AN ELUCIDATION

One of my medical school classmates after WWII became an "Old Time Country Doctor" I believe in Ohio. He loved to hunt and fish and to be "one of the boys". One of his advocations was to write a column for the local weekly paper.

I was envious of him for one of my secret desires was to write, even pro bono, a weekly column for the Courier. But the thought of meeting a deadline was a killer. Therefore I compromised by writing frequent and long letters to the editor during the 60s-80s and all were published.

I may not have been able to spell, but from early days I had the ability to throw the bull. During my college years I achieved a highlight in an exam for a course in 17th Century European History.

The exam consisted of five essay questions. During the usual immediate post exam student confab I was told by all that each of my answers was completely different even contrary from the course instructor's presentations. When the grades were posted instead of failing I received a grade of 100%. I have never been sure if it was because that professor liked original thought, or he was just impressed with my flight of fancy.

Is it possible that this explains my rational for this blog. There is also my desire to share my experiences with those less fortunate to have the ability to travel. Egypt, Iran, India, Afghanistan, were unknown worlds to most Americans in the 60s and 70s. Jet travel was just making the world a common entity. When I first started posting I devoted many blogs to photographs from our extensive travels abroad.

One of these days when local, national , and world affairs do not demand, for what it is worth, my need to opine, I shall go back to the old discs and resurrect some of those old pictures,

Meantime, I expect to write and post something that most likely will be controversal later today, but I consider to be important in our political, social, civic life. But don't hold your breath for it may have to wait while I try to not make it sound offensive. It will be a genralized philosphical subject not intended to be personal although names will be mentioned.

As a token; two JAMA covers in its never ending art course

The Birch Grove (Ludwig Gill 1900)

and

Nude in a Woods (Matise 1906)

SOUTH AVE OWNE(R)SHIP

The question comes up about who is responsible for South Ave, The State or County. No one seems to know and the City has maintained that street for about 5 decades.

It is State Highway 28 and not a County highway thus it should be the State's problem. No one seems to be able to retrieve the records relating to the transfer of the road to the City.

Rt 28 runs west from the Fanwood border at Terrill Rd to Plainfield Ave. then north to Front St. and again west to the Dunellen line. I believe that the State may still maintain the Front Street portion. Up to the post WWII period Rt28 was the State's owned structure.

Some time early 50s or late 40s due to traffic jams on the east-west roads south of the railroad tracks and blocking north/south traffic on the streets through the commercial area, it was decided by the city to turn West 4th and 5th Streets into opposite one way streets from Watchung Ave to Plainfield Ave..

There was a problem 5th street belonged to the State, 4th Street was not part of the State system. The City could not change the traffic flow on 5th street without State permission. To gain that permission a deal was made that the City would be responsible for the South Ave-5th Street in exchange for the right to make West 5th one way. and shift the other direction to 4th.St. there was no time limit before it would revert back to the State.

Note: Even then the Republican City Administration knew how to SNAFU everything. They made 4th Street eastbound and 5th the Westbound roads creating left turns at Watchung and 5 th and 4th strets., also at Plainfield and 5th. It took a year of traffic jams and merchants complaints before the present configuration. At that time the present route from Roosevelt to Watchung did not exist. There were a large Gas Tank there and the "Academy" roller rink and site of boxing matches stood where the Police Station is now. The Street along the back was East 4th and as narrow as it is today.

MONEY THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL

Plainfield like all communities is faced with an impossible future. There are fundamental services that must be provided or the social and material structure of the community will collapse. The problem is that everything needs funding and there is just a finite amount available and no more. Staffing and services can be cut just so much before they fail to operate. There is no quick solution and perhaps there never will be until the mandatory annual raises, the mandatory health and other perks, and the methodology of funding pension plans is subjected to draconian alterations. The power unions must accept the fact that they are continuing to act out Aesop's" Fable about the Goose who laid the Golden eggs. But that will be only a part of the solution.

Industry has temporarily solved its problems by packing up and moving to other countries. Municipalities can not do that.They are held hostage by legal obligations and union contracts. They can declare bankruptcy which has been advocated by some, but that is not practical. In many municipalities the essential unions have made major concessions to maintain a working force. In other governmental entities the powers that be have arbitrarily broken union contracts, even at the risk of suits.

As a simple minded elderly citizen who lived through the great depression I have some distorted ideas on how some of our fiscal problems can be ameliorated. The list is incomplete and will grow.
We do know that personnel costs are our biggest uncontrolled item.

One of the first is a collaborative review of municipal services, what are absolute core, what programs/ services not now emphasised deserves consideration, and what should be transferred to private sources preferably non profits. One major area of review for efficient use of personnel would be in the Public Safety Department.

The second is a reduction to just a critical mass of full time employees, supplemented by an adequate (the key word) number of part-time workers. That will result in a great savings from reducing mandatory pension plan contributions, insurance benefits and other perks. Health care a necessary item can be made available in a minimum plan with a workable co-payment from the employee. This should also be applicable to all retirement plans despite existing contracts.

Strict control of overtime, extra part time employees, volunteers including auxiliary police will help solve this problem.

Expenditure control is the key to our financial problem. The purchasing segment can not be eliminated but instead must fulfill its function. The fair and open contract is not an option. A one fee by bid for all yearly engineering services can be the rule rather than separate bids for each project. Likewise an overall retainer for legal services without supplemental increases based on time is workable. The Corporation Councils duties and responsibilities as a full time position can be spelled out.

Other areas where use of our tax dollars need whatever action is permitted by law involves the PMUA and despite its legal independence the BOE and the education system with its facilities. What services and venues the latter has that can be co-opted with the city's needs and reflected in both budgets which impact on our tax base.

By the way 60% of the first quarter tax city tax bill is for municipal taxes, the other 40% which is not broken down is for County and School System taxes.

random thoughts

The Red Cross is abandoning the building it owns in Plainfield and moving its operation into Westfield's. Another sad commentary on how low this town has fallen. Although at both the national and local levels the Red Cross had seemed to have lost focus in recent years this is a loss for the city.

One of my most memorable recollections of Red Cross past was during WWII. Our battalion in convoy was wandering almost aimlessly in Westphalia when we came to a fork in the road. At that intersection was a Red Cross Canteen truck serving coffee and donuts. No we did not stop, we were supposedly chasing Germans.

The news that Amtack is going to build the tunnels that should have been the project from get go. This was part of the original plan before for political reasons it was deemed impractical and the tunnel to the deep cavern under Macy was the alternate. Since the ARC plan had needed environmental studies and the new plan will us the now abandoned New Jersey portion, I would hope that funds are not wasted on a new environmental study that would duplicate what has already been done.

Did anyone notice that among the school ratings which mandated reorganization of Maxson School that Cook School was among the ones that had made the greatest advances in testing?

There is a radical educators group in NYC that is advocating changing the tenure system and basing retaining teachers and principles on merit not longevity. Radical, but gaining adherents.

I believe that school principles should be given more freedom in their school's curriculum as long as definitive objectives are met. They should be free to chose what teachers they would retain. The teacher must have the ability and freedom to be initiative in meeting their goals. The principle and teachers should mesh into a cohesive unit.The principles like teachers must be judged on merit gained by results.

COUNCIL AND PM UA

I was not going to expound on the PMUA  discussion since that subject has been adequately covered by Dan Damon's Plainfield Todayhttp://ptoday.blogspot.com/ and by Tony Rucker' QG Progressive blog
shttp://www.theqcpblog.com/  However. I can not ignore the matter.

Well over  an hour was spent on this one item  including preceding  public comments.Much of the Councillors discussion had to do with the Council's last month rejection of two nominees. Unfortunately it was along political lines not community welfare. Councillor Reid's loyalty to Administration is well known. He. however, can rationalize his stance.

I have difficulty understanding Councilwoman Rivers repetitive argument that the Council should disregard its fiduciary Charter obligation of "Advice and Consent" and routinely accept without discussion or question the Mayor's nomination. Perhaps this is a hangover of her BOE roots where the recommendations of the district superintendent were routinely approved. That included the appointment of unqualified individuals to high salaried positions. After a year on the Council it would seem to me that even a neophyte would recognize that although elected from a particular ward the Councillor must represent the interests of the entire community no a section of the whole or a political leadership.

As to the PMUA question it is two fold;  The quality of the trash and recycle services  have never been in question. What is in question and never answered is the fiscal practices of the PMUA including the methodology by which costs are allocated and rates set as well as perks assumed by its leadership.

We as Taxpayers may be subject to double taxation. The agreement with the City and PMUA provides for payment for certain services shared by the utility  for the city. At the same time ever y property owner is billed by the authority for shared services. The city holds lien sales  on the property of those delinquent in their PMUA payments.

It is unfortunate that in the past the appointment of Commissioners has represented a recycling of individuals who have been good party members, often former city Councilors. It has to b e demonstrated that in the Utility Board of Commissioners there is not a tendency to blindly OK the CEO's recommendations.

AGENDA SETTING SESSION #1

Two bloggers suffered from insomnia and have already posted long detailed reports , with more to follow.
Bernice in her Plaintalker II devoted her report  to the 3.4 million anticipated budget shortfall for FY2012 plus the Councils reaction to the Mayor's request to restore funding that had been cut. Specifically for Purchasing and Recreation divisions as well as her office.

Tony Rucker in his excellent new QC Progressive blog wrote about the discussion related to the PMUA.

Since part of my medical school training was in how to take rapid illegible notes, I again will not devote space to verbatim specifics but rather impressions and opinions on the meeting.

Once again the Council and public was favored by the presence of Freeholder Linda Carter. As I earlier noted the public meeting started less than an hour late, 59 minutes to be exact, and ended the same day 1 minute before midnight. One hour of the 3 1/2 meeting was due to a new and welcomed innovation by Council President McWilliams. The public will now have commentary time before the Council actually starts its agenda setting business, in addition to the end of the meeting slot.

This move apparently is an attempt to mitigate public complaints about the duration of these meetings which deprived many of the citizens the right to vocalize about city matters. It does not eliminate the too often situation where the Council is faced with an urgent decision due to an impending deadline.In that respect the change from the semi-monthly meetings remains a community disservice.

The most important part of the Agenda Setting Session is the time allotted to discussion and/or presentations related to important City issues. That includes appointments to various boards, and commissions.  In addition the sub committee reports are a mirror to local problems and should be presented in writing with a brief verbal high light explanation. Unfortunately, too often some are  just verbal summations.

Two brief items for this initial report;  There will be a resolution on  next weeks agenda appointing the Purchasing Director as 'Compliance Officer". The argument for this required position by the Acting City Administrator was that this was a traditional appointment. There was some questioning about the appropriateness by some Council members. My opinion is that since the Purchasing officer  writes specifications for contracts and awards them by placing the responsibility that there are no irregularities in awarding the contracts is a case of  asking "the fox to guard the hen house".

During a discussion on the roads and the parked  cars creating problems for the snow plows with resulting narrow cleared streets, Councillor Mapp suggested that the Council pass an Ordinance prohibiting street parking during a snow emergency. I believe, which the Acting Corporation Council Conformed after my comments  that there already was such an Ordinance on the books, but like many other "laws" it was never enforced. He, Corporation Council, will research it and report back next Monday.

More later today.

M ONDAY NIGHT COUNCIL #1

Short meeting Monday night. Well sort of-- The 7:30 public session started at 8:29 due to  a long executive session which ended shortly after AJ was interviewed of the City Clerks position. I expect the position may be on next Monday's agenda.

Wonder of wonders, the meeting ended the same day it started, at 11:59 PM to be exact. But late to bed, therefor  comments will be later today,most likely b y noon.