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Does the inscription on City Hall mock us? |
Plainfield's City Council will finally take up its amendments to the Mapp administration's proposed 2014 budget at a special meeting tonight scheduled for 8:00 PM in City Hall Library. The meeting is twinned with another special meeting next Tuesday at which it is expected the amended budget will be adopted.
It appears a Council majority is prepared to make good on its threat to eliminate the Mapp administration's new hires -- in particular the Mayor's chief of staff and the public relations slot.
Marching behind the spurious banner held high by former Mayor (and newly revived Jerry Green cat's paw) Sharon Robinson-Briggs, the cry is to 'save money'. The bulk of the amendments fall under the rubric of one-time gimmicks put forward by the Council's budget consultants -- who shamelessly reversed their judgment of Mapp's budget between May's agenda-setting and business sessions.
I am reminded of something Robber Baron J. Pierpont Morgan once said: A man always has two reasons for the things he does, a good one and the real one.
The real reasons will hardly be spoken aloud tonight -- they appear to revolve around racially tinged personal animosity.
But the effect will be to try to undo the people's will in giving Mayor Mapp a mandate for change with 70% of the popular vote in the November election. Those who trumpeted in January that 'if he succeeds, the city succeeds' are prepared to cast possible progress to the winds in favor of a return to Plainfield's perennial pattern of dysfunction fostered by Assemblyman Green.
Sadly for the taxpayers, the Council takes no notice of the dangerous dynamic in which the city's finances are caught. If there is no improvement in our tax base (through new development opportunities), the continued sagging of our ratables will only mean pressure to reduce the delivery of city services. And the Council will be responsible.
Plainfield stands once again at a crossroads moment -- will we go forward ... or backward?
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2 comments:
It is a shame that some members of this City Council are willing to harm this city and not allow us to move forward to enhance their petty desires. I hope the voters remove these dead branches from the vine that is Plainfield and replace them with vibrant ones. Shame on Rivers, Reid, Taylor, and Greaves if the try to reverse any chance Plainfield has to move forward. I don't know how they or their boss can be like this and face themselves in the mirror.
I realized too late that I posted my comment in the wrong place. Here is the email I sent to the City Council members after last night's vote. I teach at night, so couldn't put in my two cents, so here it is for what its worth. I hope others write to their City Council members.
As a concerned citizen of Plainfield I am sorry to hear that some on the City Council want to stop the progress this City needs to make after eight years of stagnation with the last administration. I hope you will reconsider your decision to harm Plainfield and its residents with your votes to keep us from moving forward.
Because of the "games" being played with the future of Plainfield, I and many citizens must perceive your actions as hostile to moving Plainfield forward. I am saddened and forced to work with many others to make sure we have people on the City Council who will work to move the city forward. I'm not sure how some of you folks sleep at night, but I will pray for this city and its citizens to have a better future.
Very sincerely,
Robert Bolmer
2nd Ward, District 1 City Committee Rep.
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