The three-month controversy over a payroll deduction plan for legal services exploded into charges of "dirty politics" by Mayor Adrian O. Mapp at Monday's City Council meeting.
The council and administration were chewing over the same pros and cons of the Legal Shield plan when Councilwoman Gloria Taylor said she was asked to approve a mayoral nominee to the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority in exchange for allowing the payroll deduction plan.
Taylor said City Administrator Rick Smiley offered the deal to her by telephone.
"Don't do it again to me," she said. "I don't do deals when I am a public servant."
Mapp defended the ploy, telling the council, "I am very comfortable attempting to negotiate with you. I would do it with a bullhorn."
Mapp said the city's 50,000 residents and 16,000 households were being affected by "what is happening at PMUA," citing employee furloughs, a wage freeze and a $1 million settlement with two former authority executives.
"What I want is for you to work with me to allow me to appoint the right people at PMUA," he said, to which Taylor responded again with a charge of "dirty politics."
Asked after the meeting if he indeed was proposing a quid pro quo, Mapp said, "A quid pro quo happens in politics every day."
His proposed trade would result in replacing PMUA Commissioner Malcolm Dunn with Thomas Crownover, whose nomination the council rejected in January. (See post here.)
A main supporter of Legal Shield is Dunn's son, Jeffery, who along with Legal Shield representative Jilletta Riley has argued that the previous administration allowed the payroll deduction plan and it should continue in Mapp's new administration. Both again gave many reasons why the plan is a benefit for employees who may not have bank accounts, and again Councilwoman Rebecca Williams pointed out that Jeffery Dunn has personal ties to the company. Williams outlined her objections on her blog Monday.
Notwithstanding Taylor's umbrage and Mapp's aplomb, longtime union activist Dottie Gutenkauf raised another argument against the Legal Shield plan.
"I think that the council and administration and public have had to spend far too much time on this Legal Shield stuff," she began, suggesting that if employees really want the plan, they should take it to their unions.
"Put it on the bargaining table,":she said.
Gutenkauf warned that allowing a payroll deduction for a company that hasn't been compared to other companies was "opening Pandora's box" and letting loose "all the nasties."
"You are asking for trouble if you do this," she said.
For all the talk, there was no outcome Monday, as Legal Shield was only on the agenda as a discussion item. Mapp said he had a resolution prepared on his PMUA nomination that the council could have agreed to put up for a vote at next Monday's regular meeting, but the council moved on to other items without giving consensus.
--Bernice
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