MONDAY NIGHT COUNCIL MEETING

  I doubt that I will attend Monday nights meeting. To brave the cold and parking inconveniences just to listen to 7 individuals collecting their $25,000 plus perks such as health insurance etc. to rubber stamp everything the Administration wants.

  Yes it was a year ago. Nov 9, 2017 that according to TAP; “The salary ordinances passed on first reading Wednesday and will be up for second reading and final passage on Dec. 11. If approved then, council members who now receive $10,000 will see an increase to $25,000 in January and Mayor Adrian Mapp, who just won re-election Tuesday, will start his new four-year term with $75,000, up from $35,000.” Mapp in speaking for the ordinance said ““Salary history should not be a measure of the work of any employee. “In other words, we have control; to get as much as we can, and the taxpayers are not allowed to object.

  The agenda includes for first reading an Ordinance approving the weird redevelopment of what is named South Avenue East Redevelopment Area Plan. I have written before against this plan as presented and expressed my feeling that a developer first presented it before the need was there. Portions of the properties need redevelopment especially those on the north (Railroad) side of South Ave. But to destroy flourishing businesses for a pipe dream of more deluxe residential units is not rational.

   I will not list the number of contracts awarded not through competitive bidding but to “State approved vendors”. Look up how large political contributions some have made. Could there be a relationship?

  Once again there are addition contracts to attorneys including one to Corporation Counsel Minchello’s own partnership! Once again, I question this Administration and Council ethics. What in the Charter are the Corporation Counsels duties? What does this Corporation Counsel do?  How much time is spent on Plainfield? What is his compensation?

  I am getting too old to continue to bang my head o n a Trumpian Wall. There   is no difference between the DC GOP and the Plainfield- north-central Jersey, Democrats. “Get all you can”.

  This time next week I shall post the saga of why I have not been writing a blog. It has nothing to do with health or family.

PLEASE NOTE

    I would have to write a saga to explain why I have not posted for days. I hope to do so by the end of this week. Suffice to say, it has nothing to do with my health and there has been no lack of material.

    I wish to take exception to Dan’s referring to Mapp’s action changing the City’s Charter as “extra-legal.” The correct description is “ill-legal”. Extra-legal refers to an action where there is no applicable law. There was, and I hope still is a definitive portion  in the State statues regarding the process to change a special municipality charter. This had been followed but due to legislature inaction failed. The change recently authorized was in no way in compliance, but instead orchestrated by Mayor and Assembly.

  Aren’t the Jets a discrace?

LATE WITH REASON.

  TGI the college basketball season opened last night and the Hoos won.

  Today has been a disaster. First, I had typed this blog twice only to lose it in cyberspace. Then an electrician was working here, and we had a power surge that affected my land-line phones. But I was able to recover this blog.

   The elections went as I expected. No, I am not disappointed, I did not expect all my choices to win. Nationally I am glad the Democrats won control of the House; even though Pelosi will most likely become Speaker. I hope the Democrats will now turn to governing instead of playing party obstructionists. A split party Congress is better than a rubber stamp one.

    The Republicans did increase their majority in the Senate. The down side is that will mean more Trump devotees receiving confirmation as Judges, Cabinet members, Department heads, and anything that requires Senate confirmation.

   Statewide New Jersians faced with a choice of a rock or a hard place, narrowly chose an ethically tainted Menendez over Republican Huggin whose negative TV campaign was redolent with half-truths, distorted facts, and pure hearsay,

   My grandfather who lived in NYC when asked why he always voted for the Tammany candidate replied; We know how much these guys will steal, we have no idea if the others will steal more.”   

  That must be New Jersey voters guiding principle. At least we did not elect a dead man as they did in Nevada

  State wide, and at the County level as well as locally the overwhelming Democrat majority was reflected in the results. No independent or Republican could be expected to win in Plainfield.

  My disappointment was in the supposedly nonpolitical BOE elections. Despite Mapp’s comments about Plainfield loss by the re-election of the Campbell supported slate instead of his own slate, the real loss is that non-politically committed candidates have no chance.

VOTE

BE A CITIZEN
Your vote counts  in contested races;US Senate, the House, Council, and Board of Education. 
It may add to my vote or cancel it but the IMPORTANT matter is to exercise your right as a citizen.