ABBOTT FUNDING & THE ASSEMBLYMAN
-- The Courier kept the spotlight on the ABBOTT FUNDING CRISIS in its Saturday editorial, which was a sort of smackdown of Assemblyman Jerry Green for trying to obstruct last Thursday's town meeting on the topic. Meantime, over the weekend, PT learned that the Assemblyman was summoned to the Senior Center last week within five minutes of the arrival of one of the town meeting's organizers, and tried to use intimidation to interfere with this NONPARTISAN COMMUNITY MEETING.
Despite the Assemblyman's heavyhanded tactics and the hard feelings they naturally generate, the community needs to PUT ASIDE LOCAL DIFFERENCES and ORGANIZE IN SUPPORT OF THE ABBOTT DISTRICTS, as reiterated by attorneys David Sciarra of the Education Law Center and Richard Shapiro, the district's special counsel. (Check out the ELC's website for more info.)
Freeholder Mapp has shown great statesmanship in this matter, emailing me last night that he had submitted a letter to the Courier in response to their editorial, outlining AGAIN the New Dems' willingness to work with the Assemblyman on this issue. Look for it in the Courier in the next day or two.
ESTEVEZ OPENS MENENDEZ HQ
-- Congrats to Christian Estevez, who opened a Plainfield headquarters for the Menendez campaign this past week at 138 North Avenue (halfway between Park Avenue and the train station)! Lawn signs are available.
When PT inquired if this was the Plainfield Dems' effort, Estevez replied that the Assemblyman had reached out to him and that Estevez had offered cooperation and coordination with the overall effort, but that ESTABLISHING THE FOOTHOLD FOR MENENDEZ in the community was HIS OWN INITIATIVE.
This is remarkable, if you recall the rough treatment Chris received at the hands of Green when the Plainfield Dems were recommending a replacement for the seat created by the untimely death of Ray Blanco.
Meanwhile, victory for Menendez is far from a sure thing, surprising all the pundits, who expected him to be ready for the victory lap at this point. Check the stories posted in CLIPS over the past few days. Wags are saying Kean can't make it on ATTACKS only. Though Menendez may have gained an unexpected boost from the Foley scandal, he DID HIMSELF NO FAVORS with the Dem core constituency by lining up behind the Bush detainee/torture/tribunals legislation. Has he seriously misread the Jersey voters' minds?WHERE ARE THE LEGISLATORS ON GAY MARRIAGE?
-- The Courier editorializes this morning about the GAY MARRIAGE issue, on which legislators have been silent:
"The governor -- such as many lawmakers -- wants no part of such a hot-button issue. Let the courts decide and be done with it.Assemblyman Green relied heavily on the support of elements in Plainfield's gay community in last year's hotly contested election. Those same gays have been largely silent since the election, even though this is their signature issue.
That's not good enough. The state Legislature should ultimately tackle this issue and either make the call for New Jersey one way or another -- whether the politicians like it or not"
Will Joan Hervey and Plainfield Area Equality now be CALLING IN THEIR CHIT?
Stay tuned on this one...
BAMBOOZLERY? -- OK, OK. I'm not sure there is such a word, but you know what I mean, right?
Not only is the budget process off to a late and bumpy start, CHICANERY may be involved. Say it isn't so.
City Hall employees are SMILING BEHIND THEIR FANS at the smoke the Administration blew the way of the Council last week with the assertions it was impossible to provide the Council with the information it asked for because of SOFTWARE ISSUES. Huh?!
This is the same software the City has been using for years. The reports it generates have been -- and continue to be -- used by the Administration's departments to monitor their budget status throughout the year for dog's ages. So now, suddenly, the Council gets STONEWALLED ON A SIMPLE REQUEST?
Oh, PT forgot, it's also -- according to City Administrator McGee -- a PERSONNEL issue. Seems there aren't enough people to help in the Audit & Control Division. Wow! What could the Administration possibly do?
How about spending some of that HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS going for CONFIDENTIAL AIDES, COUNTER CLERKS and DUPLICATED JOBS (such as Deputy Director of Public Works) by EITHER shifting those employees to being useful, say someplace like Audit & Control, OR pinkslipping them and getting some personnel where McGee says it's REALLY NEEDED?
Meanwhile, to ADD INSULT TO INJURY, PT learns that the Administration never even supplied the proposed budget to the Council IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT. C'mon, gang. This is the age of
The Budget was prepared in Excel and Word. Yes, it's nice to give them a fancy-schmancy binder all gussied up, but for the Council to REALLY GET DOWN TO NUTS & BOLTS ON ITS MOST IMPORTANT TASK, you wouldn't think to give it to them electronically? In this day and age? Sheez.
By the way, dear readers, if the Council got it electronically, SO COULD EVERY INTERESTED RESIDENT. Hmmmm... maybe PT just figured out why it hasn't been done?
SOMETHIN' FUNNY WITH THE MONEY?
-- Speaking of the BUDGET, taxpayers need to pay attention to some of the MOUSEPRINT. PT has already commented on the dangers associated with using the RAINY DAY FUND (see here and here) to balance the budget and the GENERAL UNTRUSTWORTHINESS OF PROMISES TO REPLENISH IT.
But we also have the issue of DECLINING RECEIPTS. PT understands that the real reason MUNICIPAL COURT RECEIPTS are down is that the Police Division is writing fewer traffic tickets -- an income generator that DOESN'T EXTRACT MONEY FROM EVERYONE!
And also that the TAX COLLECTION RATE is in trouble. Serious business, folks.
And then there is the rumor that the Administration used the $4M SENIOR CENTER CONSTRUCTION FUND to PAY DOWN some of the City's outstanding indebtedness -- WITHOUT A COUNCIL RESOLUTION. As President Reagan would no doubt admonish the Administration, "Now, there you go AGAIN..."
Council watchers will know that the Council MUST approve a resolution for EVERY TRANSFER OF FUNDS OUT OF AN ACCOUNT. Why wouldn't the Administration take this to the Council? Do you recall seeing a Resolution on this?
-- Dan Damon
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1 comment:
Hey Dan,
Talking about personel and taxes, don't leave behind the issue of the missing money at the tax collector's office and the fact that the suspended employee is back at work. Did the public see anything about it? No, of course.
Talking about traffic violations. The police has a parking full of patrol cars, how many do you see patroling downtown? That is a big ZERO. They are parked ins ome corner on in front of a girlfriend's house. If we had all those cars out in downtown we may have less people making left turns at the light of Park and West Front (signs says no left turn) and we could have less people runnign through red lights and making illegal turns. It is really dangerous to drive around downtown.
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