Some Transition Report Items

I finally got all the way through the 97-page Transition Report that Mayor Adrian O. Mapp says he will use a a "guidepost" for his administration. A lot of the points have already been mentioned by others; I will take the liberty of picking a few things I found interesting.

Roads
For all the ruckus over road repair in the past eight years, I was surprised to see just one mention - not of the road program itself, but of the impending due dates for repayment of principal and interest to fund the work. Some may recall that a 2004 study became a 2005 five-year plan to carry out road repair across the city. Work fell behind and then there was the question of reordering priorities through a new study. The work was re-cast from plan years to "phases" and the last comprehensive overview I remember was one former Councilman Rashid Burney posted on his web site. It would be good to know where things stand from both the work and funding sides as the new administration takes charge.

Communications
There is a recommendation for a Communications director, who could also be the Public Information Officer.Heaven knows the city needs a better mechanism for informing the community as well as the world at large what is going on in Plainfield. The old model is to hold press conferences and the like, but newspapers are so short of staff that it might be easier to make part of the web site itself a news outlet, as suggested in the report, and get into social media in a manner appropriate for a municipality. I agree that the current use of YouTube for council meetings is not appropriate, though it is very expedient for people who don't have cable and just want to see the action. As noted in the report, there is a lot of good information on the web site, but it is not easily navigable and that needs to be fixed.

July 4th Celebration
There was a suggestion that a committee be formed to work on the July 4th event. An all-Plainfield committee was established by ordinance several years ago, after the other six or seven towns dropped out of the planing and funding process. No one was ever named to the committee and the work was done by an ad-hoc group. It got to where no one was willing or able to account publicly for the expenses incurred. During an investigation of costs for a 2010 Town Meeting aired on WBLS, it came out that money was paid for WBLS vans to be in the parade. Perhaps having a committee operating under the Sunshine Law would give greater transparency.

A broader events committee might be able to make a start of rejuvenating the Outdoor Arts Festival as well.

That $1,125,000 in FEMA Money
After being told I imagined it, I was quite thrilled to see a mention of the FEMA allocation for Plainfield that Sen. Robert Menendez announced a while back. Click here to read about it. I hope it is still accessible and that someone in City Hall can find a way to claim it for Plainfield.

The report suggests formation of a number of committees, but I would like to see some less formal ways for the average person to become more engaged in civic matters, even if it is just through feedback. It appears the mayor is going to make himself available for various "listening" opportunities.

If you can, read the report in full here and see what you think. It was a lot of work and the team's credentials, listed at the end, are highly impressive. They all deserve our thanks.

--Bernice

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