website	Meeting Info Provided	Financial Reports Posted	Officials Listed	Contact Info Provided	Mission Statement Provided
PMUA	Yes	Partial	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
PARSA	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
UCIA	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
UCUA	Yes	Partial	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
HAP	Yes	Partial	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
UCWIB	Yes	Partial	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Agencies (initials above are links to websites): PMUA (Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority), PARSA (Plainfield Area Sewerage Authority), UCIA (Union County Improvement Authority), UCUA (Union County Utilities Authority), HAP (Housing Authority of Plainfield), WIB (Union County Workforce Improvement Board)

Besides not posting financial information, the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority (PMUA) is given only a 'partial' on providing MEETING INFORMATION.

While there is a note on the front page of the time and place of the next Board of Commissioners meeting, I could find no MEETING SCHEDULE on the website. When one looks under THE AUTHORITY |MEETING AGENDA one finds the current/most recent agenda but no others. There is also no option to download (as with the Council agendas), and when printing is attempted, words at the ends of the lines are dropped because what is being printed is the web page (with sidebar) and not the document itself.

While basic contact information is provided, there is NO LIST OF THE EXECUTIVE STAFF and how to reach them (at least as far as I could determine), so I am curious at how the Comptroller arrived at a 'YES' for 'Responsible Official Listed'. Quirkily, the Commissioners are listed under 'Leadership'.

All of this being said, the PMUA website is miles, make that MILES, ahead of the City's in terms of its organization, presentation and efficiency. Missing, thankfully, are the artsy-fartsy gimmicks that strew the front pages of the City's and District's websites (is this what shared services means?), in favor of a straightforward Joe Friday 'just the facts, m'am' presentation which suits me just fine.

The PMUA could take some pointers from the Union County Improvement Authority (UCIA), where there are links DIRECTLY FROM THE HOME PAGE to the Commissioners list, their Meeting Schedule (though it needs to be updated to 2011), Agendas (current), Minutes (through 2010), and Approved Bills.

Further there is an Executive Director's page with contact info (though no email) and a link to a (stale 2008) Annual Report.

Despite all this, the UCIA -- as with all the other local authorities -- fails to post its financial information.

The absolute last-of-the-pack locally is the Plainfield Area Regional Sewerage Authority (PARSA), which can barely be said to have a presence online (the last time anyone updated any info was January 10, 2011). It does, however, list its executive staff complete with emails. You might ask yourself what PARSA is and does, how it affects you and what it costs you as a taxpayer. You might be surprised. Especially if you can get the information from its website.

The Comptroller's report is a valuable tool, and you can find a wealth of links to other online info on its 'transparency' web page (see here).

There are some things related to transparency, however, that the Comptroller DID NOT MEASURE -- most importantly whether the OPRA CONTACT (custodian of records) was listed and any evaluation of the website's ACCESSIBILITY to Internet users with special needs.

Per aspera ad astra, just so nobody rests on their oars.

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• NJ Comptroller:  "Release: Transparency lacking in websites" | "Report: Online transparency" -- Both are in PDF.
  
• NJ Newsroom:  "Report: 587 authorities less than open with public"
• Ledger:  "Agencies criticized for lack of online transparency"
• Gannett:  "Report: Agencies' websites lacking"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Online bid notices: A path to more corruption?

Council and legislation rowing in opposite directions?**

Just as Plainfield's City Council tries to introduce a little 'sunshine' into its contracting procedures by reducing the bid threshold (as it is allowed by law to do), along comes a piece of countervailing legislation that would negate any benefit and perhaps lead to even more corrupt bidding practices.

And ironically, it's sponsored by a Plainfield native -- Westfield Assemblyman Jon Bramnick.

It was actually introduced a year ago and has meandered along without much notice until recently.

I had actually spotted it and thought (geeky me) that posting legal notices online was a good idea.

I have been disabused of that notion, at least in any simple form.

In the past few weeks, debate has raged over whether the bill -- which allows governments and individuals to post required legal notices to websites instead of newspapers -- is an attack on a free press (as questioned by the Ledger's Tom Moran here, and Gannett's Courier Post of Cherry Hill here and here) or just a money-saving option for cash-strapped municipalities. You can download a copy of the bill from the Legislature's website (see here; enter 'A2082' without quotes in the search window on the right top of the page).

It might seem at first glance that it would save towns money. However, the New Jersey Press Association submitted documents that question the cost savings in light of added expenses to the towns to prepare secure websites for the public notices. And then there the towns that don't even have a website.

I think all of us who think open public bidding on municipal contracts is a good thing should give this  proposed legislation serious thought.

If a governing body is interested in getting its bids before the most potential bidders, which would be a better deal: Publishing in a widely circulated newspaper along with everyone else's notices, or on your town's website?

This would mean contractors looking to bid on public jobs would have to check...ummmm...more than five hundred individual website in New Jersey?

What would be the chances that instead a couple of phone calls would be made to favored vendors alerting them a job was up for bid?

To my mind that is a recipe for MORE CORRUPTION and LESS TRANSPARENCY.

Tell me again why we want to go there?

Plainfield Today readers know I am hardly a Luddite, but I have a suggestion for this legislation: It should be rethought and retooled to set up a central repository of legal notices with standard formatting of the data.

And a suggestion to the Ledger and others: You want to keep the legal notice business? Then put up a legal notice website, where all your contracts, sheriff's sales and individual notices can be searched online AS WELL AS CONTINUING TO PRINT THEM.

It ought to be obvious to everyone by now that information wants to be online.

Getting it there is just a matter of time...and tweaking.


**Art is from an interesting art website in the Australian state of Victoria (see here).

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• Ledger:  "Tom Moran: They want lapdogs in the press, not watchdogs"
• Courier Post:  "Debate rages on legal notices" | "Jeremy Rosen: Bill needs 2.0 revision"
• Legislature:  "NJ Legislature" -- Search for 'A2082' without quote marks in top search box.
• PolitickerNJ:  "As bill sponsors waver, Christie/Norcross axis may lose battle with papers"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Robinson-Briggs: Is 'interaction' the missing link?

Yeah, sure.

Is 'interaction' the missing link to Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' success?

North Plainfield resident and businessman Bob Sarfatty opines it is in a letter in Saturday's Courier (see here), after jumping through hoops with 'the mayor's assistant' (Barbara James?) to get an appointment with Her Honor and still not having any response after six months.

Sarfatty -- who says he owns several rental properties in Plainfield -- contrasts Robinson-Briggs' performance with that of North Plainfield's mayor, who either promptly returns the call or schedules a face-to-face meeting.

This is not the first time I have heard this complaint -- it is even said that Robinson-Briggs does not return County Dem chairperson Charlotte DeFilippo's phone calls either, so Mr. Sarfatty should not feel he is being singled out.

Coincidentally, there was a story in Saturday's NY Times about the visit of Lexington, Kentucky's mayor-elect Jim Gray to the Big Apple's Mike Bloomberg.

Both wealthy businessmen, they bring the talents, skills and point-of-view of pragmatic, hands-on management to running a city.

Not a bad thing, but the Times columnist, Joe Nocera, figures that's what they should stick to -- managing enterprises, their strong suit.

If only enterprise management were Robinson-Briggs' strong suit.

Instead, her strong suit seems to be acting as municipal hostess (the smooch scene at the announcement of Municipal Clerk Laddie Wyatt's retirement comes to mind) and decorations coordinator, which I surmised after discovering the Christmas tree on the City Hall lawn is now festooned totally in red (Her Honor's signature color, but also ironically that of one of Plainfield's gangs, the Bloods).

Is it a case of misplaced priorities? Or of having no idea of what is really important or how to get it done?

The Mayor's determination to 'paint the town red' put me in mind of another 'red' city: Bologna, Italy.

Bologna is an ancient city, home to the oldest university in Europe. It is also a manufacturing hub and was the center of the Resistance during World War II. It has been famed for decades for its residents' constantly re-electing Communist candidates as mayors. Partly owing to those officals' attention to constituent issues, Bologna constantly ranks among the top cities in Italy for its quality of life.

In Bologna, 'red' stands for something -- and delivers for its residents.

In Plainfield, all we get is 'red' as the Mayor's decorating choice.

And bologna for the rest.

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• Courier:  "Mayoral interactions a key to success" -- Letter by North Plainfield resident Bob Sarfatty.
  
• NY Times:  "Why CEOs should stop at City Hall":
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Questions for Councilor Burney on the WBLS matter

I am reminded of a remark about the famous actress.

Could we use a little more transparency from Councilor Burney on his role in the WBLS inquiry?

I certainly think so.

Reading his little tiff (see here) over Councilor Mapp's demand (see here) for an apology from the Courier's editors to former corporation counsel Jackie Drakeford over their treatment of her in an editorial on the WBLS inquiry (see here), some questions for Councilor Burney come to mind --

• Is it true that when hiring someone was discussed, you opposed hiring of an out-of-town attorney to handle the matter?
  
  
• Is it true that it was YOU WHO SUGGESTED Ms. Drakeford in the first place?
  
  
• And if it's true that you made the suggestion, did it not occur to you that surely someone would bring up her association with your former mentor, the current Council president's father -- including publicly available information about campaign contributions?
  
  
• How thoughtful was it of you to expose Ms. Drakeford (who is blameless in all of this) and the Council to embarrassment over this matter, when a better solution had been proposed in the first place?

Thanks to your 'leadership' on this matter, Plainfield residents now must look further down the road for a resolution of the questions surrounding the $20,000-plus expenditures Mayor Robinson-Briggs authorized to WBLS.

And then you fail to mention yourself as having any culpability in this mess when you suggest 'maybe it is the Council and [Mapp] who should apologize and not the Courier News'.

Your behavior in this matter puts me in mind of Oscar Levant's remark about the actress Doris Day: 'I knew her before she was a virgin'.

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• Councilor Burney:  "Comments on a blog entry"
  
• Councilor Mapp:  "Ms. Drakeford deserves an apology from the editor of the Courier News"
• Courier, Editorial:  "Plainfield makes wrong choice for probe of radio show"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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WBLS investigation: Would some common sense be appropriate?

Still seeking 'just and capable'...

Unfortunately, the matter of Plainfielders getting to the bottom of how it was that the administration of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs came to spend in excess of $20,000 (that was just one of several payments) to New York City radio station WBLS to promote and broadcast a town hall meeting she hosted this past summer is being clouded over by a completely unnecessary sideshow over supposed ethics concerns over the selection of a former corporation counsel as the City Council's special counsel in the matter.

At the time of the Council's decision, Dr. Harold Yood (who blogs as 'Olddoc', see here) and former mayoral candidate Jim Pivnichny (who also blogs here) both raised the matter of Ms. Drakeford's prior connections during public comment. Council President McWilliams demurred, saying the Council had already taken Drakeford's prior connections into account.

On Monday, the Courier News editorialized (see here) about the matter, leading to Councilor Mapp posting to his blog (see here) a demand that the Courier apologize to Drakeford for having, in his view, disparaged the former corporation counsel.

On Tuesday, the Courier published a story on Ms. Drakeford's withdrawal from the assignment (see here), quoting both Drakeford and Council President Annie McWilliams.

Late yesterday afternoon, Councilor Burney jumped into the fray with a post (see here) on his blog taking exception to a reference Mapp had made to himself. (Let's leave aside Burney's reference to Drakeford as having been the 'City Solicitor' under Al McWilliams; she was Corporation Counsel, not the same thing at all.)

If you're feeling like you've got too much corn on your Bingo card to manage, join the club.

Having worked with Jackie Drakeford for eight years, I can say she is completely above reproach, thoroughly professional, and THOROUGH. There would be no taint through anything she said or did.

If there is any rap to be made about Ms. Drakeford, it might be that she is TOO LAWYERLY -- she often enough would give advice in the form of 'on the one hand, and then on the other hand' -- meaning the final decision would be in the hands (and on the records and consciences) of those to whom her legal opinions were given.

I fear that what has happened in the matter of the WBLS investigation is that most discussants are forgetting that the matter at hand is FACTFINDING and not PROSECUTORIAL.

It is unfortunate if the Council did not make that clear enough when it decided on Drakeford. It is unfortunate that the Courier's editors seem to think that a fact cannot just be a fact if the factfinder has any connection to the situation.

It is also unfortunate that the Council seems not to have given enough thought to the consequences of their initial decision.

On the other hand, the Courier's editorial assertion that 'this isn't a complex issue' carries with it the whiff of mildew found in ivory towers everywhere.

For better or for worse, everyone is moving on.

There will be plenty of FACTS to ascertain, despite Robinson-Briggs' claim that the investigation is 'frivolous'.

Once the FACTS have been set out, the Council -- and not the special counsel -- will have to make decisions about what further steps to take.

And if the new special counsel the Council hires needs help getting to the bottom of Plainfield's administrative arcana, and that should end up costing more money than the Drakeford contract, I have a suggestion.

Send the bill for the excess to the Courier's editors.

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• Doc's Potpourri (on the Drakeford appointment, oldest to newest) --
• "Council: Report 3"
• "A pat on the back"
• "On the Courier editorial"
• "Who is right?"
• Courier, Editorial:  "Plainfield makes wrong choice for probe of radio show"
• Councilor Mapp:  "Ms. Drakeford deserves an apology from the editor of the Courier News"
• Courier News:  "Plainfield seeking new attorney for mayoral investigation"
• Councilor Burney:  "Comments on a blog entry"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Pit Bull bite: Cast of characters catches readers' attention

The pit bull story became something of a Rorschach test.

Little did I dream that yesterday's post about the Plainfield resident bitten by a pit bull (see here) would draw attention to so many other characters in the story.

It seems to have been something of a Rorschach test.

One reader wanted to know what about the dog that was bitten? I must confess I was more concerned about the human.

Another reader was concerned that the matter of the specific breed (pit bull) not be pushed as if all pit bulls were vicious, but rather the individual animal. Point well taken.

Others wonder if the police officer should have known or done more. Must confess I didn't check out whether the officer checked the dog's papers, but that certainly sounds like a reasonable expectation.

Two readers pointed out there certainly would have been a different story if the city's animal control officers had not been laid off. Amen to that.

Rob adds that his mileage with regard to the Health Division in a similar situation differs.

Then there were those who tied departmental performance to mayoral leadership, or lack of it. What can I say?

One reader wondered about the city phone system being on the fritz. Good question. It seems to have been a problem with Verizon, and a letter from the company to the city acknowledging the problem was published on the city website (see here [PDF]), presumably shortly after 5:00 PM on the 23rd, which is the time stamp on the PDF document. There is no notice of when, or if, the problem was resolved.

Plus one bit of advice to the victim: If you get to court, make sure part of the prosecutor's deal with the pit bull's owner is restitution of any out-of-pocket expenses not covered by insurance.

We'll still have to see if the victim's wife gets a call-back from the Health Division on Monday.

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• Plainfield Today:  "If you're gonna get bitten by a pit bull, don't do it in Plainfield"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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If you're gonna get bitten by a pit bull, don't do it in Plainfield

Pit Bull bites can be serious wounds, in addition to raising fears of tetanus, infection and rabies.

Today marks one week since a Plainfield resident, out walking his dog (on a leash) last Saturday was bitten by a pit bull in the Clinton School neighborhood. And still waiting for Plainfield's response.

The pit bull got loose from its owner's house when the owner opened the front door for someone to enter.

Known for their grip, this pit bull was no exception, biting the man's leashed dog and then biting him -- through a jacket and shirt sleeve -- before someone from the pit bull owner's house beat the dog off with a broom.

The victim's wife called 911 and a cop was dispatched.

When he arrived, he told the wife there was nothing he could do.

To which she replied that since the pit bull was loose and she was going to have to get medical treatment for her husband's bite she needed proof for the insurance company and that the one thing the officer could surely do was write up an incident report.

The officer agreed and did so.

The wife took her husband to MedEmerge, where the bite wound was dressed and a tetanus shot administered. The good folks at MedEmerge advised going to the Muhlenberg SED to get advice on whether or not a course of anti-rabies treatment was needed.

The wife was shown the dog's vaccination papers by the owner and was able to determine the 4-year-old dog's rabies vaccination had expired in June, 2009.

The folks at the Muhlenberg SED advised her that the pit bull should probably be quarantined to make sure it wasn't rabid, and to call the Plainfield Health Division to have them address the situation.

The wife duly called the Health Division (at 753-3092) and left a voicemail detailing the situation and her contact information.

By Tuesday morning, with no callback from the Health Division, and a recorded message that the number was 'no longer in service', she reached out to another division and got someone who advised the city's phone system was basically on the fritz but gave her a number where she would supposedly reach a real person who could handle her problem.

Again, she left a message.

On Wednesday afternoon, I spoke with the wife as she was preparing to take off for the Thanksgiving holiday, only to learn that as of 2:30 PM she still had not had a call back from anyone at City Hall to advise whether the biting dog would be quarantined as suggested and whether a citation would be issued against the pit bull's owner for the dog being at loose and for not having its rabies shots updated.

With City Hall closed until Monday, it will be ten days until she gets any answers as to what to do -- if she even gets them Monday.

Moral of the story: If you're gonna get bitten by a pit bull, don't do it in Plainfield.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Drakeford appointed special counsel in WBLS inquiry

Many unresolved questions about the WBLS payment may now be answered.

The Plainfield City Council moved one step closer to beginning its inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the expenditure of $20,000 from the Information Technology budget this past summer as payment to WBLS for services to the city, including advertising, promoting and broadcasting a community forum hosted by Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs at Washington Community School.

Council unanimously approved a resolution naming Jacqueline Drakeford, Esq. as special counsel to the Council in the matter. Ms. Drakeford, known to all as Jackie, has previously served as Corporation Counsel.

Both Dr. Harold Yood and former mayoral candidate Jim Pivnichny addressed their concerns to the Council both as to Ms. Drakeford's ability to be impartial and that if wrongdoing were found the Council would pursue the matter to the fullest.

Council President McWilliams assured them that the Council had questioned Drakeford exactly along those lines and felt quite comfortable that she would be fair and objective in discharging her duties.

I have written quite a deal on the matter of the WBLS payment, a story which I broke here on August 8 (see here, and links in the reference post at bottom), and believe taxpayers still deserve to have the answers to several questions around the issuance of the infamous check --

• was the acting CFO involved?
• had the Mayor personally ordered the check drawn?
• was there a 'sponsor' who had failed to come through?
• if there was a 'sponsor', who was it?
• why was the Council kept in the dark?
  

and also the matter of Mayor Robinson-Briggs believing the sponsor could 'reimburse' the City.

Perhaps the public will also learn whether the as-yet-unnamed 'sponsor' is Investors Savings Bank (as rumored), to which it is said the Mayor moved $29 million in city deposits on her own initiative.

Residents and taxpayers will surely not want to miss getting to the bottom of this matter.

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• Plainfield Today, 9/9/2010:  "WBLS Payment: The mayor's twisted logic" --With links to Plainfield Today, Plaintalker, Courier and Ledger stories.

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Scores turn out for POP rally against violence

Scores attended a POP rally against youth violence on Saturday.

Scores of Plainfielders, including friends and relatives of Spencer 'Spook' Cadogan and Keith Hathaway, the most recent victims of a wave of youth violence, turned out for a rally against youth violence sponsored by the Plainfield chapter of POP (People's Organization for Progress) late Saturday afternoon at the makeshift memorial for Cadogan outside the restaurant on West Front Street where he was gunned down last Thursday as school was letting out.

 

Board of Ed member Wilma Campbell addresses the crowd.

Community activist Dottie Gutenkauf speaks at Cadogan memorial.

Attendees express rally's theme.

Rally was held at the memorial to slain PHS student Spencer Cadogan.

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs was holding an 'emergency summit' at the same time at Calvary Baptist Church, West 4th Street and Monroe Avenue, which drew approximately twenty attendees as reported in Sunday's Courier print edition.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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'Subway to Secaucus' idea has local roots

Sketch map of a 'Subway to Secaucus' proposal with local roots.

Gov. Christie's thumbs down to the Hudson River Rail Tunnel project, which would have given Plainfield commuters a one-seat ride to New York City, disappointed me greatly.

Having made that commute the first year I lived in Plainfield and still worked in the publishing industry in New York, I pictured what a relief it would be to the 900-plus commuters who use Plainfield's two train stations each day to just sink back in their seats and forget about the Track 1 shuffle in Newark or the dash up the stairs and down the ramp to Track 5 on the return leg in the evening.

Situation hopeless?

Not exactly.

Turns out two New Jersey dudes -- Steve Lanset and Ralph Braskett -- had the idea years ago, and even set up a website to promote it (see here), though, Rodney Dangerfield-like, they got no respect.

Suddenly, though, they have been 'discovered' by the likes of the New York Times, which profiles their proposal in today's edition (see here).

Though the Times misidentifies Braskett's hometown as Plainfield (he lives in North Plainfield), it pleases me greatly that this interesting idea has local roots.

And though the sketch map of their idea is done on a sheet of ruled paper, the two gave a lot of thought to the idea (check out the website's links) and concluded that subway service could be built more cheaply and more quickly and would have the additional, compelling advantage of putting commuters directly into the subway system rather than dumping them into the Penn Station complex from which they would have to scurry, vole-like, into the maws of the subways to reach their final destinations.

I for one am glad Messrs Braskett and Lanset are getting their time in the spotlight (and would be even happier for them if there was a ka-ching in their future as a result).

And I don't mind in the least that the Grey Lady considers Braskett a Plainfielder.

Now if we could just get the No. 7 from Secaucus to Plainfield.

Without, of course, opening doors in Westfield (inside joke).

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• Website:  "Subway to Secaucus"
• NY Times: "Subway under the Hudson? For two men it's hardly a new idea"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Four months in the works, CFO nearly on tap

Was Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs going to make the state-mandated deadline for appointing a Certified Municipal Finance Officer as CFO for the city?

The question has been on folks' minds a lot since the state dropped the hammer late last month that Her Honor would face a $25-a -day fine for missing the new, final, final, final, really FINAL deadline.

Turns out, I discovered recently, that the Mayor has been diddling with her nominee, Ron Zilinksi, for four months.

Zilinski, retiring from the same position as Trenton's CFO, was rumored to be close to accepting an offer from Robinson-Briggs when Trenton counter-offered and he decided to stay.

Now, however, with retirement set, he is free to come to Plainfield.

Except that state law precludes him taking up CFO duties until at least a month after formal retirement, and then -- as with all retirees taking up government jobs after retiring -- Zilinski will have to have a different job title.

That will be City Treasurer, a job description Plainfield has never previously had, and which will have to be enshrined by ordinance.

Though sticklers would point out the state doesn't allow people to do essentially the same job as the one from which they retired, I think it is reasonable to assume that the DCA is willing to bend waaaaay over backwards to have Plainfield off its hands. Including a written waiver, if necessary.

No matter the fine points of the rules.

Meanwhile, Mayor Robinson-Briggs lurches from one crisis to the next.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Scotch Plains votes on cell tower in Hillside Cemetery

Scotch Plains' Hillside Cemetery abuts Plainfield, South Plainfield and Edison.

Deceased Plainfielders now residing in Scotch Plains' Hillside Cemetery may finally get some peace and quiet. At least temporarily.

Plainfield activist Nancy Piwowar called late last evening to report that the township's Zoning Board of Adjustment voted down a use variance for the T-Mobile cell tower proposal about 10:30 PM in a 7-0 vote on the grounds it was not a permitted use in a residential area.

The proposal is one of two that T-Mobile has had before the township since last March for cell towers at different locations. The other is for one in the Willow Grove section of the township, opposition to which has generated a citizen-run website, Fight the Tower Online (see here).

Piwowar says she has attended the last three hearings on the Hillside Cemetery proposal -- in opposition to which Plainfield's City Council passed a resolution which was forwarded to the Scotch Plains board -- and reports that at least 50 residents of Scotch Plains and surrounding towns have been in attendance at each.

Hillside Cemetery, situated at the edge of Scotch Plains, abuts Plainfield, South Plainfield and Edison residential neighborhoods as well as the Plainfield County Club.

The 125-foot tower would have been 'disguised' as a pine tree (if you've not seen one of these, check out the tower in the GSP median at the New Durham Road overpass in Woodbridge township).

Piwowar notes that questioning of T-Mobile's expert witness revealed that the proposed site was not the best one in the cemetery for optimal coverage, and also that 40% of the tower's coverage area would be THE CEMETERY ITSELF.

Perhaps those interred in Hillside Cemetery want to reach out and touch someone?

Oops! That's another phone company!

There is an irony here, as we all become more and more dependent on cellphones to communicate, these towers must spring up or we will suffer many more dropped calls and one-bar performance.

Plus one last irony, Nancy's report was made on her cellphone.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

Sign Justice

Plainfielders don't have to ask whether there is 'sign justice'.

The evidence is before their very eyes.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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West End Heights residents set town hall meeting on gunshot-spotting technology

Residents of Plainfield's West End Heights neighborhood gathered at the Jefferson School on Sunday afternoon to air their concerns about the Robinson-Briggs administration's proposed ShotSpotter^® gunshot-detection system.

On the one hand, residents of this quiet neighborhood that ranges from Victorians and foursquares near the Compton Avenue end to cape cods, bungalows and colonials toward Jefferson Avenue, were concerned that being designated a 'gunshot zone' would affect perceptions of the neighborhood and, ultimately, property values.

The residents are acutely aware that keeping negative activity at bay and preserving the quality of their neighborhood demands constant vigilance.

At the same time, there were concerns about whether, if more should be done to fight gangs and crime, the gunshot-spotting technology was the best use of taxpayer monies.

Perhaps most of all, residents were annoyed that the Robinson-Briggs administration has not tried to reach out to areas that might be affected by the technology proposal to get input from taxpayers about the positives and negatives of such a program.

Councilors Adrian Mapp and Linda Carter were in attendance, as was Council candidate Rebecca Williams. (The organizer, Nan Anderson-Bennett, said she had emailed all members of the City Council, though the email to Councilor Bridget Rivers 'bounced'.)

The consensus was to convene a 'town hall' style meeting on Sunday, October 3. Ms. Anderson-Bennett and Councilors Mapp and Carter are working on the arrangements.

For more information, contact Nan Anderson-Bennett at 30kdaysprod@gmail.com.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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