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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Rule 1 for Administration-Council relations: No surprises


What about Council-Administration relations?

Turns out I wasn't the only one surprised by the last-minute walk-on of the temporary budget proposal at Monday evening's Plainfield City Council reorganization meeting.

Some councilors have complained that they were blindsided and that it even appeared City Administrator Rick Smiley had been left in the dark about the move.

It was also pointed out that when Mayor Adrian Mapp served as a Councilor, he was among the most strenuous objectors when then-mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs would have items walked on with no prior notice to the Council.

Even discounting for grandstanding, the criticism should be taken seriously by the new Mapp administration. The first rule in any attempt to build good relations between an administration and a Council should be: No surprises.

Fair enough.




-- Dan Damon [follow]


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for being honest Dan we appreciate this

Michael Townley said...

I agree wholeheartedly. Let's give the Mayor a mulligan on this one with the expectation that it won't occur again.

Anonymous said...

Whether it was maliciously intentional or due to time constraints, I think it was GENIUS. This way certain council members did not have time to present to Ass. Jerry Green with the budget so he could say Yay or Nay -more than likely NAY. And without any doubt in my mind Councilwoman Vera Greaves, Councilman William Reid, and possibly Bridget Rivers would have waited for the Puppeteer to pull the strings.

Dottie Gutenkauf said...

Michael, that was my essential point in the public comment session after the business was finished. The Mayor shouldn't have done that--and it was good that there was a compromise. I hope it doesn't happen again, and I hope the mayor and the3 council will work together cooperatively in the future!