Despite the relative brief Council meeting Monday night there was enough action to provide material for more than one blog posting.
Flor Gonzalez was honored by a Council Resolution for her role in the arresting a former Salvation Army Captain pastor and his wife for swindling immigrant Hispanics. Councilman Mapp also read a letter form Governor Christie's wife announcing that Ms Gonzales has been named a Mew Jersey Hero upon nomination by the Union County Human Relations Commission. That is an honor well deserved by a too often maligned champion for Plainfield's true minority, the immigrant Hispanics.
The Mayor took advantage of a privilege granted her prior to Council Business to announce that she was stepping down as Acting City Administrator a role which she acknowledge was assumed on an emergency basis. Once again we have a patchwork solution while we hope that there is an active search for a permanent City Administrator. Since this is an important position for City functioning, the status of the search could have also been communicated t o the Council.
The Mayor also requested that the Council act on a to be submitted Resolution approving a $1.00 deal transferring the Armory to the City. That there was a deadline to the State's offer and that the Mayor had some undisclosed prospects for use of the building. There is a caveat that was not clear concerning the costs of the building maintenance which a figure of $6,000.00 was mentioned at one point. It was called to my attention that this item was introduced by Corporation Counsel Williamson as the Mayor's spokesperson at the end of the meeting.1pm
The Mayor also reported that the "Shot spotter" vendor had offered a 1year lease instead of the 1 million dollar purchase program. There is also available a 3 year lease. AS previously reported this technology can give instant location of a shot being fired and facilitate an immediate police response; provided that there is available resources.
This program may be presented also at the June Agenda session an at that price may be well worth exploring.
Councilor Reid read a letter from the Director of Legislative Services Brogan in response to his last months letter regarding the poor conditions at JFK's ER facility. The Director noted that the State had found no deficiencies at JFK but would monitor the situation and that this question had not been made at the regional advisory committee's meetings. The mayor noted that no State representative have attended the last few meetings. In other words, Even if the State Standards for health care are not being met the State will not intercede. The Director's letter stated that the State had no input into replacing the closed facility.
Next we will get back to Council action and one episode of expressive debate., regarding the PMUA Task Force. which was passed as predicted by a strict "new/regular(?)" vote; 4:3
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Good Afternoon,
ReplyDeleteI just find it so hard to believe that you have to always bash the Mayor of this great city of Plainfield. When are you going to get out there and help with the real issues in Plainfield and that is the CRIME. I sat in the back of the room last night and watch the Mayor and the Council President fight Plainfield will never grow as long as this mess continues. As I go to the meetings every month Council President have made announcements during and before they closed out the meetings about the town hall meetings that were going to take place not one time dide she mention the $th Ward town hall meeting. I know she could care less but she should not show her discrimination against the residents of the 4th Ward. This is the last town hall meeting and she downplayed the meeting as if we the residents issues did ntot count. Wow this is so not fair. We have so much crime shootings killings and the rest of the council could care less. We defiantly need a change on the council.
Let's hope the PMUA task force has access to the key financials. At the very least, they can look at other cities close to us to see that we are overpaying for waste collection. Don't get me started on how much we overpay for sewer!
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