Plainfield Today (Old): TW3: March 6

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Mondays, CLIPPINGS is a digest of Plainfield-only news from the past week: That Was The Week That Was -- or TW3 -- with links to the online stories.

PLAINFIELD TODAY

NEW THIS WEEK

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GOVERNMENT

'S' seems the most popular letter in Plainfield's alphabet this week: Santiago, Senior Center, sex harassment [on this last, see H.I.T.S. under the ETC. heading]. . .

SANTIAGO IMBROGLIO: Does Superior Court Judge John Pisansky know something the rest of us don't, or is he signalling his decision? The Ledger story quotes the judge as referring to Chief Santiago's suspension. Now you should know that the Administration has taken every opportunity to state that the Chief is on administrative leave, and not suspension. Is His Honor just being imprecise? Maybe you need to give your tea leaves another swirl. . . Meanwhile, the Courier story mentions the Chief's contention that the leave is political and based on his questioning of the promotion of PBA president Andre Crawford's wife to a position he says she is not qualified for. The hearing was postponed to March 30 at the request of the City. Whether the postponement was a tactic or simply the result of the failure of the city's hired lawyer to be timely, it guarantees the matter will stay before the public for a while longer. Meanwhile, Santiago's supporters, led by Flor Gonzalez and the Latin American Coalition, continue a signature drive and have had two rallies of support.

SENIOR CENTER: Far from calming the Seniors over the fate of their proposed Center, Mayor Robinson-Briggs' monthly visit wwith the Seniors last Tuesday left them frustrated and fuming, as reported by the Plain Talker, the Courier and the Ledger. The Mayor made it clear that the City was definitely considering other options than the East Front Street property which had been assembled at the insistence of the Seniors by the administration of former mayor Al McWilliams. Mayor Robinson-Briggs and city administrator Carlton McGee, though they have backed away from earlier statements that there was no money, now say they need to 'understand the history of the project' and whether the Armory -- which may be offered for next to nothing -- is more desirable as a location from the administration's point of view. [I will be reporting on several of the issues raised in further posts this week. -- Dan]

City Council meeting date changes: "Meeting Days: Must citizens choose between Church and Council?"

Proposed Youth Commission and youth liaisons to boards and commissions: "City Council Wants Youth Input" [At great idea at first blush, but has anyone checked out the difficulty the Council and Mayor have in getting people to serve on boards?]

The Courier reports that the Council will take up a discussion of granting benefits to domestic partners, as has been done by many other towns and some counties. Activist Joan Hervey points out that this is a far cry from the gay marriage that she has been pushing for and hopes the city's legislative delegation [Jerry Green, Linda Stender and Nick Scutari] will support. Hervey hopes this time around there will not be the acrimony that erupted when the Council previously considered endorsing gay marriage.

Lastly, as we enter the ~~silly~~ primary season, the Democrats announced that Council hopefuls may submit their resumes to City Committee chairperson Jerry Green in care of his home address: 1460 Prospect Avenue, Plainfield. As the papers previously noted, Green alone will make the choice of candidates for the Democratic primary. Seats up this year are Ward 1 and Wards 2 and 3 at-large. There is a lot of speculation that the incumbents Rayland Van Blake and Rashid Burney may be dumped. I, for one, am not convinced.

CRIME