Donna Vose - a Remarkable Person

Donna's passing was a great loss for me and my family.  Our deepest sympathies and positive thoughts are with Greg, who was such a good match to an awesome person.  We will always remember her as a true friend, a dedicated Plainfielder and a savvy public servant.  It was my privilege to have Donna as an advisor and sounding board for three areas of my life most important to me:  the health and well being of family, my career in the mental health field and public service to Plainfield.  In each of these areas, Donna would offer unsolicited feedback unsparingly.  Whether I agreed with her or not, she was always worth talking to.


Donna had a sophisticated view of Plainfield politics that was pragmatic and decidedly not emotional or ideological. Although she moved back to Martha's Vineyard two years ago, she continued to follow Plainfield through the blogs. I can imagine her amusement at a recent, well meaning but naive blog post describing certain New Democrats as sell outs for trying to work with Jerry Green.  I had many talks with her about how I needed to make compromises or choose my battles carefully so I could live to fight another day.  She was a mentor for me and her approach to service on the City Council would serve all Council members well, both current and future ones.


In her last years on Council, she was the only Republican.  Her independent thinking led to some surprising collaborations with her Democratic colleagues.  And it led the local Republican party to ultimately withhold its support of her - because she was independent and not strictly driven by party politics.


Donna's life had many interesting facets.  She was an Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse.  I had the benefit of working with her because our employers, Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center and Bridgeway Rehabilitation Services, had clients in common.  She also worked for Union County Psychiatric Clinic (now UCPC Behavioral Health) in Plainfield where one of her assignments was treating residents of the Park Hotel.


She was a true friend to my family in times of need, an example of which follows, in the words of my wife Lois:


"Our very dear friend Donna Vose passed away on Saturday May 17.  She will be greatly missed.  She was one of the most principled people I have ever had the opportunity to know.  She was a great advocate for people who had challenges and gave her time selflessly and without fanfare.  When my father had severe dementia and was hospitalized in Muhlenberg I was lucky enough that Donna was working there and she took complete charge of his care so we could rest easy that he was in good hands.  When he was hospitalized unexpectedly on a snowy December night Donna and Greg came to our house at 11:30 p.m. to be with us.  She called the hospital to check on him and was a great source of strength for me.

When our kitchen was remodeled she made sure to invite us for a home-cooked dinner once a week, often quite exotic fare. We had so many wonderful times with Greg and Donna, visiting on the Vineyard, restaurant reviews, politics, Plainfield parties, watching the Sopranos together every Sunday with a typical Tony Soprano dinner of spaghetti and meatballs to start, the list is endless.  I will always appreciate her wit, her many strong opinions, her lack of hesitance to tell me my ideas were dumb!  I am very proud to have had her as a close friend and will celebrate her contribution to our lives forever."

Liberty Village

What follows is an insiders view of events relating to the Liberty Village pilot in lieu of taxes and proposed sale of the property. It is not meant as an objective account and I certainly don't have all the facts.

Last fall I was called by Assemblyman Green and asked to speak with prospective Liberty Village buyers Tryko, Inc.  Their attorney, to be specific.  During a three way call, I stated that in order for me to better understand the merits of this transaction, I would need to meet the prospective buyers and learn for myself about their track record.  It was agreed that I would arrange a meeting and ask two other Council members to join.  I invited Adrian Mapp and Bridget Rivers, the members I thought would have the most interest and knowledge to meet the challenge. And they agreed to the meeting.  Adrian had already been called by the Assemblyman before me.   Although one blogger wrote that the meeting took place at Assemblyman Greens office, he was not present and it took place in the Liberty Village community room.  The current owner was also represented at the meeting.

During the meeting, I learned that the property and the apartments were not in good condition as the current owner was not committed to maintenance and repairs.  Tryko owners stated that they had already been hired to begin improvements and would continue once they became owners.  They also stated that the residents' housing subsidies would only remain in place if the Tryko sale included a City Council resolution approving the continuation of the subsidies as required by HUD.  Without Council support, Tryko would walk away and the current owner would sell the property on the commercial market and then the subsidies would go away and the residents who could not afford market rate rents would have to move out!

Tryko were encouraged to put their stated commitment to property improvements in writing, work with our city administration to evaluate the proposed sale and move a resolution onto the Council agenda.

I did not hear anything from the previous city administration (not a surprise for I was not one of Mayor Sharon's favored Council members) and assumed that the proposed sale was either dead in the water or would come up in 2014.  So it has.

Some of my Council colleagues have complained they didn't have enough time to evaluate this proposal and are being pressured to make a quick decision.  But Tryko has been advocating for this project with the previous administration since mid 2013 or earlier.  Did the previous Mayor tell no-one on Council about it?  I spoke with Plainfield Housing Authority Executive Director Randy Wood about this in fall 2013 (he had serious concerns about the transaction).  Did he not tell anyone on Council about it?  Did Assemblyman Green not tell anyone on Council besides me and Adrian Mapp? 

The way this has played out at Council meetings is puzzling to me.  The bottom line is that Tryko is the only entity proposing to fix the problems at Liberty Village, the only entity that has come forward with the ability to purchase Liberty Village with the intention of preserving the affordable housing that is needed for the 95 families living there.  They are proposing to make all the improvements the Council has ever wanted when these payment in lieu of tax transactions come before us.  In fact this is the only time that an increase in payments to the city has been agreed to in the 10 years I have been on the Council.

What's the problem!!!

Rebranding Plainfield

Last night, at the Gateway Chamber of Commerce Mayors Dinner, a sign of things to come took place.  Five awards were given out in front of 250 Union County business owners and elected officials.  Can you guess who was honored from Plainfield? 

I won't divulge the answer.  That will be left to others as to not steal their thunder.  All I will say is that Plainfield was presented in a very positive light at the Chamber dinner, in great contrast to image we have created for Plainfield , and city hall in particular, in recent years.

We will have to be consistent and relentless in rebranding Plainfield.  And the facts we share with our community and with surrounding communities, will have to be real, not hype.  Last night was a good beginning.

What's Really Happening with the Temporary Budget

At a special meeting last night, the Plainfield City Council passed a temporary budget for the month of April.  This action allows the city to continue operating while the 12 month budget is under review by the Council.  This temporary budget, proposed by Mayor Adrian Mapp's administration, was approved unanimously.  There was a motion to reduce the section of the budget for the Mayors office by Councillor Reid but it failed on a 4 - 3 vote against.  Voting to support the Mayors office budget line "as is" were Rebecca Williams, Tracey Brown, Bridget Rivers and me.  Joining Reid were Gloria Taylor and Vera Greaves.

Here is some background on the voting:

1.  no-one wanted to voted down the temporary budget because without it, city operations would begin to shut down.  However, there are some Councillors who are upset with the Mayor and want to send him a message.

2.  on the Mayors office budget, the 4 - 3 losing faction are trying to cut positions that Mapp supports because the funding for some positions were previously reduced or cut from Mayor Robinson-Briggs budgets by a previous Council.  We're talking about a Public Relations position, the Recreation Director position and a Media position.  Here is what is wrong with that thinking:

•  Mayor Robinson=Briggs came into office making major personnel changes and got the full support of City Council, including me and other Council members who had opposed her in elections.  That's just good form - you give the incoming administration what they need and hope that they can help the city.  We questioned and challenged some Mayoral actions (like the police security detail surrounding the Mayor, supporting the Recreation Director when he refused to answer the Councils questions, using the media office primarily for Mayoral photo opps but not providing information to the public) but we did not try setting her up to fail. 
• Years into her term, when some Councillors (me included) saw that more and more staff were being misdirected for purposes not beneficial to our residents, we said enough is enough and took action through budget reductions.
• Mayor Mapp was in his first month of office when similar actions were being proposed by some Councillors.  Now in his third month, this is playing out through the temporary budget. 

I want to express gratitude to Councillors Rivers and Brown.  They did the right thing last night, just as members of previous Councils (me, Adrian Mapp, Annie McWilliams and Rebecca Williams) did during the first four Robinson-Briggs years.  I hope that continues as we begin the annual budget deliberations. 

Adrian Mapp will be judged by the Council and ultimately the voters for his track record.  But first the Council has to provide the building blocks - the funding, his team - so that he can sink or swim (as the saying goes) based on his performance and not the intransigence of the governing body.

One Seat Ride

March 3 was a big day for communities along the Raritan Valley Rail Line. The first "one seat ride" train rolled into Plainfield around 9 am (9:05 at Netherwood Station).  I boarded and walked forward to the first two cars where I found the Plainfield, Somerville and Somerset County contingents of Raritan Valley Rail advocates.  Mayors and friends boarded at Fanwood, Westfield, Cranford and Roselle Park.  This truly is a coalition.

Mayor Adrian Mapp with Freeholder Betty Jane Kowalski and RVRC advocate Marty Robbins

 

When the train left Newark Penn Station, all the riders applauded.  Now the push is on to get peak hour one seat service.  This will benefit commuters and property owners alike.  If you haven't signed the petition to New Jersey Transit, do so now!  www.raritanvalleyrail.com

 

 



   On the platform at Penn Station New York

Raritan Valley Rail Coalition Report



 

 

 

The coalition meeting was well attended in spite of poor road conditions and lack of parking anywhere near the Westfield municipal building.  That was due to the featured speaker, a NJ Transit representative, who spoke about the one seat ride to Manhattan.

 

You will find better images for the new schedules elsewhere but I couldn't resist putting these on my blog.  After all, this is part of local history.

 

 

 

 

The top image shows the four off peak hours one seat ride trains in-bound and the second is for out-bound trains.  These trains begin service on March 3. 

 

The coalition meeting had excellent representation from Plainfield.  Besides yours truly, Mayor Adrian Mapp, City Administrator Rick Smiley, Deputy City Administrator Carlos Sanchez, Chief of Staff John Stewart, City Planning Director Bill Nierstadt, Netherwood Neighbors stalwart Jim Spear and Jeff Dunn were in attendance.  We missed you Pat!

 

NJ Transit is still calling this a pilot because they have not yet worked out the details for phase two and three.  These phases will entail weekend and evening one seat service to and from Manhattan.  They will be monitoring ridership for each phase and the number of riders will influence future decisions.  I am hoping that some Plainfield commuters are able to adjust their work schedules to take advantage of the one seat rides. We will see beginning in March.

 

Much of the discussion centered on publicity so that people know about the one seat ride.  I urged Plainfield officials to begin a publicity campaign.  We will need to get the message out in many ways so residents hear it over and over from different sources.  Word of mouth is important as well as print media the city website, television and social media.  I hope to see banners at the train stations.  You are invited to show up at the Netherwood station March 3 for the 9:08 train - to be photographed at this historic moment.

 

The Raritan Valley Rail Coalition is about improving rail service in many ways.  Other subjects discussed at coalition meetings include triple tracking, the Hunter Fly-over and the future of the new tunnel.  These projects need our advocacy for future action but now is the time to keep pushing towards our first priority  - peak hour one seat service to and from Manhattan.



Economic Development Report

Netherwood Bar and Grill, previously Vivace, on South Ave, is doing good business and I like the remake.  Lois and I went last night and it was full, with people of all ages. I like the age diversity, reminds me of the Antone's crowd in Cranford, before the family closed the restaurant.  Antone's was replaced by a so called Irish Pub.  Many of the new Irish Pubs only resemble the real thing with the imported woodwork, stripped from neighborhood pubs in Ireland.  The Netherwood's new menu includes a decent selection of craft beers, something Plainfield has been lacking for many years. Live music will be featured in the near future.

Just Turkey is opening soon on South Ave, where the old Natale Bakery was.  The inside has been updated and turkey based menu items will be featured.  Good food, less cholesterol, a sound idea.

Dunkin Donuts received site plan approval and we should soon see construction of a new location on West Front St. West Front is ripe for development and a site plan was just approved in the 700 block for a mixed use building - retail and 20 apartments.

If attendance at Planning Board meetings is a leading indicator for development, take note of the fact that all 11 board members were in attendance.  Welcome new members Emmett Swan and Sean McKenna.

I expect we will be hearing soon from Plainfield's new Economic Development Director.  Carlos Sanchez brings a track record of successful development in Elizabeth. 

The Raritan Valley Rail Coalition will be meeting Tuesday morning at 8:30 am at the Westfield municipal building. This is open to the public.  I will give an update on my blog.  Meanwhile, do your part for the one seat ride by signing the petition at www.raritanvalleyrail.com