Bond ordinance dead on arrival?

In a lengthy late-night e-mail Sunday (Aug. 7, 2005), Councilman Ray Blanco told constituents he and three City Council colleagues will not support a $16.5 million bond ordinance up for a vote tonight.

The seven-member council meets at 7:30 p.m. tonight (Aug. 8, 2005) at the Plainfield Public Library, Park Avenue and Eighth Street. The ordinance will be up for a vote at an 8 p.m. special meeting. Five votes are needed for passage.

Blanco said instead he and the others - Don Davis, Rayland Van Blake and Rashid Burney - propose splitting the bond ordinance into four separate ordinances covering its major components. They are $4.3 million for a new senior center, $8 million for road reconstruction, $1 million for roof replacements and $550,000 for pool and recreation improvements.

On Friday, Mayor Albert T. McWilliams and Finance Director Ron West urged seniors to support the ordinance, saying failure to pass it now would mean more delay in starting work on the new senior center. But Blanco said financial advisers have told him that a single bond ordinance for multiple projects could result in all the money going for any one of the items."

I could not give the administration a blank check," Blanco said.

The administration could make separate ordinances and expedite their passage with a series of special meetings, Blanco said.

The four council members will also ask the administration to seek all available federal, state and county funding for the projects within the next 60 days, Blanco said.

Blanco took office Janiary 1 and has since achieved passage of two ordinances, the Civic Responsibility Act of 2005 and one establishing the Hispanic Affairs Commission. Along with Burney and Davis, he is also proposing a resolution tonight invoking the City Charter to call the Board of Adjustment before the council to explain why members approved the controversial Abbott Manor Nursing Home expansion.

Blanco said he takes his legislative role very seriously and researches the issues that come before the council. In the case of the bond ordinance, he said, long-term debt should be the last resort after all other sources of funding, both public and private, have been sought.

--Bernice Paglia

KEYWORDS: City council, bond ordinance