Calendar Gets Failing Marks
Calendar changes meant to increase public engagement in government have so far done nothing but confuse anyone who is trying to pay attention.
The legal notice for tonight's meeting, the Courier News article and blog posts based on the dates given are all wrong, except that tonight the City Council will meet at Washington Community School. Whether same-day notice is sufficient, I can't say.
The council was trying to do three things: Reduce the schedule to one work session and one voting meeting per month, hold four of the meetings at neighborhood schools in each of the city's four wards and add four meetings on topics of general concern. If this had been done with a full-year calendar at hand instead of just a poorly-conceived ordinance, a lot of the errors would have been evident.
Because a lot of my blogging depends on attending public meetings, I have a high interest in getting the right dates and locations. Except for tonight, I'm not having much luck.
Nearly all the bold moves by the "new" council are falling flat for lack of sufficient forethought. This calendar stuff gets an "F" (or in modern parlance, a WTF) from me.
--Bernice Paglia
The legal notice for tonight's meeting, the Courier News article and blog posts based on the dates given are all wrong, except that tonight the City Council will meet at Washington Community School. Whether same-day notice is sufficient, I can't say.
The council was trying to do three things: Reduce the schedule to one work session and one voting meeting per month, hold four of the meetings at neighborhood schools in each of the city's four wards and add four meetings on topics of general concern. If this had been done with a full-year calendar at hand instead of just a poorly-conceived ordinance, a lot of the errors would have been evident.
Because a lot of my blogging depends on attending public meetings, I have a high interest in getting the right dates and locations. Except for tonight, I'm not having much luck.
Nearly all the bold moves by the "new" council are falling flat for lack of sufficient forethought. This calendar stuff gets an "F" (or in modern parlance, a WTF) from me.
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 9:43 AM
5 Comments:
WTF cares?
I don't understand why the city council would not keep the meeting in a central location which is easily accessible via public transportation. I don't understand why they would want to reduce the meeting schedule either. That only conveniences them, not us. They are getting PAID to serve, and they don't think we need to see them more than twice a month? That is the height of arrogance. If they didn't want to meet every Monday, they shouldn't have run for office in the first place. Counselor Burney prides himself on his transparency but only meeting twice a month doesn't provide that. He is up for reelection next year so maybe the voters should vote to free all of his Monday evenings.
I belive the Council voted 7-0 on the matter. To the above commentator - sounds like you have a personal grudge.
Is the lack of correct notification of the time, date and location a function of the council, or the function of the Mayor's office and/or city clerk?
Doesn't anyone in Plainfield know about doublechecking, proofreading and a second set of eyes?
It's all BS. The Mayor wants to steal the BOE IT guy for a ridiculous salary as a favor. The scheme is to put the BOE in a bind because the City was put in a bind when the BOE didn't get a deal done with the City.
Post a Comment
<< Home