Plainfield City Council reorganizes Monday evening, with a couple of surprises

Plainfield City Council reorganizes Monday.

 

Plainfield City Council will reorganize for the 2019 term on Monday (January 7) at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers / Municipal Court.

Municipal Clerk "AJay" Jalloh conducts the opening segment of the meeting as all Council officers from the previous year expired at midnight on December 31st, the term of their appointment.

His  role includes the certification of newly elected Council members -- Ashley Davis (Ward 1) for a four-year term, Joylette Mills-Ransome (Wards 2/3) for a four-year term, and Elton Armady (Citywide at-large) for Rebecca Williams' unexpired term -- as well as the conduct of the election of the new Council President for calendar year 2019.

After being seated, the new Council President conducts the election of the Council Vice President (who also serves until December 31st) and then conducts the rest of the Council meeting.

While the reorganization meeting is usually quite pro-forma (the appointments of judges, prosecutors, public defenders, and various board and commission members, plus assorted financial and legal housekeeping matters), there are occasional surprises.

For instance -- the Zoning Board of Adjustment, where long-serving chairperson D. Scott Belin and member Rich Sudol were dropped. In their place, Mayor Adrian O. Mapp proposes to move alternate Nancy Gerald to a full seat and add newcomer Ryan Sears.

On the Planning Board, Anthony Howard is being reappointed to a full seat, Barry Person is moving up to a full seat from Alternate 1 (replacing Maritza Hall, who served after Gordon Fuller's death and is not being reappointed), Alma Blanco is being reappointed as Alternate 2, and Ricardo Hunt will come on as the new Alternate 1.

These two all-volunteer boards are key in overseeing the development and use of land in the Queen City.

An unusual (for a reorganization agenda) series of resolutions (R 037-19 through R 041-19) from the Economic Development Department have to do with a proposed grant application (referred to as "Innovation Planning Challenge") to the NJ Economic Development Authority, executing various Memoranda of Understanding between the City of Plainfield, Union County College, the Plainfield Central District Management Corporation (PCDM -- which replaces the former SID) and Injectron Corporation on South Second Street.

The City is the lead partner, with the others as "strategic partners" and their roles are delineated in the various MOUs. The City is responsible for a 20% match of the grant amount (the MOUs propose in-kind city staff time as the form of the match), and the planning period is projected to be 26 weeks -- with a possible 3-month extension.

Look for Director Valerie Jackson to explain more about the grant application.

The newly-elected Council President will make remarks, as will Mayor Mapp.

I became aware on Thursday (the day Congress convened and Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives) that Councilor Armady had served Speaker Pelosi as an intern -- you can view his Facebook post (with Elton with Pelosi) here.

Nancy Pelosi is still at the top of her game and managed to get elected Speaker in spite of considerable and vocal insistence that it was time for a change. At 77, she knows that change is inevitable, and acceded to limiting her leadership to the next four years.

She is a most worthy role model for newly-elected Councilors Armady, Davis and Mills-Ransome: she "knows how to count", she is laser-focused on priorities, and she takes no guff from the Executive branch when it comes to Congress' prerogatives.

The Council reorganization gets under way at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers / Courthouse at Watchung Avenue and East 4th Street. Parking available on the street and in the lot across from Police Headquarters.

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 -- Dan Damon [ follow ]

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