RE: SALMAGUNDI

I doff my cap to Bernice;
Melange (n)assortment,combo,confusion,farrago,gallimaufry,hodgepodge,jumble,
medly,miscellany, mishmash,mix.mix bag,
pasticcio,pastiche,patchwork,potpourri,salmagundi(I particularly like this word),soup, stew.

To describe the Council's Agenda Setting Session any one of the above terms would be applicable, the more exotic the better perhaps gallimaufry a 16th century term for stew. The problem arises from too much important matters being covered in a limited time period. Once again despite "ZZZzzz"'s comment, I am pleading for the Council to be realistic and return to the two each agenda and business sessions a month.

While I at expressing a non Council individual's difficulty with understanding Council actions, such as glossing rapidly over the resolutions offered for presentation this coming Monday, the exact resolution and/ordinance should be more readily available for public perusal. One big book for all to look at is not enough.

We are being asked to pay for an IT manager. The City has a web site. All these documents should be posted at least 24 hours prior to meetings. That includes the so called supporting documents submitted to Council but not publicly available.

If Plainfield is ever going to recover from the abyss into which it has fallen, there must be true transparency in government. We should not have to dig out the number of Tax Abatement or Pilot properties on the books, much less than those that are exempted from taxation. Nor should we have to serendipitously discover that the commercial properties in the city center have been reassessed by court order at 40% of their previous value.

City costs keep increasing, all the preceding result in an unfair increase in the residential property owners tax burden. It is time to stop talking the talk an d walk the walk.