Commentary on May 5 Meetings

I received word Wednesday of two meetings Monday, both at 7 p.m.

One is a Town Hall with Congressman Rush Holt (NJ-12) at the Plainfield Public Library. According to an advisory, "All residents of central New Jersey are invited to attend to share their views and hear updates on issues affecting the community, including health care, job creation, college affordability, and more."

Assemblyman Jerry Green is named as "moderator."

Also on Monday, there will be a special meeting called by Mayor Adrian O. Mapp at Municipal Court, preceding the agenda-fixing session. The special meeting has only one item, listed in the meeting notice as "RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE APPROVAL OF A SECOND AMENDMENT, ASSIGNMENT, ASSUMPTION, MODIFICATION AND REINSTATEMENT ON A PILOT AGREEMENT TO LIBERTY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATES TO URBAN RENEWAL ENTITY, LIBERTY VILLAGE ESTATES URBAN RENEWAL, LLC."

Those who have been reading the blog will recall this item coming up at the April 7 meeting, where it failed to gain consensus to move it to the April 15 regular meeting agenda. On April 15, it did not get enough votes to bring it on as a new item. 

Next came the call for an Emergency Town Meeting at Ruth Fellowship Ministries and then the tumultuous meeting itself and a follow-up article. 

Despite all the rhetoric and drama, there has been no resolution. Green attended the "emergency" meeting at the church and challenged the explanation given by Deputy City Administrator Carlos Sanchez .

"I'm starting at Washington to find out whether they failed to negotiate," Green said, telling the residents, "I asked Congressman Rush Holt to find out what rights you have."

So ... even though the May 5 Town Hall has a general tone, one wonders whether Green will try to make it specific to the Liberty Village controversy. As far as the mayor's call for a special meeting, it may go through or, in the pre-primary climate of DefCon 2, Green's Regular Democrats might just boycott the special meeting.

Having not yet learned to perform bilocation, I will probably pick the council meeting, as the Citizens' Budget Advisory Committee is supposed to give its report and I want to see what else comes out of the agenda-fixing discussion. I hope someone who goes to the May 5 Town Hall will report whether Liberty Village came up as a main topic.

Sanchez and others have said there is a deadline for the sale of Liberty Village to a new owner, as the Section 8 contract is due to expire in early May. The transfer of the PILOT, or "payment in lieu of taxes" agreement, is integral to the deal. Green wants to get Holt involved first. The situation has become a sort of test of allegiances instead of a simple transaction. The bottom line seems to be that Green wants to put his stamp on this deal. Although it probably has passed through several levels of approvals, including those of HUD, Green has stated he is "head of housing" in New Jersey and as such, wants to bring in Holt.

For the sake of those living in the 96 units at Liberty Village, I hope there will be a positive outcome soon. I found many of the remarks by residents at the emergency meeting to be quite astute and if they are being used politically, they will remember when it's time to vote.

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