PMUA Reaches 10th Anniversary

The Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority's 6th Annual Environmental Fair Saturday (Sept. 17, 2005) has special meaning for authority officials. The fair, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Library Park, coincides with the authority’s 10th anniversary. Plaintalker met with officials to discuss the authority’s first decade.

Its early days were marred by lawsuits and fiscal woes, but at 10 years the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority is successfully carrying out its mission to keep the city clean, Executive Director Eric Watson said.

The authority was created by the city to deal with two major problems: illegal dumping and a dilapidated sewer system, Assistant Executive Director David Ervin said. The city’s Public Works Division was spending more than half its time cleaning up vacant lots and abandoned property where people were tossing trash to avoid paying garbage bills. The sewer system, built in 1913, was a marvel in its day but had clogs and leaks that needed attention to remedy chronic backups and basement flooding that plagued several neighborhoods. Municipal government, limited by tax revenues, could only do so much to address the problems. An authority is able to determine the cost of its operations and can set rates accordingly.

Ervin said the state was trying to limit the number of municipal authorities at the time that officials were trying to form the PMUA. He said former Senator Donald DiFrancesco came to Plainfield to observe one of the Public Works cleanups. When he saw hordes of rats run out of the debris, Ervin said, DiFrancesco told then-Mayor Mark Fury, “Clean up that town!“

Created in 1995 by ordinance, the PMUA began as little more than Watson equipped with a cell phone, a desk and a private van. The city extended start-up funding and the authority got most of its initial staff from Public Works. All its executives - Watson, Ervin and Louis Jones - had served as Public Works directors and were very familiar with the sewer system and the trash problems. The city and the authority signed an Interlocal Services Agreement and the first board of commissioners was appointed.

But soon the fledgling authority found itself the target of lawsuits by the City Council, citizens and trash haulers, Ervin said. The legal battle stalled its operations for two and a half years, he said.

Watson wryly recalled being named in the Courier News “People to Watch” list in 1995. But despite its rocky start and widespread suspicion by residents, the authority was finally able to start managing the city’s 116 miles of sewers in 1997. It also began a recycling program, using a contractor. In September 1997, Ervin said, the authority went out for bids to conduct citywide garbage pickup.

Soon contractors began backyard trash collection and six bulky waste pickups per year. The change from using private haulers rattled homeowners, who bombarded the authority by phone and in person with complaints.

“It was mass confusion,“ Watson said.

At first, people welcomed the chance to empty their cellars and attics of accumulated trash, making piles three and four feet high on the curbs. But later, residents tired of seeing mountains of cast-offs every other month. Some complained they were embarrassed to have out-of-town guests visit. But when the authority reduced the number of pickups, others complained they were cutting services.

The contracted garbage pickup allowed the authority to learn more about the volume of trash that needed to be collected weekly, but officials knew that when the contract ended, they would never get such a low bid again.

“We knew costs would go up and drive rates through the roof,” Ervin said.

So the authority decided to get its own staff and equipment to do the work in-house. Residents now receive two curbside trash pickups and one recycling collection each week.

Besides cutting costs, the move provided dozens of Plainfield residents with an employment opportunity. Many of the early employees had past brushes with the law or other reasons for being rejected by the job market, but with training and encouragement, a solid staff emerged.

“We’ve got a good group of guys now,” Watson said. “They like the job - they like the benefits.”

Most people are now familiar with the black-and-white PMUA logo. They see it on the shirts of workers, including those who clean up the business districts on foot; on the authority‘s fleet of trucks and specialized equipment; and on its quarterly newsletter to residents. The authority has its own administrative building at 127 Roosevelt Avenue and has other offices in several locations, including the Rock Avenue transfer station that the city owns but which the authority has improved to the tune of more than $600,000.

The next step, Watson said, is to renovate the transfer station to handle more tonnage and to build a complete maintenance facility for its fleet on Cottage Place, Watson said.

The authority has also expanded its educational outreach beyond classrooms and block associations to make sure all of the city’s many new Spanish-speaking residents understand its workings.

“People know who we are and what we are doing,” he said.

Asked what he is most proud of at this milestone, Watson said, “We‘re here and continuing to operate.”

The authority is now the city‘s fifth-largest employer, Watson said.

“Plainfield’s own people are making the city look better. They are cleaning our neighborhoods and making a living,“ he said.

--Bernice Paglia

KEYWORDS: PMUA

Residents Sound Off on PMUA

A PMUA packer in my driveway.

Riled-up residents packed the Plainfield Public Library’s meeting room Tuesday to make their concerns known to two representatives of the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority.

The meeting was organized by the Friends of Sleepy Hollow, a neighborhood association, and moderated by its president, Tom Glynn.

The PMUA was formed about 14 years ago to handle solid waste and sewer operations in the city, but double-digit rate increases in January and what appeared to be a recent commissioners’ junket to Oakland, Calif. combined to raise the wrath of ratepayers. The Oakland event was organized by the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, whose New Jersey chapter president is former councilman Don Davis, liaison to the PMUA while in office.

The rate increases and various fines for infractions such as having garbage bags on top of trash containers led to formation of a citizens’ revolt, complete with a lawsuit and a website called “DumpPMUA.”

Philip Charles, originator of the lawsuit, told the crowd Tuesday of his ordeals in attempting to opt out of PMUA trash pickup and getting more information on the authority’s operations.

“The response has been a non-response,” Charles said.

Charles has objected to a “shared services” cost for downtown trash pickup as well as a litany of perceived excesses such as a full-color newsletter mailed to about 12,000 households and cross-country trips for conferences. Having filed multiple Open Public Records Act requests, Charles continues to amass data on the authority’s operations.

Besides Charles’ concerns, Glynn fielded questions from other residents who complained their incoming water bills somehow morphed to four times the cost for sewage disposal.

PMUA representatives Howard Smith, the operations director, and Erin Donnelly, who handles public relations, answered some questions but often directed questioners to fill out a form for future follow-up.

Pat Turner Kavanaugh, who helped organize the event, said she had asked for PMUA Director Eric Watson and Assistant Executive Director David Ervin to attend, but she said, “They fought me off.”

Referring to Donnelly and Smith, Turner Kavanaugh said, “They’ve thrown these two people to the wolves.”

As much as the two representatives tried to answer concerns, there were many more questions than could be answered on the spot. Turner Kavanaugh and others questioned the motives for a recent PMUA survey on residents' views, such as whether once-a-week pickup in winter months would be acceptable.

The PMUA issues have become a leit-motif of the current mayoral campaign, with one candidate, Carol Ann Brokaw-Boles, being the current chairperson of the authority and another candidate, Councilman Adrian Mapp, calling for “reining in” of the authority, with possible restoration to city oversight of its functions.

In addition, mayoral candidate Bob Ferraro was once a fierce opponent of the authority and then accepted a job with it, from which he just retired. The incumbent mayor, Sharon Robinson-Briggs, nominated Davis for a commissionership earlier this year, but the nomination did not come up for a City Council vote. Assemblyman Jerry Green, who along with Robinson-Briggs is seeking re-election, appeared briefly Tuesday to say he had asked the state controller to audit the authority.

Many of the candidates were attending a mayoral forum at Shiloh Baptist Church, which began at the same time as the FOSH meeting.

Although the Dump PMUA movement began during the campaign season, organizers say the group is non-political.

Though he did not appear Tuesday, Watson defended the PMUA in a recent news interview, citing problems that a city takeover would incur, including the need to assume the authority’s debt. Since beginning in 1995 with little more than a phone and a desk for Watson, the authority has established its operations base at the city-owned transfer station on Rock Avenue and has offices at other locations in the city. Initially the authority contracted for trash and recycling pickup, but now has its own fleet of trucks. It has grown to become the city’s fifth largest employer, according to Watson, with more than 100 employees.

Glynn reminded those present that the City Council will hold a special meeting on the topic of the PMUA at 8 p.m. on July 27 in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.

--Bernice Paglia