Attorney General avoids Friday night Plainfield 'ambush'

Fewer than a dozen people were on hand at Plainfield's St. Mary's School Friday evening for an announced meeting of Attorney General Paula Dow with the Hispanic community, when organizers told those present that the AG would not be coming.

Sources later told Plainfield Today that the Attorney General's office made inquiries and, upon finding that no other local Hispanic groups had been invited (other than Carmen Salavarrieta's Angels in Action, which organized the event) and that there was no agenda for the meeting, the office declined to make the Attorney General available.

While there certainly are real issues to discuss in the matter of relations between Latinos and the police -- as well as other issues in Plainfield (gangs?) -- the Christie administration is apparently prepared to rebuff the Robinson-Briggs administration if it will not engage the broader community in attempting to address the issues.

Salavarrieta and the Robinson-Briggs administration need to take note that 'ambushes' are not a good tool for problem-solving, in Plainfield or anywhere else.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Kean U. website boasts historic Plainfield photos

Home of Alexander Gilbert, early Plainfield mayor, at West 8th Street and Central Avenue.
While an apartment complex is now on the site, the home to the right is undergoing restoration.

A treasure trove of early Plainfield photographer Guillermo Thorn's pictures is being mounted by Kean University Library on its ContentDM website (see here).

Many thanks to Plainfield Public Library Director Joe Da Rold for the heads up.

Thorn (1837-1920) was an early photographic chronicler of Plainfield life and people, operating out of his home and studio on East Second Street with a long career that spanned the decades of Plainfield's explosive growth as a post-Civil War railroad suburb attracting a wealthy elite of Wall Street bankers and financiers and executives in some of America's largest corporations.

The Plainfield Public Library holds a sizeable collection of Thorn's images, some of which have been organized as part of its online survey of Plainfield in photographs from 1870 to 1970 (see online exhibit here).

Kean's images are from a collection of more than 300 Thorn items that came into the possession of Prof. Frank Esposito in the late 1980s and are now part of Kean's holdings. He and his colleague Donald Lokuta organized the material into both an exhibit mounted in 2005 and a book (published by Kean U. Press as Victorian New Jersey: Photographs of Guillermo Thorn and released on the 100th anniversary of Kean's founding) -- see more here.

Plainfield's own Jean Mattson, former president of the Historical Society of Plainfield, worked with Esposito and Lokuta to research much of the Plainfield material. Much background information on the photos was supplied by Mattson, who at the time was also on the faculty of Kean University.

To use the Kean collection website, go to its home page (here) and click on the BROWSE link which will take you to the two pages of items currently online. Clicking on any image will bring up a large version of that item, with the available background information.

Note that the CONTACT US link at the bottom of the page is not yet set up (you get a blank email). For more information regarding the collection or to supply background information on any of the images, contact the Kean University Librarian, Luis Rodriguez, at (908) 737-4646 or by email here.

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• Kean U. Library: "ContentDM: Guillermo Thorn photographs"
• Plainfield Public Library:  "Chronicles of Plainfield: 1870 - 1970"
• Kean University:  "Guillermo Thorn photos on exhibit"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Pale performance at Planning Board

Plainfield's Planning Board took up again last night the matter of the proposed gunshot-detection system that has been floated by the Robinson-Briggs administration.

Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig, Capt. Steve Soltys and City Administrator Bibi Taylor were at the Planning Board last night to answer questions preparatory to the Board's adding the Shot Spotter gun-detection proposal to the five-year capital improvements plan.

I was surprised by board member Ron Scott Bey's question of Director Hellwig to explain how the cop on the beat actually learns of the gunshot. I had assumed the board would have had a complete overview in its first go-round as the Robinson-Briggs administration made its pitch.

Silly me.

The board members had a list (a full page, single-spaced) of carefully thought out and phrased questions for members of the Robinson-Briggs administration.

City Administrator Bibi Taylor came well prepared (along with a tote full of backup materials), and skillfully addressed the questions of vendor selection and financing.

Taylor explained that the state had a distaste for 'sole source' vendors, but that there was an exception made in the case of 'proprietary technology', which she explained would fit the present case with ShotSpotter.

She also explained that the search for funding for the cost of $1M was continuing (the Council had previously approved submission of a request for UEZ funding -- for which there is no guarantee).

Mr. Hellwig, on the other hand, did not seem as well prepared to deliver crisp detailed answers to the questions board members had about the new technology as to how response times would be affected, what the pressures to increase personnel would be, and comparative data from other communities (especially New Jersey) where the technology is already deployed.

In particular, I was struck by the lack of handouts for the board.

If this was the second go-round, and there was a list of questions the Board wanted answers to, why wasn't Hellwig prepared with handouts for the board and a presentation that marched succinctly down their list, answering each point at issue?

(After years of watching folks present to both Council and various boards, I am still amazed at the presumption that complicated issues -- often involving matters that cry out for charts or maps or photos -- can be addressed with WORDS ONLY. And I am NOT arguing for one of those god-awful PowerPoint abuses so much in favor; just an old-fashioned handout. For instance, the question about how the cops get the lead on the gunshots could have been addressed with one of several illustrations of the technology that surface with a Google query. Presto!)

Beyond the question of the effectiveness of Hellwig's presentation, it seems that no one is doing any real due diligence about the proposed technology.

There are questions raised about ShotSpotter's effectiveness in communities ranging from Chicago (see local TV story here) to San Francisco (see SF Appeal story here) to Charleston SC, which recently abandoned its ShotSpotter system (see Examiner story here).

Doesn't ShotSpotter offer a try-before-you-buy option which would allow everyone to see how the technology works IN A REAL PLAINFIELD SITUATION (not just a demo at the Rock Avenue ballfields) before rolling out the really big bucks?

Bernice was also at the Planning Board; for her reportage see here (2 items).

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• CBS2 (Chicago): "Police say gunshot-location system not effective when tested here"
• San Francisco Appeal:  "ShotSpotter skepticism remains: Magic bullet or waste of dough?"
• Charleston Examiner:  "Charleston police abandon ShotSpotter system"
  
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Victim hit 5 times in another gang-related shooting

Plainfield's gang warfare evidently continues.

I got word shortly before 10: AM this morning of another gang-related shooting last night.

The victim, said to be a member of the Liberty Street Gang, was hit 5 times.

That may explain the helicopter I heard at 11:41 PM last night as I preparing to go to bed.

My house is in the flight path from RWJ to Hub Stine Field, and I can hear them pass from southwest to southeast and then the descent at Hub Stine.

Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig and Capt. Steve Soltys were at the Planning Board last night (for a second time around) to answer questions preparatory to the Board's adding the Shot Spotter gun-detection proposal to the five-year capital improvements plan.

More later.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Toddler falls to death

Window guards prevent infants falling from windows.

Received word on the way to the Plainfield Planning Board meeting last night that a toddler had fallen from an upper-story apartment window in the 100-block of Central Avenue.

The Crime Scene Unit was at the location when I drove by, along with a couple of responding Plainfield Police Division cars.

I am told the toddler suffered fatal injuries.

No window guards were to be seen in the apartments on the upper floor of the several attached apartment units.

If the landlord supplied them and the tenants did not use them, or removed them, the landlord would most likely not be liable.

But if the landlord has not supplied them to the renters on the upper floors, the question arises of negligence or worse.

Of course, if Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs had not dismantled the Safe Homes initiative in her first term, the issue would have been addressed by mandatory inspections of the premises by Plainfield's Inspection Division.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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UPDATE: Plainfield Violento

It seems Attorney General Paula Dow WILL be in Plainfield today.

Rather, tonight.

Entering City Hall for last night's planning board meeting, I found a yellow flyer on the table in the rotunda proclaiming a community meeting for tonight, sponsored by Angels in Action and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). In Spanish only.

The flyer was not there on an earlier foray to City Hall. There is no notice on the city's website, where groups may have their flyers posted.

The flyer urges participation by Plainfield's Hispanic community, especially if they have been victims of a racial incident (odio racial).

Am still waiting to hear about the Hispanic Affairs Advisory Committee's status.

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COMMUNITY MEETING
Hispanic Community - Police Relations

TONIGHT - 6:00 PM SHARP

St. Mary's Church
West 6th and Liberty Streets

Guest: Paula T. Dow, Attorney General
Sponsors
Angels in Action Foundation
American Friends Service Committee

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield Violento: Mayor being set up for ambush?

Wilter Sanchez, a 34-year-old Colombian was attacked
by a group of 5 blacks in January 2009. (Photo, El Diario.)

[CORRECTION: New Jersey's Attorney General is, of course, PAULA Dow, former Essex County Prosecutor. Deborah DOWE is a Plainfield activist, supporter of the restoration of Muhlenberg Hospital and former City Council candidate. Apologies for the mistake. Also see my Friday post HERE updating the AG's visit. -- DD]

'PLAINFIELD VIOLENTO' screamed the front-page headline in Wednesday's El Diario (see story here, and in Google's 'translation' here).

The story features mayoral pal Carmen Salavarrieta prominently and my initial reaction was to remember the role Salavarrieta played in the 'ambush interview' North Plainfield mayor Janice Allen found herself caught in back in 2004 with Curtis Sliwa concerning the beating of resident Oscar Romero-Figueroa.

'My God,' I thought, 'is Mayor Robinson-Briggs being set up? Or maybe even Attorney General Deborah Dow?'

Word in the street for days now is that the Attorney General is scheduled to make a visit to Plainfield on Friday. Why? Guesses are that it's about the gang violence which has plagued the Queen City in recent months, AND police/Hispanic relations.

So, is the El Diario story a set-up, designed to embarrass the Robinson-Briggs administration?

Is it designed to cast the discussion of muggings and assaults against Hispanics EXCLUSIVELY as a matter of bias and thus set the parameters of any discussion the Attorney General may have?

I may be too paranoid.

The story rehashes mostly old -- I mean OLD -- incidents from 2004-2005, though one is from January 2009.

El Diario paints an incomplete picture, implying that ALL the incidents were bias attacks, saying then-Police Chief Edward Santiago 'preferred' (se prefirió considerar) to regard theft as the motive.

This completely ignores the finding at the time by then-Attorney General Peter Harvey (see here) after a lengthy meeting in Plainfield with community leaders -- and despite claims to the contrary at the time by Salavarrieta -- that only one of the crimes in that time period involved bias, all the rest being considered 'crimes of opportunity' involving robbery with or without assault.

(State law requires some direct, explicit statement or utterance to qualify a crime as a 'bias' incident.)

The El Diario story also points to two related issues: language difficulties between police and Hispanic crime victims, and fear and distrust of the police by Hispanics.

The Police Division has made great strides over the years with regard to Spanish-speaking officers and at least a dozen can communicate with Hispanics in Spanish. This is at odds with the assertion by newly appoint HAAC committee member Norman Ortega in the El Diario story that the Division has 'never been accessible' (nunca ha sido accesible) to Spanish-speakers.

If the Attorney General does come to Plainfield and does meet with at least some community leaders, there is one other issue that needs to be discussed.

There are persistent rumors among those working with Latinos in the community that there is a quiet relationship between ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the Police Division, where it is alleged local undocumented persons who are not accused of indictable crimes have been swept up and taken away in contravention to the Attorney General's guidelines.

It would behoove Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig and Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs to put this rumor to rest.

If it is true, any hopes for cooperation by Hispanic victims of crimes will bear no fruit.

If it is false, why not just say so. That would be a positive step to encourage trust by the Latino community.

As for whether Salavarrietta will 'ambush' Mayor Robinson-Briggs or Attorney General Dow, we shall have to wait and see.

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NOTE: I have sent several emails to Mr. Ortega inquiring when the Hispanic Affairs Advisory Committee, nominations to which were approved unanimously by the City Council at its June 21 meeting (see here, PDF), will publish its meeting schedule and time and place of meetings. The Clerk's office informs me that several members have been sworn in, but they have no record of the committee's having organized or met. To date I have no reply from Mr. Ortega. As soon as the schedule is announced, it will be put on the CLIPS calendar.

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• El Diario: "Plainfield: Una zona de peligro para hispanos"
• Google Translate:  "Plainfield: A danger zone for Hispanics"
• Ledger, 12/13/2005:  "AG meets to discuss attacks on Latinos"
• Courier, 5/25/2010:  "Long-dormant Hispanic affairs commission poised for launch"
• City Council:  "Agenda, Regular Meeting, 6/21/2010" (PDF)
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield police license plate scanner a bummer?

Plainfield cops are getting a chuckle out of the story recently floated by Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig in the Courier (see here) on the license plate scanning technology the Police Division is trying out.

Seems the unit has been on the fritz since the Courier story on August 9. Bummer.

As my mom -- who had a jaundiced view of most technology -- would say, 'just one more thing to break'.

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• Courier: "Plainfield police using license-plate scanners"
• Website:  "PlateScan" -- The technology being tested.
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Despite questions, Council approves solar panel scheme

After looking the UCIA's solar panel 'gift horse' in the mouth by seeking answers to many questions, Plainfield's City Council last night unanimously approved Plainfield's participation in the UCIA's renewable energy initiative.

Two representatives sent by the UCIA (I could not hear their names, and only one of them's connection -- the Birdsall Service Group, engineering consultants; despite improvements, the miking at Council meetings remains execrable, IMHO) attempted to answer the Council's questions.

They spent a lot of time explaining that a lot of the questions couldn't be answered because the answers depended on how many 'entities' (local governments, boards of ed, and other governmental agencies) eventually sign on to the proposal. That included what final power costs would be to participants and what the percentage of savings would be.

A little last minute squeeze was applied by noting that the UCIA was facing a deadline on submitting its finalized proposal to the Local Finance Board in Trenton.

No knock against the young woman and young man, but the entire process to date has shown just how shabby the UCIA's management style is. The attitude seems to be, 'if we propose it, they will sign up' -- without a real care to explaining the project in a detailed and convincing manner (for some of the issues I raised previously, see here). No wonder Cranford, Berkeley Heights and Summit had questions about the program.

In contrast, Councilor Burney held up a sheaf of pages printed out from the Somerset County Improvement Authority's website which has detailed information on that county's solar panel initiative (see here). Compare that with the UCIA's website offering (see here), where there is a link to a form letter dated 'January 2010' and simply addressed 'Dear Municipal Official'. If that went to the Mayor's office, one has to wonder if it was ever passed along.

It was emphasized there was no risk to the city, and that the bonds were being guaranteed by the County (which, indirectly, means that the city and all the other communities in the county ARE on the hook).

Last night was also the first time I heard a) that the commitment is for FIFTEEN YEARS, and b) that the UCIA had conducted INFORMATIONAL MEETINGS for prospective participants. It didn't seem the Council had been aware of this either.

I simply cannot understand why, if communities whose participation was desired didn't show up for the 'informational meetings', the UCIA didn't have a flying squad charged with rounding up those outliers -- including making on-site presentations to the governing bodies as needed, and in a timely fashion.

Perhaps it's because this is Union County, and responsible bodies are just supposed to line up and do as they're told. Hmmmm.

Subsequent probing by Council members turned up two other interesting answers --

• The vendors' identities are not yet known, and
  
  
• The UCIA '[doesn't] have to go with the lowest bidder'.

This is, after all, Union County. Hmmmm.

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• Plainfield Today:  "UCIA Solar Panel Plan: A gift horse to be looked over carefully"
• Somerset County Improvement Authority:  "Solar Developer RFP"
• Union County Improvement Authority:  "Renewable Energy Initiative"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Gang shootout erupts over weekend

A shootout erupted at Elmwood Gardens early Sunday.

Gang warfare broke out again early Sunday morning in Plainfield, just days after a multi-agency task force made 40 arrests (see Courier story here), targeting gang members involved in violent crime.

Shots were fired from a vehicle at a group of a dozen or so people who were outside one of the West Second Street buildings of Elmwood Gardens. The vehicle returned some time later, once again shooting at those outside the building, but this time members of the group in front of the building returned the gunfire.

Police found shell casings at the site, but apparently no one was injured.

I also learned that gunshots were fired Sunday evening at Plainfield Avenue and West Front Street, just around the corner from the previous drive-by shootout.

Clearly, the multi-agency task force involving eight jurisdictions, including the FBI, State Police and Union County Prosecutor's office as well as the Plainfield Police Division, which worked for three days last week to identify and arrest the large number of suspects, had done a good job and made what appeared to be a dent in the violent crimes that have plagued the Queen City in recent months.

However, Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig may have overreached when he told the Courier's Mark Spivey, 'people who should be off the streets now are off the streets'.

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• Courier:  "Multi-agency sweep nets 40 arrests"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Teen pool mischief a sign of changing times?

Received a report of teen mischief at a Plainfield resident's pool this past week.

About a dozen teens, the oldest of which might have been fifteen, got into a homeowner's pool area in the Netherwood Heights area at dusk on Tuesday, making themselves at home by hooking up an iPod belonging to one of them to the homeowner's stereo system.

By the time the homeowner got to the pool area (after calling the police), they had discovered the outdoor fridge and had starting tossing articles into the pool.

The owner reports several of the boys ran off, several got on their bikes and fled and several had the nerve to stay behind to give the homeowner a hard time.

After he piled up five of their bikes in the yard and blocked the way back to the pool area for the iPod owner to retrieve his gadget, he was menaced by the teens, including one threatening to shoot him and motioning toward a pocket as though he had a concealed weapon.

The homeowner held them off until the police arrived. The bikes and the iPod were taken by the police to headquarters and the kids were told they could retrieve their property only if their parents came down to police headquarters with them.

Police told the property owner he would be notified if/when the kids and parents came down to HQ, but as of Sunday morning has no information that any parents had come down.

Because his stereo system is hidden and one of the kids knew where to hook his iPod up, the homeowner believes at least some of the kids have been on the property previously and may be responsible for large stones which have been thrown into the pool on several occasions.

Aside from the question of how long it took police to respond (10-15 minutes), the homeowner says they were as helpful as they could be and an officer came back recently the check up once more. (In their defense, I pointed out the police are understaffed, though the response time may be questionable.)

What strikes me about this is that four or five days after the incident there is no apparent response from the parents of the kids involved.

If I left the house with my bike and came home without it, my parents would have quizzed me until I gave up the truth -- no matter how long it took.

And an iPod? Perhaps the kid hid its loss from his parents, but wouldn't he be questioned after a while?

When I was a young teen, my mother once overheard my brother and I talking about waxing the local grocery's (more like a bodega than a supermarket) front window on Hallowe'en one year. (This was a no-no; by common understanding kids could use soap -- which could be washed off -- but not wax, which had to be scraped off.)

She quizzed us about who had been with us, called each parent and told them she was marching us down to Mrs. Nasca's store so we could apologize and make everything right.

Their was a little parade down to the Red & White grocery, where each of us stammered our apology to Mrs. Nasca. She supplied razor blades for scraping and buckets of hot water with ammonia for a follow-up scrub.

In an hour or so's time our penance was done and we were restored to good standing with our parents and Mrs. Nasca.

And we never did anything like it again.

Ah, but that was another place and another century even, evidently with different parental expectations.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Scamster seeks to help you avoid 'forclosure'

Good news for Plainfielders facing 'forclosure'!

There are folks out there willing to 'help' you.

Mainly by helping themselves.

These are the kind of scamsters you read about getting little old ladies to sign over their houses and then be put out on the street. Ditto folks with mortgage problems.

As my mom used to say, 'Never eat at a place called 'Mom's', and never deal with folks using phone pole signs to help you avoid 'forclosure'.

'Forwarned' is 'forarmed'.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Board of Ed minutes: Maria moves a mountain

Maria got help from NJFOG.

Evidently Maria has moved a mountain with the Plainfield Board of Ed.

That mountain would be the backlog of minutes of FOURTEEN Board of Ed meetings since March 2 that were not approved or posted to the District's website (excluding the month of July).

As Maria says, 'we may never know' why it has taken so long, but evidently she got some action when she pointed out that the interpretation of the 'reasonable time' called for by the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) (see here, PDF) has been deemed to be THIRTY DAYS.

Some minutes were approved and posted (see the Board's minutes page here), and some have been posted pending approval, with a disclaimer suggested by the Board's attorney at the top of all pages --

"The following minutes have not been approved by the Board and are therefore a mere recital of the actions taken by the Board at the listed meeting and are subject to modification and/or correction and approval by the Board at a later date."

Maria and I both belong to the NJ Foundation for Open Government listserv, which updates those interested in Sunshine Law and OPRA matters on an almost daily basis.

The generosity with which its participants, particularly Walt Luers and John Paff, take time to answer queries from interested activists is a great help to those interested in transparency in New Jersey governmental affairs.

Here is the text of an email Maria sent to the NJFOG listserv early this morning, reporting the success of getting the minutes matter addressed by the BOE last night --

Just wanted to let you know that the Plainfield Board of Education past due, really past due (6 months) Minutes, got finally posted last night.  The Minutes from March through May had to be posted, at the district's website, without approval and with clarifying language from their counsel.  Minutes from June were approved last night and should be posted within the next few days.  Hopefully approving and posting Minutes won't be an issue here anymore. You can see their Minutes HERE if you want.

I had been pressing for these Minutes to be available for few months now and it is thanks to you and your advice that I was able to make a better argument. Knowing the facts, with statutes and all, certainly made a difference.  Even the county prosecutor's office learned since his office had to research this matter and while a complaint was not filed, at least now we know what to do in case this becomes an issue again.

Thanks again for the advice and the comments!

Kudos to Maria for her role in getting the Board of Ed to fulfill its responsibilities in this regard.

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• NJ Foundation for Open Government --
• "Overview of the Open Public Meetings Act"
• "NJFOG Home Page"
• Plainfield Public Schools:  "Board of Ed Minutes"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Has Jerry exposed himself to a lawsuit in Storch post?

Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green.

There is a question whether Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green's latest attack on Councilor Cory Storch may have exposed the Assemblyman to a lawsuit with financial consequences (see the post here).

The Assemblyman posts correspondence from Moses Myers, an employee of Bridgeway, the social services agency of which Councilor Storch is the executive director, complaining of treatment he believes he received from senior staff of the agency.

Myers detailed his complaint in a memo to Storch dated March 8, 2010 concerning a meeting that took place on March 4.

On March 9, the very next day -- before Storch could possibly have addressed the matter -- Myers writes to Assemblyman Green, enclosing the memo and asking Green's help in getting a lawyer. (One may suspect the whole thing is a setup when reading that Myers was a 17-year tenant of Green's uncle, a point that is not really germane to the complaint.)

What we are made privy to is a personnel matter internal to Bridgeway. There is no evidence Mr. Myers pursued an established channel of resolving the issues discussed other than the memo to the executive director.

Myers' letter of July 23 to Assemblyman Green shifts gears from the original letter. There is no mention of legal assistance (can we assume Assemblyman Green never got back to him, or never helped with his request?), and now his thrust is against the agency itself and not a particular complaint.

Myers gives Assemblyman Green permission to use the letter as he sees fits.

However, there is a fly in the ointment: Myers now identifies the parties at Bridgeway by their full names; he also does not indicate whether he ever pursued a resolution of the matter or, if so, what that resolution was.

Personnel matters are confidential and reputable agencies such as Bridgeway would not violate that confidentiality.

Myers, however, in spelling out the names of the parties to his complaint has violated the rule of confidentiality.

If it turns out that the matter has been resolved and any of the allegations by Myers against the other Bridgeway employees was judged unfounded, Mr. Myers has exposed himself to legal action by those same employees.

And Assemblyman Green, by publishing the correspondence on his blog and thus publicly identifying the parties, may also have exposed himself to legal action.

The possibilities are libel and defamation of character --

• Libel: the act of presenting to the public false information that damages a person's reputation; and/or
  
  
• Defamation of character: false statements that harm a person in relation to their occupation.

In his attempt to smear Councilor Storch, evidently in advance of Storch's presumed re-election effort next year, Assemblyman Green has lost whatever good judgment he may have had.

This cannot bode well for him as he prepares for his own re-election effort in 2011.

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• Jerry Green's Page:  "A letter regarding Cory Storch and Bridgeway Inc."
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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UCIA Solar Panel Plan: A gift horse to be looked over carefully

A gift horse that should be looked over carefully.

As Plainfield's City Council continues to look into the proposal to join with other Union County communities in the Union County Improvement Authority's solar panel scheme, it seems to me there are serious questions that need to be answered before the governing body can give its assent.

Despite the proverbial advice to 'never look a gift horse in the mouth', Plainfielders have learned from hard experience when dealing with the UCIA to heed the proverb at their peril.

The only thing I can find online is the UCIA's glossy pitch brochure (see here, PDF). I am not surprised that trying to float a $45 million bond issue with such thin information would cause questions to be raised.

This is the extent of the UCIA's description of the project's inter-relationships.

Everyone agrees going green is good. No one wants to be seen to be dragging their feet, and solar panels are the currently hot topic.

However, those are exactly the conditions under which well-meaning but relatively uninformed decision-makers can be scammed.

Already, Cranford (see here) and Berkeley Heights (see here) have put the brakes on participation, seeking answers to several questions. The two towns have now been joined by Summit (see here), which also thinks the program bears more investigation.

Here are some questions I think need satisfactory answers if Plainfield is to sign on --

DEFAULT SCENARIO

Private companies are to receive the bond funds to purchase, install and operate the solar panels. Setting aside the question of how these companies are selected (this is, after all, Union County), it is important for towns to know if they will be on the hook IF THE PRIVATE OPERATORS DEFAULT ON THE BONDS. Who then would be left on the hook? The municipalities? How much of the long-term risk of the project should a municipality be willing to assume?

PRICING

The private entity is supposed to own the panel installation and sell the electricity generated to the municipality or other entity, at a markup that includes servicing the bond debt and a guaranteed profit to the private firm. As prices are alway in flux and the public utilities are also working on 'greening' their technologies, what guarantee do the municipalities get that prices they must pay for the power they are generating will ALWAYS BE LOWER THAN THOSE OF UTILITY COMPANIES SUCH AS PSE&G?

MAINTENANCE

Who is responsible for maintenance over the long haul -- and not only of the panels, but of the underlying building fabric which may suffer deterioration as a result of the panels' installation? This is a question that should be settled now, rather than after an incident arises.

PROFITS

Is there some structuring of the financial aspects that provides a process for the municipality to participate in the profits of the venture over the long haul? Are the bonds structured so that the debt is amortized in addition to the interest being paid or will there be some 'balloon' payment down the road? If the private firm's liability for the bond principal declines over time as it is amortized, will the price structure change?

TERM

At what point, if ever, would the asset revert to the municipality? At what point could the whole deal be renegotiated? Forever is a very long time, and great care should be taken before entering a 'forever' agreement.

As Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene point out in a column in this month's GOVERNING magazine (see here) -- local governments are prone, on the one hand, to accept overly optimistic assessments of a project's costs and timelines, and on the other hand, to be disadvantaged by having less sharp negotiating skills.

They point to a study by William Eggers, Partnering for Value (see here, with link to PDF file), which outlines issues for local governments in public-private partnerships and what local government officials can do to improve their game.

Maybe the Council should even consider appointing a citizens committee to look into the matter and make recommendations.

At any rate, let's hope Plainfield's City Council looks this nag over pretty closely before deciding to buy.

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• UCIA:  "Renewable Energy in Union County" (PDF)
• Ledger --
• Cranford, 7/19/10:  "With questions lingering, Cranford holds off on UCIA initiative"
• Berkeley Heights, 7/29/10:  "Township says no thank's to county's solar program"
• Summit, 8/11/10:  "Summit council questions county solar panel proposal"
• Governing:  "Partnering Up: The devil is in the details"
• William Eggers:  "Partnering for Value" (PDF)
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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$20,000 for WBLS at Robinson-Briggs' Town Hall?

Mayor Robinson-Briggs now has to get toothpaste back in the tube?

A commenter on yesterday's Plainfield Today post (see the post and comment here) says the $2,500 check to WBLS was NOT connected to Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' August 1 Town Hall meeting, but that a $20,000 check was cut to WBLS for that event. The guess is that any fee expected by the Rev. Al Sharpton for his appearance would come to him from WBLS, with whom he is thought to have a financial relationship.

City Hall whispers yesterday were that the Mayor personally ordered the $20,000 check cut to WBLS on Friday, July 30 and that the funds were drawn from the IT account.

It seems that acting CFO Sandra Cummings was not in the office and was not involved, which would go a long way to explaining why her answer to the Council's questions on Monday evening were less than enlightening.

Mayor Robinson-Briggs was supposedly expecting a 'sponsor' check from an area business to cover the expense but it failed to materialize in time.

I'll leave it to others to figure out if this was an illegal act, but whether it is or not Her Honor now has an embarrassing situation on her hands: How to get the toothpaste back into the tube.

Even if a sponsor came through, monies cannot be donated by a non-governmental organization to a specific municipal account. That means any payment, whether or not it was the full $20,000, would go into the General Fund.

Does that mean the Robinson-Briggs administration would have to approach the Council to make the IT account whole?

And what would Mayor Robinson-Briggs have to do if the 'sponsor's' payment fell short of the actual amount she personally authorized?

Besides answering these questions, we now have to find out what the FIRST check to WBLS for $2,500, improperly drawn against the CAPITAL EXPENDITURES account, was for.

And you thought August would be full of 'dog days'?

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• Plainfield Today:  "Questionable spending by administration uncovered by Council"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Questionable spending by administration uncovered by Council

Plainfield's City Council is finally getting details on monthly payments made by the City, and at first blush, the Robinson-Briggs administration appears to be caught in a questionable expenditure.

After Council President Annie McWilliams noted with pleasure that the administration had complied with the Council's request for detailed information on monthly expenditures, she asked if there were any comments.

Councilor Mapp noted that while he hadn't had time to pore over the documents more closely (did I hear him say there were 50+ pages?), he did spot one expenditure which raised a red flag immediately.

According to Mapp, a check in the amount of $2,500 had been issued to WBLS 'around July 27' from the CAPITAL EXPENSES ACCOUNT.

Mapp pointed out that municipalities are constrained to set up separate capital expenses accounts and that only items that qualify can be paid against these funds. That would be expenses associated with capital projects (such as construction) or certain purchases with long-term life expectancies (such as fire trucks).

On its face, this expenditure (related to the Mayor's Town Hall meeting at Washington Community School on August 1?) appeared to be improper for this account. Not only that, the check was cut in advance of the 'service' provided.

Though acting CFO Sandra Cummings came to the table to explain the payment, I was not able to infer a direct answer to Councilor Mapp's question from anything she said.

It would be interesting to see the requisition for this item (which would show who requested the payment to made, the reason for the payment, and the ACCOUNT FROM WHICH PAYMENT WAS TO BE MADE) as well as the backup documentation.

We shall see where this goes.
 
To my mind, this incident only confirms the need for the state to take the reins here and appoint someone for the CFO position -- even if only to persuade a retired CFO to take on the assignment for a limited period, say a year.

Who knows what other questionable items will come to light now that the Council finally is getting a peek at payments?

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Recreation Committee frustrated by administration's lack of cooperation

Frustration experienced by Plainfield's recently appointed Recreation Committee came to the surface at Monday's City Council meeting.

Reporting to the Council, chairperson Dwayne Wilkins stated again and again that the Committee was eager to fulfill its charge to advise on recreation matters but was stymied by a failure of the Administration to keep promised meetings or to supply information necessary to assess current program efforts and determine whether changes should be considered.

Committee member Kevin Turner was even more direct, telling the Council that the committee had reached 'a frustration point'.

Under questioning by Council President Annie McWilliams, it came to light that there had been only three communications by the Recreation Division with the committee (two from Director Dave Wynn) in over three months, and that the Mayor had not gotten back to the committee in over a month.

Anyone who knows how precious volunteers are and how important it is to value, support and cultivate them can only shudder at such apparently callous disregard of busy parents and professionals who give of their limited time out of concern for the community's recreational needs and programs.

The more the conversation went on, the more embarrassing to the Robinson-Briggs administration things looked.

Consider this: according to Wilkins, the Committee, appointed by the Mayor, was instructed to work directly with Director Dave Wynn and not with DPWUD Director Dave Brown; then we hear from Brown that 'the whole thing was dumped in my lap' last week -- so is the Committee supposed to deal with Brown or not?

We also discover that when the Committee's minutes were distributed to the Mayor, the Council, Brown and Wynn, the chairperson was admonished by Wynn, 'don't send the minutes to anyone but me'.

This latter point led Council President McWilliams to interject, 'this is not the first time that I have heard this', and express her displeasure to Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson that such behavior was not in the interests of transparency and was unacceptable.

When asked by Councilor Mapp what the committee considered its number one hurdle, Wilkins answered with one word, cooperation.

There ensued a considerable discussion on whether to transform the committee into a commission.

McWilliams pointed out that the Council could adopt an ordinance creating a Recreation Commission to have oversight of the city's recreation, with the Division charged with executing the plans and policies determined by the Commission.

This would be much stronger than a mere committee, a point that was seconded by Councilor Rashid Burney, who used Fanwood as an illustration.

Councilor Storch interjected that the discussion should be conducted in executive session, though he did not make clear what part of it would qualify for such treatment (though Director Wynn's name came up repeatedly, everyone was clear that they were talking about the communications process, not about personnel).

When Council President McWilliams signaled that she wanted Corporation Counsel to prepare an ordinance establishing a Recreation Commission (by adapting the language of some other community's ordinance to fit Plainfield circumstances) for introduction and first reading at next Monday's business meeting, heads snapped.

Having polled the Council and found four in support, McWilliams instructed Corporation Counsel to move forward.

DPWUD Director Brown then threw what has become the Robinson-Briggs administration's standard 'Hail Mary' pass and asked for more time -- thirty days to be exact -- to resolve the issues before the Council would take action on an ordinance.

Council President McWilliams, showing she has caught on to that gambit, allowed as how there was no problem with giving him some time AND proceeding with the ordinance, in tandem.

Pressure, as we have learned, is the ONLY THING that gets this administration moving off the dime.

Hats off to McWilliams, Mapp, Burney and Storch on this one!

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Violence resumes with multiple shootings, carjacking

 

Plainfield's brief respite from violence ended over the weekend with multiple shootings and a carjacking.

Saturday night there was gunfire at West 4th Street and Plainfield Avenue. No one was struck.

Overnight Sunday, there was a carjacking at gunpoint at Liberty and West Front Streets.

Late Monday night there were two separate shooting incidents in which victims were struck by bullets --

• 500-block of West 4th Street
  
• West 3rd Street and Prescott Place

All this as the Council hears of the need for some financial assistance with the Open Gym nights at Washington and Emerson schools during August, and ponders issuing bonds to help pay for gunshot-spotting technology.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Robinson-Briggs wants $4.4M bond she originally spurned

 

Plainfield's City Council will take up a proposal by Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs to issue $4.4M in bonds which she once spurned.

The amount was originally approved by City Council in 2005 (as part of a larger $11M bond) for the Senior Center proposed by the administration of the late Mayor Al McWilliams.

After Robinson-Briggs took office in 2006, the project was dropped while the new mayor shopped for a developer. In 2007, Glen Fishman's Dornoch Plainfield LLC was selected to develop the Senior Center in a project that included market-rate luxury condos on the upper three floors.

Robinson-Briggs and her mentor, Assemblyman Jerry Green, took great pains to inform the public the project would be built at no expense to the taxpayers, and that the previously approved bond money would not be used.

In the event, the project was built, but costs to Plainfield's taxpayers -- not yet fully toted up -- include 13% of the building's maintenance costs.

The Robinson-Briggs administration also floated the idea of a tax abatement for buyers (in effect, an increased assessment for all other taxpayers) which was withdrawn after public outcry and has not been re-introduced.

Then there is the matter of the 'fitting out' expenses in excess of $250,000, the tab for which the Mayor wanted the taxpayers to pick up and about which the Council is still awaiting an accounting.

Seems the mayor has found a use for the 'found money' and is willing to saddle the taxpayers with the bond after all.

There's nothing like being flexible, is there?

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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