That Calendar
A City Council meeting format that some regular attendees deplore will nonetheless be repeated in 2010.
In 2009, the governing body adopted a schedule calling for just one regular meeting and one agenda session per month, half the previous number. Council watchers including this writer complained that too many items were condensed into the new format, allowing less time for thoughtful consideration. In addition, the new format meant ordinances that needed to pass on two readings took two months instead of one.
New City Council President Annie McWilliams explained at Friday's reorganization meeting that the format is meant to allow council committees to do their work and be able to report back to the full body. She said a prior roster of seven committees, each with three council members, will be reduced to four. In the past, reports were spotty or nonexistent, but McWilliams said they will expected monthly in 2010.
But in public comment, Dr. Harold Yood and Dottie Gutenkauf, both close council observers, objected to the calendar and called for a return to two regular meetings a month.
At the agenda sessions in advance of the regular meetings, council members ask questions of the administration on what is presented for the governing body's approval and then decide which items will go up for a vote at the regular meeting. At any given meeting, the council may have to deal with up to three dozen resolutions and up to half a dozen ordinances.
The new schedule is expected to be posted on the city web site by next week. For January, it includes an agenda-fixing session at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 11 in City Hall Library, 515 Watchung Ave., followed by a regular meeting at 8 p.m. Jan. 19 in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.
The 2010 calendar also includes four "town meetings," one in each ward. In 2009, the council held agenda sessions in each of the wards, but the town meetings are in addition to the regular schedule. They are set for March 18 (Ward 1), March 25 (Ward 2), April 1 (Ward 3) and April 22, (Ward 4), all with locations to be announced.
Although the 2009 council calendar also included four "working meetings" on specific topics, only one is listed for 2010. It will be May 20 and the topic will be social services. Council members last year said they want all social service operations, including Dudley House, Plainfield Action Services, the Bilingual Day Care Center and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program transferred to outside agencies. Dudley House, a program for men recovering from addictions, is expected to be taken over in 2010 by Lafayette-based Sunrise House, although it will remain in a city-owned faciity on Putnam Avenue.
--Bernice Paglia
In 2009, the governing body adopted a schedule calling for just one regular meeting and one agenda session per month, half the previous number. Council watchers including this writer complained that too many items were condensed into the new format, allowing less time for thoughtful consideration. In addition, the new format meant ordinances that needed to pass on two readings took two months instead of one.
New City Council President Annie McWilliams explained at Friday's reorganization meeting that the format is meant to allow council committees to do their work and be able to report back to the full body. She said a prior roster of seven committees, each with three council members, will be reduced to four. In the past, reports were spotty or nonexistent, but McWilliams said they will expected monthly in 2010.
But in public comment, Dr. Harold Yood and Dottie Gutenkauf, both close council observers, objected to the calendar and called for a return to two regular meetings a month.
At the agenda sessions in advance of the regular meetings, council members ask questions of the administration on what is presented for the governing body's approval and then decide which items will go up for a vote at the regular meeting. At any given meeting, the council may have to deal with up to three dozen resolutions and up to half a dozen ordinances.
The new schedule is expected to be posted on the city web site by next week. For January, it includes an agenda-fixing session at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 11 in City Hall Library, 515 Watchung Ave., followed by a regular meeting at 8 p.m. Jan. 19 in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.
The 2010 calendar also includes four "town meetings," one in each ward. In 2009, the council held agenda sessions in each of the wards, but the town meetings are in addition to the regular schedule. They are set for March 18 (Ward 1), March 25 (Ward 2), April 1 (Ward 3) and April 22, (Ward 4), all with locations to be announced.
Although the 2009 council calendar also included four "working meetings" on specific topics, only one is listed for 2010. It will be May 20 and the topic will be social services. Council members last year said they want all social service operations, including Dudley House, Plainfield Action Services, the Bilingual Day Care Center and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program transferred to outside agencies. Dudley House, a program for men recovering from addictions, is expected to be taken over in 2010 by Lafayette-based Sunrise House, although it will remain in a city-owned faciity on Putnam Avenue.
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 11:29 PM
3 Comments:
It appears to me that those asking for "That Calander" are retired and have a lot of time on their hands.
The Council meanwhile are mainly working prople, some with children and families and we need answers to the many challanges facing this community.
If retirees who have a lot of time on their hands want meetings, then I suggest BOE, Planning, Zoning, HPC, PCTV, Shade Tree and Beautification commission in addition to the Council meetings.
The council has many complex tasks. Let's focus on solutions, rather then meetings.
12:27 You are right, I am retired. But when I was in practice if I accepted a position that required multiple meetings that might decrease my personal time I made the effort to attend all that my fiduciary responsibility required. No one force anybody on the Council to seek that office and although their gratuity is small it is with its perks far greater than the Councilmen were receiving a Decade ago. Those Councilors did not complain about being overworked.
I contend that the Councilors could do a better job with more frequent smaller amounts of material to absorb then an overwhelming load of paper once every month.
I agree with olddoc. The mountains of paper that come once a month make for more problems than the smaller amounts that used to come twice a month, and the agenda-fixing sessions often last quite late these days because there is so much to consider. BTW, I attended Council meetings regularly before I retired--and believe me, I have no more "time on my hands" than I did when I was working.
Solutions are better when Council members have time to think them through and the public has time to offer their comments and perspectives--something for which there is limited time and then only at the end of the agenda-fixing sessions when by and large the decisions have already been made.
Plainfield's problems do not lend themselves to quick and easy solutions.
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