I urge Plainfield residents to come to the City Council meeting Monday at 8 pm.
The word has spread quickly that Mayor Robinson-Briggs has fired City Administrator Bibi Taylor. The Council has made numerous requests for the Mayor to explain her reasons. It is reasonable to expect the Mayor to come forward and give her reasons. She did not do so at last Monday's Council meeting and she has an obligation to do so this coming Monday.
The Council has the power to re-instate Ms Taylor by resolution. Five votes will be required. The City Administrator position is important - he or she is responsible for the day to day operation of city government. Your Council representatives need to hear from you on this critical subject. There will be an opportunity for residents to speak to the Council at the beginning of the meeting. Make your views known.
Everyone I have ever spoken with about Ms Taylor agrees with my assessment that she has been doing an excellent job. Perhaps there are people who agree with the Mayor. We need to hear those views also. Whatever you think, please come to the meeting.
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9 comments:
Concilman. Can you explain to me why is it good policy to only advocate furloughs to the public works department and not all non-public safety departments? Was is it Bibi Taylor who advocated that policy?
State law regulates how municipalities handle furlough actions. Ms Taylor did a good job of keeping Plainfield within the law. When our furlough plan was first devised, it was done with the consideration that a furlough must be carried out within all divisions of a department. That limited the scope of the original plan.
FYI - very recent PERC rulings limited furlough actions much further and we had to abandon our plan (PERC is the state commission that oversees these matters). That is one of the reasons we are laying off more people than originally proposed. The other reason is that the unions were asked for givebacks in order to save staff from the proposed layoffs. They did not propose the needed givebacks.
Councilman Storch, I would advise caution on overturning the Mayor's decision. Doing a good job isnt a criteria I would use to overturn the Mayor's decision. I would also take in consideration, Mrs Taylor will be out of pocket while on Maternity leave and in this era of reducing budget deficit and massive layoff, this would send a message, noone is a sacred cow. I am not advocating firing Mrs Taylor soley for going on Maternity Leave, I am just looking at the big picture (Mayor wants to fire her, she will have limited utility while on maternity leave and we are trying to cut the city deficit.
Keep Bibi! She knows what is happening in city hall and can shed some light
Bibi coming back against the will of the Mayor may or may not be good for Plainfield.
Put aside your New Democratics politics and do the right thing.
Keep the intersts of Plainfield ahead of your aligience to the New Democrats.
@Anonymous 3:34pm. The Council has to do what is right. How can you even suggest that this is a New Democrat or Old Democrat allegiance? The Mayor was just wrong. If she has a legitimate reason, she will show up tomorrow and explain it. If she cares about the City, she should have a plan in place and be able to explain it tomorrow. I am an advocate of voting her out of office, and I hope this is a catalyst for people.
Imagine if you were the Mayor and you for whatever reason could not work with your most important person. What would you do if the Council reinstated her? Now times what you would do by 20 thousand cause that’s what this Mayor will do. Unfortunately, Sharon is the Mayor, not Bibi, Sharon is the CEO of this company, all your doing by reinstating her is causing more chaos. All of you on the Council are smart enough to realize that, but when the cameras are in your face and the people have demands I’m sure you'll buckle and reinstate her... But it won’t be for the benefit of the residents, and you know this! It won't work... IT CAN'T WORK!
Until the Mayor can explain to the Council the basis of her action to terminate Ms. Taylor, and until she demonstrates how the day-to-day operations of the City will be handled, the Council must overturn her.
The council is setting a dangerous trend if you override this firing then there will be more chaos. Its ironic, you blame the mayor for all of the city's management but somehow want to separate this city administrator who is responsible for executing the policies of the mayor from the mayor? It makes no sense. I worked at City Hall when Al McWilliams was mayor. There was a brief point in his second term where we did not have a city administrator or director of administration and finance. Guess what we survived.
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