'08's top 10 - No. 2: Plainfield mayor abruptly fires finance director

Counting down toward 2009, Plainfield Today is posting the top 10 stories of '08 that readers have found of interest, measured by number of views.

Today, Number 2: Robinson-Briggs abruptly fires Plainfield's finance director.

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"Robinson-Briggs abruptly fires Plainfield's finance director"

Douglas Peck (from his website, now defunct).

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' judgment took another hit Monday as word seeped out that her hand-picked Director of Finance and Administration, Douglas Peck, had cleaned out his desk and was gone. Along with the car he is said to have used without authorization.

The ground had become increasingly shaky under Mr. Peck's feet after he flubbed the management of Mayor Robinson-Briggs' FY2009 budget introduction (read about his infamous 'Crayola document' budget presentation here).

But the proverbial icing on the cake may have been Peck's failure to produce the materials necessary for the Planning Board to move the City's five-year capital improvements plan forward, causing a Planning Board meeting to be canceled on short notice and leaving others in the Robinson-Briggs administration to try and salvage the mess.

Peck's tenure as a City employee has been exceptional, to put it mildly.

(Prior to his appointment by Robinson-Briggs, his only previous connection with Plainfield seems to have been a consulting contract with the PMUA, for whose Commissioners he conducted a 'strategic planning retreat', where -- among other things -- he plumped for the PMUA to start and operate a Charter School in Plainfield.)

Peck began with the Council approving an unheard-of $12,000 stipend in addition to his salary, interpreted at the time as covering his moving costs (though he later disputed that) -- and taking his first week on the City payroll off (see here) as a 'freebie'.

Then there was the matter of bonding; it turned out that, unlike every previous Director of Finance and Administration, Peck was unable to be bonded. The defect was such that the Robinson-Briggs administration pondered giving him another title, though nothing ever came of that idea.

Throughout the summer, I got word that the Mayor's other appointees were seething at the lax work weeks Peck was putting in; some say he never put in a five-day week the entire period he was with the City.

The budget, which was one of Peck's main responsibilities, turned out to be a donnybrook, for which Mayor Robinson-Briggs took it on the chin (see posts here).

But there were other, and more disturbing, rumors -- that Peck had commandeered a City vehicle and was driving it 24/7 without a Council resolution accepting liability on the City's behalf (see my posts here and here); and that he had physically attacked another City employee in a public scene at Hugo's, the bar which occupies the premises of the former Lily Greenleaves. You'll find no police report on that.

The Council, which has a fiduciary responsibility to the community as its corporate body, had not yet looked into the vehicle issue as of Mr. Peck's departure.

In her report on Peck's departure, Bernice quotes Mayor Robinson-Briggs as saying that though Peck's firing was for 'personnel issues', there was "nothing 'criminal or illegal' involved in the decision" (see full post here).

That may be, but I am told the search is on for the missing city vehicle.

Seems the most likely place to start is the parking lots at Newark Liberty airport.

Would that be long-term or short-term?

The Green/Robinson-Briggs administration is now in the position of having to search for a sixth person to fill the Finance and Administration position, with only her lame-duck year left.

If this were a major league baseball coaching position, the front office would have fired the coach by this time.

Plainfield's 'front office' is the voters.

Next year they get to voice their opinion on the coach.

UPDATE: The missing vehicle, used by Peck without Council authorization, was eventually recovered. No one wants to 'fess up -- the best I can find out is that it was NOT returned by Peck and that it was NOT recovered in Plainfield. Ah, life's little mysteries....

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• No. 10 - Nov. 17: "Plainfield official using vehicle without permission?"
• No. 09 - Oct. 08: "Mayor loses bodyguards: Right move, wrong reason?"
• No. 08 - July 14: "Council discusses troublesome South Avenue zoning changes"
• No. 07 - Jan. 28: "Plainfield rallies for Obama tonight" (plus followups -- the rally, the Primary)
• No. 06 - Apr. 1: "Dan tosses his hat in the ring"
• No. 05 - Mar. 20: "Jerry's troubling trifecta: Muhlenberg, Abbott, Santiago"
• No. 04 - May 9, 20: "Saving Muhlenberg or Jerry?" | "The Mayor and the Muhlenberg Mess"
• No. 03 - Sep. 30: "Development: The meltdown hits Plainfield"
• No. 02 - Dec. 2: "Mayor abruptly fires Plainfield's finance director"
  

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Robinson-Briggs abruptly fires Plainfield Finance Director

Douglas Peck (from his website, now defunct).

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' judgment took another hit Monday as word seeped out that her hand-picked Director of Finance and Administration, Douglas Peck, had cleaned out his desk and was gone. Along with the car he is said to have used without authorization.

The ground had become increasingly shaky under Mr. Peck's feet after he flubbed the management of Mayor Robinson-Briggs' FY2009 budget introduction (read about his infamous 'Crayola document' budget presentation here).

But the proverbial icing on the cake may have been Peck's failure to produce the materials necessary for the Planning Board to move the City's five-year capital improvements plan forward, causing a Planning Board meeting to be canceled on short notice and leaving others in the Robinson-Briggs administration to try and salvage the mess.

Peck's tenure as a City employee has been exceptional, to put it mildly.

(Prior to his appointment by Robinson-Briggs, his only previous connection with Plainfield seems to have been a consulting contract with the PMUA, for whose Commissioners he conducted a 'strategic planning retreat', where -- among other things -- he plumped for the PMUA to start and operate a Charter School in Plainfield.)

Peck began with the Council approving an unheard-of $12,000 stipend in addition to his salary, interpreted at the time as covering his moving costs (though he later disputed that) -- and taking his first week on the City payroll off (see here) as a 'freebie'.

Then there was the matter of bonding; it turned out that, unlike every previous Director of Finance and Administration, Peck was unable to be bonded. The defect was such that the Robinson-Briggs administration pondered giving him another title, though nothing ever came of that idea.

Throughout the summer, I got word that the Mayor's other appointees were seething at the lax work weeks Peck was putting in; some say he never put in a five-day week the entire period he was with the City.

The budget, which was one of Peck's main responsibilities, turned out to be a donnybrook, for which Mayor Robinson-Briggs took it on the chin (see posts here).

But there were other, and more disturbing, rumors -- that Peck had commandeered a City vehicle and was driving it 24/7 without a Council resolution accepting liability on the City's behalf (see my posts here and here); and that he had physically attacked another City employee in a public scene at Hugo's, the bar which occupies the premises of the former Lily Greenleaves. You'll find no police report on that.

The Council, which has a fiduciary responsibility to the community as its corporate body, had not yet looked into the vehicle issue as of Mr. Peck's departure.

In her report on Peck's departure, Bernice quotes Mayor Robinson-Briggs as saying that though Peck's firing was for 'personnel issues', there was "nothing 'criminal or illegal' involved in the decision" (see full post here).

That may be, but I am told the search is on for the missing city vehicle.

Seems the most likely place to start is the parking lots at Newark Liberty airport.

Would that be long-term or short-term?

The Green/Robinson-Briggs administration is now in the position of having to search for a sixth person to fill the Finance and Administration position, with only her lame-duck year left.

If this were a major league baseball coaching position, the front office would have fired the coach by this time.

Plainfield's 'front office' is the voters.

Next year they get to voice their opinion on the coach.

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-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

New Finance Director's first week a freebie?

Image from Mr. Peck's website, DPMG.net.

For him, not for us.

Word is that Plainfield's new Acting Director of Administration and Finance, Douglas Peck, not only got a $12,000 moving allowance (no bills need be submitted, thank you very much!), he appears to have gotten his first week on the payroll as a freebie, with the taxpayers footing the week's salary though Mr. Peck is still in Ohio.

Mr. Peck was nowhere in evidence at City Hall throughout this past week, though the Mayor's appointment took effect immediately upon her letter of appointment, dated April 4th.

Residents are hoping to get a gander of the new department head at Monday's City Council agenda-setting session, 7:30 PM, City Hall Library -- the first meeting in the resumption of the Council's 80+-year-old tradition of alternating Monday meetings.

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-- Dan Damon

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'Crayola documents' at the budget hearing

Plainfield City Council took up a number of issues at Thursday evening's budget hearing, including the now-infamous $1.66M PILOTs error, Dudley House, and the 'Information and Technology' proposal.

When the public finally got copies of the spreadsheet with the $1.66M error, it literally -- as Councilman Reid exclaimed -- 'leaped off the page at you'.

Let's be perfectly clear: This mistake should have been caught by Mr. Peck before it even got to the stage of being put in the budget proposal. It is, after all, WHAT HE GETS PAID FOR.

Such an error would be highly unlikely at Eric Watson's PMUA, where spreadsheets are routinely sorted from highest to lowest dollar values FOR EXACTLY THIS REASON -- to spotlight items which might be jarringly wrong or need further investigation.

But it does not seem that ANYTHING submitted to the Council by Mayor Robinson-Briggs' hand-picked budget duo has been scrutinized IN THE LEAST.

ANTICIPATED REVENUES

On this spreadsheet of SFY2009 Anticipated Revenues, there were numerous errors that a 4th-grader would find embarrassing, as well as misleading and non-descriptive labels for revenue sources.

A few examples --

• A column header entitled 'Relaized in Cash' which should presumably read 'Realized'
  
  
• And these Revenue items with less-than-optimal descriptions --
  
  
• 'Alcoholic Beverages' -- So, the city is selling booze? Or is it alcoholic beverage license renewal fees?
• 'Other' -- When asked what this meant, the answer was 'permits and fees' to which the questioner replied, 'but you have another line called 'fees and permits'
• 'Municipal Court' -- with no breakdown as to sources such as 'traffic', 'code enforcement fines', etc.
• 'Interest and Cost on Taxes' -- How's that again?
• 'Parking Meter Permits' -- But of course the Division's receipts come from TWO sources: Permits and Meters. When asked, the questioner was told the figure did include meter receipts; shouldn't the Council have a breakdown?
• 'PILOT's -- There were several errors, the most glaring of which was referring to 'Covenant Manor' on East Front Street as 'Covenant House', the famous NYC program for runaway teens
• 'Energy Receipts Tax' -- which was finally explained as monies paid by utilities customers in their bills, captured by the state from the utilities and shared with local municipalities. The formula? Don't even ask.
• 'Municipal Homeland Security' and 'Life Hazard Use Payments' escaped my attention. What do YOU think they mean?

Such sloppy, sloppy, sloppy presentation would NEVER have been tolerated by previous City Administrators or Directors of Finance and Administration.

But wait! There's more.

DUDLEY HOUSE

Next up was the Dudley House discussion.

A two-page handout was intended to clarify what the City is spending to maintain the program in FY2009.

It was more than a year ago that the continuation of the program was put in danger because of a failure to get a license after ADA-required changes to the building had not been made. At this late date, this is what is being presented.

In the hearing, Councilor Burney made the point that the majority of clients are NOT from Plainfield but instead from other communities in Union and Middlesex counties. The administration replied that no other governmental entities were willing to pitch in, leaving the funding to Plainfield. It was also stated that Plainfield was looking to certify and maintain ownership of the building and was looking for a nonprofit to operate the program (no doubt a paid consultant would be used?).

An extended back-and-forth revealed that there have not been any clients in residence for some time as the premises do not meet the state's requirements.

When I asked why the City didn't look instead to sell the building to a nonprofit and get out of the rehab business, Mr. Dashield said that would be considered 'maybe as part of an RFP'.

With no current clients, with the staff laid off previously, and with the building out of compliance, I am having a hard time understanding why the Administration is proceeding down this path when it is facing other budget pressures and a difficult economic forecast.

During the course of the discussions, Mr. Peck referred to the color-coded calendar which broke the project of getting Dudley House certified down into four phases, each with a start- and end-date indicated in boxes next to the colored bars identifying the phases.

The right-hand side of the page was taken up by a calendar marked 'FY2009', which showed (via colored blocks) the dates on which various aspects of the project were to be done.

Unlike Mr. Peck, several people noticed immediately that there were discrepancies between the calendar and the dates in the boxes in the accompanying table.

When I asked why Phase 2 was shown on the calendar as begining on August 1st and in the table as having a start-date of September 15th, Mr. Peck said that it was a 'Crayola' document.

With apologies to 'Oops'.

How apt.

The other item to be discussed was the 'Information and Technology' handout.

I gagged on the opening statement --

Purpose

The Information Technology Department (IT) will provide the tools for an efficient and productive government through innovative information technologies, while improving access to government information and services.

Plainfield Information Technology will create and deliver innovative technological solutions and support in order to provide citizens, businesses and government staff with access to information and services.

Perhaps we should refer to 'Plainfield Information Technology' as the PITs?

I'll take this up later.

Even faithful readers have their endurance limits.

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-- Dan Damon

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Straight talk needed on Robinson-Briggs budget deficit

The $1.66 million deficit uncovered at a public budget hearing through Council questions is an extreme embarrassment to Mayor Robinson-Briggs and her budget honchos, City Administrator Marc Dashield and (still unbonded) Director of Finance and Administration Douglas Peck.

What Plainfield taxpayers need is some straight talk from Mayor Robinson-Briggs and her hand-picked budget experts.

All Plainfield taxpayers are getting so far is spin.

Take, for instance, the coverage of the story in today's Courier (see here), where Dashield tries to throw the City's auditors under the bus. (You will note that Assemblyman Jerry Green is mysteriously silent, as is Finance Director Peck.)

Writing against deadline, as Courier reporter Mark Spivey has to do, has inherent problems, the chief of which is that there is not enough time to get to the bottom of the Robinson-Briggs administration's shameless spinning of every difficulty.

Just a few of spin items --

• Who is responsible for the budget proposal submitted? No matter who helps prepare it, the responsibility is solely that of Mayor Robinson-Briggs and her hand-picked department heads. These folks sign off on the documents and attest with their signatures that the documents are accurate and meet the requirements of state law. There is no crossing one's fingers when signing off.
  
  
• 'Licensing' the auditors? Since when does the City 'license' the auditors? Auditors are licensed by the state. They are hired by the City to perform a number of tasks. If they prepare any documents for the Mayor or her designees to sign off on, those who sign off are on the hook.
  
  
• Is anyone checking anything? PILOTs are an important part of the City's annual revenues. The payments due are arrived at through calculations made according to state-approved formulas. While they may fluctuate slightly, an increase of 1,000% is eyepopping, a red flag that would have been obvious to anyone familiar with PILOTs or who scanned the comparison of the most recent year and the projection at all.
  
  
• When did the Robinson-Briggs administration know it had a problem? Lost in all the hubbub is that Dashield and Peck told the Council that they knew the mistake had been made and that the budget proposal had been forwarded to the DCA in Trenton for review anyway. Helluva a way to run a railroad, wouldn't you say?

If these were adults, they would take responsibility.

Instead, Robinson-Briggs looks for someone to throw under the bus and then goes for the sugar bowl.

Leaving the Council to make good on her sloppiness.

Why should Plainfielders have to put up with this incompetence?

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• Courier: "Plainfield finds $1.66M deficit"

-- Dan Damon

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Quick! Where does our leadership team live?

By my fridge calendar, this past Friday would have been the expiration date of Plainfield Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig's acting appointment (if it followed the ordinance put in place by the Council a few years ago).

I wasn't going to write about it, but then the news came through that a three-judge appeals panel gave Trenton's police director, Joe Santiago, 75 days to pack his desk and vacate his job -- because he doesn't live in Trenton as is required.

Hmmm...

Come to think of it, none of Mayor Robinson-Briggs' leadership team lives in Plainfield, and we have the same sort of requirement as Trenton -- a waiver would have to be granted by the Council.

What's up with that?

Martin Hellwig told me at one point that he was moving into an apartment on Watchung Avenue, but that seems not to have ever materialized.

Jennifer Wenson-Maier lives in Rahway, where she is on the City Council, but was a waiver ever granted?

Marc Dashield, the City Administrator, has not moved to Plainfield and commutes back and forth to work in a city-issued vehicle.

The newest team member, Douglas Peck, Director of Administration and Finance, has yet to move to Plainfield from Ohio since his April appointment, though he was given a relocation allowance. (Should I mention that some city employees are fuming that he is in line for a cost-of-living increase though he is said not to have worked a full five-day week in Plainfield yet?)

City Hall has buzzed with rumors for weeks that Mr. Peck's situation may be tenuous as it is said he cannot be bonded. Perhaps that's what's behind the discussion of reviving the 'Deputy City Administrator' position?

As the Robinson-Briggs administration moves toward its final year, one has to wonder whether any of the leadership will become Plainfielders.

If not, shouldn't we do the waiver thing?

Unless it's just a quibble.

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• Trenton: "Court gives Santiago 75 days to vacate Trenton job"

-- Dan Damon

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Robinson-Briggs budget proposal sloppy and deceptive. On purpose?

The inscription above City Hall cites the building as
"dedicated by [the people] to the cause of just and capable government."

The Robinson-Briggs budget proposal presentation for FY2009 evoked visible signs of anger and consternation among Council members at Thursday's budget hearing, according to phone conversations I had after the meeting (which I did not attend).

Members of the Citizens Advisory Commission had privately expressed concerns to me over the inability of the Robinson-Briggs administration to provide accurate and timely information to them previously.

But Thursday evening's meeting seems to have gone over the top.

Among the issues that bear looking into are --

• Robinson-Briggs' effort to deceive the Council over secretly funding the Dudley House drug rehabilitation program (which has non-Plainfield and non-Union County clients) out of the City budget after failing to get grant monies to run it;
  
  
• Robinson-Briggs' failure to advise the Council in advance that the much-vaunted 'shared services agreement' with the school district for information technology services had foundered and is considered dead as of August, a revelation which appeared as news to the Council;
  
  
• Robinson-Briggs' attempts to portray her reduced staffing of the Police Division as an 'improvement' over the McWilliams' administration, for which she drags out the old, discredited canard of '18 police layoffs' (which Courier reporter Mark Spivey innocently reported as fact in his story on Wednesday's meeting which can be found here); and finally,
  
  
• Robinson-Briggs' budget proposal misstates expected receipts in a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program by a figure in excess of $1.5 million. This means that the shortfall in revenues will have to be made up. The choices are: 1) through a tax increase, 2) through a one-time fix such as the sale of an asset [which the State frowns on], or 3) dipping into the City's 'rainy day' funds.

According to members of the Citizens' Budget Advisory Commission, these are only the latest bloopers. What intrigues me is that once the State's Department of Community Affairs reviews the budget proposal and bounces it back for needed corrections, time will be lost, more than likely running the projected adoption process into overtime.

The shambles in the budget process that is being revealed is particularly striking since no one can recall such a mess during the tenures of previous finance directors Ron West or Tom Morrison III, which takes us back to at least 1994.

Robinson-Briggs' new finance director, Douglas Peck, may yet rue his comment to the Plaintalker last July (see here) --

Peck said he sees as the biggest issue that decisions are being made about the budget “that are not informed decisions.”

All of which leads me to wonder if Robinson-Briggs intends to delay the budget's adoption to minimize the effects of proposed program and staff changes, rendering them effectively moot, as has been the case with past budgets.

In any event, dear taxpayer, it is your wallet that is being picked.

Be watchful!

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-- Dan Damon

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Wild turkey sighted in Library Park

Wild turkey hen taking a stroll in Library Park.

Coming back from the pharmacy shortly after noon Wednesday, I was surprised to see a wild turkey hen near the Plainfield Public Library.

She had crossed Arlington Avenue at West 9th Street and strolled nonchalantly into the park toward the fountain, stopping to peck at the grass occasionally. She seemed undeterred by either passing traffic or people walking and sitting in the park.

Though I have seen turkeys many times above Woodland Avenue and along Rahway Road, this is the first I can recall seeing any this far into town. For more about wild turkeys, see here.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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League inspires a wish for Plainfield

Dr. Yood wondered what Plainfielders attended the League of Municipalities convention and what workshops they participated in (see here). I'll answer part of that question, but first a wish for the City.

I wish that we could join the towns that put their public meetings online in an easy, cost-effective manner.

Forget the lights blinding those in attendance at Council meetings, as on November 24 (see here), taping a meeting that then needed to be edited before it could be put up on the city's public access cable channel, PCTV-74.

In Branchburg (see here), residents can watch real-time webcasts of Council and board meetings. And look up agendas and minutes. (Did I mention that the Council also gets an e-packet of everything in advance?)

Costs an arm and a leg, right? Not necessarily.

Branchburg paid $21,000 to set up the system and $9,000/year for the continuing service. Sounds way cost-effective to me.

And without the bright lights and the time lag in editing, and the fact that not all Plainfielders have cable (and fewer will as Verizon FIOS comes online) and therefore are left out of the mix.

There are actually two systems out there --

• IQM2: This is a full-service system that streams the meetings in real-time and consolidates agendas, attachments and minutes for both the Council and the public. This is the service used by Branchburg (webcasts here, township page here).
  
  
• MakeAMotion.net: This service, which I saw live at the League trade show, allows the Clerk's staff to set up the recording of the meeting with a touchscreen that has four simple steps: Prepare, Record, Stop, and Process. Once the video is processed, it is available on demand to viewers through the city's website. The system supports up to 8 cameras and mikes, making sure that all the action and speakers (including the public) are seen and heard. And the cameras work in low-light settings like City Hall Library, meaning attendees won't have to be blinded for the public good.

Regardless of how tight times are, I think the Council should investigate moving into the 21st century, and putting the Mayor's communications staff back to work communicating.

WHO WAS AT THE LEAGUE?

To answer Dr. Yood's question partly, I spotted most of the Council members and several Department and Division heads -- though Mr. Peck was NOT spotted. (I am also told the Planning Board was there in strength.)

While not everyone who attends sees fit to enlighten the folks who paid the tab for the trip, some have, as note below --

• Cory Storch: Councilor Storch noted (see here) that long-range financial planning and workshops on 'going green' drew his -- and everyone else's interest. Storch opines that there is such momentum to the benefits and savings of going green that even Plainfield may find itself joining the parade;
  
  
• Annie McWilliams: Citywide councilor-elect Annie McWilliams also reports on the long-range financial planning worshop -- at which she was lucky enough to get a seat (the crowd spilled out into the hallway outside the meeting room);
  
  
• Rashid Burney: Councilor Burney made two reports from Atlantic City -- one on the updated ARC (Access to the Region) report involving -- for Plainfielders -- getting a one-seat ride to New York City (see here). Also, he was struck by two different vendors -- Swiftreach, which specializes in emergency communications with residents via reverse-911, email and texting; and the GEM vehicles, street-legal electric vehicles that get up to 30 miles per charge and cost only $6,500 each. Read more about these ideas here.

This year's League Convention seemed less well attended (the lot across from Angelo's where I always park was about a quarter full as opposed to full). Even the parties (no, I wasn't invited) were said to be less raucous. The convention was sober almost to the point of being somber.

That would have pleased my Puritan forebears.

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• Courier: "Branchburg to get web video of municipal meetings"

-- Dan Damon

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Tonight's Budget Hearing: $1.6M gaffe, Public Information, Dudley House, more

The Plainfield City Council will continue its hearings on Mayor Robinson-Briggs' proposed FY2009 budget tonight, 7:30 PM in the City Hall Library.

The city's auditors will be on hand, per the Council's request to the administration on Monday evening, and are expected to be asked their opinion on the administration's proposal to make up the $1.66M shortfall in part by reducing the amount projected to be collected in FY2009 as a reserve against uncollected taxes for the year.

Whether or not the question of who made the mistake that threw off the PILOT calculations for the Allen Homes comes up, the bottom line is that Mayor Robinson-Briggs and her hand-picked team of City Administrator Marc Dashield and Finance and Administration Director Doug Peck are firmly on the hook as responsible for submitting the wrong figure to the state and to the Council.

Adding insult to injury, Dashield informed the Council on Monday that it would be their responsibility to clean up the Mayor's mess.

Also on tap for tonight are discussions of Mayor Robinson-Briggs' proposal to have the City fund Dudley House (most of whose clients are non-Plainfielders) out of Plainfield taxpayer revenues. (For a thorough and thoughtful discussion of the Dudley House matter, see Councilor Storch's blog post here.)

Other items expected to be discussed are the funding of Mayor Robinson-Briggs' Public Information boondoggle proposal as well as an expansive Information Technology budget item.

Public input is sought -- and welcomed -- by the Council.

Come on out and share your thoughts and questions with them.

Plainfield City Council
FY2009 Budget Hearing

7:30 PM Tonight

City Hall Library
515 Watchung Avenue
(Parking and entrance at rear of building)

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-- Dan Damon

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Mayor Robinson-Briggs' desperate budget gamble

Desperate to avoid proposing a tax increase in the range of 13% as she enters the final year of her term, Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs had her budget team -- City Administrator Marc Dashield and Finance and Administration Director Douglas Peck -- do some pretty fancy tap-dancing at Monday's City Council budget hearing.

The Fire Division presentation was discussed, bringing out that the principal funding increase for FY2009 was for anticipated salary adjustments in the range of 4%-4.5%, according to City Administrator Marc Dashield. (The Fire Division contracts are up for renewal presently.)

Discussing the Fire Division's long-range capital needs, the Council was apprised the Division is looking into leasing new equipment rather than purchasing outright. (Fire trucks are expensive items, ranging from around $500,000 to well over $1M -- though a projected life of 15 years puts that in some perspective.)

The Division's proposal to eventually replace the South Avenue stationhouse adjacent to the Netherwood train station with a new facility at a new location caused a bit of a stir, with Councilor Burney wondering aloud if the city could get by with just ONE fire station. (I don't think closing either the Netherwood or West End stationhouses is a good idea. Keep in mind that the length of time it takes the Fire Division to respond to a fire at your home or business directly impacts the premium you pay for property insurance.)

Following that, Mr. Dashield handed out written answers to questions from the previous hearing, and then came the real meat-and-potatoes of the evening: Mayor Robinson-Briggs' proposal on handling the embarrassing $1.66M shortfall in the budget proposal submitted to the state.

I was put in mind of an Abbott and Costello routine.

There was much back-and-forth over which item was being discussed from the worksheet of adjustments recommended by the administration, leaving CBAC and audience members scratching their heads at points.

This was underscored by a shortage of handouts for the public, but more importantly from the format (evidently) of the budget document itself. I was reminded exactly why governors and presidents like to talk about a 'line-item veto' -- because, as in many forms of contracts and other legal documents, EVERY SINGLE LINE OF THE DOCUMENT IS NUMBERED (something Excel can do automatically), making it easy for all to know exactly where the discussion is focusing.

It also seemed to me that there would have been a much shorter and easier-to-follow discussion if we had used an old-fashioned technology like foils to project the page on a screen for all to follow along. Old-fashioned perhaps, but effective.

Finally, the explanation wrangled out was along these lines --

• The $1.66M is a shortfall in REVENUES, owing to a typo in the proposed budget;
• Robinson-Briggs proposes to correct the problem with TWO adjustments --
• (1) Use $3.131M of the surplus instead of the originally proposed $2.3M, an increase of $831,000.
• (2)Reduce the reserve for uncollected taxes from $3.929M to $3.097M, meaning a reduction of $832,000 to be raised as revenues.
• Together, the two cancel out the $1.66M error.

When Councilor Burney asked whose responsibility it was to 'fix' the error: would the Administration have to resubmit the proposed budget to the State or what, Dashield threw the ball to the Council, saying they would have to address the matter through their amendments of the original proposal. (Thanks, guys.)

Dashield explained that the reduction in the amount to be raised for reserves against uncollected taxes was pushed to the maximum allowed by the State in view of the size of the error being adjusted for.

Showing itself unwilling to just take the Administration's word for it, the Council asked for the auditors to come to Thursday's budget hearing and explain that the Administration's proposal on the reserve for uncollected taxes was based on a reasonable expectation.

The Council would be remiss in its fiduciary responsibilities if it did not use this as an opportunity to ask 'Who made the error: the city or the auditors?' (The city claimed in the media that it was made by the auditors.)

I think Mayor Robinson-Briggs is making an enormous gamble here.

Solving the shortfall by reducing the amount set aside for uncollected taxes assumes that the taxes collected in the upcoming fiscal year will not only meet, but will actually exceed, this year's rate. The Administration would put the city in a real pickle if there is not enough blood to be squeezed from the stone.

In this regard, we need to bear in mind the dire projections for the New Jersey economy for the next year, as reported widely in today's papers.

As New Jersey, and Plainfield along with it, sinks into what is expected to be the deepest, sharpest and longest recession since the 1930s, Robinson-Briggs' rosy scenario may just be a pipe-dream.

In which case, the City could well fall into an emergency situation in the middle of the budget year and face either raising taxes or cutting services on an emergent basis.

Not a pleasant prospect.

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-- Dan Damon

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Budget Advisory Committee reports to Council

After weeks of hard work, Plainfield's Citizens Budget Advisory Committee finally got to make its report to the City Council at Monday evening's agenda session.

Sort of.

Chairperson Bill Amirault was put under considerable pressure to present the committee's extensive report in the 15 minutes he was allotted. (The presentation wasn't even on the Council's agenda, and the Committee received word the presentation would be 'on' only about an hour and a half before the meeting.)

Interestingly, Douglas Peck, the Director of Finance and Administration, whose responsibilities include the budget process, was not in attendance last evening.

The presentation, without any time limit being mentioned, had originally been scheduled for November 10th, though Council President Gibson said at that meeting that he expected the report to be made privately to the Council.

After clarification by Councilor Burney, Amirault was set up and ready to go when his presentation was bumped by Councilor Carter as chair of the committee-of-the-whole to give the Tsunami Track Club advocates time to present.

During that brief presentation, Amirault received word that his mother-in-law had died suddenly and had to leave. Hence the two week delay in the report's presentation.

I have put a copy of the CBAC report online here (to print a copy, click on the down arrow next to the 'iPaper' icon and select 'print' --

PlainfieldBudget-FY2009-CBAC-Report Get your own at Scribd or explore others: budget Plainfield

You will find it thorough, with many interesting proposals. And don't miss the detail pages at the end.

Among the recommendations were that the City start its budget process earlier, and set the committee up earlier.

This makes good sense, but I can testify from personal experience -- the McWilliams administration once got its budget process fired up in late April -- that it is not as easy as it seems. To boot, the whole budget calendar is complicated by--

• a) having to have the auditors close the previous year's books (it takes time), and
  
  
• b) having to wait on the state to supply its annual aid figure before a budget can be struck by the Council.

The earliest I can remember a budget being enacted was September 21, and that year we were among the very first communities to do so.

The Council thanked the committee members for their work, and I hope you will too.

I would hope that next year the process could be a little more formalized, perhaps with the Committee members sworn in at a Council meeting, and a list of members appended to the report, as well as a more openly stated expectation that the report was not only for the Council, but for the public.

That being said, it's good to have the CBAC back.

Congratulations all around.

The final adoption has been set back owing to the Local Finance Board's expected -- but very late -- December 10 meeting to approve the City's request for waivers on the state's cap on both the expenses and levy sides of the ledger.

Councilor Burney obtained a consensus last evening that the Council would hold two special meetings to finish the budget process --

• Tuesday, December 16, 7 PM: Introducing the amended budget;
  
  
• Monday, December 22, 7 PM: Adoption of the FY2009 budget (also the first day of Hannukkah)

A public hearing will allow for citizen input before a final vote is taken.

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-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield mayor's 'kill-the-messenger' attitude on budget review

Thank you for volunteering. (From Framed Fathers.)

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs is not scoring any points with citizen-volunteers when she sends City Administrator Marc Dashield out to trash the efforts of the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee, or CBAC, (to which, by the way, she appointed members) who reviewed the proposed FY2009 budget.

Completely ignoring the City's late start on the process, and numerous glitches, confusion and embarrassments along the way -- including, but not limited to, the disappointing performance of Robinson-Briggs' hand-picked Director of Finance and Administration Douglas Peck, whom she summarily fired in the middle of the budget process -- Dashield attempts to defend the Administration's budget proposal by disparaging the CBAC recommendations.

Councilor Burney has done everyone a favor by posting Dashield's presentation online (see here).

Bernice Paglia at the Plaintalker (here) and Dr. Yood at Doc's Potpourri (here) have followed the budget process closely, and you can find my posts on the FY2009 budget gathered here.

The problem here is that if there are shortcomings in the CBAC review, they flow directly from the charge given to the group and oversight (or lack of it) lent by the Administration.

From everything I have heard, the group was pretty much left to its own devices.

This was a poor policy decision on the Administration's part, and Robinson-Briggs should take the rap for failing to give the group a mentor or go-to person to answer questions as work proceeded and steer them away from pitfalls.

(For example, while it is admirable to want to start the budget process early with informal preparation by departments and hearings by the Council as CBAC proposes, the actual budget document proposed by the Administration cannot be presented to the Council formally until the auditors close the books for the fiscal year. With a year ending June 30, that means an optimistic date would come near Labor Day. CBAC can hardly be blamed for not understanding this if no one pointed it out to them.)

I got a call from a reader yesterday who is quite perturbed at the 'Other' category in the budget documents. This merits a post of its own, but suffice it to say that categorizing large dollar amounts -- such as the $3M the CBAC noted -- as 'other' without any further differentiation leads people to suspect abuse, if not worse. More transparency would be a better policy, and it is understandable the CBAC would zero in on the 'other' category as the Council should also.

But who is to blame for that?

It is Robinson-Briggs and her Administration, after all, who prepared this budget.

Adopting a 'kill-the-messenger' attitude is symptomatic of Robinson-Briggs' approach to citizens if they do not see eye-to-eye with her in every regard.

How could anyone think that after you have asked busy people to take a big chunk of their valuable time out to work on reviewing the budget, as volunteers, with inadequate preparation, blaming them is a good idea?

This year, the CBAC got to review the budget.

Next year, they and the rest of the residents get to review Robinson-Briggs.

A point you would think she would keep in mind.

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-- Dan Damon

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