Agenda for tonight's Muhlenberg advisory group meeting

Hundreds protested Muhlenberg's closure.

Plainfielders can attend a public meeting of the Muhlenberg Community Advisory Group tonight, the first since its belated inception (Assemblyman Jerry Green and Mayor Robinson-Briggs only established the group nearly a year after the hospital's closure when Commissioner Heather Howard threatened to take the matter into her own hands -- see my report on that here).

Here is tonight's agenda, as distributed in an email blast by Dottie Gutenkauf --

• 7:30: Overview of the CAG’s Purpose, Accomplishments (co-chairs Assemblyman Green & Mayor Robinson-Briggs)
  
  
• 7:45: Overview of Current & Transferred Services—Satellite Emergency Department, Muhlenberg Campus (Adam Beder, Solaris)
  
  
• 8:00: Overview of Services: Plainfield Neighborhood Health Center (Rudine Smith, PNHC)
  
  
• 8:15: Status of Litigation (Ventantonio & Wildenham, attorneys representing Plainfield in the appeal to State Court)
  
  
• 8:30: Community Health Needs Assessment; Information Gathering; Questions & Answers (Eugene Baucum, PNHC)

There has been much discussion and concern over transportation issues (service provided by Solaris, vouchers for transport to Trinitas and the Plainfield Rescue Squad), and they may be raised tonight.

As a refresher, you may want to check out the State's conditions on Muhlenberg's closure which I posted online in June 2008 (see here), recalling the list of key points in the closure --

• COMMUNITY ADVISORY GROUP: Solaris will set up and appoint co-chairs of an advisory group [since superseded by the CAG] to be in place for at least three years and charged with monitoring the closure process, performance of conditionally mandated services, 'explore options' for reinstatement of medical residency program, and examine the need for any services approved (by the state) for closure;
  
  
• MIDWIFE PROGRAM: Solaris to totally fund a physician to oversee midwifery services at the Neighborhood Health Center (NHC) for at least two years;
  
  
• OUTPATIENT PRIMARY CARE: Solaris shall 'initiate' primary care services 'at Muhlenberg or in conjuncion/agreement with NHC' Mon-Fri, half-day Sat and 2 days with evening hours;
  
  
• TRANSPORTATION: Solaris will be required to operate, at no cost to passengers and without regard to insurance status --
  
  
• SHUTTLE: MRMC to JFK, continuous, Noon-8:30 PM, 7 days/week
• MEDICAL TAXI: Contracted door-to-door service in Muhlenberg's primary and secondary areas, for non-emergent services at JFK (this section does not mention insurance status);
• AMBULANCE: Transport by contracted services from Muhlenberg's satellite ER to area providers, on a 24/7 basis;
• TRINITAS: Solaris to provide SCHEDULED transportation for obstetrics and behavioral health patients and their families at no cost from Muhlenberg's satellite ER to Trinitas (details of pre-natal/obstetric care by Trinitas are not provided other than a general statement of its 'willingness to serve');
  
  
• OUTREACH: An outreach effort, 'especially to the medically indigent', to ensure all residents of the hospital service areas have access to AVAILABLE SERVICES at the two Solaris locations -- JFK and Muhlenberg ER;
  
  
• DaVITA DIALYSIS CENER: Solaris shall not terminate the lease unless DaVita has obtained an alternative site 'within the same service area'; and lastly,
  
  
• COMMUNICATIONS PLAN: Solaris must notify the public with ads in Spanish and English in at least two newspapers, as well as advising impacted hospitals and EMS providers 15 days in advance of closure.

In addition, the state is now recommending the satellite ER be kept open for at least FIVE years (rather than three), and outline detailed transportation concessions proposed to be mandated for five years.

However, there were some weasel words: skipping over exactly to what extent Trinitas is taking on obstetrics patients and compelling midwifery oversight funding for only two years (much else is for five).

Assemblyman Jerry Green originally posted the CAG roster on his blog July 13, 2009 (see here) as follows --

1) Assemblyman Jerry Green
2) Sharon Robinson-Briggs, Mayor
3) Marc Dashield, City Administrator (now presumably Bibi Taylor)
4) Rashid Burney, Council President (now presumably Annie McWilliams)
5) Marc Collicchio, Municipal Health Officer
6) Jenny Purnell, Plainfield Rescue Squad
7) B.J. Fleming, Captain – Plainfield Fire Division (alt. Firefighter Sheldon Green)
8) Troy Edwards, Sgt. – Plainfield Police Division (alt. P.O. William Tyler)
9) Colleen Mahr, Mayor (Fanwood)
10) Carmen Salvarrietta, Community Activist
11) Dottie Gutenkauf, Community Activist
12) Jay Jimenez, St. Peter's University Hospital
13) Lynn Kearny, Rahway Hospital
14) Dennis McGill, MD, Somerset Regional Medical Center

If you are concerned that Solaris is living up to the terms of the Muhlenberg closure agreement or if you have any questions about the process you should be present at tonight's meeting.

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Muhlenberg Community Advisory Group

Tonight, 7:30 PM

Washington Community School
427 Darrow Avenue
(Parking available in the Spooner Avenue lot)

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• Plainfield Today --
• 7/19/2009: "Something odd about upcoming Muhlenberg forum"
• 6/19/2008: "PT exclusive: State's Muhlenberg closure recommendations"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Let there be no mistake: Bernice BROKE the Senior Center story Monday afternoon!

Let there be no mistake: Bernice BROKE the Senior Center story early Monday afternoon (see her post here), as opposed to merely 'commenting' on it (as I erroneously tagged the link to the Courier story on today's CLIPS blog (see here).

That being said, there are plenty of unanswered questions about how we came to be in the current situation. Hopefully those will be addressed, providing more opportunities for nimble bloggers to BREAK THE NEWS.

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• Plainfield Plaintalker: "Senior Center costs: More than $1"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Last night's Board of Ed meeting a warmup for tonight's League forum

With Plainfield's school board election less than a week away, last night's BOE meeting focusing on the personnel brouhaha showed the public is becoming highly engaged. The BOE's meeting room, a former school auditorium, was jammed to the walls, with an overflow crowd in the adjacent hallway.

Speakers stood patiently in line for an opportunity to quiz, challenge and vent at the Board of Ed and Superintendent Steve Gallon over the personnel mess that has drawn unflattering attention to Plainfield -- first from the media, and now from Gov. Chris Christie himself.

Though laced with bitter humor that drew bursts of laughter from the audience -- there were references to Dr. Gallon as a 'criminal' and 'the fox in charge of the henhouse' -- the gist of speakers' comments was dead serious.

The months-long tussle over the hirings of uncertified Florida colleagues of Dr. Gallon as top administrators in the district culminated in a damning state report (the OFAC report, see here [PDF]), making the issue -- rightly or wrongly -- the touchstone for the election.

Speaker after speaker lambasted the Board of Ed for its perceived foot-dragging on the issue, and called for voters to reject anyone who supports Dr. Gallon's policies, personnel decisions, corrective action plan or other proposals.

If it is a 'throw the baby out with the bathwater' moment, the blame rests squarely with Dr. Gallon for both his management of the crisis and his personal style, considered haughty and dismissive.

Though the Board finally made some personnel decisions (after I left at 10ish), as reported on Maria's blog (see here, and here), these may be seen as too little, too late by residents who feel the Board has equivocated for months.

In any event, all this is warmup for tonight's League of Women Voters forum, at 6:30 PM at the Emerson Community School.

This will be the last opportunity to see and hear all fourteen candidates, and to pose any question you think is important.

2010 marks the 90th anniversary year of the Plainfield chapter of the League (one of the earliest formed), and attendees will see why the organization has had such staying power: no soap opera, no drama, just hard but fair questioning of the candidates with all given an equal opportunity to persuade voters of the justice of their cause.

See you there!

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League of Women Voters: Board of Ed Candidate Forum.

Wednesday - April 14
6:30 - 9:00 PM

Emerson Community School
East 3rd Street and Emerson Avenue

All fourteen BOE candidates have been invited to take part in the League's candidate forum.
The LWV, an organization open to women and men of all political parties,
maintains the 'gold standard' in candidate forums, with a trained volunteer moderator
from outside the community and the opportunity for all attendees to submit written questions
to one or all of the candidates. More information at the LWV website here.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Council not happy with Senior Center bait-and-switch

Senior Center, under construction.

Hey, Plainfielders! The next time Jerry Green tells you something 'won't cost the taxpayers a dime', grab your wallet or purse and run, RUN, RUN in the opposite direction as fast as your little feet will take you.

If you don't, you're likely to find yourself subject of a bait-and-switch ploy.

A resolution (R-138-10) quietly slipped into last night's Council agenda provoked questions by the public that led to a Council discussion that ended with the resolution tabled pending answers to a number of questions.

Dr. Harold Yood (known affectionately to all as the blogger 'Olddoc') was the first to speak when the public comments section was opened up, and he zeroed in on the resolution, which was to authorize the mayor to execute an agreement with Dornoch Plainfield, LLC, for the PURCHASE of 400 East Front Street, Unit 101 for use as a Senior Citizen Center and Unit 102 for use as a Veterans Center.

Jim Pivnichny, Republican candidate for mayor last year, seconded Dr. Yood's questions.

Yood, Pivnichny and I all recalled that the Senior Center was supposed to be 'free' (Assemblyman Green's word) -- well, alright, it was to cost $1. That is the same amount for which the property was conveyed by the City to the UCIA and thence to the developer.

Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson agreed, but noted that that was for a 'plain vanilla box' and that the dollar amount involved here -- $257,000 -- was for work done to outfit the space for its actual uses.

This provoked a long discussion between Council members Mapp, McWilliams and Storch and the Administration over the expenditures, how they were decided upon, why they were so high, and whether or not there were other shoes to drop in this matter.

When Councilor McWilliams protested that the matter was being presented 'undiscussed' and that there was no money to pay for this, I thought I heard Mr. Williamson say it could be taken out of the bond ordinance for $4.4M which had been adopted just moments before.

Councilor Mapp stated in no uncertain terms that that was not permissible.

Councilor Storch moved to table the resolution. Having a second, Council President tried to bring the matter to a vote when Councilor Reid objected that he had a question. McWilliams explained that a motion to table is privileged, stops all discussion, and must be voted up or down before the meeting can move forward.

The Council voted 5-1 to table the motion (Reid voted no, Councilor Burney was absent).

I have two really big questions about this whole mess --

First, how could the Administration authorize work to be done to the tune of $257,000 without first coming to the Council for authorization to spend the monies?

Who authorized the work to be done? By whom was the work done? Were the state's public bidding laws violated in having the work done? Why was nothing ever presented to the Council before this? And why wasn't the matter on last week's agenda-setting session?

This reminds me of the extra-legal goings-on under Mayor Robinson-Briggs' first city administrator, who spent over $100,000 without Council approval. He left under a cloud.

Second, I question the reference to a PURCHASE of the Senior Center and Veterans Center units.

In the Developer's Agreement (see link at end of post), Section 9 (b) says that 'upon issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy for the Senior Citizens Center, ANY HOLDER OF A MORTGAGE OR OTHER ENCUMBRANCE OR LIEN UPON THE PROPERTY in accordance with this Agreement shall execute a WRITTEN RELEASE OF THE SENIOR CENTER in recordable form' (page 9, emphasis mine). This would seem to indicate the Senior Center is the City's, period. Alright, maybe we'll have to cough up a dollar.

As for the Veterans Center, the Developer's Agreement addresses this issue in two places: Section 7. (a) (iii) says the veterans area shall be used as a sales model until all units are sold (page 4), and Section 8. (b), which provides that upon sale of ALL the condo units, the developer shall convey 'a fee simple interest' in the Veterans Center to the City for $1 (page 8).

If anything, the Administration has either got it wrong or is being disingenuous.

Since the Developer's Agreement is between the UCIA and the developer, what standing does the City have to modify any of the terms of the Agreement?

The Council is perfectly right to demand answers to the questions that have been raised before they do anything along the lines proposed by the Robinson-Briggs Administration.

NOTE ABOUT VIEWING THE DEVELOPER'S AGREEMENT:

The upside-down issue came from the way Staples did the scan.

Here's the fix --

Click on the document window and make sure it is loaded.

Right-click on the document and select 'Rotate clockwise'; this will make a quarter-turn of the document. Do it again and the document will be right-side up and easy to read.

If you're left-handed, you can rotate counterclockwise, as long as you do it twice.

Note however, that if you revisit the document in the future you will have to rotate it again.

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• Plainfield Today: "Monarch Condo documents: Developer's Agreement"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Muhlenberg's oldest nursing alum celebrates 97th

Mildred Goff's 1934 graduation portrait.

Mildred Goff Garrett, 1934 Muhlenberg Nursing School alumna, recently celebrated her 97th birthday. Mrs. Garrett is shown above in her graduation portrait and below in a recent photo.

Her son, Bill Garrett, is a Plainfield history buff and preservation enthusiast, and has donated thousands of historic photographs from the Paul R. Collier collection to the Plainfield Public Library.

Mildred Goff Garrett now lives in Wolfeboro, N.H.

Bill relates that upon graduation his mother became the head nurse in charge of the 'accident room' (in the days before Emergency Rooms). The job required living at the hospital. If there was an emergency at night, she would go down, unlock the door and turn on the lights before the ambulance arrived.

Bill's father George drove the ambulance (there was no Rescue Squad until years later) and the couple met when he brought a patient to the 'accident room'. Their first date was a bus trip to Newark -- for ice cream sodas! Since the hospital discouraged fraternization between employees, Mildred and George used to slip off to a small brick bus shelter at the corner of Park Avenue and Randolph Road to be alone.

The 1929 Buick ambulance that Mildred's future husband George drove.

According to Bill, there was a dog living at the hospital. Occasionally he would disappear and George would have to go looking for him, usually finding him sleeping on some patient's bed, getting his ears scratched. (So today's 'therapy dogs' may not be such a new thing after all.)

Mildred also identified the operating room staff members in the Collier photo below, taken ca. 1940.

Operating Room in the 'old wing' of Muhlenberg, ca. 1940.
From left: Dr. Valentine, Dr. Hayward Day, Dr. Wolfe Lurie,
O.R. Supervisor Evelyn Lawson, and Mildred Bahr, RN.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Four meetings NOT to miss this week

Plainfielders actively concerned over some of the city's biggest issues are well-advised to rest up, remember to take their vitamins (and maybe an extra cup of strong coffee) and mark their calendars for FOUR must-attend events this week.

Beginning TONIGHT, if you own or operate a business in Plainfield. The City Council will take up a revised ordinance updating license fees affecting businesses at tonight's meeting. You may want to check out Mark Spivey's summary in today's Courier (see here).

The others are --

• TUESDAY, 7 PM: School District's Corrective Action Plan

The 49-page BOE agenda includes a Corrective Action Plan addressing the findings of the OFAC investigation into hiring practices in the District (see page 15 of the agenda, which is here [PDF]). Note: The meeting begins with a student performance/presentation. At the Board of Ed Administration Building (Jefferson School), 1200 Myrtle Avenue. Public welcome.

• WEDNESDAY, 6:30 PM: League of Women Voters Board of Ed Candidate Forum

All fourteen BOE candidates have been invited to take part in the League's candidate forum. The LWV, an organization open to women and men of all political parties, maintains the 'gold standard' in candidate forums, with a trained volunteer moderator from outside the community and the opportunity for all attendees to submit written questions to one or all of the candidates. More information at the LWV website here. At Emerson Community School, East 3rd Street and Emerson Avenue. FREE.

• THURSDAY, 7:30 PM: Muhlenberg Community Advisory Group's first public meeting

The first public meeting of the entity organized in the wake of the closure of Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in August 2008, which is charged with monitoring compliance by Solaris Health System with the terms of the closure. At Washington Community School, 427 Darrow Avenue. (Parking available in the Spooner Avenue lot.)

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Census2010: Plainfield Caravan of Errors

City Hall's lawn has suddenly sprouted Census signs.

Plainfield Today has heard back-channel grumbling about Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' lack of communication with Census2010 officials about Plainfield's planned participation in the outreach activities associated with the final push to get folks to mail in their Census forms.

Communities nationwide were scheduled to participate in local 'March to the Mailbox' events on Friday, but there was no word on Plainfield's website about whether and how Plainfield would participate.

Running into former mayoral candidate Jim Pivnichny Friday evening, I learned that the Mayor's office had left him a voicemail in the morning -- the day OF -- which he did not hear until AFTER the event was over.

Also got to chat with one of the Hispanic leaders in town whom the Mayor mentioned by name in response to Council President McWilliams' inquiries about the Mayor's 'Complete Count Committee' at a Council meeting months ago. I asked how the committee's work had gone, and she replied, 'What committee?' Seems the Mayor never got around to inviting her participation, despite the very public announcement.

The Courier did get the word about the mid-day march, however, and dispatched beat reporter Mark Spivey and photographer Kathy Johnson to cover the event, which appeared in Saturday's print and online editions (see here). For some reason, the Courier has taken down the 81 photos originally posted to its online gallery here. As of Sunday morning, visitors were greeted with the following web page:

The Courier has inexplicably removed Mayor Sharon's 'March to the Mailbox' photos.

I got a call Friday afternoon that there would be a SECOND event at City Hall at 5:00 PM.

This turned out to be a caravan using a float operated by Census2010 staffers.

When it didn't appear at City Hall, I was advised to hotfoot it over to McDonald's, where the crew was said to be assembling. By time I got there, parked in the County Office Building lot and walked around the corner, the float was nowhere to be seen.

In the few minutes I had been navigating, they had taken off westward on Front Street towards points determined by Mayor Robinson-Briggs' confidential assistant Barbara James.

The Elmwood Gardens visit was somewhat muted (Reader-submitted photo).

The caravaners' adventures included a swing by Elmwood Gardens, see photo above, where an observer tells me the desired impact was tempered by the presence of the Police Division's narcotics unit being there at the same time.

The crowning touch of Ms. James caravan route, however, was to guide the Census2010 crew to the Bravo Supermarket at West 7th Street and Clinton Avenue, which is NOT in Plainfield, but rather in South Plainfield, which also happens to be in Middlesex County.

Mayor Robinson-Briggs was spared any embarrassment by this gaffe by not being present for the caravan at all.

All of which leaves unanswered the basic question which has bothered Plainfield's Census2010 campaign from its outset: Is the lack of a plan, a committee and clear communications purposeful (to undercut the count and leave CDBG funding in the hands of the County's Dem machine)?, or is it simply a further manifestation of the general bumbling of the Robinson-Briggs administration?

Cynics are equally divided over the matter.

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• Courier: "Plainfield urges residents to participate in Census"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Bob Franks, former Congressman represented Plainfield

Former Congressman Bob Franks.

Bob Franks, former Congressman who represented Plainfield before the redistricting after the 2000 Census, passed away suddenly early Saturday from an aggressive cancer only diagnosed in February.

Though he would tell you Bobby Kennedy had been an inspiration, Bob's first great political feat was developing the strategy against Gov. Jim Florio's tax increases that led to a GOP landslide that swept Democrats from power.

Bob represented Plainfield in Congress for four terms in the 1990s. After the 2000 Census, New Jersey's redistricting added Plainfield to the already-safe district of Rep. Frank Pallone.

Plainfielders will remember him as an unfailing gentleman, a true bipartisan eager and willing to work across the aisle with Democrats to foster projects aimed at strengthening New Jersey's economy and prosperity.

He was an old-fashioned New Jersey Republican, the kind whose socially moderate views and fiscal conservatism won many Democratic votes; sadly, this kind of Republican seems to have no place in today's Grand Old Party.

That is a loss to America as great as the loss of Bob Franks is to the residents of New Jersey.

Below are links to various obituaries and assessments of Bob's life and contributions.

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• Ledger, Tom Moran: "A personal appreciation of a political gentleman"
• PolitickerNJ --
• Obituary: "Bob Franks dies at 58"
• Statements: "Statements on former Congressman Bob Franks"
  
• 'Wally Edge': "The Bob Franks Story"
  
• NYTimes: "Former New Jersey Congressman dies"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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'Monetizing' Plainfield Today?

Google's AdSense displays ads on blog pages.

Plainfield Today finally took the 'monetizing' plunge.

Google, which owns Blogger, the service that hosts Plainfield Today and CLIPS is constantly nudging bloggers to try and get a little income from their efforts by using Google's 'AdSense' ad-placing service.

Once you are approved and set up an account, Google supplies the code for placing small ads on a blogger's pages (those on Plainfield Today will be in the right-hand column and at the bottom of the most recent post).

They are supposed to reflect a blog's geographical or topical niche.

I'm not so sure -- the first ad that popped up was for a bridal service, something that I wouldn't associate with the PT reader profile. The next was for a Westfield-based business. We already have enough folks shopping in Westfield, so I was a little leery of that one.

As I learn the ins and outs of the ads, there may be a way to fine-tune them.

The minute I see one for an erectile dysfunction product though, I'm outta here.

Meanwhile, I await the promised cheques. Perhaps there will be enough to buy a cup of coffee.

Eventually.

There will also be PSAs -- Public Service Announcements.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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And the winner is ... a Plainfield Today reader!

ShopRite has been running a grocery giveaway contest in the Courier.

A Plainfield Today reader is the lucky winner of the Courier's most recent grocery giveaway -- $100 worth of groceries every week for the rest of this year.

Congratulations to Rosemary Pittis.

Many may know Rosemary as a member of the Plainfield Music Club, a soprano soloist much sought after and an accomplished harpist -- that would the Irish harp (clàirseach).

She and her husband Albert (known to everyone as 'Al') are also stalwarts of the Netherwood Heights Historic District.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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State forces removal of mayor's City Hall banner

The election pitch was deemed campaign speech and painted over.

The banner acknowledging Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' selection as the Gateway Chamber of Commerce's 2009 mayor of the year had long overstayed its welcome by the lights of many Plainfielders.

Originally depicting the mayor pumping her fist in the air, and sporting a button that read 'Sharon for Mayor', the ethically challenged banner was altered (see above) with red paint smeared over the portion of the button that made it campaign art after public protest.

Yet the banner hung on, through snow, through rain, through heat, through gloom of night -- and hung on, and hung on, well beyond any decent interval.

That is, until the New Jersey Historic Trust learned that the jerry-rigged lines holding up Her Honor's visage could damage the sandstone columns on the facade of Plainfield's historic City Hall.

You will recall that the NJ Historic Trust has funded the restoration of City Hall's exterior, including completely rebuilt windows, and does not take kindly to cavalier abuse of historic properties it preserves.

Once Trenton got on the horn, the banner quickly vanished.

Which, of course, only means that City Hall's exterior has been rescued for now, but that is no guarantee it is safe from future predations.

How long City Hall will escape further predation is anyone's guess.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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BREAKING: Carjacking and kidnapping

A carjacking and kidnap occurred outside Plainfield's Red Tower diner overnight Thursday.

Two black males and a black female brandished a shotgun and a handgun against an Hispanic male. He was abducted from the scene and later turned loose, suffering a head injury from being hit. The three then drove away in the victim's car.

More info as it becomes available.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Two visions of America on Sunday: MLK's and Malcolm X's

Plainfielders have a unique opportunity to asssess the conflicting visions of America held by two iconic figures from the tumultous 1960s: Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.

The two are featured in a fictitious meeting in Malcolm X's suite at Harlem's famed Hotel Theresa in Jeff Stetson's 'The Meeting'. The play is being offered at the Plainfield Public Library on Sunday.

Street-savvy, totally urban and looking at the issues from the bottom up, Malcolm has invited the Southern Baptist minister who preaches nonviolent resistance to meet and share their views.

The time is 1965, just days before Malcolm X was assassinated in another Harlem landmark the Audubon Ballroom, and the meeting is laced with bitter humor and the tension created because the audience knows of real outcomes of which the characters are unaware.

Forty-five years later, we can see what an impact the Voter Registration Act of 1965, about which Dr. King was passionate, has had. We observe a federal holiday in his memory.

Meanwhile, Malcolm X, who mocked the civil rights movement, is not often or deeply recalled.

But is it because he struck too close to a nerve?

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'The Meeting'
Dramatization of the historic meeting
between Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.

Produced by Shades of Truth Theatre
Sponsored by the Plainfield Public Library

Tickets: $10/adults, $5 kids
$25 for the play plus a champagne reception to meet the artists
Info: (908) 757-1111 x111

In the Anne Louise Davis Room
Plainfield Public Library
Park Avenue and 8th Street

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Gallon and the OFAC report: More than enough blame to go around

Plainfield's schools superintendent Dr. Steve Gallon may have hoped that Tuesday evening's discussion of the OFAC investigation into hiring practices in the district would put the matter behind him and the board.

Not likely -- in fact, it seems the discussion will be continued at the Board's business meeting slated for April 13.

Reading the OFAC report (online here) will simply take your breath away.

Chicanery? Duplicitousness? Disingenuousness? Dupery? Wiliness?

Check, check, check, check and check.

Dr. Gallon comes off poorly.

But the report also leaves questions in my mind about Dr. Bailey's involvement: Were the failures to document HR decisions a sign of complicity in Gallon's schemes or a lack of competent management?

And the Board comes off looking no better.

I understand that with a thousand employees, Board members do not have the time to -- nor should they need to -- vet each and every applicant.

That being said, the positions in question were among the top jobs in the District. Should folks be so casual in these decisions? I don't think so.

And for the one prospect that required a Master's degree not to have one -- though Gallon held to the Board that the applicant met the qualifications -- raises the issue of whether all the Board members met the threshold of their responsibilities at the time of the hiring (and that includes Campbell and Logan-Leach) or whether everyone was just in a go-along, get-along mode.

Reading the OFAC report, you will also learn that Gallon uncovered sixteen other job slots whose holders did not have proper certifications, dating back to before he arrived.

One BOE member told me that the problem 'went back for years', but a former Board member and president said that no such problem existed during the years that Dr. Larry Leverett was superintendent.

If true, that would put the time at which the district started being a place for persons without proper certifications to start getting plum jobs somewhere around the period in which Assemblyman Green's first slate (which included current Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs as well as current BOE member Lisa Logan-Leach) was elected and/or the arrival of former superintendent Dr. Paula Howard.

In any event, now is the perfect time to clean up that mess, and any candidate who does not vow to do so is not worthy of your vote.

It is also galling to find that not only did Ms. Kelly not possess the Master's degree at the time of hiring that she and Dr. Gallon attested to, the District subsequently reimbursed her tuition expenses for same.

This boggles the imagination, meaning Plainfield taxpayers are reimbursing Kelly for tuition for a degree she needed to have to qualify for the position in the first place, but did not have, and completed work on after she became a district employee.

As the husband of one BOE candidate remarked to me recently, 'mistakes have been made all around'.

It makes one wonder whether there is more to the story of Peter Carter's interim superintendency (and abrupt departure) than we are ever going to learn about and whether it would bolster or diminish our sense of confidence in the Board.

This is sure to be the most closely watched -- and hopefully with the highest voter turnout -- BOE race of recent years.

You won't want to miss the opportunity to have your questions answered by the candidates at next week's League of Women Voters forum (details below).

NOTE: I was puzzled by the refusal of the Board to allow the representatives from 101.5 radio to tape the meeting, saying that permission had not been sought (see story here). The taping of public meetings has been upheld in the New Jersey courts and while public bodies are allowed to impose 'reasonable guidelines' on such taping, I believe that ADVANCE PERMISSION is not among them. Moreover, that policy must be written and available to the public when a challenge arises. Surprised that the radio crew did not put the squeeze on the Board's attorney.

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League of Women Voters: Board of Ed Candidate Forum.

Wednesday - April 14
6:30 - 9:00 PM

Emerson Community School
East 3rd Street and Emerson Avenue

All fourteen BOE candidates have been invited to take part in the League's candidate forum.
The LWV, an organization open to women and men of all political parties,
maintains the 'gold standard' in candidate forums, with a trained volunteer moderator
from outside the community and the opportunity for all attendees to submit written questions
to one or all of the candidates. More information at the LWV website here.

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• Office of Fiscal Accountability and Compliance: "Plainfield, Case No. 150-09" (PDF)
• 101.5 FM: "Double-talking school superintendent in Plainfield"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Board of Ed takes up state report tonight

Plainfield's Board of Ed will take up the report on the state's investigation into the hiring of three of Superintendent Steve Gallon's top aides.

The report, which casts the affair in an unflattering light, mandate the Board to adopt a 'corrective action plan' that must be approved by County Superintendent of Schools Carmen Centuolo.

(I'll take this up in more depth later -- jury duty today.)

The public portion of the Board of Ed meeting is slated to start at 8:00 PM at the district headquarters (Jefferson School), 1200 Myrtle Avenue.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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A peek at another form of School Board

Antique ballot box (Smithsonian Institution).

As Plainfield heads into its annual Board of Education election, some may be interested in the OTHER kind of Board of Ed allowed in New Jersey -- called 'Type 1' (Plainfield is one of the vast majority which are 'Type 2'.)

Today's Courier carries an item explaining what happens in New Brunswick, a Type 1 district, as the rest of us are pondering candidates and budgets (see story here).

Here is a little comparison table --

	Type 1	Type 2
Board	Appointed by the Mayor, without advice and consent.	Candidates file petitions to run. Elections are by public vote in April.
Budget	School Board proposes budget. Budget is adopted by Board of School Estimate -- comprised of 2 Board members, 2 Council members and the Mayor. The public plays no part.	School Board proposes budget. Budget is voted up or down by voters at April election. If budget fails, the Council modifies the budget and adopts it.
Changing from one to the other	Referendum.	Referendum.

Plainfield once had an appointed Board of Ed, which I do not recall with fondness.

In fact, I remember meetings so heated that one once ended with a shoving match and fisticuffs in the hall as the meeting was breakings up.

Folks may complain about the low turnout, the indifferent quality of candidates and the expense of an election, but it seems far more democratic to me to put up with all that in place of turning the largest budget in the community -- not to mention the quality of our children's education -- over to the almost-dictatorial control of a Mayor.

Any Mayor -- even a capable and presumably well-intentioned one.

Am I wrong?

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• Ledger: "New Brunswick budget, board members don't go before public"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Should the Brits tell you how to get from Elizabeth to Plainfield?

Map generated by Brit firm
shows their route with a purple line.

So, at 12:51 AM I receive an email headed: Maps and driving directions from Elizabeth and Plainfield, from a British website called distance-calculator.co.uk.

Were they really writing me? Well, not exactly, but they must have figured there were people interested in the answer to that particular question as they had published a map with that title. I snagged it because I have Google set to fetch me references to Plainfield as they occur -- which results in some weird web pages, believe me.

Evidently their computer had never been to Elizabeth or Plainfield and was unaware of Route 28, instead threading you up to Route 22 and thence west to Terill Road to Front Street to City Hall. Quite a bit longer than necessary.

But, hey, if letting the Brits tell you how to get around floats your boat, why not?

Just don't let them tell you which side of the road to drive on.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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About that cross-and-crown symbol

The cross-and-crown or 'crown of life' symbol.

As this Plainfielder prepared for Easter 2010, I remembered the little rural congregation in which I grew up.

This pietistic congregation of a pietistic denomination (Evangelical United Brethren, or 'German Methodists') preached a rather stern version of the Christian life with perhaps a little too much attention to externals (drinking, dancing, card-playing, jewelry and lipstick come to mind).

The church building's interior itself was severely plain -- it could stand up well to any New England Puritan meetinghouse -- and devoid of any symbolism except for two items.

One was a set of plain brass candlesticks and a cross, which sat upon the communion table, and were still (in the 1950s, after they were there for a dozen years or so) regarded as insufferably Papist by older members of the congregation.

The other was a maroon velvet parament embroidered in gold with a cross-and-crown symbol, which hung from the front of the pulpit. It was never changed or removed. But most notably to a youngster, it was never explained.

What was the significance of that cross-and-crown symbol?

Being in an Easter frame of mind, I was thinking it referred to Jesus' passion and death and the reward of the 'crown of life'. But that appears to be mistaken, since the two New Testament references to the term (James 1:12 and Revelation 2:10) clearly refer to it as a reward to BELIEVERS who persevere under tribulation.

Which led me to William Penn (see here), whose pamphlet (we would call it a book) No Cross, No Crown was written while his butt was parked in the infamous Tower of London for having written an earlier screed attacking perceived abuses of Church and Crown (even Pepys, no shy violet, said he was 'ashamed to read' Penn's writings).

Consider this about Quakers --

Quakers were relatively strict Christians in the seventeenth century. They refused to bow or take off their hats to social superiors, believing all men equal under God, a belief antithetical to an absolute monarchy which believed the monarch divinely appointed by God.

And this Quaker contribution --

By abolishing the church's authority over the congregation, Fox [Quakerism's founder] not only extended the Protestant Reformation more radically, but he helped extend the most important principle of modern political history – the rights of the individual – upon which modern democracies were later founded.

Suddenly, that conservative little backwater rural congregation was found to be propagating the most radical and subversive of doctrines -- the equality of all under God, and individual rights!

And, as I would learn later in life, others who shaped my life and thought drew similar lessons from the symbolism of the 'crown of life': especially Bill Stringfellow, Walter Wink, Daniel Berrigan, Malcolm Boyd and Oscar Romero.

And refusing to 'bow or take off one's hat to one's...superiors', believing all are equal under God.

Subversive stuff, this Christianity.

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• Wikipedia: "William Penn"
• William Penn: "No Cross, No Crown"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Rebirth in Plainfield, even at 661

Out of the detritus, new life.

Spring is the season of rebirth. Even in Plainfield. Even at 661.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Lesniak to bank regulator: You don't understand

State Senator Ray Lesniak was a director of the failed bank.

Years ago, before he was elected to Plainfield's City Council, the late Ray Blanco and I had a conversation with Mayor Al McWilliams about trying to interest Elizabeth's First BankAmericano in opening a branch in Plainfield.

The bank, which had as its stated mission offering a full range of banking services to the Hispanic (and Portuguese) community, seemed a perfect fit for Plainfield, where the number of Spanish-speakers had grown rapidly over the previous decade.

McWilliams agreed it would be something to look into, but in the press of everyday matters, the idea of attracting an Hispanic bank never took off, especially after George Norcross' Commerce Bank (since taken over by Toronto Dominion Bank and now known as TD Bank) became interested in Plainfield and local branches of other banks -- particularly Bank of America -- began to aggressively court Hispanic customers.

Suddenly last summer, or so it seemed to this casual observer, First BankAmericano was closed down by the FDIC, to be reopened as branches of Crown Bank (see Ledger here).

Turns out, however, that there was quite a backstory, including a severe warning letter from the FDIC in 2007 --

...Rutgers business professor Darius Palia says the FDIC's 2007 warning letter is a stunning criticism of the board of directors' policies.

"Usually it'll be two or three items. This was like a blanket," Palia says. "It's loans, management, security, capital. It was right across the board." (Story here.)

Casual observers were unaware of the scale of issues involving the bank's board of directors, or even who those directors were. And certainly unaware that Sen. Bob Menendez had attempted to intervene with the FDIC to save the bank. That is until February, when the larger story broke (see here, and here) and Lesniak and other directors' roles got more scrutiny.

Lesniak went on the counter-attack, publishing an OpEd piece on PolitickerNJ (see here), explaining that directors --

...even brought their loan needs to the bank, despite having long-standing relationships with other, bigger banks, so First BankAmericano could make the profits from the loans, a policy approved by banking regulators and a good business practice as well...

Still, the story refused to quite die.

The other day, listening to WNYC in the car, I was surprised to learn that the FDIC is looking further into the matter of the failed bank, spurring the public radio station to examine the bank's loans and finding its CEO, Holly Bakke (a former state banking commissioner), unable to explain how the bank 'ended up with such a lopsided portfolio of bad loans -- or how the board of directors allowed it to happen'.

WNYC's story went on to relate that the bank had given Lesniak a loan for $575,000 in 2002, in which he pledged a Cape Cod house as collateral, selling it two years later for $200,000 less than the loan amount.

What caught my ear next was Lesniak's voice saying --

...anybody who has any modicum of knowledge of lending practices probably at the level of the eighth or ninth grade in school understands that mortgages are given as collateral for many things (emphasis mine --DD)...

Hmmm. Mortgages given as collateral?

Having recently finished reading Niall Ferguson's Ascent of Money (also a PBS series, see here), I thought the PROPERTY (i.e., the Cape Cod house) is given as collateral, to ensure that the lender can be made whole if the borrower defaults by taking possession of the collateral. (See an explanation here.)

Not only was my understanding of the lending process -- and by inference, Niall Ferguson's -- faulty by Lesniak's lights, he implies the FDIC doesn't know what it is talking about either.

We'll see.

The FDIC after all, is THE regulator, which makes them THE DECIDER, to use a once-familiar phrase.

And the Senator is a former officer, with assets the FDIC can go after if it decides there was any hanky-panky.

The FDIC will have the final say about whether there was
hanky-panky at the failed First BankAmericano.

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• Ledger, 8/01/2009: "Regulators close NJ-based bank"
• WNYC, 12/28/2009: "Bank Autopsy: NJ's First BankAmericano"
• Examiner.com, 2/10/2010: "First BankAmericano scandal breaks wide open"
  
• Record, 2/10/2010: "Lesniak, others got insider loans at failed bank"
• OpEd, PolitickerNJ, 2/28/2010: "Lesniak on First BankAmericano"
  
• WNYC, 3/28/2010: "In New Jersey, a bank is dead, but not buried"
• PBS: "The Ascent of Money"
  
• Wikipedia: "Collateral"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Christie agrees with Assemblyman Green and vice versa

Plainfield's Democratic Assemblyman Jerry Green and New Jersey Republican governor Chris Christie have found something on which they both agree.

The first of April is a day on which to be particularly watchful.

It is even said that pranks might be played that could make confusing and ambiguous comparisons.

For instance, who is the real Joker, and who is the real King of Clubs?

On the other hand, it could be a day just like any other.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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