I went to the Library bright and early for my Saturday chore
of reading the support material for the Council meeting. Sadly no one could
find the packet. It is a rare occurrence that it has not been delivered.
I will try to look at the documents Monday so that I have
some idea what nonsense the Council will be acting on.
From the Agenda it seems that the Mayor is in her lame duck
spiting the Council, Once again she has proposed appointments to various Boards
and Authorities without the agenda material reflecting the service terms for
the appointment.
One for the PMUA Commissioners where there are no term expirations before Feb.
2014 consists of four names; two are persons
who voted the million dollar gift, Sanders and Tolliver; one is a holdover, the
fourth is blatant nepotism, her personal
assistant Barbara James a long time employee of Jerry Green. Unless someone
points out that there are no vacancies on that Board at present and there can b
e n o additional appointments this may pass by a 4:3 vote. Let us hope that
reason will prevail.
The other two sets of appointment also need review before
there should be a Council action.
Under other communications there are 6 for street closures
or use of parking lots. Disturbing to me is that two are for religious purposes
according to the wording in the agenda. Once again the lack of backup material
precludes an intelligent review. I am concerned that there may be possibilities
of violating the separation of church and government principle.
The last one on the list is a request by Council President
Rivers and Councilwoman Greaves to close West 3rd St. between
Plainfield Ave. and Liberty St. for the 2nd Annual Community
Appreciation Day tentatively set for Aug 24. Again what is planned will be in
the support documents. The time duration of the affair is questionable it is a
typo or 24hrs since it reads “from 8.00pm thru 8:00pm
The Charter Study Commission report is not mentioned for inclusion
on the business meetings agenda.
The Tax collector’s office is busy with a resolution for
refunds to 211 accounts of $353793.68 as a result of assessment reduction
appeals. There are also refunds of$39948.85 for overpaid taxes and $7250.00
deductions on a total of 29 Senior Citizens accounts.
All this equates to a loss of over 400k in anticipated
income and actual dollars that have been already accounted for in the 2013
budget.
I believe the provisional budget was approved in March; has
it been accepte3d by the State?
There are at least 2 controversial Resolutions for
discussion; One for an additional $2700.00 to C.H.S. Construction Group (who is
the principal?) “To complete the “deconstruction” at 326 Leland.
The other is
similar to a request made at the last session for approval for “Project
Financing to the Kean University Satellite Small Business Development Center in
the City of Plainfield” in the amount of $30,000.00.
In the past someone has raised questions about the size and
hours of his particular facility which is located in the Dunn Building.
There are two Ordinances for first reading. One proposed by
the Mayor is to create a “Plainfield African Caribbean Commission.” Why? And is
this a duplication of an inactive commission or board already on the books?
The other is to create an ‘Community Emergency Response Team”
(CERT) under the local “Emergency Managemen5t Council”. This is a good idea,
but from reports about the City Hall Sponsored NNO this team is already without
publicity in the process of formation. Once again is the horse before or behind
the cart?
After Monday night’s meeting there will be more concrete data available to discuss that which will be on the Regular Meeting’s agenda.
I wish we could rid ourselves of this derelict of a mayor before January. I guess she hasn't gotten the hint that the people of Plainfield are tired of her poor judgement and ever worse governing. I for one will be very vocal if she tries to get a job in government. Let her try private business and see how quickly she gets fired.
ReplyDeleteDoc, thanks for pointing out that resolution concerning the Kean University Small Business Development Center satellite office. I missed it the first time through the agenda.
ReplyDeleteOver the years similar resolutions came with the unwritten caveat that a significant amount of the money spent would end up in Malcolm Dunn's pocket through rental payments to the Incubator at 320 Park Ave. Virtually every other SBDC in America, and certainly in New Jersey, hold its programs at community colleges or public libraries where rental costs are minor or non-existent. Kean's SBDC has seminars at the county office building on occasion.
But in Plainfield, there has been a strategy afoot to enrich the Dunns for quite some time. Between UEZ payments to the SBDC that date to when Dunn was still on the City Council, to an illegal job training program where $187,000 from a Stimulus grant was earmarked for the Incubator, one can almost make the case that Dunn family welfare is the City of Plainfield's top charitable contribution.
It was only a few months ago that the Incubator's front man Jeff Dunn and his compadre Jacques Howard came to the Council with their hands out seeking this money. I guess we will see who blinks first this time around, but I think it is very doubtful we will hear from the Kean SBDC itself and get any sort of transparent and factual accounting of how their money is spent. Still, now that the primary is over the City Council may be more willing to let the profiteers run amok.
Regarding the Kean SBDC so-called "satellite," there is no reason for the taxpayers to be spending money for "project financing"--this is extremely vague, and you will remember that the last TWO times that this was requested, we received no comprehensive information on why this money was necessary. The idea of spending taxpayers' hard-earned dollars to the tune of tens of thousands on "rental space" and "consultants" to enrich a local for-profit entity is disturbing, to say the least. The Plainfield Public Library has the space to do this work, and the consultants need not be hired--SCORE and others provide this service for FREE. When I asked Mr. Howard why we needed to spend this money at the "Incubator," he said something about its proximity to the UC One-Stop--the PPL is only 4 blocks from the location of the Incubator--ridiculous to assume that folks cannot walk the 4 block difference if they need to go to the One-Stop. This also assumes that folks who are starting new businesses are coming from the One-Stop. Nothing that was stated at those two council meetings made any sense--logistically or practically. Other questions asked, regarding how many businesses opened (none they could name), how many people were served (the data here was not broken down into any coherent analysis), etc., did not (in my view) demonstrate that any further taxpayer money should go into this Kean venture. No other city pays Kean for this--why should Plainfield? We can have the same services provided at the PPL for FREE.
ReplyDeleteRebecca
Hopefully the house of cards will not be just falling, but they will CRASH.
ReplyDelete