Youth Summit on Jobs and Education set for Saturday

 

Plainfield's first ever Youth Summit takes place Saturday(January 16) at duCret School of Art from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

The focus is positive steps to help Plainfield young people in their transition to adulthood --

• Educational opportunities
• Job training
• Conflict resolution

and more.

Hosted by Mayor Adrian O. Mapp, Plainfield young people themselves will serve as moderators for the event.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, professor of African American studies at Morehouse College. Dr. Hill is known to many for his social justice activism and journalism.

Musical performances will be presented by Brother Hahz and DJ Lil Man. Free refreshments will be served and various prizes awarded.

The event is free and open to all.

duCret School of Art is at 1020 Central Avenue (across from Cedarbrook School). The event is in the auditorium. Parking and entry in the lot at the rear of the school complex.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Mayor Mapp's Annual MLK Potluck and Food Drive Saturday

There's always a full crowd at the annual MLK Potluck.

 

Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp and First Lady Amelia are welcoming the community into their home this Saturday for the 8th Annual MLK Potluck and Food Drive.

Begun by the New Democrats club, the event has been sponsored by the Adrian Mapp Civic Association in recent years. The must-make event provides an opportunity to socialize over a potluck dinner, honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and pitch in to help fellow Plainfielders experiencing rough times.

Donations of non-perishable food items -- canned goods, pasta, beans, rice, etc., or toiletry items -- will be gathered for delivery to Shiloh Baptist Church's food bank. Items may be brought along to the potluck or left ahead of time on the mayor's porch at 535 West 8th Street.

Any kind of dish will be welcome for the potluck, which always includes an amazing variety of tasty foods plus a dessert table.

Note that this year's event gets under way at an EARLIER HOUR -- 5:00 PM.

Come along and have a good time!

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8th ANNUAL MLK POTLUCK & FOOD DRIVE
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16
5:00 PM - Midnight

The home of Mayor Adrian and Amelia Mapp
535 West 8th Street

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Council President Storch keeps word on Council conduct

Newly elected Council President Cory Storch
conducts his maiden agenda-setting session January 11.

 

Plainfield City Council's new President, Cory Storch, showed that he means what he says about the conduct of Council meetings (see his blog post on the matter here).

At the point in the meeting for "discussion items", Storch laid out his view of how he will conduct meetings.

Regarding the length of time for public comments, he asked Corporation Counsel Dave Minchello to explain the constitutional implications of not treating all speakers in a uniform fashion.

The bottom line is that all speakers will get their 3 minutes (in the first comment period) or 5 minutes (at the end of the meeting) with no extensions. Storch underscored that those desiring to speak would be well-advised to time their remarks beforehand so they can get their points made in the allotted time.

Councilor Taylor, in a hair-splitting maneuver, asked if there were no exceptions. When asked for an example, she struggled to come up with one, finally hitting on a person who may have a disability. Minchello agreed there might be an extenuating circumstance in such a case.

The rule was tested during the initial public comment period, which was almost exclusively taken up with the question of the school board election date.

Board of Ed President Wilma Campbell ran out the clock before finishing her points and looked beseechingly at Storch. Storch remained firm and the audience expressed its support for his stand.

Likewise, BOE attorney Lisa Fittipaldi, evidently unaccustomed to time constraints, ran up against the buzzer before she had made her final point. Too bad. She had to relinquish the mike.

Resident Mustapha Muhammad, who has frequently been granted multiple extensions of the time limit, kept his remarks well within the time limit.

So, it can be done.

Storch was also at pains to explain a parliamentary maneuver (Point of Order), which Council President Rivers always ignored during her tenure.

The Council's conduct was remarkably even-tempered, with no flareups. Perhaps they were on their best behavior for the night?

Councior Taylor, however, during the discussion on developing a policy for the use of emergency communications, showed off her proclivity for dead-horse-beating, catching herself in a loop of repetition that left the audience rolling its eyes.

Despite the measurable improvement in the tone and conduct of the meeting, there is still some work to be done.

The meeting still started late, owing to an executive session that spilled over into the announced meeting time (the meeting finally started at 7:43 PM). This is an even worse problem with the Board of Ed meetings.

Since there was going to be a continuation of the executive session after the agenda-setting was finished, I don't see the reason for the late start. It would be easy to have the Clerk set an alarm to go off five minutes before the scheduled public meeting time.

Murmuring and audible conversation in the audience were also problems at points in the meeting. There is no reason for this. Council President Storch has the gavel and should wield it, in my opinion, to keep order in the audience as well as at the Council table.

Three sharp cracks of the gavel are a universal signal to quiet down, and should be used as needed.

Audience members can be told to go out in the hall if they must have a conversation.

Lastly, I think that applause in support of one or another speaker should not be permitted. The prohibition has perhaps been honored more in the breach than not in the past, but it helps keep the Council meetings from devolving into a futbol brawl.

Council President Storch has got us off to a good start.

Who knows, maybe Plainfield City Council meetings will cease being a source of embarrassment and become the place where the public's business gets done in a respectable fashion.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Council majority drinks Campbell Kool-Aid, declines to address Board of Ed election move

Tasty stuff, peddled by Plainfield BOE president Wilma Campbell
and friends. (Image from Mental Floss.)

 

A majority of Plainfield City Council was unswayed by arguments for restoring the Board of Education election from April (where the Board moved it on Novembe 10) to the November general election date as provided for by law.

For more than an hour, residents, parents and members of the school board spoke for and against moving the resolution forward to next Tuesday's City Council meeting (Monday is the Columbus Day observance).

The council majority was unswayed by arguments that the cost of the election -- estimated at $115,000 annually -- was a waste of funds that could be spend "on the children". Board of Ed members and their attorney claimed not to know the costs of the proposed April election.

The council majority was unswaayed by arguments that the April date would considerably diminish voter turnout. Board of Ed members thought this issue unimportant.

The council majority was unswayed by the fact that poll hours would be cut in half (from 14 hours on the November general election day to 7 hours for an April election). Board of Education members made no comment on this point.

So, finally, when it became clear there was no consensus, a roll call vote showed a majority (Brown, Rivers, Taylor and Toliver) opposed to moving the resolution forward, with Council President Storch and Councilors Goode and Williams in favor.

The 2016 school board election will take place on Tuesday, April 19. The polls will be open from 2:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Council takes up BOE election date tonight as public questions reason for move to April

A move to April would drastically reduce voter turnout,
and classroom funding would be raided to cover the costs.

Plainfield City Council will take up a resolution tonight to move the Board of Ed elections back to November, after the school board voted November 10 in an unpublicized move to hold them in April.

Tonight's agenda is online here, and the resolution in question can be found here.

Residents have questioned the move to April and the way in which it was done. Plainfield appears to be the only school district in the state to have made such a move.

Plainfield Municipal Clerk 'AJ' Jalloh has calculated the cost to the Plainfield school district to be at least $100,000 per year for the move, since the entire cost of the election must be borne by the Plainfield district. (These costs used to be shared with all the other districts when elections were in April; now the entire cost burden will fall on Plainfield for being the only district with an April election.)

The cash-strapped school district will have to find the money by taking it away from educating the children. What justifies that?

Secondly, an April election will drastically reduce the number of voters who participate. Consider this: for the four November elections (2012-15) a total of 44,706 votes were cast for 3-year board seats; from 2005-2008, when elections were in April, the total was 16,788. So, how would reducing the turnout by 60% be "progressive"?

The public is right to question if this is a move to disenfranchise voters.

Will Board of Ed president Wilma Campbell show up to defend the Board's action to move the election to April?

City Council's agenda-setting session gets under way at 7:30 PM tonight in the Council Chambers / Courthouse, Watchung Avenue at East 4th Street. Members of the public may comment on this resolution and other items on the agenda before the Council takes any action.

(NOTE: Board of Ed member David Rutherford has posted a defense of the board's action on his blog today -- see here.)

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Dem National Convention: 'Heart and sweat' could make you a delegate

Barack Obama accepts the nomination at the 2012
Democratic National Convention.

Plainfield Democrats have an opportunity to become delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention next summer in Philadelphia, July 25-28.

A press release from the NJ Democratic State Committee issued Saturday outlines the process by which ordinary rank and file Democrats can have a crack at becoming a delegate to the national convention.

Here is the press release --

The New Jersey Democratic State Committee announces the opening of the application process for becoming a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 25–28.

The process is highly competitive and it demands that New Jersey's delegation -- which will be chosen from districts across the state -- reflects the rich diversity in our state's Democratic electorate. Delegate positions are determined by the state’s presidential primary results, which is scheduled for June 7, 2016.

New Jersey Democrats interested in applying must submit a Statement of Candidacy and Pledge of Support Form, available here njdems.org/delegate. All applications must be received by March 16, 2016.

Completed applications will be forwarded to the campaign of the Presidential candidate to whom prospective candidates are pledging support. Prospective delegates and alternates are expected to campaign within their delegate districts on behalf of their candidates. Presidential Campaigns will be responsible for selecting their delegate candidates. Once a candidate has been selected by the campaign, that candidate must file a petition with 100 valid signatures of registered Democrats who live within their Delegate District. The petition must be filed with the New Jersey Division of Elections no later than 4pm on April 4, 2016.

“The delegation selection process is very competitive, and given the close proximity of Philadelphia, I expect the competition for New Jersey's delegate and alternate positions to be even more robust than ever," said John Currie, the Chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee. "The best advice I can give to those hoping to emerge from a crowded field of applicants is to work hard at the local level. Without question, people take notice of the contributions that activists make to supporting our ticket and building the Party; they judge delegate candidates on the amount of heart and sweat they give to the campaign."

Special efforts are being made to encourage women, ethnic minorities, LGBT, youth and disabled, among others, to participate fully in the Delegate Selection Process at all levels. Half of the state’s delegation to the National Convention must be women.

Mind those deadlines, and get to work!

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Former Gov. Jim McGreevey seeking re-entry to politics?

Word has it McGreevey is considering re-entry to the world of politics.

 

The hottest Plainfield rumor is that former governor Jim McGreevey is considering re-entry into the world of elected politics

I am told the governor, who is said to be living in Jersey City, has an eye on the mayoralty of a District 22 community.

I think I can confidently say that it's not Plainfield.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield cop fired for sex on duty; Perth Amboy cop had assignations on duty, got promotion. What's up?

Video shows Perth Amboy cop getting out of unmarked pickup
for assignation in neighboring town while on duty.

 

A Plainfield cop was fired after admitting he had sex multiple times while on duty and in his prowl car. He was fired, as was reported by the Courier (here) and the Ledger (here).

The Ledger published a story Tuesday on a Perth Amboy cop who took his unmarked vehicle on many occasion during work hours to visit his "romantic partner" in neighboring Woodbridge (see story here). You can view the video of two of his visits on YouTube here.

The Perth Amboy story does not make clear the gender of the "romantic partner" and what the two did while the cop spent hours there is not known.

Later the same day as that story appeared, the Perth Amboy officer in question was promoted to lieutenant (see story here).

What I find curious is why such two similar sounding cases should have such different outcomes -- firing in one, promotion in the other.

Former police officer Fernando Sanchez is appealing Plainfield's decision to fire him after he admitted the facts of the case.

Expect to hear more about the Plainfield case.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Board of Ed Reorg Report Card: D- for Deportment

Emily Morgan signs her oath of office at Tuesday's
Board of Ed reorganization meeting.

I would give Plainfield's Board of Ed a D- for Deportment for the conduct of its 2016 reorganization meeting.

Here are the reasons why:

RUDENESS TO MRS. MORGAN

The Board (or its Secretary) were inexcusably rude in not explaining to newly-elected member Emily Morgan how exactly the evening would unfold, and why she was to be excluded from the Executive Session before the reorganization meeting.

LACK OF AGENDAS

As attendees began to arrive shortly before 7:00 PM, there were no agendas on the foyer table as is usual. There was some flurry finally, after the new members had been sworn in, and the agendas were produced from a box on the stage and distributed to members of the audience by Business Administrator Gary Ottman.

ILLEGAL EXECUTIVE SESSION

An example of a properly noticed
Board of Ed Executive Session.

The Executive Session before the meeting appears to have been illegally conducted. Nowhere on the District's website can there be found any requisite notice of a public meeting then closed for executive session. Nor is there any indication on the Reorganization agenda (see here). So, evidently the executive session was conducted in violation of the Open Public Meetings Act (Sunshine Law).

Secondly, Mr. Campbell and Mr. Wyatt were included in the session, while Mrs. Morgan was excluded. When challenged on the discrepancy, the board attorney explained it was because Mrs. Morgan was not yet sworn in.

While the previous Board may meet in "lame duck" sessions until the new board is organized (including executive sessions), she did not address the illegality of the meeting.

Another way of handling it could have been to swear in all three members and then have an executive session (if legally noticed!).

Far from looking like an innocent oversight, the whole thing reeks of a snub -- an illegal one, at that.

THE "RE-ELECTED" FICTION

Then there is the fiction that Messrs Campbell and Wyatt were "re-elected".

This is absolutely not the case. Each was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Board. Their election in November was the first time they were ever elected by the voters.

Wouldn't you expect the School Board -- responsible for teaching our youngsters such distinctions! -- to correctly use the term?

But I fell for it, too, using the term when I addressed the Board.

It should be noted Mrs. Campbell's election to yet another year as Board of Ed president was not unanimous.

Mrs. Morgan firmly voted "No" when her name was called. When Mrs. Clarke protested that the Board Secretary had failed to call her name in the roll call vote, she then entered her abstention on the record.

There were about thirty in the audience, almost all showing support for Mrs Morgan, with the exception of the Campbells' sons, who presented flowers to their mother (the board president) in celebration of her birthday.

The Board of Ed appears to have gotten sloppy in the conduct of its meetings, with so little attendance and attention paid by the public. Such sloppiness will no longer pass muster.

What grade will the next report card bring?

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Siddeeq El-Amin vindicated ... mostly

Councilor Rivers is now the only person
involved who has not apologized to El-Amin.

At Monday's City Council reorganization, retired Plainfield police captain Siddeeq El-Amin once again tried to get closure on the matter of an "investigation" of his character called for when the Council declined to accept his nomination to be Mayor Adrian Mapp's Public Safety Director when Mapp first took office.

Standing again at the mike during public comment, El-Amin reiterated that he would accept an apology from the remaining Council members who had been involved -- Councilors Storch, Taylor and Rivers -- then consider the matter closed.

Both Storch and Taylor apologized on the spot, joining Councilors Williams and Taylor who had apologized in December (see here).

Councilor Bridget Rivers -- who as Council President had originally said an RFP was issued to hire an attorney to pursue such an investigation -- remained silent and stone-faced throughout the exchange.

She remains the only Councilor involved and still on the Council not to have apologized.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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With Storch as Council president, new era a possibility

Mayor Adrian Mapp poses with newly installed Councilors Cory Storch (Ward 2)
and Barry Goode (Wards 1/4 at-large).
Storch was elected Council President for 2016.

Plainfield's 2016 City Council started off with a bang as Cory Storch was elected Council President in what appeared to be an upset.

Storch, who begins his thirteenth year (and fourth term) of service with this year's swearing in, has always been a moderating influence at contentious points in the Council's history ever since he has been a member.

Traditionally, the wrangling over who will be council president and chair of the committee-of-the-whole takes place out of public sight, with unanimous votes being recorded in the public ritual -- along with the obligatory smiles.

Not so this year.

When time for nominations came, Councilors Rivers and Storch were offered. Surprise registered on the faces of Rivers and Brown as Councilor Taylor joined Goode, Storch and Williams in voting "no" on Rivers nomination. That set the stage for Storch's election by the same 4-3 split.

Councilors Tracey Brown and Gloria Taylor were nominated for chair of the committee-of-the-whole. Brown was defeated by the same 3-4 split; with Taylor then getting a unanimous vote. Both Taylor's and Brown's terms will end December 31 of this year.

Mayor Adrian O. Mapp swore in both Storch and Goode (who replaces Vera Greaves as the Wards 1/4 at-large representative) to their Council seats. Judge Joan Robinson Gross administered the oaths for Council President Storch and chair of the committee-of-the-whole Taylor.

In his impromptu remarks as Council President, Councilor Storch stressed that he expects to improve communications between the Council and the Administration. Along this line, he suggested that he would have Department heads make frequent updates before the Council as part of revamping the shape of the Council meetings.

Storch also suggested that each ward host one Council session (not a Town Hall) during the year. This sounds good, but could be a logistical nightmare given the school district's current hostile attitude toward city government.

Storch also proposed a strategic planning retreat for the Council and the Administration, where the top goals for the year can be arrived at in a public discussion and a broad road map for 2016 set forth.

Hopefully, the overly dramatic and highly embarrassing comportment of Council meetings in recent years will come to an end with a firmer hand on the gavel and an eye to the Council's minding its own rules of conduct.

In a highly unusual move, two items of old business from 2015 were taken up: Budget transfers (a bookkeeping maneuver) and the cancellation of the 2015 health insurance line. Resolutions are generally viewed as governing actions taken during one year that govern that year's business, while ordinances bind the city going forward on a permanent basis. Every effort is usually expended to close the Council's "resolution" business by year's end. For some reason that did not happen in this instance. Councilor Goode, who did not hold office in 2015, abstained from voting, while the other six members sustained both resolutions.

The ritual business of designations and appointments then went forward smoothly with unanimous votes on all items.

Among elected officials recognized by Council President Storch were Union County Freeholders Linda Carter and Sergio Granados (Granados is the new Freeholder Vice Chair), and newly elected Plainfield Board of Ed member Emily Morgan as well as members Wilma and John Campbell and David Rutherford. Assemblyman Jerry Green, a longtime presence at Council reorganization meetings -- often swearing in various officials -- was absent.

Mayor Adrian Mapp made brief remarks, congratulating Storch and Goode on their elections as councilors and Storch as Council President. He said that the traditional "State of the City" address would be offered this year at a separate time and place, as is done in many of New Jersey's major cities.

Notable among the public comments at the meeting's end were Siddeeq El-Amin, which I will take up separately, and Mary Burgwinkle, who noted the passing of Democratic activist Dottie Gutenkauf and how much she would have enjoyed seeing this evening.

With that the Council adjourned, in what is probably record time for a reorganization meeting.

Now the work begins. Council's agenda-setting session will be next Monday, January 11, at 7:30 PM in the Council Chambers / Courthouse at Watchung Avenue and East 4th Street.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Magic 8-Ball tells all for 2016

All will be revealed in due time.

2016 will prove to be an interesting year in Plainfield politics. Let's check in with the Magic 8-Ball.

SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION

The Board of Education has stirred up a hornet's nest with a secretive vote to move the school board elections from November back to April.

The move appears to have been taken at a work/study session immediately after the November 3 general election. It was not listed on any agenda, so a resolution is presumed to have been a walk-on matter. There was no public notice or discussion of the measure or its expected $115,000 annual cost (which will be stolen from the kids).

That has left plenty of taxpayers and parents hopping mad.

It seems hardly likely Mayor Mapp will let this one go without a challenge.

CITY COUNCIL ELECTION

The 2016 rota for City Council elections is comprised of the Citywide at-large seat and the Ward 3 seat.

Councilors Tracey Brown (at-large) and Gloria Taylor (Ward 3) will complete their current terms on December 31.

Will Plainfield Democratic chairperson Adrian Mapp seek more active involvement from committee members in the council candidate selection process? That certainly is a possibility, given his opposition to the high-handed methods of former chairperson Green.

If that is the case and prospective candidates must face a vetting process, there is a local version of "the Donald Trump question" to be layed out: If you do not get the nomination, will you support the party's candidate?

BEYOND PLAINFIELD

There is plenty of speculation about Assemblyman Jerry Green's health and ability to perform his duties -- as Assemblyman and as Union County chair.

There is already scuffling behind the curtains over what happens if Jerry must step down as county chair.

Will 2016 hold any surprises in politics beyond Plainfield?

Magic 8-Ball says: Stay tuned.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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City Council reorganizes Monday evening

Will the Council be 'just and capable' in 2016?

Plainfield City Council will reorganize for 2016 on Monday (January 4) at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers/Courthouse. Note the time -- an hour earlier than usual.

Councilor Cory Storch, re-elected to a fourth term for Ward 2, and Barry Goode, elected to Wards 1/4 at-large, will be sworn in by Mayor Adrian O. Mapp.

While most of the business transacted at the reorganization is boiler-plate stuff (setting the year's calendar, designating official newspapers, banks, etc), there are several appointments that call attention.

For the first year in a long time Joan Robinson Gross' name does not appear as the chief municipal court judge (the nominee is Carl L. Marshall, Esq.). Robinson Gross, who also serves as a Superior Court judge is assignment judge for the Union County courts. (CORRECTION: I stand corrected; Karen M. Cassidy is the current assignment judge. Judge Robinson Gross has served in this capacity in the past. Thanks to reader DB for catching this one.)

Newly elected Board of Ed members Emily Morgan is also up for appointment to the Human Relations Commission.

But the biggest items of interest are always the election by the Council of its president and chairperson of the committee-of-the-whole for the year.

There is speculation that Councilor Bridget Rivers long run as Council President may be at an end.

Council Chambers and the Municipal Courthouse are at Watchung Avenue and East 4th Street. Parking on the street or in the lot across from the police station.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Every best wish for the New Year

Image from.happynewyear.net

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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