Why the July 4 Parade was soooo late

Garwood mayor Pat Quatrocchi and Plainfield GOP candidate
Sandy Spector waited in the shade for the parade's belated start.

Plainfield 'green technology' entrepreneur Olive Lynch
got a bird's-eye view of the parade.

Enquiring Plainfield Today readers had several questions about the Independence Day Parade last Saturday and why it started so late.

I know you will be surprised to learn that it had something to do with Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.

Several readers reported that Her Honor held up the parade's kickoff until nearly 11:00 AM (it was supposed to step off at 10:00 AM), but Pat Turner Kavanaugh, who was a volunteer parade marshal, lets it all hang out in her comment --

Dan: I am a volunteer marshal on Johnston Avenue. The parade stepped off at 11 when the Mayor and the Assemblyman arrived. Congressmen Russ Holt and Frank Pallone were in place on time, as was Assemblywoman Linda Stender and Councilman Cory Storch. The Rec kids had arrived at 9 am. I arrived shortly before that. When the Mayor gave me one of her effusive greetings, and said "How are we doing?," I replied, "We're hot and pissed off." Her Honor asked me to repeat what I had said, so I did. What a disgrace.

July 6, 2013 at 9:21 AM 

You can read all the comments on the two blog posts here and here.

Others pointed out that I did not mention the Republican candidate for mayor of Plainfield, Sandy Spector, in my earlier post on the parade. But there's no secret here, you all know where my sympathies lie.

I was so busy trying to capture a shot of the guy pooper-scooping after the horses, that I missed the car Sandy was supposed to be in -- but thankfully Garwood mayor Pat Quatrocchi sent along a snapshot of the car taken as they waited for the parade to get under way (see above).

The same holds true of Plainfield 'green technology' entrepreneur Olive Lynch, whose horse-drawn carriage scooted quickly across my range of view. Olive was kind enough to supply a bird's-eye view of the parade from behind her horses Abbie and Katie.
 
As for the late start, this was Mayor Robinson-Briggs' farewell appearance in a July 4 Parade. Can we just say that Sharon fiddled while Plainfielders burned?

Things can only look up.

Abbie and Katie send greetings from Plainfield, NJ!

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Farmers market opens

The farmers market across from Plainfield City Hall at East 6th Street and Watchung Avenue was open for business yesterday afternoon.

Several Plainfield Today readers have been asking, and I am glad to report a sighting.

My guess is the regular Monday and Thursday afternoons schedule will prevail. If you've been waiting, stop in and check out the fruit and veggies.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Campbell volunteers cold call for supporters

'Branded' at last. John Campbell Jr. among the palefaces.

 
GOP Assembly candidate John Campbell Jr's volunteers are 'cold calling', knocking on Plainfield doors and looking for campaign volunteers.

One First Ward resident tells me they answered a knock on the front door to find an attractive young woman who introduced herself as a campaign worker for John Campbell Jr. and asked if my informant would be interested in working on his campaign.

Campbell certainly is taking this thing seriously.

While many Democrats have quietly smiled and kept their thoughts he was a 'sacrificial lamb' to themselves, Campbell has evidently decided to go for the brass ring.

He is seen everywhere, and makes sure his presence is noted at public events (he garners a mention in the TAP writeup of Saturday's July 4 parade, see here) -- and even semi-public events (as in the fundraiser at the Senior Center to convert the Abbott Manor into a veterans' residence, see here).

And then there are the clean, crisp yard signs which on closer inspection don't mention Campbell's party affiliation. There are still plenty of them sprinkled around town, even though the primary is long past.

Clean, crisp, clear ... and unbranded.

Then, of course, there's the fiction that he is running against Assemblywoman Linda Stender of Fanwood. Wink, wink.

One doesn't run against any particular assembly candidate; the seat is at-large, and one simply runs against ALL the candidates.

Will young John put a dent in Jerry Green's numbers?

That would depend on whether voters think he stands FOR anything, or is just running AGAINST someone.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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July 4 parade a surprise

PHS ROTC cadets color guard steps smartly.
More pictures below.

 
What a pleasant surprise Plainfield's 90th Independence Day Parade was!

It has been in such a steep decline over the past several years that I dreaded it would have sagged even further, but that turns out not to have been the case.

There were plenty of floats and marching groups and everything moved along briskly once it got going.

But the best part for me was the marching bands. What is a parade without a marching band? And there were three: Plainfield High, Pleasantville High and Camden High. Though all were excellent, the Camden group wowed the audience with both their playing and their drill routines. Bravo!

Surprisingly, the only patriotic music that I heard though, came from Democratic mayoral candidate Adrian Mapp's sound truck, which followed on behind a walking contingent of supporters.

Was this year's parade better because it was Sharon's last? Or was it because it was freed from the grasp of its former chief organizer?

Whichever, it was better.

PHS Marching Band doing its routine.

Pleasantville HS Marching Band.

Camden's snappy Marching Band.

Democratic mayoral candidate Adrian Mapp and friends.

Freeholder Chairperson Linda Carter and sorority sisters.

On the sunny side of the street.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Scenes from July 4 parades past

PHS Cardinals football team carries huge American flag.

Various groups march behind their banners.

 

Watching the onlookers can be as much fun as the parade.

Plainfield's Independence Day Parade steps off from Johnston Avenue and East Front Street at 10:00 AM this morning, and will include a group of Democratic mayoral candidate Adrian Mapp's supporters.

Grand Marshals for this year's parade are Superintendent of Schools Anna Belin Pyles and William Gary.

Featured today are some scenes from July 4 Parades past.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Weekend Independence Day celebrations

Screenshot from the city's website.

Banners touting Faraone's festival can be seen around town.

 
Plainfield's Independence Day celebrations get under way today with the three-day Independence Festival organized by Edison Garcia of Faraone's night club, starting at noon.

The festival is in Lots 8 and 8A behind the Front Street stores and features a carnival with rides for all ages, loads of delicious food and fruit drinks and vendors hawking everything from toys to cowboy boots. In addition, there is a beer tent sponsored by Heinekens near the bandstand erected behind the night club. The festival runs today through Sunday, Noon to 11:00 PM and is a real crowd-pleaser.

On Saturday, Plainfield's traditional but much-diminished July 4th Parade steps off from Johnston Avenue and East Front Street at 10:00 AM, proceeding down Front Street to pass the reviewing stands before dispersing on Madison Avenue.

This will be Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' final July 4 Parade; one can only hope that it will improve beginning next year, as it has become a shadow of what it once was.

Grand Marshals for this year's parade are Superintendent of Schools Anna Belin Pyles and William Gary.

The parade will be followed by a concert at 4:30 (or 5:00, both times being put forward by the City) at Cedar Brook Park.

Fireworks will cap the city's Independence Day celebrations at 9:00 PM, also at Cedar Brook Park.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield gets one pool open before July 4th

The pool at Hannah Atkins sits empty and ready on Wednesday.

Each year, Plainfield youngsters look forward to the opening of the city's three free swimming pools at the beginning of July. Once upon a time, all three pools opened on time and were open daily for community use.

In recent years, hopes of even opening on time, let alone having a full schedule, have been dashed by the failure of the Recreation Division to solve perennial issues in a timely fashion.

This year's opening date of July 1 was also missed, though the pools appear to be filled and functioning.

A tour of the three pools (Rushmore, Hannah Atkins, and Seidler Field) Wednesday afternoon showed only one pool had been open for use, and was closed by about 3:00 PM. Four teenagers and an Hispanic family were seen walking down the street away from the pool, dripping from a swim. No lifeguard nor umbrellas were spotted, nor was the playground in use.

At Hannah Atkins, the pool glistened but was empty, with no signs of activity, lifeguards or umbrellas. Only four youths with bikes on the grass were gathered at one of the playground's tables.

Seidler Field was busier, with a gaggle of kids riding swings and playing on the playground equipment, and a group of boys was playing basketball. But the pool was vacant, with no sign of lifeguards or umbrellas. (The umbrellas not only shade the lifeguard, but are a signal to all that the pool is open.)

Though promises were made that the pools would open on time, they seem not to have been kept; this year the reason appears (again) to be a shortage of lifeguards.

This is a longstanding problem, and it is hard to figure out why the Rec Division has not been able to overcome it. One swimming instructor I know suggests that the City should pay a higher hourly rate to make it more attractive.

This person points out that Plainfield is the only area community with FREE pools, which means that they draw hordes of youngsters when the pools are open. This is very stressful for the lifeguards, as keeping track of so many energetic kids is difficult.

Another issue is that the way the pools and playgrounds are run, there is little or poor record-keeping about usage, leading to the perennial complaints that the Rec Division doesn't even know how many youngsters it services in order to justify its budget.

Clearly, there is much that can be done to improve Recreation's operation of the pools and playgrounds and justify the large expenditure the City makes every year.

But that will have to await a new administration in January, I am afraid.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Reader submitted photos of Crescent cop car chase

 

Getaway car crashes into retaining wall in front of Tudor Arms.

Driver is nabbed in Franklin Avenue driveway.

Getaway car and carjacking victim's vehicle being towed.

A crowd gathers to watch . . .

. . . as a traffic backlog develops.

 
A Plainfield Today reader who witnessed the cop chase and nabbing of the robbery suspects on Monday afternoon has sent along some pictures taken on the spot. I would credit them, but the reader wishes to remain anonymous -- many thanks, though!

Mark Spivey writes up the story in today's Courier (see here) concerning an armed robbery (no mention of a bodega, which is what I had been told) near East 6th and Berckman Streets. The two alleged robbers fled but were spotted and followed by a swarm of cops.

While the getaway car sped up Franklin Avenue and crashed into the retaining wall outside the Tudor Arms apartment building at Watchung and East 9th Street, the posse following them split and the cars I saw (see my post here) attempted to cut the perps off on Watchung Avenue.

So, all the activity the tow truck driver and I witnessed was really a sidebar to the real action going on a block further up Watchung Avenue.

A gun and drugs were recovered. Sadly, one of the alleged robbers was a star basketball player at with the PHS Cardinals in 2009.

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• Courier:  "Wild Plainfield police chase after robbery ends with two arrests"
• Plainfield Today:  "Wild cop chase at Crescent Avenue church"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Board of Ed: Slammer for the Grand Slammers? (Part 2)

A Mexican standoff involves three armed parties, as in
the scene above from Steampunk 2012 in London.
(Photo by Martin SoulStealer.)

When we left the Plainfield Board of Ed yesterday, they had gotten their knickers in a twist over the selection of a board attorney for FY2011.

It became evident that board president Lisa Logan-Leach was advancing the interests of Weiner Lesniak, the state senator's firm, while some were supporting the current firm of Hunt Hamlin Ridley (HHR).

At the Board's May 4 meeting, it seemed all had agreed to solicit proposals from law firms and then make a selection (see Maria Pellum on that point here); Logan-Leach's abortive May 7 Emergency Meeting had been derailed when HHR frightened off Board members with the threat that the matter of attorney selection did not meet the state's criteria for an emergency meeting and would expose the Board to liability.

Interestingly, the Mexican standoff was resolved during the following six weeks, because at its June 22, 2010 meeting the Board of Ed adopted resolutions dividing the legal work between two firms (see minutes here).

Resolution P-1 that evening was to appoint a previously unmentioned firm, Pickett & Craig of West Orange, as general and labor counsel at a rate to be determined. Their selection was moved by Wilma Campbell and seconded by Renata Hernandez. They were joined in the vote by members Rasheed Abdul-Haqq, Keisha Edwards, Lennie Cathcart and Katherine Peterson. Pat Barksdale and Brenda Gilbert abstained; Lisa Logan-Leach voted no. The motion was carried: 6-1-2.

Resolution P-2 was to appoint HHR as Workers Compensation Counsel at a rate to be determined. Lenny Cathcart made the motion, which was seconded by Katherine Peterson. They were joined in the vote by members Rasheed Abdul-Haqq, Pat Barksdale, Wilma Campbell, Keisha Edwards and Brenda Gilbert. Renata Hernandez and Lisa Logan-Leach voted no. The motion was carried: 7-2.

The public was not made aware of how many firms had submitted proposals for the business, what each was to be paid (both resolutions specified 'to be determined'), nor how the decision was arrived at to pick the firms of Pickett & Craig and HHR and divide the work between them.

As the contracts are awarded, we see that the three-way Mexican standoff has been changed to roughly two teams (the GrandSlammers and Barksdale-Cathcart-Gilbert-Peterson), with Logan-Leach disarmed and shunted aside.

None of this intrigue is found in Comptroller Matthew Boxer's report (see here), which only begins to pick up the story at this point.

In his write up for the Courier News (see here), reporter Mark Spivey points out that the Plainfield Board of Ed actually spent much more on legal fees in the year before Boxer's review (about $580,000) when HHR was the sole legal firm, which ought to raise eyebrows even more. No wonder that HHR fought so tenaciously for a piece of the pie.

Now we have to look at how and why the contract as actually drawn up differed from the proposal submitted by Pickett & Craig and how that opened the flood gates to the wave of overbillings and other shenanigans that Boxer uncovered.

We'll pick the story up again on Monday.

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• Plainfield Board of Ed:  "June 22, 2010 Business Meeting" (PDF)
  
• Office of State Comptroller:  "Analysis of Legal Fees Paid by Local Governments" (PDF)
• Maria's Blog, 5/8/2010:  "Why was the BOE, or whoever, trying to get a new lawyer?"
• Courier:  "Comptroller's report targets Plainfield schools over legal fees"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Wild cop chase at Crescent Avenue Church

 

A wild cop chase near Plainfield's historic Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church Monday afternoon startled passersby and those attending to business at City Hall, the YMCA and the Salvation Army.

I was being towed to my garage (my battery had died) and we were in front of the Salvation Army on Watchung Avenue, where the tow truck had died (his battery, too; very embarrassing to the driver), waiting for another tow truck to tow the tow truck towing me. Got it?

Anyway, we were standing on the sidewalk about 4:40 PM when suddenly there were sirens sounding from all directions.

As people stopped to see where they were coming from, a posse of six or eight Plainfield and Union County Police squad cars (I thought I saw one Fanwood car, too) came barreling west on East 7th Street and blew through the light at the flagpole making a hairpin turn left onto Watchung Avenue and coming to a halt just past the church.

Then several other cars raced up Watchung Avenue from downtown and proceeded through the light and up Crescent Avenue to First Place. While we were scratching our heads at all this, a couple of cars raced eastward from Park Avenue and two Union County Police cars came the wrong way on East 5th Street to the light by City Hall, all converging at the corner by the church.

At length, I got a call from a source who said that someone had robbed a bodega at the corner of East 6th Street and Berckman and had fled in the direction of Watchung Avenue. Was told the suspect was apprehended.

Drama in the afternoon!

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield Dems turn out to support Buono

Time for Barbara Buono to show she's a kick-ass Democrat.

According to Plainfield Democratic mayoral candidate Adrian Mapp, it was a full house this past Saturday morning at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick as New Jersey Democrats gathered to unify the party around the gubernatorial campaign of Sen. Barbara Buono.

Assemblyman Jerry Green, chair of both the Union County and the Plainfield Democratic committees has been committed to Buono since the first days of her announced run for the governor's seat, and has vowed there will be no Democrats supporting Christie in Union County.

The get-together was intended to smooth ruffled feathers and hard feelings from the bruising primary, where Buono suffered mostly from potshots from bigwigs in her own party (need I add that they were all middle-aged white men?).

At any rate, rank and file party members are looking forward to Buono's fall campaign in the hopes she will really go head-to-head with Christie, who everyone feels is really running for President, not governor.

Besides Green and Mapp, Plainfield attendees at the unity breakfast included Rick Smiley, Veronica (Roni) Taylor, Joylette Mills-Ransome and Carmencita Pile. I am told that Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs showed up halfway through the program and found a seat at another table.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Board of Ed: Should it be the slammer for the Grand Slammers? (Part 1)

 

The Grand Slam team was elected in April 2010;
the struggle over the District's attorneys began at once.

The Office of the State Comptroller Matthew Boxer's investigation of the Plainfield Public Schools (PPS) legal expenses focuses on FY2011, which ran from July 1, 2010 through June 30,2011; the Courier story by Mark Spivey can be found online here.

Many will recall that late spring and early summer 2010 was a period of great turmoil in the school district, with Superintendent Steve Gallon III and his two top aides (and Florida imports) facing criminal charges for lying about the residency of children of the two women who were enrolled in the South Plainfield schools using Gallon's apartment address as their own for registration purposes.

This was also the beginning of the term of the Grand Slam team: Renata Hernandez, Wilma Campbell, Rasheed Abdul-Haqq and Keisha Edwards.

While attention was focused on the Gallon affair, moves were made to ditch the PPS legal firm of Hunt, Hamlin and Ridley (see here) which had a contract to run through June 30, 2010, in favor of Wiener Lesniak, the law firm of State Senator Ray Lesniak (see here).

Boxer's review only picks up after the selection of the new attorneys.

The Board of Education met on May 4, 2010 to reorganize after the April elections, seating the 'Grand Slam' team as new members (Abdul-Haqq, Campbell and Hernandez for three years; Edwards for one year, filling an unexpired term). Lisa Logan-Leach was elected Board president and presided.

On the agenda that evening as 'item U' was a resolution to (re)appoint the firm of Hunt Hamlin Ridley as attorneys for the ensuing fiscal year (FY2011). The resolution was moved by Brenda Gilbert and seconded by Lisa Logan-Leach.

As Maria Pellum subsequently reported (see here), a squabble developed after the resolution was introduced, when Brenda Gilbert attempted to bring to the floor a counter-resolution which evidently would have appointed the Wiener Lesniak firm as the Board attorney. Maria notes that before a discussion could take place, Wilma Campbell objected that Gilbert had not discussed the matter in the executive session preceding the public meeting.

According to Maria, Keisha Edwards asked Gilbert to reveal who told her to move her resolution, which Gilbert refused to do.

After further discussion, Maria reports, it was agreed that the professional services contracts would 'go out for bid' and then be decided.

The vote on the resolution appointing HHR then became pro forma; seven members voted against the motion: the Grand Slam team (Abdul-Haqq, Campbell, Hernandez, Edwards) and Pat Barksdale and Katherina Peterson, meaning that no attorney was selected for the ensuing year.

What happens next is revealing.

An Emergency Meeting is scheduled for that Friday evening, May 7.

By this time, there is considerabe excitement in the community, mainly on account of the Gallon affair and the likelihood it would be dealt with at the Emergency Meeting.

Note the May 7, 2010 Emergency Meeting
is not listed on the District website.

Though a crowd gathered for the Emergency Meeting, the only Board member in attendance was President Logan-Leach; all eight other Board members stayed away. Though the meeting was given public notice, it does not appear on the very thorough list of meeting agendas on the Plainfield Public Schools website (see image above).

Though Board member Renata Hernandez blogged about the meeting the next day in an oblique way on her PepTalk blog (see here), it was not until late August that Maria finally got the exchange of emails she had requested that revealed the maneuvering going on behind the scenes leading up to the May 7 Emergency Meeting (see her post here). It is important to remember that Maria observes a 'suited man' pacing back and forth at both the May 4 and May 7 meetings.

The emails Maria obtained about the May 7 meeting are well worth reading in their entirety. They portray a great deal of anxiety on the part of Board President Logan-Leach, the HHR firm and a previously unheard-from Wiener Lesniak partner, Mark A. Tabakin, who may be the 'suited man' Maria had noted.

But more than that, they contain the text of the Resolutions put forth for that ill-fated meeting. Though they are contained in an email of President Logan-Leach, my suspicion is that they were drawn up for her professionally (see my post on the matter here). Since HHR would hardly have drawn up resolutions intended for their demise, one is left to wonder who did the legal footwork. The answer lies with Logan-Leach.

Here is the multi-part but single resolution Logan-Leach proposed for the Emergency Meeting --

From: Logan-Leach, Lisa C.
To: Ottmann, Gary
Subject: resolution
Sent: Fri 5/7/2010 12:35 PM

Gary here is the resolution for tonight

EMERGENCY MEETING RESOLUTIONS

1. Resolved that pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:25-6, the Plainfield Board of Education hereby approves the suspension of Dr. Steve Gallon effective immediately (May 7, 2010), with pay, pending the outcome of the criminal charges filed by the Prosecutor’s office and pending further administrative action by the Board of Education.

2. Resolved that pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:25-6, the Plainfield Board of Education hereby approve the suspension of Angela Kemp effective immediately (May 7, 2010), pending the outcome of the criminal charges filed by the Prosecutor’s office and pending further administrative action by the Board of Education.

3. Resolved that the Plainfield Board of Education hereby appoints Gary Ottman as Acting Superintendent of Schools effective May 7, 2010 for a period not to exceed 60 days, subject to the approval of the Executive County Superintendent of Schools.

4. Resolved that the Professional Services Agreement entered between the Plainfield Board of Education and the Law Firm of Hunt, Hamlin and Ridley is hereby terminated, effective May 7, 2010; and

Be it further resolved that the Law Firm of Weiner Lesniak LLP is hereby appointed as legal counsel to the Board, effective May 7, 2010 through June 30, 2010, at the hourly rate of $135.00, pending completion of the RFP process by the Board; and

Be it further resolved that the Law Firm of Hunt, Hamlin and Ridley is directed to immediately cease working on all pending matters and transfer all files to the Law Firm of Weiner Lesniak LLP, along with all appropriately executed substitutions of attorney.

5. Resolved by the Plainfield Board of Education that Angela Kemp be immediately removed from the District payroll as a result of her forfeiture of public employment, unless she produces a Court Order evidencing that she lawfully remain on the District payroll.

Suddenly, without explanation, the replacement of HHR with Wiener Lesniak is introduced, without any justification, in a series of items dealing with the Gallon affair.

Why is the matter of the Board of Ed's attorney brought up in this connection? Was the switch of attorneys an emergency matter?

All of this took place outside the purview of State Comptroller Matthew Boxer.

Read more tomorrow.

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• Hunt Hamlin & Ridley:  "Company website" | "Martindale.com"
• Weiner Lesniak:  "Company website" | "Martindale.com"
• Maria's Blog --
• 5/8/2010:  "Why was the BOE, or whoever, trying to get a new lawyer?"
• 8/24/2010:  "What OPRA revealed of the May 7 meeting"
• PepTalk:  "In case you are interested in the TRUTH...!"
• Plainfield Today:  "Has Logan-Leach exposed the BOE to liability?"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]


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