The greatest catastrophe is of course Japan's earthquake and immediate tsunami. The number of dead will likely be in the 100000s of thousands when final accounting can be finished. This does not taker into account the imminent nuclear plants disaster due to the quake and tsunami.
In our Northeast there have been the destructive flooding most marked in New Jersey's Bergen and Passaic Counties.
Locally it was last night's Council meeting. This of course will require explanation. But first I must express my indignation that for purely political motivation a minority of three can continue to thwart any action of the majority. How can members of the majority political faction help defeat a vote to keep an essential division, Purchasing" functioning until the end of the present fiscal year? Both were unconscionable positions if the Councilors are placing the interests of the City first..
There is no question that available finances are extremely limited, and that priorities must be allocated wisely. That can be a subject of another post but for the time being let us focus on last night.
Credit must be given to Council President McWilliams for permitting 2 hours of public commentary before the resolutions were acted upon. There is no question that the full courthouse was the result of a personal campaign accompanied by printed material to prevent the overriding of the Mayor's veto.
There was no doubt that there would not be the five(5) votes needed to negate the Mayor's veto. In fact Council President McWilliams expressed the desire to withdraw or table that resolution which would in effect preserved the Mayor's veto. However, the Mayor herself expressed strong objection, insisting upon a vote perhaps wanting the satisfaction of being vindicated.
Thus, there was the prolonged commentary period that far exceeded the allotted 30minutes and often the 3 minutes per speaker. The unfortunate problem is that although comments are to be limited to resolutions and proposed ordinances first reading, forgotten was the vetoed Ordinance establishing Recreation Commission with definitive powers and the three emergency funding resolutions. Instead 90% of the remarks were personal testimony lauding Recreation Superintendent Wynn. This was excusable in that Wynn had been the focus for the past two years of citizen complaints at Council meetings, which had been the impetus leading to the "Commission" ordinance.
Once again several and especially one individual indulged in vicious inexcusable personal harangues aimed at certain members of the Council. Regrettably this was in the presence of many youngster waiting for the presentations honoring several excellent young athletes whose accomplishments reflect proudly on all Plainfielders. .
As expected the veto was upheld by the anticipated minority of 3 no votes. Unanticipated was the failure to at least provide the funding for Purchasing to continue to operate to end of the fiscal year. Funding for the Recreation division is also a necessity, but there remained a questioned of amount. Even if the Mayor's veto of the Ordinance had been over ridden that is a must. That could be addressed in a separate resolution. and there has to be a realistic compromise between the two political factions. Unfortunately I can see no indication of the "Mayor's party" yielding any ground.
It is now imperative that Council not wait for the April meetings which would be too late for both divisions to continue operations, but hold a special meeting within the the next 10 days and do what it should do.
Non Sequitor: For what it is worth in 2011 to date there has been:
- 1 Richter scale earthquake of 9.0 (Japan)
- 5 Richter scale earthquakes greater than 7.0
- 30 earthquakes registering between 6 an 6.9 including New Zealand
- 162 earthquakes registering between 5 and 5.9 including a recent one in China that resulted in fatalities.
- Thsi does not account for the thousands that are less than 5.0
The mayor is so for the children that she would rather the programs collapse by dismissing the recreation committee last night that may have been able to hold things together until another plan was put in place or find another way to keep the department going. In other words she's going to hold her breath until she turns blue for the Council to return the money to recreation. I say put back the money and then do the audit called for by Mr. Darden. Let's see if wynn can stand under that scrutiny. There has to be a reason he dug his heels in to not give up the information requested by the Council, Rec. Committee and CBAC.
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