Council's 2007 Calendar Unresolved

When to meet in 2007?

The City Council has yet to decide for sure.

So far, the council is sticking to a schedule that admittedly nobody likes. But what do they like? Nobody knows.

The choices are to meet on Mondays as the council has done for many decades, with regular meetings on first and third Mondays of each month and agenda sessions on preceding Mondays.

Or as the current schedule dictates, the council holds regular meetings on the Wednesday following the first and third Mondays of each month. Agenda sessions are on the preceding Mondays.

The third new radical option is to have a rolling schedule with regular meetings on Wednesdays and agenda sessions on preceding Mondays with a week off in between.. Now that many weeks have elapsed, the problem will be when to start the rolling schedule and how it will be described in the enacting ordinance, since there are no fixed dates.

Resident Dottie Gutenkauf pointed out Monday (Feb. 5, 2007) that the present Monday-Wednesday schedule conflicts with Wednesday’s Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting. The board meets on the first Wednesday of each month and the council schedule will clash with the board’s again next month and three more times in 2007.

Gutenkauf and others usually attend zoning and planning board meetings in addition to council meetings to track land use decisions, including redevelopment approvals.

Several residents came out Monday despite bitter cold weather.

The council agreed to vote Wednesday on numerous appointments to boards and commissions, but Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson withdrew a resolution to name commissioners to the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority. Williamson did not state a reason, but blogger Dan Damon has raised questions about the validity of naming two new commissioners when it appears that only one term is up.

--Bernice Paglia