Checking on the worst disasters in the second ward on Saturday, I saw utility repair crews on Oxford (the worst street I've seen for damage), Sleepy Hollow Lane, Garden, Columbia and at the end of the day, in the dark, finally, on Belvidere Ave. Power on Garden came back just as I got there and it was a relief to see people singing and shouting in front of their homes. A similar scene took place on Columbia with Lennie Cathcart leading the choir.
Residents had nothing but praise for the crews who hail from Florida, Connecticut, Wisconson and more locations than I could keep track of. The crew on Garden St.gave praise back, saying that Plainfield residents were welcoming, supportive and appreciative of their work. This reinforces the view that Plainfield feels more like a small town than a city and is one of the reasons we Plainfielders are proud of our town..
The Garden St block leader advocated for the removal of the remaining street trees to prevent future danger and inconveniences. There are still some towering oak trees growing on a narrow strip between the street and sidewalk. This applies to so many trees in Plainfield that it is a very expensive idea to implement. Especially as we would want to replace these trees with smaller ones on the Shade Tree Commission list, ones that won't disrupt power lines or heave up sidewalks.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Power outage update
We have around 6000 electric meters still disconnected (out of 18,000!). Our Public Works Director was told by PSE&G that most of them would be connected by the end of the weekend. That is appalling. It is clear that our utility company does not have enough resources on the ground in Plainfield.
We have 2 dozen city trees or private trees in the city right of way still entangled with power lines. PSE&G crews must take the next step to fix power lines, poles and transformers. Then Plainfield crews come in behind and clean up the trees and branches left behind. If a tree on private property falls on a power line on private property, the property owner is responsible and most coordinate tree removal with the utility company.
It is optimistic to think PSE&G can keep to the timetable so we should be thinking mid next week instead. That is no consolation to people with no heat and a rather cold night coming.
I can say that every day, including today, I am hearing that homes and businesses are getting power back. East Front St. and Roosevelt came back this morning, Stilford Ave yesterday.
I do believe our DPW crews are doing a great job and are not the cause of delayed power restoration. Dept of Public Works crews are ready to come in after PSE&G to remove wood after PSE&G gets the power lines and poles fixed. They plowed the snow in a timely way from what I could see early this morning. They are making plans for tree stump removal and leaf pickup once everyone has power again. But there are still at least 16 streets blocked because of downed power lines! And 6000 homes and businesses without power.
I spoke with Assemblyman Jerry Green today about the legislative pressure being applied to the Board of Public Utilities. He is already on it.
We have 2 dozen city trees or private trees in the city right of way still entangled with power lines. PSE&G crews must take the next step to fix power lines, poles and transformers. Then Plainfield crews come in behind and clean up the trees and branches left behind. If a tree on private property falls on a power line on private property, the property owner is responsible and most coordinate tree removal with the utility company.
It is optimistic to think PSE&G can keep to the timetable so we should be thinking mid next week instead. That is no consolation to people with no heat and a rather cold night coming.
I can say that every day, including today, I am hearing that homes and businesses are getting power back. East Front St. and Roosevelt came back this morning, Stilford Ave yesterday.
I do believe our DPW crews are doing a great job and are not the cause of delayed power restoration. Dept of Public Works crews are ready to come in after PSE&G to remove wood after PSE&G gets the power lines and poles fixed. They plowed the snow in a timely way from what I could see early this morning. They are making plans for tree stump removal and leaf pickup once everyone has power again. But there are still at least 16 streets blocked because of downed power lines! And 6000 homes and businesses without power.
I spoke with Assemblyman Jerry Green today about the legislative pressure being applied to the Board of Public Utilities. He is already on it.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
How Union County towns are faring
In this report, the first number is the November 5 count of housing units with outages, the second number is from the day before and the third is the improvement. In Plainfield's case there was an improvement although that wasn't true for some cities (like Cranford). More important is that Plainfield (and Union) still has the most outages in Union County, even more than Elizabeth but similar to Union which is bigger.
Total Number's by County / City 11/5/12 080011/4/12 0900I
COUNTYMUNILast Update
Cst OutagesLast Update
Cst OutagesBetter/(worse) than work plan
Improvement
UNION
BERKELEY HEIGHTS TWP4 4 0
CLARK TWP936 1,028 92
CRANFORD TWP3,974 2,800 (1,174)
ELIZABETH CITY11,510 14,742 3,231
FANWOOD BORO845 1,706 861
GARWOOD BORO499 236 (262)
HILLSIDE TWP1,854 2,744 890
KENILWORTH BORO1,164 1,198 34
LINDEN CITY3,388 7,110 3,722
MOUNTAINSIDE BORO2,019 2,134 115
PLAINFIELD CITY 9,637 12,016 2,380
RAHWAY CITY3,295 3,930 636
ROSELLE BORO1,278 3,010 1,731
ROSELLE PARK BORO2,631 2,669 38
SCOTCH PLAINS TWP3,525 4,774 1,248
SPRINGFIELD TWP UNI3 3 0
UNION TWP UNI9,757 10,088 331
WESTFIELD TOWN2,640 5,928 3,288
WINFIELD TWP588 609 21
Total 59,547 76,728 17,181
- I expect to soon post a report projecting a day by day restoration of power by number of housing units. From what I can see, PSE& G expects most (around 8,000) units to get power by Friday, leaving over 1,000 units to suffer into the weekend.
SOMERSET -
BOUND BROOK BORO980 1,750 770
BRANCHBURG TWP3 - (3)
BRIDGEWATER TWP2,953 4,153 1,200
FRANKLIN TWP SOM3,484 4,982 1,498
GREEN BROOK TWP1,036 2,465 1,429
HILLSBOROUGH TWP2,276 3,640 1,364
MANVILLE BORO572 2,723 2,151
MILLSTONE BORO16 174 159
MONTGOMERY TWP877 1,261 384
NORTH PLAINFIELD BORO4,843 6,801 1,958
RARITAN BORO101 545 444
ROCKY HILL BORO26 206 179
...
Total Number's by County / City 11/5/12 080011/4/12 0900I
COUNTYMUNILast Update
Cst OutagesLast Update
Cst OutagesBetter/(worse) than work plan
Improvement
UNION
BERKELEY HEIGHTS TWP4 4 0
CLARK TWP936 1,028 92
CRANFORD TWP3,974 2,800 (1,174)
ELIZABETH CITY11,510 14,742 3,231
FANWOOD BORO845 1,706 861
GARWOOD BORO499 236 (262)
HILLSIDE TWP1,854 2,744 890
KENILWORTH BORO1,164 1,198 34
LINDEN CITY3,388 7,110 3,722
MOUNTAINSIDE BORO2,019 2,134 115
PLAINFIELD CITY 9,637 12,016 2,380
RAHWAY CITY3,295 3,930 636
ROSELLE BORO1,278 3,010 1,731
ROSELLE PARK BORO2,631 2,669 38
SCOTCH PLAINS TWP3,525 4,774 1,248
SPRINGFIELD TWP UNI3 3 0
UNION TWP UNI9,757 10,088 331
WESTFIELD TOWN2,640 5,928 3,288
WINFIELD TWP588 609 21
Total 59,547 76,728 17,181
- I expect to soon post a report projecting a day by day restoration of power by number of housing units. From what I can see, PSE& G expects most (around 8,000) units to get power by Friday, leaving over 1,000 units to suffer into the weekend.
SOMERSET -
BOUND BROOK BORO980 1,750 770
BRANCHBURG TWP3 - (3)
BRIDGEWATER TWP2,953 4,153 1,200
FRANKLIN TWP SOM3,484 4,982 1,498
GREEN BROOK TWP1,036 2,465 1,429
HILLSBOROUGH TWP2,276 3,640 1,364
MANVILLE BORO572 2,723 2,151
MILLSTONE BORO16 174 159
MONTGOMERY TWP877 1,261 384
NORTH PLAINFIELD BORO4,843 6,801 1,958
RARITAN BORO101 545 444
ROCKY HILL BORO26 206 179
...
PSE & G Update
PSE&G Restoration Progress - Nov. 6, 2012
Outage update: PSE&G continues to make progress restoring customers. We currently have 272,700 customers without power. We have restored power to 84 percent of customers affected by the hurricane. We hope to have 90 percent of customers restored by tomorrow morning. We continue to monitor the developing storm moving toward New Jersey and are planning accordingly.
We have brought four additional substations back in operation in the last 24 hours. We have one substation left out of service (in Bayonne) and hope to have it back in service today. This will complete the most extensive substation restoration project in the company's history. We are extremely grateful to the more than 100 out-of-state substation experts who traveled here from around the nation to help with these efforts. We continue to work to restore distribution lines that were impacted by the storm surge.
PSE&G has secured an additional 600 line workers who are being redirected from Pennsylvania. There are now more than 4,600 workers on the ground helping restore power to our customers.
PSE&G is also extremely appreciative of the outpouring of support for our injured lineman who continues to make progress toward recovery. Crews from out-of-state passed the hat and collected several thousand dollars to support his family - this was a spontaneous and heartfelt action by people working 16 hours a day far from home. It has deeply touched our company.
Since the start of the storm, PSE&G call centers have handled more than 1.9 million calls (more than 12 times the normal volume). Non-emergency work is suspended so that more workers are available to respond to customer calls.
To contact PSE&G, call 1-800-436-PSEG (7734) or visit pseg.com
Our detailed work plan is available at: pseg.com/workplan
Outage update: PSE&G continues to make progress restoring customers. We currently have 272,700 customers without power. We have restored power to 84 percent of customers affected by the hurricane. We hope to have 90 percent of customers restored by tomorrow morning. We continue to monitor the developing storm moving toward New Jersey and are planning accordingly.
We have brought four additional substations back in operation in the last 24 hours. We have one substation left out of service (in Bayonne) and hope to have it back in service today. This will complete the most extensive substation restoration project in the company's history. We are extremely grateful to the more than 100 out-of-state substation experts who traveled here from around the nation to help with these efforts. We continue to work to restore distribution lines that were impacted by the storm surge.
PSE&G has secured an additional 600 line workers who are being redirected from Pennsylvania. There are now more than 4,600 workers on the ground helping restore power to our customers.
PSE&G is also extremely appreciative of the outpouring of support for our injured lineman who continues to make progress toward recovery. Crews from out-of-state passed the hat and collected several thousand dollars to support his family - this was a spontaneous and heartfelt action by people working 16 hours a day far from home. It has deeply touched our company.
Since the start of the storm, PSE&G call centers have handled more than 1.9 million calls (more than 12 times the normal volume). Non-emergency work is suspended so that more workers are available to respond to customer calls.
To contact PSE&G, call 1-800-436-PSEG (7734) or visit pseg.com
Our detailed work plan is available at: pseg.com/workplan
PSE&G Update
PSE&G Restoration Update - Nov. 5, 2012 9:30 p.m.
PSE&G continues to make progress restoring customers - about 80 percent of the 1.7 million customers affected by Hurricane Sandy have been restored. The number of outages is now 340,000.
We have now restored 98 percent of our customers in our Southern region that includes portions of Burlington, Mercer, Camden and Gloucester counties. As work is completed, crews in South Jersey will be reassigned to work in other parts of the state.
There are two substations that remain without power, both in Hudson County. We are working to have them energized tonight or early tomorrow. Restoring the substations is a critical step in allowing us to power the distribution systems that bring electricity to customers' homes.
At the request of the Governor, we have provided details on our work plan that are available on our website (pseg.com/workplan). Note that the plan is a snapshot in time showing the estimated number of customers expected to be restored based on work currently assigned and will change based on emergent conditions and the need to reprioritize work.
Some current restoration statistics:
We have restored power to all refineries, and 84 percent of the gas stations in our service territory have power.
88 percent of schools in our service territory have power.
We are working with local officials to target restoration of power for polling stations where possible.
Mobile Customer Service Centers: To provide relief to communities hit particularly hard by this storm, PSE&G has established Mobile Customer Service Centers (CSCs). These locations are providing ice, drinking water, food and power strips for recharging devices free of charge to our customers. PSE&G representatives are staffing these centers to provide customers information about our efforts to restore power.
TownLocationHours of Ops
HobokenCVS Parking Lot 59 Washington Ave.8 a.m. - 6 p.m.
ParamusParamus Park Mall 8 a.m - 4 p.m.
Plainfield 518 Watchung Ave 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
In addition to the mobile centers, PSE&G will begin a phased reopening of its regular Customer Service Centers around the state. On Tuesday, Bayonne, Camden, New Brunswick, North Hudson, Passaic, Paterson, Perth Amboy and West Orange will open. On Wednesday, Burlington, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Newark and Trenton will reopen.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION FOR CUSTOMERS USING GENERATORS AT HOME
We are reading media reports about people who have become ill or died from carbon monoxide poisoning or fires resulting from the use of generators in their homes. Anyone using portable electric generators must be sure to carefully read and follow the manual that came with the generator. Be sure your generator is UL-approved, installed by a licensed electrician and inspected by your local electrical inspector. There must be a way to physically disconnect your generator from utility lines. Generators should not be operated inside a dwelling or building. Customers who improperly install, operate or maintain a generator are risking their lives and the lives of their neighbors and utility workers.
Frequently asked questions from our customers:
Q. Why are my neighbors back and I'm not?
A. Homes very near to each other can be fed from different circuits. One of them may be damaged and not the other. It's also possible that one part of a circuit is damaged while other sections are not. Circuits from a station usually have two sections. If one section is damaged, we can open a breaker to stop the flow of electricity to that section while keeping the other section in service.
Q. I hardly ever lose power. Why am I out now?
A. These are conditions we haven't experienced in decades. Damage to switching stations, the backbone of the system, was extensive, and there were unusual amounts of damage to the transmission lines that bring power to the distribution system. If there is no power to their feeder station then their particular circuit will have no power. This storm also took an unusually high number of trees down, greatly increasing the number of customers affected and the amount of time it takes to bring power back.
Q. Why don't I see anyone working on this?
A. We have to fix the transmission and substation issues first, or no power will flow to the circuits that serve you. Much of the work that goes into getting your power back is done out of sight. We have unprecedented amounts of tree damage that caused many circuit faults. Once we have transmission and substations restored, we prioritize jobs that involve critical infrastructure (such as hospitals and police stations) and those that have the most number of customers affected. With damage this severe, it is taking time but we are working our way through that process.
Q. Why don't you know when my power will be back?
A. Under normal circumstances we know how long it takes to respond to reports of problems and restore service. This is not your average storm. Hurricane Sandy has caused twice the damage as Hurricane Irene. This means that even assessing the damage is time consuming, with new information constantly filling in the picture of the conditions that need to be addressed. We've also continued to bring additional out-of-state crews to help, and move them around to the areas they are needed most.
PSE&G continues to make progress restoring customers - about 80 percent of the 1.7 million customers affected by Hurricane Sandy have been restored. The number of outages is now 340,000.
We have now restored 98 percent of our customers in our Southern region that includes portions of Burlington, Mercer, Camden and Gloucester counties. As work is completed, crews in South Jersey will be reassigned to work in other parts of the state.
There are two substations that remain without power, both in Hudson County. We are working to have them energized tonight or early tomorrow. Restoring the substations is a critical step in allowing us to power the distribution systems that bring electricity to customers' homes.
At the request of the Governor, we have provided details on our work plan that are available on our website (pseg.com/workplan). Note that the plan is a snapshot in time showing the estimated number of customers expected to be restored based on work currently assigned and will change based on emergent conditions and the need to reprioritize work.
Some current restoration statistics:
We have restored power to all refineries, and 84 percent of the gas stations in our service territory have power.
88 percent of schools in our service territory have power.
We are working with local officials to target restoration of power for polling stations where possible.
Mobile Customer Service Centers: To provide relief to communities hit particularly hard by this storm, PSE&G has established Mobile Customer Service Centers (CSCs). These locations are providing ice, drinking water, food and power strips for recharging devices free of charge to our customers. PSE&G representatives are staffing these centers to provide customers information about our efforts to restore power.
TownLocationHours of Ops
HobokenCVS Parking Lot 59 Washington Ave.8 a.m. - 6 p.m.
ParamusParamus Park Mall 8 a.m - 4 p.m.
Plainfield 518 Watchung Ave 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
In addition to the mobile centers, PSE&G will begin a phased reopening of its regular Customer Service Centers around the state. On Tuesday, Bayonne, Camden, New Brunswick, North Hudson, Passaic, Paterson, Perth Amboy and West Orange will open. On Wednesday, Burlington, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Newark and Trenton will reopen.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION FOR CUSTOMERS USING GENERATORS AT HOME
We are reading media reports about people who have become ill or died from carbon monoxide poisoning or fires resulting from the use of generators in their homes. Anyone using portable electric generators must be sure to carefully read and follow the manual that came with the generator. Be sure your generator is UL-approved, installed by a licensed electrician and inspected by your local electrical inspector. There must be a way to physically disconnect your generator from utility lines. Generators should not be operated inside a dwelling or building. Customers who improperly install, operate or maintain a generator are risking their lives and the lives of their neighbors and utility workers.
Frequently asked questions from our customers:
Q. Why are my neighbors back and I'm not?
A. Homes very near to each other can be fed from different circuits. One of them may be damaged and not the other. It's also possible that one part of a circuit is damaged while other sections are not. Circuits from a station usually have two sections. If one section is damaged, we can open a breaker to stop the flow of electricity to that section while keeping the other section in service.
Q. I hardly ever lose power. Why am I out now?
A. These are conditions we haven't experienced in decades. Damage to switching stations, the backbone of the system, was extensive, and there were unusual amounts of damage to the transmission lines that bring power to the distribution system. If there is no power to their feeder station then their particular circuit will have no power. This storm also took an unusually high number of trees down, greatly increasing the number of customers affected and the amount of time it takes to bring power back.
Q. Why don't I see anyone working on this?
A. We have to fix the transmission and substation issues first, or no power will flow to the circuits that serve you. Much of the work that goes into getting your power back is done out of sight. We have unprecedented amounts of tree damage that caused many circuit faults. Once we have transmission and substations restored, we prioritize jobs that involve critical infrastructure (such as hospitals and police stations) and those that have the most number of customers affected. With damage this severe, it is taking time but we are working our way through that process.
Q. Why don't you know when my power will be back?
A. Under normal circumstances we know how long it takes to respond to reports of problems and restore service. This is not your average storm. Hurricane Sandy has caused twice the damage as Hurricane Irene. This means that even assessing the damage is time consuming, with new information constantly filling in the picture of the conditions that need to be addressed. We've also continued to bring additional out-of-state crews to help, and move them around to the areas they are needed most.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
The Property Tax Question and Why We Can't Get An Answer
There has been much confusion in city hall about property taxes. Since the Mayor introduced the budget back in March, the unanswered question has been: how does this affect my property taxes? Then the Council approved a budget in June with a reduced tax levy. Thus we knew the amount of the total city tax levy for 2013 (it is $50,228,583). Our budget consultant, David Kochel, calculated the tax rate. Knowing these numbers is all well and good. The total tax levy still has to be spread across all property owners based on the tax rate and the assessed property values. We asked our City Administrator the unanswered question: in layman's terms, how does this affect my property taxes? That means the dollar amount and understanding if it went up and how much. City hall has been unable to get an answer to City Council. I guess they think residents can wait to see their tax bills. But only the final bill, not the quarterly ones, have the break-out for city, school and county taxes and there is no comparison to the previous years bill or rate.
When I served on the Plainfield School Board, this was an easy question to answer. Our Business Administrator knew the school tax levy and the tax rate and applied the rate to the "typical home". That was a home assessed at something near the average assessed home value in Plainfield. The answer was given as soon as the school budget was proposed for the election ballot. It went something like this: "a home assessed at $100,000 will pay xxx in annual property taxes, up from xxx in the previous year."
That is what people want to know. The reason we can't get our senior finance people to tell people what they need to know is not a surprise. It's been a revolving door for City Administrators and long term vacancies for the CFO and other key administrator positions. If it were only a problem for one position or a few positions for a short period of time, it would be considered routine. Unfortunately, this has been a problem since Mayor Robinson-Briggs took office.
Sorry Mayor Sharon apologists. This is not a shared Mayor-Council problem. It was going on even in the Mayors first two years of office, when she got virtually complete cooperation from the Council (including yours truly). Her first city administrator left under of cloud of allegations and some other Director level appointments did not pan out either.
The problem started before her term began, when she convened a transition team. I wish I could recall who they were so I could ask them why? Why? Why did you wipe the slate so clean that there was no continuity or memory of good initiatives from the previous administration? Behind the scenes, people (including me) offered to facilitate discussions with senior decision makers who were removed and replaced. Not to plead for their jobs, just to help the transition to the new administration. These offers were met by a stone wall.
Lack of communication has been a hallmark of Mayor Robinson-Briggs administration. But it would be a good step to answer the property tax question for the sake of residents. Yes we only have a part time CFO, Glenn Cullen, whose time is so limited that I have only seen him once. But he could get us the answer easily. I will try to answer this myself. I am very busy at work and I don't promise a quick answer but it would be embarrassing if the Mayors people don't beat me to the punch.
When I served on the Plainfield School Board, this was an easy question to answer. Our Business Administrator knew the school tax levy and the tax rate and applied the rate to the "typical home". That was a home assessed at something near the average assessed home value in Plainfield. The answer was given as soon as the school budget was proposed for the election ballot. It went something like this: "a home assessed at $100,000 will pay xxx in annual property taxes, up from xxx in the previous year."
That is what people want to know. The reason we can't get our senior finance people to tell people what they need to know is not a surprise. It's been a revolving door for City Administrators and long term vacancies for the CFO and other key administrator positions. If it were only a problem for one position or a few positions for a short period of time, it would be considered routine. Unfortunately, this has been a problem since Mayor Robinson-Briggs took office.
Sorry Mayor Sharon apologists. This is not a shared Mayor-Council problem. It was going on even in the Mayors first two years of office, when she got virtually complete cooperation from the Council (including yours truly). Her first city administrator left under of cloud of allegations and some other Director level appointments did not pan out either.
The problem started before her term began, when she convened a transition team. I wish I could recall who they were so I could ask them why? Why? Why did you wipe the slate so clean that there was no continuity or memory of good initiatives from the previous administration? Behind the scenes, people (including me) offered to facilitate discussions with senior decision makers who were removed and replaced. Not to plead for their jobs, just to help the transition to the new administration. These offers were met by a stone wall.
Lack of communication has been a hallmark of Mayor Robinson-Briggs administration. But it would be a good step to answer the property tax question for the sake of residents. Yes we only have a part time CFO, Glenn Cullen, whose time is so limited that I have only seen him once. But he could get us the answer easily. I will try to answer this myself. I am very busy at work and I don't promise a quick answer but it would be embarrassing if the Mayors people don't beat me to the punch.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Vote for Adrian Mapp for 3rd Ward City Councilman
A recent development illustrates why Adrian Mapp should be re-elected to the City Council. The Council held a budget meeting last Monday. The Council is on the verge of approving a 2012 city budget that will determine the the tax rate and level of services for Plainfield residents. The details of that meeting are ably documented in blog posts by Bernice Paglia and Olddoc.
It's the story behind the public scene that shows why we need Adrian Mapp as a city government leader. The previous week the Council Finance Committee (Mapp, Reid and myself) met with members of the city administration to sort out the mess created by omissions in the Mayors introduced budget. Omissions totaling $2 million that threatened to trigger massive lay-offs and tax increases. The Mayors people had only one solution: cut the library funding from $1.4 million to $920,000. Mapp said "no way".
When it was now clear that the confusion within the administration had not abated, Mapp challenged the meeting participants to come up with a solution that would not be on the backs of Plainfield residents. The city's budget consultant (hired at the initiative of Mapp, Williams, McWilliams and I) was able to find savings from unspent expense budget lines from the 6 month transitional budget in 2011. Thank you David Kochel.
That still left a huge budget gap. Mapp insisted we take a hard look at the city surplus. It turns out that the switchover from a state fiscal year to a calendar year generated a lot of surplus. So much that we could take enough for the 2012 budget that the tax rate proposed by the Mayor could be reduced by two tax points- that is a reduction of $250,000 in the Mayors tax levy. We can go from negative $2 million to positive $250,000. There is still adequate surplus for future years. The Council is poised to approve this amended budget.
One indication of who Adrian Mapp is - he was not willing to settle for a partial reduction of the $2 million budget gap. He insisted it be eliminated. And in the interest of our overburdened taxpayers, he took it a step farther - to reduce the taxes below the flawed budget proposed by the Mayor. And he wasn't willing to take the easy way out by slashing the public library hours and services to people who need them more than ever.
Back to the Council budget meeting last Monday - he didn't even ask for credit for what he has done for the people of Plainfield. I guess you only get noticed when you do something that people disagree with.
It's the story behind the public scene that shows why we need Adrian Mapp as a city government leader. The previous week the Council Finance Committee (Mapp, Reid and myself) met with members of the city administration to sort out the mess created by omissions in the Mayors introduced budget. Omissions totaling $2 million that threatened to trigger massive lay-offs and tax increases. The Mayors people had only one solution: cut the library funding from $1.4 million to $920,000. Mapp said "no way".
When it was now clear that the confusion within the administration had not abated, Mapp challenged the meeting participants to come up with a solution that would not be on the backs of Plainfield residents. The city's budget consultant (hired at the initiative of Mapp, Williams, McWilliams and I) was able to find savings from unspent expense budget lines from the 6 month transitional budget in 2011. Thank you David Kochel.
That still left a huge budget gap. Mapp insisted we take a hard look at the city surplus. It turns out that the switchover from a state fiscal year to a calendar year generated a lot of surplus. So much that we could take enough for the 2012 budget that the tax rate proposed by the Mayor could be reduced by two tax points- that is a reduction of $250,000 in the Mayors tax levy. We can go from negative $2 million to positive $250,000. There is still adequate surplus for future years. The Council is poised to approve this amended budget.
One indication of who Adrian Mapp is - he was not willing to settle for a partial reduction of the $2 million budget gap. He insisted it be eliminated. And in the interest of our overburdened taxpayers, he took it a step farther - to reduce the taxes below the flawed budget proposed by the Mayor. And he wasn't willing to take the easy way out by slashing the public library hours and services to people who need them more than ever.
Back to the Council budget meeting last Monday - he didn't even ask for credit for what he has done for the people of Plainfield. I guess you only get noticed when you do something that people disagree with.
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