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Council President Mills-Ransome has made committee and liaison assignments for 2019. |
CORRECTION: Councilor Goode's name was inadvertently left off the list of those with three committee assignments. Correction has been made below.
While residents are most familiar with the work of City Council through its public meetings -- to set agendas and vote on resolutions and ordinances -- there is an important component of their public service that takes place out of view.
And that is their work in committees and as liaisons to various boards and agencies.
There are seven (7) committees to which the various councilors are assigned, with one acting as chair and two others as members. These meet periodically with department and/or division heads to check up on long- and short-term goals and to discuss questions or concerns.
The seven committees are: Finance, Health & Social Services, Economic Development, Police, Fire, Information Technology & Media, and Recreation.
In addition, councilors serve as liaison to various boards and agencies. In some cases (as with the Planning Board) they are statutory, voting members. In other cases (for instance the Senior Center and the Board of Ed) their function is purely as a liaison, with the responsibility of reporting back to the Council.
The eleven (11) liaisons are: Mayor's Citizens Advisory Committee, Planning Board, Board of Ed, Green Brook Flood Control Commission, Union County Community Development Revenue Sharing, Cable TV Advisory Committee, Plainfield Housing Authority, PMUA, Plainfield Central Business District Management Corporation (the SID), the Shade Tree Commission, and the Senior Center.
It did strike me as odd that while the committee structure seems to parallel city departments (for the most part), there are no committees relating to either Public Works or Human Resources.
After indicating their preferences for assignments, Council President Mills-Ransome designated committee and liaison assignments.
While each councilor was assigned the chairmanship of one committee, I was surprised at the lopsided distribution of committee assignments.
Two councilors (McRae and Armady) have four committee assignments each. Councilors Goode (omitted in original post), Hockaday, Mills-Ransome and Storch each have three. Councilor Davis has only one. One would have expected with 7 councilors and 21 assignments that each would have three.
It further struck me as odd that with the Central Business District almost entirely in her ward (Ward 1), Davis was appointed neither to the Economic Development Committee nor as liaison to the SID -- either of which would seem naturals -- nor to the Recreation Committee where she also would be a natural, having worked in the Parks & Recreation Division.
Besides that, I am curious about appointing a liaison to the Cable TV Advisory Committee. Its last activity was about five years ago, when its then-chair Lamar Mackson quit to become the manager of PCTV and the commission lapsed into quietude.
I wonder if there is an explanation for the way the assignments were made.
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