"Found in today's garbage...", about the PMUA's putting out notices for the Mayor's town hall meeting tonight, drew some offline comments as well. Here are some highlights:
"So what are Hispanics, chopped liver?" Several people stopped me in the street to say they were appalled that the city would put out a flyer in English only. "Don't Spanish-speaking residents count?" and "Was this on purpose, or did the city just not get its act together in time to do a translation?" were just two of the other comments on this subject. The city, the school district and the PMUA have been accustomed to give notices in Spanish as well as English for years. In this day, it is a gross oversight not to. Some people also said they saw no notices in the Spanish-language press -- which, since these are weeklies, need more advance notice. A final quote: "Does this mean one third of the city's residents are not invited?"
"And what about the half of Plainfielders who live in apartments and don't have PMUA garbage receptacles?" It's true -- about half of Plainfield's residents are renters and live in buildings where they do not have individual trash and recycle containers. Does this mean renters are not invited to this evening's event? Fair question.
"How much money did the city save?" was asked by someone who saw this anonymous post on the blog: "When the city finds a way to save money, people complain." Well, the postage from a citywide residents mailing would have amounted to about $2,300, plus mailing house charges of $600-$700. Having envelopes made up would have come to perhaps another $1,300. Yes, there was a savings, but was it at the cost of having the PMUA be a "good corporate citizen" and absorb the cost?
"Didn't the PMUA commissioners know?" Seems they likely didn't. Whatever decision was arrived at to distribute the flyers for the city, the commissioners were not involved. Should they have been asked?
"Why should the PMUA distribute the city's flyers?" Some suggested it was improper for the PMUA to distribute the flyers since the agency and the city are supposed to do business "at arm's length." I suppose the city could get around this objection if the PMUA were paid some market-based dollar amount for the service rendered. But did it?
-- Dan Damon
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