Has Plainfield City Council forgotten its good manners?

Nada. Not even a cheap-ass supermarket cake.

Even when personal relations between them were at their chilliest (or most heated), Plainfield City Council members always respected the office if not the person and accorded each other a certain amount of civil acknowledgment of the contributions each made to the whole.

And when a Council member would depart, no matter the personal feelings between them all, good manners dictated that the departing member was always honored with a Resolution of Thanks from the Council detailing that member's particular passions and contributions (and sometimes a Proclamation from the Mayor), a hearty round of applause, and a small party afterwards upstairs in Police Headquarters.

So, eyebrows were raised on Monday evening -- the first Council session after Rebecca Williams had resigned to take up the seat made vacant on the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders when Linda  Carter moved up to the Assembly -- when not a word of thanks or recognition was uttered.

The gaffe was particularly eye-catching given that Rebecca played an outsized role in the election of five of the six councilors who were voting on Monday evening to fill her vacant seat and everyone is supposedly on the same team.

If the Council members were waiting for leadership on the matter, none was forthcoming from the Council itself.

Let's just hope it was a momentary lapse.

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 -- Dan Damon [ follow ]

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