The Public be dammed! By whom?
Annie McWilliams is a remarkable young woman of who have a high opinion and may well be our next Mayor. Well that was until about 8:45 PM Wednesday night when I along with perhaps 30. Plainfield Residents who had been standing outside the Court Room since 8:20PM. It was not until 10:20 PM that the Council began the scheduled business in the agenda for its monthly business meeting.
Upon arriving for the 8PM meeting I found an additional Public Meeting Notice calling for a Executive Meeting “FOLLOWING REGULAR MEETING ADJOURTMENT”
The subject matter was listed as (1) PERSONNEL MATTERS: 1- Layoff Plan, 2- Temporary Furlough Layoff Plan and (2) Contract Negotiations:” Information Technology Shared Services Contract Negotiations”
I am disregarding the question whether the items under Personnel Matters qualified for a closed meeting since they were more of an economic measure, unless specific individuals were named. Even then the matter is of public interest not an invasion of personal privacy for which the closed meeting venue is designed to protect.
I will grant that Council President McWilliams’ intentions were exemplary. She did not wish to keep the large number of city workers who might be involved in the general plan waiting until near midnight before the matter in which they had an interested was on the table. But this was at the expense of those who are vitally and genuinely interested in Plainfield’s welfare and give up their free time to attend civic meetings.
A real question was why a Special Meeting Executive Session had not been called? The answer came later but once again regardless of the situation, Council policy disdains public interest. More of this later.
It was not until an hour after the Business session began that the real culprit in discomforting the attendees emerged. Three resolutions R371-10 Authorizing Approval for submission of a layoff plan to the New Jersey Civil Service for review and approval,372-10 similar but for a “Temporary Furlough Layoff Plan” and a related one the introduction of the mayor’s proposed Budget(R373-10)
It turns out that these three Resolutions were received by the Council late Friday night with a caveat that the first two had to be enacted by Tuesday’s meeting since there was a day and half time before a State deadline.
Administration had dealt the Council a curveball. The timing indicates that it had to be deliberate. Moreover, the Council Agenda reads for both “PLAN DISTRIBUTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER TO ADMINISTRATION AND COUNCIL MEMBERS ONLY” (verbatim).
The fact that when this came up for a vote that the public had not had a chance to comment on something they had not seen and indeed that in the close meeting there were changes must be a violation of OPRA, made no impact on the Council who passed these Resolutions as Councilor Storch remarked “we have no other choice otherwise we are costing the public money”.
Yes it was the Mayor and her administration that has shown a complete contempt for the public and the Council.
(To be continued)
Whine on! Should you cut off the hand to save the arm or just let it all rot!
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:02. I know I am suffering from senility. but I do not understand the tenor of your declaration. I presume it could be a question since it starts with "Should".
ReplyDeleteAs to "whine on"; were you there? If not perhaps you are part of the problem.
The problem, as you have correctly been pointing out for many months now, is the once-monthly meeting schedule. No wonder everything has to be done at the last minute! And having two agenda-fixing sessions plus one business meeting won't solve the problem. When a meeting goes on so long that whatever public is left doesn't have the energy to speak--and the Council members don't have the ability to hear any more--because all are exhausted, it makes a mockery both of the Council's role and the ability of the public to have any input at all.
ReplyDelete