POTPOURRI JUST TWO

Bernice in her Monday blog alerts us to a proposed (another) rate hike by PUMA.The Public meting will be held Dee. 28, 2010. at 6:00pm. Not only at the usual dinner time but in the middle of the Holiday season when residents may be otherwise occupied.

It seems that this is a new charge that will b e an add on to our bill which has two items; "Sewer" and "Waste" there is no mention of "shared services". "Shared Services" is,as I understood it, part of the Authority's agreement with the City.

The meat of the railroad meeting "However, certain service adjustments were necessitated in the Authority's "On-Call" bulky waste collection services in order to expand bulky waste collection service availability to all Plainfield property owners. This needed adjustment now makes bulky waste collection an integral component of the community "shared services" fees paid by all City property owners. Bulky waste collection is part of the Authority's comprehensive solid waste program service package being provided to our current customers and the proposed change will have no overall impact on these customers. Extending this service to all property owners and making it a part of the Authority's shared services fee is needed to help address a significant increase in illegal dumping being experienced throughout the City. "

Bernice also makes the point that there have been unfilled appointments to the Authority. Since the Mayor makes the appointments with "advice and consent" (supposedly with Council but another individual may be involved) the lack of such action is characteristic of the present Administration.

Sitting Commissioners hold office for a specific term and stay until their successor is seated. If no one is appointed the holdover can stay for ever. Until, all Boards, Authorities, Commissions etc. that are dependent upon this Mayor's appointing individuals to fill vacancies they can by inaction a life time position. There has to be a change in the enabling legislation to mandate and appointment within a specific time or let the Council fill the position.

Maria has questioned why I believe that an appointed BOE is preferable to the elected Board. Despite our Mayor's track record on filling vacancies,, my position has not changed.

It is true that in a corrupt administration the Board can become a victim of political manipulations. This is a lesser danger if the concerns of the citizens bring a large voter turnout for the regular election of City officials.

On the other hand the 10% plus or minus that participate in the school board elections can result in a Board composed of less qualified individuals that do not truly understand their fiduciary responsibility and lead to supervisory miss-management. Elected boards also tend to have members with a narrow self-agenda concept. Such a Board can be too easily influenced by the Fox that they have placed in the hen house.

Elected Boards, and this is not limited to BOEs, as well as appointed Boards too often forget that the professionals they have hired work for them. Instead too often well meaning individuals fall into the trap of "working for their employee". That professional calls all the shots with out any controls and that leads to disaster. We have had enough of such situations in the PSS.`

As Maria has aptly written, we need accountability in our elected and appointed officials. A board elected by a minority of at the most of 15% of the voters has no accountability to the majority. An appointed board derives its accountability to the person(s) that appoint the board. The "appointer" is accountable to those that elected that person, usually a majority of eligible voters. 

However, if the public exercised their right  of vote so that a majority of the electorate made the choices either system would work.

It has been suggested that the School Board elections  and  the budget  vote be held with the general election in November. That would increase the turnout but would expose that election to a more obvious political climate.  For multiple reasons, mostly logistically, holding the school elections at primary time would be impractical.

Thus, if we want an effective BOE we either have to have an electoral turnout of at least 50% or have it appointed by a responsible elected official with approval of the Council. Since we can not eliminate political overtones  lets us try to have quality.