"New Council" Takes Charge

President-elect Barack Obama and the late Mayor Albert T. McWilliams were the unseen but strongly-felt presences at the City Council’s annual reorganization Thursday.

New City Council President Rashid Burney said he spent the last two years working on the Obama campaign and will attend his inauguration, deeming it as historic an event as putting a man on the moon. In that spirit, he asked city residents to embrace the “new patriotism” of service to the community through voluntarism and increased civic engagement.

“Plainfield is what we make it,” he said.

New Citywide at-large Councilwoman Annie C. McWilliams tearfully recalled her late father, the city’s first two-term mayor, after being sworn in with her mother, grandmother and four siblings at her side.

“He taught me that public service is not a right, it is a privilege,” she said.

Third Ward Councilman Adrian Mapp called for “transformational change” and belt-tightening as the city and the nation face the worst economic times since the Great Depression. To set an example, he is foregoing city health benefits and will not take the opt-out payment, he said.

Mapp and McWilliams overcame incumbents in the June primary and their November election revived the vitality of the late mayor’s progressive “New Democrat” organization. Their campaign promised greater transparency and accountability in government, a theme bolstered by some Burney’s stated goals for 2009, including putting all council documents online and televising meetings.

“We want you to see what we are doing,” Burney said.

The governing body and the administration have clashed over communication between the two branches over the past three years and as Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs begins the last year of her term, Thursday was no exception. The council rejected a number of mayoral appointments because the names were only offered on New Year’s Eve.

In her State of the City address, Robinson-Briggs called crime the top priority for 2009 and promised a crackdown on illegal dumping. Among her accomplishments, she cited improvements in information technology that placed “all major departments on a single grid.” She predicted completion of a new senior center by spring and pledged to continue the fight to restore an acute care hospital facility in the city.

After her speech, Robinson-Briggs and her husband, Peter, presented a slide show on accomplishments of each city department and division, with many statistics. She then handed out a new map, a Homeowner’s Handbook and a city phone directory, after which most of the audience left.

The second two hours of the meeting began with the council taking up new business, but McWilliams called for tabling of the six resolutions naming mayoral appointees to various boards and commissions. After the vote passed, Councilman Cory Storch said the information was only received at 6 p.m. Wednesday and the council had no chance to interview new appointees to the Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Planning Board.

The council has asked the administration to allow time for interviews of newcomers to the land use boards to make sure applicants are well-qualified to serve. The boards play a key role in redevelopment in addition to upholding the master plan and zoning ordinance that shape the city’s character.

However, the tabling set off what resident Dottie Gutenkauf later called “gyrations,” a series of reconsiderations that ended with the council approving re-appointment of incumbents to the boards and to the Historic Preservation Commission while still insisting on interviews with new nominees. In public comment, Gutenkauf said the action would leave the Historic Preservation Commission without a quorum in January.

A similar controversy broke out over the use of city-owned vehicles, starting with tabling of a resolution to allow City Administrator Marc Dashield 24-hour use of one. Council members said the privilege should be examined and perhaps be considered part of administrators’ compensation packages.

After a confusing series of votes, the council approved year-long use of a city-owned vehicle only for the mayor and the fire chief. Approvals for the city administrator, director of Public Affairs & Safety and superintendent of Public Works passed only for January, pending further discussion of compensation.

“This is really a very a dangerous precedent for the city,” Burney said.

Without a competitive compensation package, he said, Plainfield “will have to go to the bottom of the barrel to get people.”

In public comment, Barbara James, the mayor’s confidential aide and designee to the Planning Board, said, “I see we’re going to have some very lively sessions.”

James chided the council for not filling the vacancies on boards and commissions, saying the nominees were all volunteers.

Gutenkauf said she seconded James’ comments and asked the council to think about “folks watching at home,” who may view the council’s behavior on Channel 74.

But Storch later said, “This is a new council, not just two new people. It’s a new dynamic.”

Admitting the council needed to do better than it did Thursday and anticipating more struggle, Storch nonetheless said, “I feel optimistic about this year.”

Reiterating his point about a new council, Storch said the administration could not provide information at the eleventh hour and expect “a thinking council” to rubberstamp it.

“Let’s be clear. We want to work with the administration,” he said, but added yet another caveat not to expect blanket approvals in 2009.

--Bernice Paglia