Meeting Minutes

City of Plainfield, New Jersey

Charter Study Commission

Minutes of Meeting of Monday, December 30, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

Plainfield City Hall Planning Conference Room

Call to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: The Commissioners waived Pledge of Allegiance due to lack of flag in the meeting room.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 12/23/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Chair Rick Smiley, Vice Chair John Stewart, Treasurer Jeanette Criscione and Assistant Secretary Marie Davis were present.

Minutes: Ms. Burgwinkle made a motion to approve the minutes of the CSC 12-19-13 meeting. Mrs. Davis seconded, and the minutes were approved in a voice vote with no abstentions or dissentions.    

Correspondence to Commission: Mr. Smiley noted that there was no correspondence.

Treasurer Report: Mr. Smiley noted that there is no Treasurer’s Report.  

New Business:

-Commissioner deliberation to continue on changes to Dual Office Holding provision

Ms. Burgwinkle explained to the Commissioners that at the 12-19-13 meeting there was spirited conversation about changes to the Dual Office Holding provision, section 7.3. Several citizens, Mr. Alan Goldstein and Mr. Dan Damon were in attendance and asked many good questions about the redraft. Ms. Burgwinkle revisited the drafting the day after the meeting and reread the NJ state statutes on Dual Office Holding, as well as the Administrative and Municipal Code concerning situations where the Mayor can appoint persons in positions to hold acting or interim positions under certain circumstances.  She felt that the drafting had missed that important power of the Mayor and that redrafting was necessary. She asked the City Clerk to schedule a follow-up meeting and also redrafted subsection a to adopt the actual language on Dual Office Holding that the legislature had used. She handed a document to the other commissioners containing the statutes and Code Provisions and Charter provisions that she had looked at.  Regarding subsection b, she redrafted that to provide that elected officials can not hold any additional positions except for seats on boards and commissions described in the Administrative Code and except as appointed by the Mayor under circumstances described in the Administrative Code and the Charter. Subsection c was redrafted to apply to persons who are appointed by the Mayor with advice and consent of the council or by the council; they shall not hold any other positions except as appointed by the Mayor as set forth in the Municipal Code or the Charter (note to reader: see exact language and rationale for changes in motion below).

Ms. Burgwinkle then made the following motion: I move that the Charter Study Commission amend the motion that was amended and approved at the 12-19-13 meeting concerning section 7.3, Dual Office Holding to replace the changes to section 7.3 at that meeting with the following:

7.3 Dual office holding.

a. No person shall simultaneously hold more than one elective public office as provided in the General Law (See N.J.S.A. 19:3-5.2, Holding simultaneously more than one elective office prohibited; exceptions).

b. A person who holds a city of Plainfield elected office either by election of the general electorate or by appointment to fill a vacancy shall not simultaneously hold any other paid or unpaid position with the city of Plainfield or any of its agencies or instrumentalities, except for positions on agencies, boards, commissions and committees specifically set aside for elected officials in the Municipal Code, provided, however, that the Mayor or a City Council member may accept an acting position under circumstances described in the Charter or Administrative Code for which no salary or other compensation is paid.

c. A person who holds any position with the city of Plainfield as the result of appointment by the Mayor with the advice and consent of the City Council or by the City Council for which a salary or other compensation is paid shall not simultaneously hold any other position with the city of Plainfield or any of its agencies or instrumentalities; provided, however, that the Mayor may, from time to time and in writing, authorize any person holding such a position to accept another specified position (for which no salary or other compensation is paid) under circumstances described in the Charter or Administrative Code.

Dual office holding provisions are not common in municipal charters (none of the Faulkner Act model charters contain such provisions), however, Plainfield Charter (1968) has prohibited dual office holding since it was enacted. In 2007, certain state statutes noted above were passed by the legislature, also prohibiting dual office holding. The Commission recommends retaining the dual office holding provision to acknowledge the General Law on the topic as set forth in subsection a. above. In addition, we received comments that the existing provision is ambiguous with many undefined terms, and we agree that the provision should be redrafted for that reason. We are aware that the common law of New Jersey contains the doctrine of incompatible offices in a long line of case law, based on the public policy that an office holder’s performance should not be influenced by divided loyalties. We believe that holding a city of Plainfield elective office is incompatible with holding any other paid or unpaid position with the city of Plainfield or any of its agencies and instrumentalities, except for seats on agencies, boards, commissions and committees set aside for elected officials in Municipal Code  and under other limited circumstances provided in the Charter and in the Administrative Code, see subsection b. above. We also believe that no person appointed by the Mayor to a position for which a salary or other compensation is paid should hold multiple city positions, except under limited circumstances described in the Charter or Administrative Code where they are not compensated for both. See subsection c. above.

Mr. Smiley seconded the motion and asked for discussion, if any. Hearing no discussion, he called for a voice vote on the motion which passed with no abstentions or dissents.

Ms. Burgwinkle then handed out the cover letter and the letter to City Clerk for the Amended Final Report dated 12/31/2013 for signatures of the Commissioners so that she can file the Amended Final Report on 12/31/13.

 

Announce date and time of next meeting:  There are no additional meetings scheduled at this time.   

Public Participation: Mr. Robert Edwards asked what comes next. Ms. Burgwinkle told him that she would file a signed original and 7 copies for the council in the morning. It is then up to council if they want us to come back, it is not laid out in the statute. She believes that in order to petition the legislature, the matter will need to be noticed up to six times and a public hearing may be required, but she does not know any details or schedule for that.    

 

Adjournment: Mr. Smiley moved to adjourn and Ms. Criscione seconded. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at 7:42 p.m.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting (with the exception of the call to order and the waiving of the salute to the flag) is available by contacting the Commission at plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com.

City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
Minutes of Meeting of Thursday, August 1, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall Planning Conference RoomCall to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: The Commissioners recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, amended notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 5/13/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Chair Rick Smiley and Treasurer Jeanette Criscione were present for the roll call. Assistant Secretary Marie Davis was not able to attend the meeting in person, but participated in the meeting by teleconference. Mr. Stewart was excused.

Minutes: The Minutes of the Meeting of July 18, 2013 were approved by a vote of 3 commissioners in attendance, which is a quorum. Mrs. Davis is out of state and abstained on these minutes over the telephone.  

Correspondence to Commission: Ms. Burgwinkle reported that she sent Dr. Reock Draft 2 of our report on 7/23 because the Center for Government Services agrees to review final reports for accuracy.  He responded on 7/26 that the report was fine; however, he sent ½ page of edits that we agreed to make.  We also got an email from Mr. Robert Edwards that Mr. Edwards had filed an amended OPRA request on 7/29, again requesting copies of the documents that the Commissioners had used during the deliberations and voting at the 7/11 meeting.  The Commission had asserted a deliberative materials exception to the initial request, which Mr. Edwards was contesting. After separate discussion between Ms. Burgwinkle and each of the Commissioners, the Commission delivered the document used on 7/11 to the City Clerk on 7/30, given that voting was essentially finished and the final meeting of CSC is scheduled for 8/1. The Final Report, containing the final suggested changes will be released to the public promptly after that and in no event later than 8/6.

Treasurer Report: No report, however, Mr. Smiley has discussed printing of the final report by a city vendor with Mr. Restaino. The Commissioners agreed to get a price for 1,000 copies. Meanwhile, Ms. Burgwinkle priced obtaining an initial 150 copies to have on hand immediately, with Staples giving the lowest price of approx. $350, printed 2 sided and not stapled.

New Business:

-Commissioner deliberation 
The Commissioners continued deliberations at this point.  The Commissioners acknowledged Ms. Burgwinkle’s suggestion to remove the Advisory Recommendation on City Counsel expense reimbursement, essentially placing in the comment under the amended section. Mr. Smiley moved to substitute business administrator for city administrator in the charter to bring Plainfield into the fold of most cities’ terminology, with no other changes to the position of city administrator. The Commissioners voted to accept that change.  Ms. Burgwinkle distributed a hand edited version of Draft #2 of the Final Report along with Dr. Reock’s suggested changes and the Commissioners looked through the report. Editing will continue over the weekend, with Ms. Burgwinkle and Ms. Criscione primarily editing. The final report will be delivered to the City Clerk for date stamping on Monday, August 5, 2013, a day in advance of its due date.

Announce date and time of next and final meeting:  Thursday, 8/1/2013 was the final scheduled meeting of CSC.  

Public Participation: Mr. Robert Edwards indicated that the whole process had been interesting and he agreed to his inclusion in the acknowledgment section of the Final Report.     
 
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:50.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Commission at plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com


City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
Minutes of Meeting of Thursday, July 18, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Plainfield City Hall LibraryCall to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: The Commissioners recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, amended notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 5/13/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Vice Chair John Stewart, Chair Rick Smiley and Treasurer Jeanette Criscione were present for the roll call. Assistant Secretary Marie Davis was not able to attend the meeting in person, but participated in the deliberations portion of the meeting by teleconference.

Minutes: The Minutes of the Meeting of July 11, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote.

Correspondence to Commission: Ms. Burgwinkle reported receiving an email from Mr. Robert Edwards on Friday, July 12th. She was not working on Charter Study emails over the weekend, and did not get back to him until Monday, July 15th , after he had filed an OPRA request with the City Clerk for a recording of the 7/11 meeting. Ms. Burgwinkle copied the meeting recording onto two CDs, one for the City Clerk and one for Mr. Edwards and dropped them off at City Hall on Tuesday, July 16th. On Wednesday, July 17th, the City Clerk advised that Mr. Edwards had filed an amended OPRA request, requesting copies of the documents that the Commissioners had used during the deliberations and voting at the 7/11 meeting.  On behalf of the Commission, Ms. Burgwinkle responded, requesting an “Intra-agency deliberative materials” exception to production. Ms. Burgwinkle noted that the Commission was concerned about publication in the community of a draft documents containing suggested charter changes that are not final, were presented to encourage discussion and which contained references to legal and other advice received by the Commission.  The exception was asserted to avoid misinformation circulating in the community. The final meeting of CSC is scheduled for 8/1, and any final deliberation and editing will take place at that meeting. The Final Report, containing the final suggested changes will be released to the public promptly after that and in no event later than 8/6.

Treasurer Report: No report

New Business:
-Commissioner deliberation
The Commissioners continued deliberations at this point.  The Commissioners took their first vote at the 6/20/13 meeting and unanimously voted to request City Council to petition the legislature for amendments to the special charter. At the 6/27/13 meeting, the three commissioners who were present went through the charter sections previously identified for possible amendment without voting. At the 7/11 meetings, voting on sections drafted by Ms. Burgwinkle continued. At this meeting, the Commissioners voted on changes to a number of sections and reserved the right to continue deliberations at the final meeting on 8/1.

Announce date and time of next and final meeting:  Thursday, 8/1/2013 at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall Planning Conference Room. 

Public Participation: Mr. Robert Edwards asked a question about the date of the next meeting and was told that the meeting was on 8/1/13.    
 
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:45.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Commission at plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com



City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
Minutes of Meeting
Thursday, July 11, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall Library

Call to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: The Commissioners recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, amended notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 5/13/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Vice Chair John Stewart, Chair Rick Smiley and Treasurer Jeanette Criscione were present for the roll call. Assistant Secretary Marie Davis was not able to attend the meeting in person, but participated in the deliberations portion of the meeting by teleconference.

Public Forum: Ms. Criscione prepared a slide presentation for the Public Forum portion of the meeting. She led the Commissioners and the public in attendance in a review of the activities of the Commission to date.  Slides were devoted to formation of the Commission and the statutory duties of the Commission. Responses to the substantive questions asked of elected and appointed officials were tabulated and presented in graph form, and the Commission’s next steps were reviewed in general. Members of the public asked questions during and after the presentation. A PDF of the slide presentation can be viewed or downloaded from the City Clerk’s website.


Minutes: The Minutes of the Meeting of June 27, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Correspondence to Commission: Mrs. Burgwinkle reported receiving an email from Corporation Counsel David Minchello suggesting that the Commission get a full legal review of the Final Report before releasing it to the public. The Commissioners unanimously agreed to decline the request. Charter Study Commissions are made up of citizens who typically write their own reports and take advantage of review by Rutgers Center for Government Services, which this Commission intends to do. The Commissioners have been very cost conscious about doing the report and do not wish to incur the expense of a legal review. Ms. Burgwinkle respond to Mr. Minchello, who has been helpful to the Commission when presented with questions.

Treasurer Report: No report

New Business:
-Commissioner deliberation 
The Commissioners continued deliberations after the Public Forum portion of the meeting. The Commissioners took their first vote at the 6/20/13 meeting and unanimously voted to request City Council to petition the legislature for amendments to the special charter. At the 6/27/13 meeting, the three commissioners who were present went through the charter sections previously identified for possible amendment without voting. At this meeting, voting on changes to the sections drafted by Ms. Burgwinkle commenced. The Commissioners voted on changes to many sections, and set aside sections where agreement could not be reached easily for the meeting scheduled for 7/18/13. Deliberations will be continued at the 7/18/13 meeting.

Announce date and time of next meeting:  Thursday, 7/18/2013 at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall Planning Conference Room.  

Public Participation: The members of the community who attended were allowed to participate during the meeting.     
 
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 10:05 p.m.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.

City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
Minutes of Meeting
Thursday, June 27, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall LibraryCall to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:26 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: The Commissioners recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Burgwinkle announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, amended notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 5/13/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Vice Chair John Stewart and Chair Rick Smiley were present for the roll call. Treasurer Jeanette Criscione and Assistant Secretary Marie Davis were excused.

Minutes: The Minutes of the Meeting of June 20, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Correspondence to Commission: Mrs. Burgwinkle reported no correspondence, however, she asked the Commissioners who were present to review correspondence that will go out from the Commission about the 7/11 Public Forum, which will be held in the first hour of the 7/11 meeting.

Treasurer Report: No report

New Business:
-Final Report preparations:  Mr. Smiley has contacted Mr. Restaino to let him know that we will be spending budget money within 6 weeks on report printing. Budget is $20,000. The City will set up our account, and has a relationship with the Union County printing shop; we will get estimates for 25 pages printed on both sides with some color.  
-Commissioner discussion of topics for deliberation 
The Commissioners did not conduct any votes in the absence of two members. The Commissioners went through the Plainfield Charter (1968) to revisit amendment recommendations initially discussed at the 5/2 and 5/9 meetings.  The next meeting on 7/11 will include a Public Forum during the first hour. The Public Forum will include a PowerPoint presentation regarding the work done to date by Charter Study Commission, with participation from the public encouraged.  Following the Public Forum, the Commissioners will continue to deliberate and vote.

Announce date and time of next meeting:  Thursday, 7/11/2013 at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall Library.  

Public Participation: The two members of the public who attended, Mr. Robert Edwards and Mr. Alan Goldstein, were allowed to participate during the meeting.     
 
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.





City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
Minutes of Meeting
Thursday, June 20, 2013, 6:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall Planning Conference Room

Call to Order: Mr. Stewart called the meeting to order at 6:33 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: The Pledge of Allegiance was passed in the absence of a flag.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Burgwinkle announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, amended notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 5/13/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Stewart took roll call. Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Vice Chair John Stewart and Assistant Secretary Marie Davis were present for the roll call. Treasurer Jeanette Criscione and Chair Rick Smiley joined the meeting in progress.

Interviews:   The Commission had invited Mr. Al Restaino, Mr. Eric Berry, Mr. Eric Jackson and Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs to interviews at this meeting.  Mr. Jackson gave notice that he could not attend. Mr. Restaino, Mr. Berry and Mayor Robinson-Briggs attended and were interviewed. A summary of their interviews is attached as Exhibit A.  A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.

Minutes: The Minutes of Meeting of June 13, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Correspondence to Commission: Mrs. Burgwinkle received a telephone call from former City Corporation Counsel Jacqueline Drakeford. Mrs. Drakeford’s feedback is outlined below in New Business.

Treasurer Report: No report. 

New Business:
-Discussion of agenda for the next meeting: The next meeting is scheduled for 6/27, with initial plans to devote the first hour to a public forum on the commission’s work to date. Ms. Criscione and Mrs. Burgwinkle met in subcommittee on 6/20 to discuss the format of the public forum presentation. After discussion, the Commissioners decided to devote the 6/27 meeting to deliberation and to move the public forum to the meeting of 7/11/13.     
-Commissioner discussion of topics for upcoming deliberation after interviews
-Former Corporation Counsel Jacqueline Drakeford has moved from Plainfield and could not appear for an interview, but she called Mrs. Burgwinkle on 6/19 to share her thoughts on some of our questions. She commented that there has been a fair amount of legal action over the years over charter interpretation issues. Because we have a stand alone special charter, there is not a body of case law about our provisions and the court decisions have not been predictable. She suggested that if a Faulkner Act form was adopted, at least there would be the body of case law that has developed over the years to rely on.  She also commented on the Recall election procedures under the charter, she has a recollection that state law on Recall has changed and that we should check that. Regarding the question what are the advantages and disadvantages of the special charter, she said that an advantage was the fact that the special charter added stability to the local government because it was so hard to change. On the other hand, a disadvantage was the fact that it is so hard to change if
change is needed. Regarding corporation counsel, that person is legal advisor to both the executive and the governing body and usually working on routine, non-controversial items. Sometimes there is friction if the corporation counsel is seen as political. If there are conflicts between the mayor and council, and council does not agree with the decision of the corporate counsel, corporate counsel should resign and appoint outside counsel for both. She suggested that perhaps the charter could provide that City Council could hire its own attorney with a super majority vote if they request counsel and Corporation Counsel does not agree.   

At the 6/13/13 meeting, the commissioners had discussed some protocols for deliberation. They decided that the first general vote would be one where each Commissioner would vote for one of the four types of reports that we can issue,  without voting for specifics  (no change, advisory only, place a Faulkner Act form on the ballot, petition the legislature for a new or amended special charter). Chair Rick Smiley conducted a voice vote of each Commissioner. The Commissioners unanimously voted for petitioning the legislature for a new or amended special charter. The reasons for the vote varied by commissioner, but included the fact that our special charter is very similar to the Mayor-Council form, which is used by most of the larger communities in the state covering approximately 38% of the population. While there are some provisions in our charter that the commission regards as obsolete and in need of updating, an update via adopting a Faulkner Act form would have consequences that would not necessarily be cost and time effective and could be disruptive to governance during the transitions when all city officials would need to run again for election. The Commissioners agreed that the 6/27 meeting will be devoted to discussion of changes to the special charter that the commissioners believe in their judgment after study and interviews are necessary. 

Announce date and time of next meeting:  Thursday, 6/27/13 at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall Library.  

Public Participation: Members of the public were allowed to participate during the meeting.     
 
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.


Following is a summary of the 6/20/13 interviews of the Honorable Al Restaino, Director of the Department of Administration, Finance, Health and Social Services, the Honorable Eric Berry, City Administrator and the Honorable Sharon Robinson-Briggs, Mayor of Plainfield.1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government.
Mr. Restaino: He is the Director of the Department of Administration, Finance, Health and Social Services, since 2010. He came to Plainfield in 2005 to be Director of Community Development. During his tenure he has also served in a number of acting capacities and provided direct supervision when positions were vacant. 
Mr. Berry: He is City Administrator, handles day to day operations for the City of Plainfield.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: She is proud to be the first female Mayor of Plainfield. Her power and authority are delineated in Section 3 of the Charter.

2. To whom do you or did you report?
Mr. Restaino: City Administrator
Mr. Berry: He reports directly to the Mayor
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: To the people of Plainfield.

3. How frequently do you or did you meet with members of the governing body?
Mr. Restaino: Rarely individually, they meet in finance committee and council meetings and in response to individual requests. No ongoing meetings between the council and members of the administration, but over the past several months they have met quite frequently in meetings regarding the budget.
Mr. Berry: Besides the agenda fixing sessions and City Council meetings, he will meet and/or speak to one or more of the members of the governing body at least once or twice weekly for status updates, questions and concerns.  
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: Administration meets with them weekly and also as needed.

4. If you are or were involved in budgeting for your department or division, describe the budget process.
Mr. Restaino: He has the pleasure of being very involved in the budget, the process is comprehensive and involved. In summary, each division head prepares a budget request for their department head, which is reviewed at a department level, then reviewed administratively, this year did a line by line review. Then budget is put together, conferring with the CEO and the auditor. He was at every budget meeting, made all amendments, answered all inquiries to the best of his ability, met with the budget consultant. He was as involved as anybody.
Mr. Berry: The Administration & Finance Director and the budget consultant are responsible for the budgeting of my department.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: For her portion of the budget, there is discussion with the cabinet members, the actual budget is prepared by the Director of Administration and Finance.

5. Do you or did you have any contact with your counterparts in other municipalities? How often and in what context? 
Mr. Restaino: He is still the Director of the Community Development office, he has been involved with the NJ Community Development Association for almost 20 years, he is treasurer. Meets monthly with other municipalities officials at County revenue sharing meetings.
Mr. Berry: Depending on the nature, there are times where I have spoken to other business administrators mostly regarding comparison on employee salaries, benefits and possible shared projects.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: Absolutely, through the New Jersey League of Municipalities, the Union County Mayors, Mayors against Illegal guns, has testified at city council meetings in other municipalities, including this past Monday.

6. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?
Mr. Restaino: Yes
Mr. Berry: Not in its entirety
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: Yes

7.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?
Mr. Restaino: He has not experienced either an advantage or disadvantage in his role.
Mr. Berry: The Charter defines the statutory provisions specific to Plainfield therefore serving as its official guide for appointed/elected officials as well as all departments/divisions. I personally believe that the Charter meets this requirement.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: In her opinion, the Administration’s budget should be the final budget, as she thinks the administration is best suited to know the needs of the city on a day to day basis. She wishes to make no other comments because she believes that her answers would be political in nature.

8. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?
Mr. Restaino: no
Mr. Berry: There is nothing that precludes my carrying out my role as City Administrator.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: She is opting to make no comment on this, as she believes that her answer would be political in nature.

9. If your answer to Question 8 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?
Mr. Restaino: n/a
Mr. Berry: n/a
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: She is opting to make no comment on this, as she believes that her answer would be political in nature.

10. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?
Mr. Restaino: Other experience was at county level, no other municipality experience.
Mr. Berry: I have had the opportunity to work under the Council/Manager form of government, where the City Manager runs the day-to-day operations, hiring and firing, contract negotiations and is the chief operating officer for the city.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: No other experience.

11.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?
Mr. Restaino: Not within his purview, but current number of councilors has not been a problem.
Mr. Berry: No Comment
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: Current number is acceptable, she would like to see more diversity, in gender, ethnicity, party affiliation, for instance.

12. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?
Mr. Restaino: Other experience was at county level, no other municipality experience.
Mr. Berry: I have had the opportunity to work under the Council/Manager form of government, where the City Manager runs the day-to-day operations, hiring and firing, contract negotiations and is the chief operating officer for the city.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: No other experience.

13. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?
Mr. Restaino: No opinion. Has worked very well with both clerks.
Mr. Berry: No Comment
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: The Mayor, of course!

14.  Do you think that the Plainfield City Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council? 
Mr. Restaino: Does not think that the Charter affects the ability of the Mayor and City Council to work together.
Mr. Berry: No Comment
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: She thinks that there should be inclusive meetings and the Mayor should have a seat at the Council table, whether ex-officio or not.

15.  The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.  
(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?
(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?
(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?
Mr. Restaino: There can be modifications made in some departments, does not have an opinion on Public Safety question, 6 departments is too many, 3 could work, there should be deeper look into structures. He does think that 3 works effectively and that it could work in the future as well.
Mr. Berry: No Comment
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: She believes that the Department of Public Affairs and Safety should exist in its current form, She believes that the departments are fine as they are, maybe look at moving the courts out of the departments.

16.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?
Mr. Restaino: Yes, Corporation Counsel can represent both, no need for separate counsel for Mayor and Council, there should be full time Corporation Counsel based on what he has experienced in the city, with the scope and magnitude of the work.
Mr. Berry: Yes, he believes that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council. As long as all the work assigned is completed a part-time corporation counsel is fine.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: She thinks that we can have one Counsel for both, that is sufficient.
17. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?
Mr. Restaino: He thinks that any change should be done by referendum so that all citizens have input.
Mr. Berry: No Comment
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: Stay as it is.

18. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies?
Mr. Restaino: No opinion on this.
Mr. Berry: No Comment
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: Stay as it is, but maybe blur the lines so that there is more diversity in every ward.

19. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections?
Mr. Restaino: Does not have an opinion on this.
Mr. Berry: No Comment
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: Partisan

20. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?
Mr. Restaino: He thinks they have worked well together in his experience.
Mr. Berry: The City Charter provides for the Actual Form of City Government, its Elected Officials and Designated Appointees and the Municipal Code establishes it Provisions and Requirements for the entire city. He believes it is used consistently.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: She thinks they are used consistently and between the Corporation Counsel and the City Clerk, we keep them in line.

21. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?
Mr. Restaino: None that he is aware of.
Mr. Berry: His role has always been to operate within the City’s approved charter.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: Office of the Mayor should be able to appoint citizens to boards and commissions without advice and consent of counsel. She thinks that if citizens step forward to volunteer that it is rude not to at least put their names on an agenda.

22. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?
Mr. Restaino: He thinks Charter was well put together, and has been a valuable resource for the City.
Mr. Berry: No, he does not.
Ms. Robinson-Briggs: Not at this time.

On June 18, 2013, a Subcommittee of the Plainfield Charter Study Commission consisting of Mrs. Mary Burgwinkle and Mrs. Marie Davis, interviewed former City Councilor Elliott Simmons at 5:50 p.m. in the Planning Conference Room in City Hall. The interview was also attended by Mr. Robert Edwards. A full length recording of the meeting was made and can be obtained by contacting the Commission at plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com. A brief summary of the interview follows.  1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government.
Mr. Simmons: My name is Elliott  Simmons and I am a former 4th ward city council member.

2. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?
Mr. Simmons: Yes

3.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?
Mr. Simmons: Advantages are that it allows the City to grow and change when it needs to, the Commission is going through that now. Does not see much disadvantage. 

4. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?
Mr. Simmons: No

5. If your answer to Question 4 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?
Mr. Simmons: N/A

6. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?
Mr. Simmons: No other experience.

7.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?
Mr. Simmons: Plainfield is small, much smaller than his hometown, Newark. He thinks that 7 is good.  9 would also be good with the same configuration as now, with two more at-large councilors, but 7 is a good number.

8. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?
Mr. Simmons: Council members put in a lot of time and a lot of work, they should be compensated to cover expenses. Benefits depend. If someone is employed and getting benefits from that source, no, but if you are a senior or someone else who needs benefits, should be flexible.

9. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?
Mr. Simmons: Mayor should appoint, with consent of council. That is the way it is now and it is effective.

10.  Do you think that the Plainfield City Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council? 
Mr. Simmons: He does not know if you can improve the relationship because often it is based on personalities and who is asking for wants rather than needs sometimes. He does think that education would help, to bring about better decision making for the people. Officials should be making good decisions for the whole, not the few. He thinks that the mayor should have the same educational qualifications as the administrator and be full time. He thinks that the mayor should understand finance and budgets and things necessary to run the city, since the mayor is supervising the administrator.  He thinks that the mayor should have a BA or an Associate degree at the least. 

11.  The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.  
(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?
(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?
(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?
Mr. Simmons: There are quite a few divisions under some of those departments and it could probably go smoother if there were between 4 and 6 departments.

12.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?
Mr. Simmons: I have been in meetings where there has been conflict between the Mayor and Council and the Counsel needs to be the go between.  He thinks that it works when the two sides get along and are working together. Does not think that there should be two corporate counsel, one is enough. If need be, the counsel should be able to get its own representation.

13. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?
Mr. Simmons: Based on our last election (relatively low turnout Primary) it would be too easy!
Thinks it should be less, maybe 20% of registered voters for recall.

14. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies?
Mr. Simmons: Based on size of Plainfield, 4 wards is OK.

15. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections?
Mr. Simmons: He believes in two party system. He thinks that it is good sometimes to get a look at new people, but partisan is the way to go.

16. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?
Mr. Simmons: Does not think that Code provisions are being enforced as well as they could be, heard about that all of the time on the Council.

17. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?
Mr. Simmons: Governing body and mayor should have same qualifications as department heads.

18. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?
Mr. Simmons: Not so much the charter as the people involved, politics should not be personal even if they both begin with the letter “P”.



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City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
Minutes of Meeting
Thursday, June 13, 2013, 6:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall LibraryCall to Order: Mr. Stewart called the meeting to order at 6:37 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Commissioners in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, amended notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 5/13/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Stewart took roll call. Chair Rick Smiley had advised the Commission of a late arrival for this meeting, arrived at 7:12 p.m.  Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Treasurer Jeanette Criscione, Vice Chair John Stewart and Assistant Secretary Marie Davis were all present.

Interviews:   The Commission had invited City Council President Bridget Rivers, City Councilor Adrian Mapp, Freeholder Linda Carter and Assemblyman Jerry Green to interviews at this meeting.  Ms. Rivers gave notice that she could not attend this meeting and has been rescheduled for a Subcommittee Meeting to be held on June 18, 2013 in the Planning Conference Room at 6:30 p.m. Ms. Carter and Mr. Green had conflicting meetings and could not attend. Mr. Mapp attended and was interviewed. A summary of his interview is attached as Exhibit A.  A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.

Minutes: The Minutes of Meeting of May 30, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Correspondence to Commission:  Dr. Reock contacted Ms. Burgwinkle via email to ask that any emails that we send him should be sent to both his office and home email addresses. Mr. Christopher Raths emailed for contact information for the Plainfield Youth Organization for Unity as he is inviting them to a council meeting in Roxbury if they would like to see that form of government in action. Mrs. Burgwinkle asked permission to send letters to his professional associations acknowledging his participation in the 5/30/13 meeting. The Commission also received email correspondence from former Corporation Counsel Rowand Clark containing his thoughts on a number of Charter related issues, and the Commission received a copy of Miller vs. Mitchell that it had requested from David Minchello, Esq.  

Treasurer Report: No report. 

New Business:
-Discussion of agenda for the next meetings:
 


City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
Minutes Meeting of Thursday, May 30, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall Library

Call to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:33 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Commissioners in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, amended notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 5/13/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Chair Rick Smiley, Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Treasurer Jeanette Criscione, Vice Chair John Stewart and Assistant Secretary Marie Davis were all present.

Presentations by Mr. James White and Mr. Christopher Raths: Mr. James White, the Township Administrator of East Brunswick, a Mayor-Council form municipality, and Mr. Christopher Raths, the Town Manager of Roxbury, a Council-Manager form municipality, appeared to discuss their forms of government with the Commissioners and the public. A summary of their comments is attached as Exhibit A.  A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.

Minutes: The Minutes of Meeting of May 23, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Correspondence to Commission:  None reported.

Treasurer Report: No report. 

New Business:
-Discussion of agenda for the next meeting: Ms. Burgwinkle spoke with Councilor Brown, who will be interviewed in a subcommittee meeting on 6/18/13. At the next meeting, which will start at 6:30, an hour earlier than usual, we have invited Assemblyman Green, Freeholder Carter, Councilor Mapp and Councilor Rivers to give their interviews.  After the interviews, the Commissioners will continue pre-deliberation discussions.  

Announce date and time of next meeting:  Thursday, 6/13/13 at 6:30 pm in City Hall Library (one hour earlier than our usual meetings). 

Public Participation: Members of the public were allowed to participate during the meeting and no one requested to be heard at this juncture.   
 
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 p.m.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.
EXHIBIT A
Mr. James White is the Township Administrator of East Brunswick, New Jersey (pop. approx. 49,000). He has been in the field of Municipal Management for 30 years. He is a graduate of Rider College, now Rider University, and received his M.P.A. from Farleigh Dickenson University. Mr. White has experience in Mayor-Council form of government (East Brunswick is Mayor-Council), Council-Manager form, and Township Committee form and has worked in Bensalem, Pennsylvania as well.  He has spoken to 6 or 7 charter study commissions over the years.

He told us that he was not sure whether he should start his presentation, or ask us for our candid assessment why we are doing charter study. He asked this because in every instance where he has addressed charter study groups, they organized because they were a group outside the political process, trying to get in. So, they promote the idea that the form of government is inefficient and would be much better if it was replaced. Per Mr. White, when you translate that idea into English, it usually means that we lost the last election and will try now to get in through the back door. He then told us that he was surprised to learn when he arrived at the meeting, that this was not the way that Charter Study was started in Plainfield. [Prior to the start of the meeting, Mr. White asked the question and was told that Plainfield City Council initiated an ordinance and public question on Charter Study.] He was taken aback by that and told us that he would need to shorten his “stand up” routine on charter study by at least ten minutes as a result!

He also told us that both he and Mr. Raths (our next speaker) are members of the International City Managers Association. The Association promotes professional municipal management, and would like him to say that Council-Manager is the preferred form of government. They would not be happy with him because he does not uniformly do that. He has worked under three different forms of government and personally does not believe that the form of government matters one iota. He had the same amount of authority in each form, either by statute or given to him.  He asked us who we think should be running this government and characterized that as a deep philosophical question. He told us that he knows our city administrator, but believes that it is likely that few citizens could actually give his name off the top of their heads. Either city managers are not promoting themselves well, or are toiling diligently behind the scenes so that citizens do not realize how much they can do.

He is an adjunct professor at Rutgers, which is very close to East Brunswick, so he is frequently called in for meetings and projects. He was asked to meet with a delegation from the island nation of Jeju, which is south of the Korean peninsula. The island had complained to Seoul for years about not getting the benefit of their tax dollars and requested independence. Seoul eventually said yes, and Jeju citizens realized that they did not know how to govern themselves, so a delegation came to the US and travelled around to different municipalities. They asked who does the hiring of department heads and employees. He told them that he does it (even though not statutorily). They then asked why the elected officials do not do the hiring. He looked at the Rutgers University people in attendance and told the panel that he hires because he can’t trust the elected officials to hire, they will hire all of their political friends who are not qualified for the jobs. After the interpreter gave the answer, he saw all 20 people smiling and nodding their heads!    

Mr. White took questions at this point.

Mr. Smiley asked how he worked within different governing bodies.  Mr. White answered that in the Mayor-Council form, his current job, the mayor appoints all of the department heads, including the head of the department of law, by statute, with advice and consent. The mayors have consulted with him and they have discussed hires. He has been lucky in that the mayors that he has worked with, all of whom were part time, believed that they needed to be on the same page with department heads, but recognized that the department heads would need to work with the administrator on a day to day basis and let him into the hiring process. He told us that council and the chief executive and administrative officers should be on the same wavelength about where the legislative function and executive function begin and end.
Ms. Burgwinkle asked how long he had been administrator and whether his appointment changes with each mayor. He has been administrator for 16 years under two mayors, the longest tenure in East Brunswick. Under the statute, his appointment is for the mayoral term, however, he has been reappointed. Ms. Criscione asked if he was appointed by the Mayor. He was, with advice and consent of council, and so are the Department Heads, but the Department Heads do all of the hiring under them with the administrator, and the Mayor does not get involved. 

Ms. Burgwinkle asked how the departments are chosen under his form, she is interested because Plainfield’s charter prescribes 3 departments, while Faulkner Act Mayor-Council form allows between 2 and 9 and does not identify them. East Brunswick’s departments are created by ordinance, if they want another one, they can create it. The departments are set up by administrative code. Mr. White pointed out that despite that Plainfield can only have three departments, it can likely have as many divisions as it creates. Mr. Stewart asked how many departments are in East Brunswick. Mr. White advised that there is Public Safety (East Brunswick has volunteer fire, as a side note, and the Deputy Chief of Police is the Director of Public Safety), Public Works, Department of Aging, Parks and Recreation, Planning and Engineering, Water and Sewer Utility, Department of Finance. He does not count the library director as a department, city clerk is not a department because not appointed by mayor (appointed by governing body per state law), he considers the court a separate department.

In response to questions about when East Brunswick chose the Mayor-Council form of government, he believes that it was about 40 years ago and it has not changed since. There are five councilors, all elected at large, no wards. Right now, there are 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats (the mayor was elected as a Democrat, but has very recently changed parties and is running for State Senate as a Republican and a member of council is currently running for Assembly). Mrs. Davis asked if he has ever worked in a City where there are factions of the same party, as in Plainfield. He told us that he worked in Monroe Township in Gloucester County. There were 7 councilors, 4 were Democrats, but the Mayor was a Republican because the Democrats were so split that some of them voted for the Republican.  Mrs. Burgwinkle asked what he thinks about Mayor-Council form creating a gulf between the Mayor and the Council. He agrees that can happen, elected officials want power, people who go into politics want it. He expects that Mr. Raths will tell us about the Council Manager form, where the Manager is the appointed CEO. The Mayor in that form is part of the council and has almost no other power, mitigating the gulf.

Ms. Burgwinkle asked if he could identify the tangible or intangible concept that keeps his mayor working with him and the council.  He told us that his mayor is a practical guy, knows that sometimes he has to compromise and give the council something that he does not necessarily want to give. Mr. White also commented that much as he believes that form of government does not matter, he does believe that once you have a form, you should honor it. So, his council does not call any of his department heads (prohibited under the Mayor-Council form). He said that they stumble once in awhile, but, mostly follow the rules. He noted that most department heads do not like to talk to elected officials anyway and they are happy to say that elected officials have to go through the administrator, who is the bridge to the council.

Ms. Criscione asked if the mayor is part or full time, and whether there is citizen participation at council meetings.  The mayor is part time, could be made full time, but he questioned whether that is really what the form envisioned. There is not much citizen participation at council meetings, but they have citizen advisory committees for everything. Ms. Criscione asked if he listened to them, and he answered it depends whether he can afford to listen to them. He sees everyone as a special interest group and decisions have to be made how much money can be spent on each without exorbitantly raising taxes. He does listen, however, and said that a ball field is never built unless the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee agrees, the town would never just go and build one.

Mrs. Burgwinkle asked him when his budget gets adopted. He told us that at least two people in the room remember the days when the budget was introduced in February and passed in March. He expects to pass his budget in June, and everyone blames it on the state. There was a time when the state gave everyone the numbers for what they get from the state in January, and then it went to February, then March, and so on. He said that he very recently got a memo from the state that they really can’t certify the numbers yet.

Mrs. Burgwinkle interrupted to acknowledge members of the Plainfield Youth Organization for Unity who had just joined the meeting, welcoming them and introducing them to Mr. White.

Mr. White said that regardless of the state, he starts the budget process in September or October. He emails the council and asks them for their larger goals for the municipality (not paving one road, but broad problems that you want to see solved.) One pointed out a problem with seniors getting medical transportation.  So, the City contracted with a cab company, subsidizes the fare, seniors can go anywhere in East Brunswick for $2 and the program is very popular. He does multi-year projections for expenditures and for revenues, because towns need to know what pension contributions will be, what impact tax appeals will have, etc. He has a very good finance director who is well known in New Jersey, and they take care of this.

Mr. Christopher Raths, the Town Manager in Roxbury (pop. approx. 23,000), a Council-Manager form of government, spoke next. He has been there for 12 years (his term is one year, and he has been appointed each year), and has been a professional manager for 23 years. He is an advocate for strong city management that survives the next election. Prior to Roxbury he worked in a community in Massachusetts with Town Meeting form of government, and prior to that he worked in a community in North Carolina after receiving his MPA in North Carolina.

Roxbury has 12 department heads, they are all selected by the manager. Departments are formulated by ordinance. He cannot create or eliminate a department, but he can merge departments under one department head.  His community has 4 wards and 7 council members, one from each ward and three at large. Terms are staggered. Mayor is selected by Council.  The citizens view Roxbury as a City Corporation, where he as Manager acts as CEO. Important to get a good manager, who treats council as a whole, and communicates, respectfully, so that council can make decisions as a whole. Council sets policy, manager sets out the plan to reach that. For instance, council 10 years ago set policy to be debt free, and the manager had to work with staff to implement. By next year, Roxbury will be debt free.

Councilors serve as liaisons to the departments and committees and they dedicate their time to making policy, turning it over to the Manager to implement. They lobby with the state legislature, he does not. The Council is free of day to day minutia. The Manager insulates the Council from employee lobbying. The Manager does all the negotiating with the unions and the employees, and also deals with residents. A good manager publicly accepts blame when things go wrong, and gives credit to the council for all that is right.  The manager is an at will employee, he could be fired by a majority vote of council.

Regarding budget, council finalizes and adopts the budget.  He forecasts out about 5 years, he has given seminars on benchmarking and forecasting at the League of Municipalities and at Rutgers. He can tell you what his tax rate will be in 5 years, within a very small variance.

As a manager, he is personally non-partisan, as it should be under true Council-Manager form.  His community now has 7 Republican councilors. The town attorney in his form is not an employee, is a contract employee, appointed for one year, as under state law.  Council sometimes calls counsel directly, but the next call is to him. He is appointed every year. Counsel attends city council meetings, as does Manager. The mayor is appointed by council, he is part time.  Manager currently has 12 departments and reports. He starts his day meeting with a department head every day.                     

He was asked about how his community managed the Hurricane. They are a JCPL community and were out of power for 2 weeks. They learned from Hurricane Irene, they immediately opened their OEM office with five lines, continuously monitored, they did many alert blasts, via various means, and the mayor came in to serve at OEM. Manager’s role was not that much as he has very good department heads, they do their work best when he steps aside and lets him do it. They have a disaster recovery plan. They did a good job getting information out, however, unfortunately, the only information people wanted to know was when their power was coming back on.

Mr. Smiley asked about his 12 year longevity, asked how much turnover has taken place on council during his tenure.  Answer was turnover of 5 of 7 councilors, however he has been appointed every year. The public and the council understand their form of government (Council-Manager promotes administrative efficiency). They do not make the papers, they have a well run community, reflected in their financial condition, and other aspects as well. Mrs. Davis asked about demographics in Roxbury. They are a young community, 22% school age, 5% non-caucasian.  They have great schools and recreation, they have met their COAH requirements, have three low income housing developments, about 700 units.

Mrs. Burgwinkle asked Mr. White to describe his community’s Sandy response. They have the South River that flooded. 7 houses on one street flooded and the residents cannot return, they plan to buy the houses and add the land to an adjoining park. They were told that they have the best circumstances for this type of solution, as all 7 houses were located together on one street.  They have an OEM coordinator part time, who has a radio communication job with the town. As soon as they realized that the storm was happening, they opened their OEM office, with 8 telephone lines, had a big white board keeping track of things. He was there, took calls, kept track of what services were available. Mayor decided that he would open the city gas station to citizens who needed it for generators. They could do this because they topped off every tank in the city as soon as they realized that the storm was coming so they had plenty of gas, and were doing less patrolling due to the storm.  Again, he has really good department heads who work best when he leaves them alone to work.

He added that he begs elected officials not to take calls from residents about street paving, for instance.  He wants council to refer citizens to him. He will check to see if the street is going to be paved, and he calls the resident if the street is not going to be paved, lets the elected official call if it is getting paved.  Mayor attends City Council meetings, as does the City Administrator.

Mr. Raths attends and prepares the agendas for City Council so that it is not politicized. He attends all budget meetings (held 13 this year, beginning in August, despite that everyone knows what the budget will be in Roxbury).

Mr. Raths addressed the Plainfield Youth Organization for Unity members and told them that it is so important for them to be there, that municipal government is the most effective place for them to be heard and participate. Unfortunately, many people lack understanding of their form of government and it is important for cities for people to have institutional knowledge about their municipalities.

Mr. White then addressed them, telling a story about the EB skateboard park that was locked and not operational. He had no intention of reopening it. Three students came to City Council and made an impassioned plea for reopening it. They did such a good job that the council agreed and he is preparing a plan for council. This was grassroots democracy at its best, and they should remember that.      

Mr. Smiley asked the speakers if they would take questions from the observers in attendance at the meeting and they readily agreed.

Mr. Dan Damon told Mr. Raths that in many interviews over the past few months, it had been suggested that Council-Manager works better in homogenous communities than in racially, ethnically,  economically, diverse communities. What does he think of that?  Mr. Raths said that outside NJ, there are thousands of Council-Manager forms in use in diverse communities. Montclair and Teaneck are Council-Manager forms in use in diverse NJ communities. He thinks that the form works anywhere.

Dan then asked both of the speakers what they think of a residency requirement as in Plainfield’s charter, especially in law enforcement.  Mr. White thinks that it is an archaic notion that people need to live in the community and that the best candidates for the jobs should be hired. The private sector does not do such things. He told us that fewer than 25% of his police live there, and they were voted the 5th safest community in the nation by Money Magazine. His community is Asian, Indian and Jewish by demographic.

Mrs. Davis commented that there are people who will work and make money in Plainfield, but will tell you that they will not live here, and she objects to that.

Mr. Raths said that you are taking yourself out of competition for the best candidates when you do that and for the rank and file he does not agree with residency requirements. Most of his Department Heads and 20% of Police do not live in town. Many Public Works employees live in town.  He also believes that the Manager should live in the community, there is a residency requirement that can be waived in his town, but he lives there. Wants to be a neighbor, be involved in the community.

Mr. Robert Edwards asked if they have a CERT team. CERT is citizen emergency response team. Mr. White was not familiar with that but described what his community has. Mr. Raths has a community with both CERT and medical emergency response teams.

Mr. Larry Bashe asked to put the residency requirement discussion into context. He reminded everyone how we got the Plainfield Charter (1968), the special charter, in the first place. We had the worst possible set of circumstances that a government can face, with people rioting in the streets. The conclusion then was that we needed to move away from a part time and decentralized government that did not respond to whole segments of the residents and to move to more professional management (there was no city administrator prior to the special charter).   Residency was important because we had a police department that was viewed by some as an occupying army that did not reflect the community.  They believed that that crime control is related to communications between the public and police and fire personnel.  Local residency was a priority, and they used certain techniques to hire residents to take the civil service positions to change the racial makeup of police force.  Mr. Bashe was City Administrator from 1974 to 1982, was the second City Administrator under the special charter and still lives in Plainfield. He hopes and believes that while we still have some crime issues, we have all moved on from the atmosphere of racial tension that existed then.

Mr. Dan Damon asked if East Brunswick’s emergency management plan was public. When he was public information officer, he pushed and lost the battle to have portions of an emergency management plan published on the website. Mr. White told us that it is not published or publicly available.

Ms. Nicole Billingsly of Plainfield Youth Organization for Unity asked how citizens go about changing their government and what would be the most beneficial form of government for Plainfield. Mr. Raths answered that our charter commission is going about studying our government to make a recommendation on a form of government. Mr. Raths further indicated that he and Mr. White agree that a good manager can run a community. In a council-manager form, you codify the manager as the chief executive of the municipality. Mr. White then pointed out that in Mayor-Council, there is overlap between duties of the administrator and the mayor, where it is clear cut who is in charge in Council-Manager. Mr. White has been lucky throughout his career, has worked with Mayors who appreciated having a manager to take care of things day to day. Ms. Burgwinkle pointed out to Nicole that the five commissioners were elected at the last general election, and that we are studying the charter and will make recommendations in August, they can go to our blog to see what we have been doing.  Ms. Criscione told them that she would like to get their input on the form for Plainfield.

Ms. Izaiah Thompson of Plainfield Youth Organization for Unity asked if the Mayor is elected under council manager. Mr. Raths indicated it can be done either way, elected by the public or appointed by council, but the mayor does not have much power either way. Mr. Thompson asked what is the point of having a mayor with no power.  Mr. Raths indicated that the Mayor runs the council meetings which is a big responsibility, and the mayor can be a consensus builder. Under  Council-Manager, the point is to shift running the community to the Manager.  Mr. Thompson further asked whether the manager really stays non-partisan or caters to the council that appointed him or her. He was told that the ICMA (the International City Managers Association) has a code of ethics that you must be non-partisan, you can be sanctioned for taking part in political events. You do not register for any political party.

 Mr. White addressed the students and told them that he has a 24 year old council member in his third year, that there is plenty of room for young people to get involved in elected politics. Ms. Criscione pointed out that former Councilor Annie McWilliams was elected to Council at age 23, and served as Council President very competently as a young person.

Ms. Isaac Wilkins of Plainfield Youth Organization for Unity asked if the council is elected by the citizens and the council is Democratic and if the mayor is Republican, is there bias in favor of the Democrats so that the Republican has no power. Mr. Raths said that under his form of government, he has never seen Democrats appoint a Republican mayor. He believes that usually both parties want the lowest taxes and other local goals. Mr. White also believes that political parties at the local level have little to do with the agenda in his community, both parties in generally share the same priorities for the community.

No further questions were posed, and the Commissioners thanked the Speakers for their attendance.




 



City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
Minutes of Meeting of Thursday, May 23, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall Library

Call to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Commissioners in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, amended notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 5/13/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Chair Rick Smiley, Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Treasurer Jeanette Criscione, Vice Chair John Stewart and Assistant Secretary Marie Davis were all present.

Minutes: The Minutes of Meeting of May 16, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Presentation by Dr. Ernest Reock: Dr. Reock is the retired director of the Rutgers Center for Government Services, and an acknowledged expert on New Jersey government. He appeared at the meeting to discuss the Faulkner Act in general, the forms of government available to Plainfield and to answer questions from the Commissioners. He was provided with a list of questions in advance that the Commissioners discussed at the 5/16 meeting. He told us that he had a presentation to make, and that many of our questions would be answered in the course of the presentation. A detailed summary of his comments is attached as Exhibit A.  A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.

Correspondence to Commission:  Ms. Burgwinkle has emailed letters to Mr. White and Mr. Raths who will speak at our 5/30 meeting about Faulkner Act forms.

Treasurer Report: Ms. Criscione reported that she spoke to the Star Ledger about a cost estimate for publishing our final report in the event we decide to do that (another municipality’s Charter Study Commission published its report in its official newspaper). In her initial conversation, the Star Ledger representative told her that it would cost 44 cents per line, and that we could get an estimate by sending a word document. Dr. Reock told us that that price was likely for legal notices. He suggested going right to the Editorial board at the paper to see if they will publish the Final Report as a public service.   
 
New Business:
-Discussion of agendas for the next several meetings: At the next meeting we will hear presentations from Mr. James White, Township Administrator of East Brunswick (Mayor-Council form) and Mr. Chris Raths, Town Manager of Roxbury (Council-Manager form), and the Commissioners will continue  

-Commissioner Working Meeting:  The Commissioners briefly discussed the pros and cons of the Faulkner Act forms that are available to Plainfield, with more discussion on this for later meetings.
Announce date and time of next meeting:  Thursday, 5/30/13 at 7:30 pm in City Hall Library 

Public Participation: Members of the public were allowed to participate during the meeting and no one requested to be heard at this juncture.   
 
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.


EXHIBIT A

Dr. Reock began his presentation by noting that the Commissioners had sent him a fairly extensive list of questions. He indicated that he intended to do a general presentation on the forms of government in New Jersey and how they originated and that many of the questions would be answered in the course of the presentation. He gave the Commissioners a one page hand out “Summary of Forms of New Jersey Municipal Government in use as of July 1, 2012”. A copy is attached to the end of Exhibit A and is also available on the Center for Government services website.

He began the substance of his presentation by telling us that if you look around the country, you can pretty much find three basic types of government forms. The oldest form involves citizens electing a group of their own citizens and residents who act as both the executive and legislative branch. This is the township form of government in New Jersey. Three or five citizens are elected to a committee and they act as legislature and set policy, and each gets responsibility for a department such as public works or welfare or finance, etc. and they run the township administration as well. A second form has an elected legislature and and elected executive. This mirrors the U.S. government and the state of New Jersey where we have a President/Governor and we have Congress/Legislature. One branch handles executive functions and the other legislates. The third form is unique to the municipal level. The citizens elect a legislature, and then they hire an administrator to act as chief executive.

In New Jersey, the structure of local government started in 1798 when the legislature passed a law creating 104 townships in New Jersey, covering the whole state. When it set up the townships, it set up the form of government that each would have. The law set up an annual town meeting, at which the citizens would set the agenda for the town for the year and elect a committee of citizens. That township form has persisted since then, with permutations and with the town meeting eliminated in 1896. Now, 141 Township governments in New Jersey still have elected groups that set the policy and supervise the departments of the town. However, the supervision part became too much work for part-time elected officials, and many have passed local ordinances creating township administrators, with the elected officials dealing only with the legislative aspects.

As we proceeded through the 19th century, the legislature began to create more municipalities. When the 104 townships were created, there were only three other municipalities in the state, a few places that had colonial charters as a borough or a city. Each of the new charters was unique, and set up the form for that community. Every time the legislature created a new municipality, they would give it a new form, and that is when we started to get the names borough, city, village. Each was based on a unique act of the legislature. That practice persisted up to the 1870s. After the Civil War, politics in New Jersey became vicious, and the legislature began creating more municipalities. The legislators realized that they had a lot of power to interfere with the government in local municipalities. For instance, they passed a law for Jersey City that abolished the government there, ousted all elected officials and replaced them with officials appointed by the legislature, so that the legislature was actually running these communities. This happened so often that there was a backlash and in 1875, there was an amendment to the state constitution that provided that the legislature could not pass separate laws for separate municipalities, that municipalities would be dealt with under the General Laws that govern everyone in New Jersey.

The legislature tried to comply with that amendment but it was cumbersome as towns had different needs, so they started to come up with laws that had classifications of municipalities, and the courts accepted that as compliant with the constitution.  Laws were passed that classified cities into classes, and defined towns and villages (Loch Arbor was the last to use the Village form, but the law is still on the books). If you looked at any borough in any county, they would have the same government and be governed by the same law, but that law was the law that governed the municipality forever, there was no ability to update or restructure the form of government.

 Around 1900, the idea developed that authority to restructure or reorganize should be given to the people who lived in the municipalities, and the idea of optional municipal charter laws came about. The first instance of it to hit New Jersey arose after a hurricane in Galveston, Texas in 1900. Six thousand people were killed and the city was almost wiped out. The Governor of Texas appointed a five person commission to run Galveston. An Army officer was put in charge of public safety, a local engineer in charge of public works, a local banker in charge of finance, for instance, and that commission took over reestablishing Galveston. It did such a good job that it became the reform movement of the time.

 In 1911, New Jersey passed the Walsh Act, which established the Commission form of government. The law said that if citizens did not like their current form they could petition to have the Commission form. The form has no central administration, it sets up 5 departments with a Commissioner in charge of each, really running the departments, doing appointments, hiring and firing. All of the big cities in New Jersey adopted this form except Paterson, and about 40 total municipalities took the form. It hit its peak in about 1948, but it was being criticized already because it did not contain a mechanism for bringing the five departments together to really run the city government.  Frequently, the Commissioners stopped talking to each other and went in separate directions. There are still 31 Commission forms in New Jersey, including some larger Hudson County municipalities. Recently, the Village of Loch Arbor (population under 200) adopted the Commission form in place of the Village form. This was the first adoption since 1950, but the form is still on the books. Most of the places using Commission form are small seashore communities with three commissioners.

The next optional form that hit New Jersey was the municipal manager form. In or about 1915, the view existed that government is big business and should be run like big business, by a board of directors (the Council) who hire a chief executive (the Municipal Manager). The Municipal Manager Law of 1923 was passed, but was never wildly popular (7 municipalities as of July 2012). It was much more popular in the midwest, west and south.  As originally written, the law provided that the Municipal Manager was hired by the Council, but got tenure after four years and could not be fired. That was the reason that the form lacked popularity.  The tenure provision has now been removed from the law. As a side note, Asbury Park has this form, and your compatriot Charter Study Commission is at work there right now. 

Thereafter in 1947, there was a New Jersey state constitutional convention that rewrote, extensively, the state constitution. They created a very strong chief executive, the Governor, where there had been a weak Governor with diffuse powers before. The form received great acceptance across the country and was widely recognized. It was viewed as a major step forward in state government. It was so popular that Governor Driscoll set up a commission to try to do the same thing for municipal government. It was called the Municipal Government Study Commission, and it was headed by former Mayor Faulkner of Montclair. They produced the Optional Municipal Charter Law of 1950 (Faulkner Act) that the state is operating under now. 

As originally enacted, it set up three forms: Mayor- Council (a strong executive mirror of the new state government at the time); Council-Manager (people elect council, council hires/fires the manager, has lots of power to run the city on a day to day basis, Council may only deal with Manager as a body, no interference with the municipal employees); Small Municipality form (hybrid of borough and town, pop.  must be 12,000 or under to adopt, too small for Plainfield).

Mayor-Council gives the Mayor a lot of authority, appoint Department Heads, veto power over ordinances. Mayor in Borough form has less power even though a quick read of the statute would seem to confer power (for instance, there are six councilors in Borough form, need four to pass ordinances and the same four to overrule the Mayoral veto, so veto amounts to delay only; appointments are made by the mayor with advice and consent of council, but if the council has not approved the appointment in 30 days, the appointment can be made by council).  Mayor-Council form mayor has strong powers of administration, draws up the budget.  Council can increase amount of budget items by 2/3 vote, can decrease by a majority. The form was meant to mirror the state government.  The largest number of people in New Jersey live under this form as compared to others, all of the big places have adopted it.

The disadvantages of Mayor-Council form are that you have a strong mayor and a council with checks on the Mayor, so the form sets up conflict between the two branches. Nonetheless, Dr. Reock only remembers two desertions from Mayor-Council (Oxford in Warren County and Mullica Township in Atlantic County, both small rural communities).  Other municipalities have stuck with it despite conflict. There are some variations that can be chosen. Can have 5, 7 or 9 Councilors, can have at large or wards, can have partisan or non-partisan. Also can have staggered terms or concurrent terms.

Council-Manager form provides for a strong manager appointed by Council. Council can also fire the Manager and give them a hearing or severance. In practice, most fired managers don’t want a hearing because the reasons for firing will be aired publicly.  This is mostly used by medium sized suburban communities, with few defections, 42 places using it.

In the 1970’s there was another study with a survey of what people thought of their forms of government. People in government seemed happiest with a borough form with an administrator added by ordinance. So, the Mayor-Council-Administrator form was added to the OMCL in the 1980’s.  It was adopted by North Brunswick, and then by West Milford and Berkeley Heights. Under the form, the municipality must have an administrator, must have a 6 person counsel and must have partisan elections. The Mayor presides over the Council, but only votes to break ties. This was an attempt to neutralize the conflict that occurs in the Mayor-Council form, where Mayors frequently don’t even attend council meetings.

[At this juncture, Dr. Reock began to address the questions that the Commissioners had provided in advance. The questions will be placed in brackets above his answers.]
 [1. Who is Faulkner, and what is the Faulkner Act? What were the circumstances in NJ that caused the Faulkner Act to be enacted?]
Regarding the questions that you sent to me, I have answered who is Faulkner and what is the Faulkner Act, we have covered that earlier tonight.
[2. How many municipalities existed in New Jersey when the Faulkner Act was enacted?]
You asked how many municipalities existed in 1950 when the Faulkner Act was passed and there were 567. We really have not created any new municipalities since 1950. Some have changed names, but few created, Loch Arbor was created in the 1950s as a Village, that was the last created. 
[3. It appears to us that about 25% of the municipalities in NJ have adopted Faulkner Act forms. Did those municipalities change to Faulkner Act forms from their historic forms, or were they predominantly new municipalities? How many Charter Commissions have resulted in changes to Faulkner Act forms?]
Regarding the question how many of the 25% of municipalities in New Jersey that have Faulkner Act forms of government changed from their historic form, the answer is all of them. None were created to use Faulkner Act form. Regarding your question how many Charter Study Commissions resulted in changes to the form of government, 60% of Charter Study Commission reports have been successful and a little bit less for direct petitions, which is another method of changing forms of government.
[4.Have many municipalities that adopted Faulkner Act forms decided to abandon them that you know of? Reasons?]
 Dr. Reock only knows of two municipalities that have abandoned Faulkner Act forms (Oxford and Mullica Township), but Parsippany-Troy Hills and Old Bridge have shifted between forms. The usual change is from Council-Manager and to Mayor-Council.
[5. What Faulkner Act forms are available to Plainfield?]
Regarding your question which Faulkner Act forms are available to Plainfield, the Mayor-Council, Council-Manager and Mayor-Council Administrator forms are available such that the Commission has the power to place them on the ballot for consideration. You could recommend on an advisory basis only the Commission form or the 1923 Municipal Manager form, but you do not have the power to put those on the ballot unless a petition was circulated.
[6. What are the advantages of Faulkner Act forms as compared to Special Charter or other forms?] Regarding your question about the advantages of a Faulkner Act form as compared to one of the others or a special charter, I have not dealt with special charter, but it is available. After that 1875 Constitutional Amendment that prevented the legislature from enacting special charters for municipalities, there was thought that the legislature should not be able to impose a special act, unless the municipality asks for a special charter. If a municipality wants a special charter, a 2/3 vote of each house of the legislature is required, and when the legislature sends the special charter back, it can require either that the voters approve the charter or that the charter be approved by ordinance.  So, one advantage of Faulkner Act form is that it is easier for you, you can put a Faulkner Act form on the ballot. For a special charter, the Commission must draft it, the existing governing body must ask the legislature to pass it, then you must find a legislator to shepherd it through, and that is the only way to get something through the legislature. Also, there is in existence a body of case law that has developed over the OMCL that can be helpful when interpreting provisions.
[7. Is there any conventional wisdom or empirical evidence that some Faulkner Act forms are better for cities with diverse populations than other forms?]
Regarding the best form for places with diverse populations, I don’t know anything definitive, but the impression is that Mayor-Council is the best form for diverse communities that want strong political leaders. Council-Manager form does not foster the growth of strong political leadership in the community. The Council must deal with the manager in a group, cannot do it alone, so there is less opportunity to strive for political leadership. The footnote to that is that under the Council-Manager form as originally drafted, the council would choose a mayor with little power other than to preside over meetings. There was the feeling that people wanted to elect their mayor, and so the statute was amended with that as an option. It does not, however, give the mayor any more power, just the prestige of being elected. Dr. Reock’s community, South Brunswick, made that choice. The general thought is that Council-Manager is better for more homogeneous places where people value administrative efficiency over political leadership, which is prized in the Mayor-Council form.  It can go wrong in either form depending upon who is elected.
[8. If our Commission votes to recommend a Faulkner Act form, what is the process that needs to be followed after we file our report with the City Clerk? (Important to us that we and our constituents understand this, including the need for new elections where everyone runs.)]
After your final report is filed with the City Clerk, the Commission must develop a plan to print and get enough copies to distribute and publicize it; you must explain what you are recommending and why. The Commission must distribute the whole report, not an executive summary. You must then “sell” the report to your community. You must avoid using public funds and public places during the process of advocating for your recommendations after the report is submitted. Printing your report can be funded by your City Budget Request, but after that, you cannot campaign for the recommendation using public money or public places. He has never seen a Commission get in trouble for advocating, only for using public money to advocate. (Ms. Burgwinkle mentioned that Charter Commissions can become campaign committees and need to set up ELEC reporting if they plan to raise money to publicize.) If the Commission recommends a special charter as compared to a Faulkner Act form, you need to have the City Council send the package to the legislature, and you need to have lined up a legislator to work with you.  There is a lot more work involved in recommending a special charter, and the Commissioners remain as elected officials until the whole process is complete, can be another year or more. He believes that if a special charter was sent to the legislature, and the legislature had not acted by the end of that session, that the Commission would be discharged at that point.

 Mr. Stewart posed a hypothetical question, asking if the Commission would still have to go through this process if we wanted to recommend one or two changes to our special charter. Dr. Reock responded that we would still need a legislator to introduce a bill for us and go through the legislature for any changes.  He suggested that if the Commission is thinking that it will go with Special Charter, we should line up a meeting with the Office of Legislative Services to discuss the process.   Mr. Smiley asked if any legislator could introduce the bill and Dr. Reock responded that any legislator could do it, but that one of our legislators would be the best choice.  Ms. Burgwinkle asked if we had a local legislator working with us, would other legislators from other parts of the state be inclined to vote yes rather than no. Dr. Reock said that we would need to do a selling job, but that they probably would go along with a local legislator.

Mr. Smiley asked if in the two cities that changed their charters to Faulkner Act forms, did they have to have all of their elected officials re-elected? Dr. Reock indicated that he would have to check the revision procedure, but that was likely. Ms. Burgwinkle asked the hypothetical question whether all elected officials would need to run again at the next election if the Commission recommended adopting the Mayor-Council form and it passed in a referendum. Dr. Reock said that all elected officials (mayor and council) would have to run again and some of them would have their terms shortened in that election. He said that our ordinances would continue, but we would also need to have a new Administrative Code drafted within 90 days. He said to think of the Charter as a skeleton and the Administrative Code as the meat on the bones, dealing with our department structure and other topics.  Mrs. Davis said that she recalled a referendum when the City went from an appointed to elected school board, and Dr. Reock emphasized that Board of Education would be governed by Title 18, that adoption of a Faulkner Act form would not change that, and that all of the General Laws of New Jersey would continue to apply to many different aspects of municipal activities as they do now. All the Charter does is deal with the structure of the government and tell people what powers they have to do things within the government. That is just the beginning, all of the General Laws that apply to Education, Health, Planning and Zoning, etc., still apply to the municipal activities. 

Ms. Criscione asked Dr. Reock to explain again when does a charter change have to go to the legislature or when is it a referendum. Dr. Reock answered that if we want something other than a pre-packaged OMCL form, you have to go to the legislature.

Mr. Smiley asked Dr. Reock if he would take questions from our observers at the meeting and he agreed.

Mr. Rowand Clark (former Corporation Counsel) asked what the relationship was between the Mayor-Council form and partisan or non-partisan elections. Dr. Reock said that partisan or non-partisan is an option, and the charter commission would need to select the options and put them into one package for the referendum.

Mr. Clark also indicated that as far as concurrent elections go, he counted 47 non-partisan, concurrent election municipalities on the Rutgers CGS website. He asked Dr. Reock whether he had an opinion how well this scenario works. Dr. Reock said that he did not know how well this works, but he observed that more places go for staggered terms. It is likely that most of the 47 municipalities that have non-partisan and concurrent elections are Commission forms of government because those are the only options in that form. The Commission and the 1923 Municipal Manager Act is not like OMCL forms, there are no available options. OMCL forms have options, and the Commission could choose and build a form, put them in a package and that would go to the voters.

Mr. Robert Edwards asked Dr. Reock to clarify for him whether a special charter can be amended.  Dr. Reock said that it can, but through the legislature. Dr. Reock also told him that a special charter amendment or initiation can come from the governing body and go to the legislature, it does not have to be through a Charter Commission. It can also be initiated by a petition of the voters.

Ms. Burgwinkle asked how much it would cost to adopt a Faulkner Act form, for instance the election would be larger, there would be the need to get an Administrative Code drafted.  Dr. Reock said that most Commissions fit into the general election cycle, so no need for a special election, but an Administrative Code can be costly to draft.  He said that some Charter Commissions include as an advisory recommendation that they will volunteer to be a study committee for the administrative code that needs to be drafted, that was done in South Brunswick. Must look at all the general laws and make recommendations on the policy that should go into the administrative code. It is expensive to draft and to keep up an administrative code.

Ms. Criscione asked mentioned that in our examination of the Faulkner Act forms, we did not see anything about requirements for running for office, while there are requirements in our charter (mayoral candidate must have been a resident and a registered voter for four years).  Dr. Reock observed that there may be provisions in the Faulkner Act about what would disqualify a candidate for office, there are no qualifications because that is covered by the General Election Law. He suggested that we really don’t need to put things in the charter that are covered by the General Law.  Mr. Rowand Clark (former Corporation Counsel who was an observer at the meeting) told us that Mr. Bob Ferraro litigated the provisions in our charter regarding qualifications to run for mayor (legal voter and resident for 4 years) in or about 1989.He had lived in Plainfield for many years, but had not been a registered voter for the required time. The court held that state General Law controlled and he got to run for mayor.  He told us that he believed that a four year residency and registered voter qualification was put into the charter by the party that controlled Plainfield at the time of the enactment of the charter so that they could have a better chance of maintaining controlling the mayoral position for at least four years, as many minority residents were not registered to vote at that time.  A discussion ensued about the number of provisions in the Plainfield Charter (1968) that are actually outdated and controlled by other general law, how confusing that is for citizens and how having provisions that cannot be enforced can expose the city to potential suits. 

The Commissioners thanked Dr. Reock and he agreed to come back to meet with us again.


City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
 Minutes
Minutes of Meeting of Thursday, May 16, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall Planning Conference RoomCall to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:42 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Commissioners recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 5/13/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Chair Rick Smiley, Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Treasurer Jeanette Criscione and Vice Chair John Stewart were all present.  Mrs. Davis was excused.

Minutes: The Minutes of Meeting of May 9, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Correspondence to Commission:  Ms. Burgwinkle has emailed Dr. Reock who will speak at our 5/23 meeting about Faulkner Act forms. She will also contact Councilor Brown and former Councilor Simmons about scheduling a subcommittee meeting for their interviews.

Treasurer Report: Ms. Criscione reported that she spoke to the Star Ledger about a cost estimate for publishing our final report in the event we decide to do that (another municipality’s Charter Study Commission published its report in its official newspaper). In her initial conversation, the Star Ledger representative told her that it would cost 44 cents per line, and that we could get an estimate by sending a word document. This seems like an expensive option, and the Commissioners will compare this with other options prior to finally deciding how to distribute the report.   
 
New Business:

-Discussion of agendas for the next several meetings
The Commissioners discussed questions to send to Dr. Reock in advance of his presentation on May 23rd.  A list of questions was developed that Ms. Burgwinkle will email to Dr. Reock. The Commissioners looked at the inventory of forms of government used by New Jersey municipalities from the Rutgers Center for Government Services website and learned that approximately  133 of the 566 municipalities in New Jersey have one of the four Faulkner Act forms, which are Mayor-Council, Council-Manager, Mayor-Council-Administrator and Small Municipality (that form not available to Plainfield). The Plainfield Charter (1968) appears to have been drafted using many of the provisions of the Mayor-Council form, with a number of custom drafted provisions that appear to have been the result of negotiation. Currently, 71 municipalities use the Mayor-Council form, including Newark, Elizabeth and New Brunswick, which has similar population and population density as Plainfield, with many other differences. New Brunswick is the county seat, has the State University and the headquarters of Johnson and Johnson. The Commissioners could not readily identify a community that is very similar to Plainfield, in that Plainfield is landlocked (no major highways), has no major industry and a high population density at 8,270 people per square mile. The Commissioners will ask Dr. Reock to explain the advantages and disadvantages of using a Faulkner Act form and whether there is any data on which forms work best with which types of municipality.  

-Commissioner Working Meeting
The Commissioners continued the review of the Plainfield Charter (1968) provisions that they started at the 5/2 meeting. At that meeting the Commissioners were reviewing the Charter provisions line by line, and sharing their thoughts on each provision. That meeting, and this 5/16 meeting, were working meetings, in preparation for future deliberations and no votes were taken. In addition to examining the Plainfield Charter (1968) provision by provision, the Commissioners were given a hypothetical charter prepared by organizing the Faulkner Act Mayor-Council provisions into five articles, with some provisions amended to fit our city’s purposes. One of our interviewees had suggested drafting an amended special charter, if we were considering that option, by adopting the Faulkner Act form provisions, with some customized for our purposes. The rationale was that it would be easier and we would get updated provisions from the Act, rather than needing to update and amend many provisions of our charter. During the discussion at this meeting, the Commissioners examined the provisions in both.  The discussion of Departments in Article IV that was started on 5/2 resumed at this meeting. The provisions of the charter dealing with Departments are custom provisions that vary from the Faulkner Act Mayor-Council form in that the departments are specifically named and limited to three. Under the Faulkner Act, a Mayor-Council municipality can have between 2 and 9 departments (one of which must be the City Administrator), established by the Council via ordinance. Many of our interviewees suggested amending the Departments provision. There was a far reaching discussion regarding the possibility of a change that would make the provision more flexible for the future. The Commissioners went on to discuss the Budget and Control provisions in Article V. Several interviewees had opined that our budget process is completed so late into the year that proactive planning is not really possible. One suggested that the budget could be substantially done by the beginning of the fiscal year, for planning purposes, and then amended after the books are closed. The Commissioners compared the budget language in our charter and in the Faulkner Act. Regarding the Initiative, Referendum and Recall provisions of Article VI of the charter, they are almost verbatim versions of those provisions in the Faulkner Act. The most important distinction between the two sets of provisions is that the threshold number of voter signatures necessary for action is much higher in our charter. The Commissioners discussed the possibility of suggesting changes. Regarding the General provisions of Article VII, a number appear to be obsolete in that either case law or other state or federal law has changed since 1968. The Commissioners will do follow up work to confirm which provisions are antiquated or superseded by other law.
All of the Commissioners will review both forms of the charter on their own between meetings to form their opinions on possible changes to our charter.      

Announce date and time of next meeting:  Thursday, 5/23/13 at 7:30 pm in City Hall Library 

Public Participation: Mr. Robert Edwards asked the Commissioners what the follow-up activity would take place after the final report was submitted.  He was advised that if the Commissioners decided to recommend a Faulkner Act form, that they would ask the City Clerk to place the question of adoption on the ballot, and they would then campaign for adoption of the new charter. If the Commissioners recommend amending our special charter, they would ask City Council to send the requested changes to the legislature.   
 
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 10:07 p.m. 


City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
 Minutes
Minutes of Meeting of Thursday, May 9, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall LibraryCall to Order: Mr. Stewart called the meeting to order at 7:33 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 4/25/13, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Stewart took roll call. Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Treasurer Jeanette Criscione, Assistant Secretary Marie Davis and Vice Chair John Stewart were all present.  Chair Rick Smiley was excused.

Minutes: The Minutes of Meeting of May 2, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Interviews: Live interviews were conducted of Mr. William Reid (City Council, Ward 1) and Mrs. Vera Greaves (City Council, Wards 1 and 4). Attached as Exhibit A are the interview questions and a brief summary of the remarks of Mr. Reid and Mrs. Greaves.  

Correspondence to Commission:  Ms. Burgwinkle indicated that there was ongoing correspondence with representatives from other communities with Faulkner Act forms of government about attendance at our 5/23 and 5/30 meetings. Dr. Reock will speak at our 5/23 meeting, about Faulkner Act forms. Mr. James White, Township Administrator from East Brunswick (Faulkner Act Mayor-Council) and Mr. Chris Raths, Township Manager from Roxbury, NJ (Faulkner Act Council-Manager) who was referred by the Municipal Managers Association, will be our expert speakers on Faulkner Act forms. Also, Councilor Tracey Brown had a conflict for the 5/9 meeting and needs to be rescheduled and we are in the process of scheduling the interview of Mr. Elliot Simmons, former City Council, Ward 4. We are running out of regular meeting dates, so Ms. Burgwinkle and Mrs. Davis will interview Ms. Brown and Mr. Simmons in a subcommittee meeting to be scheduled and it will be noticed on the CSC blog.

Treasurer Report: Ms. Criscione reported that the City Clerk has given her a contact regarding publishing public notices and she will report at an upcoming meeting about a cost estimate for publishing our final report in the Courier and Star Ledger in the event we decide to do that.  
 
New Business:
-Discussion of agendas for the next several meetings, and possibly adding a meeting on 5/16/13.
Ms. Burgwinkle referred to the previous discussion of meeting dates through 5/30 and proposed that CSC add a meeting on 5/16 to continue the line by line discussion of the Plainfield Charter (1968) in the second floor Planning Conference Room. A motion to add the meeting passed with no discussion, abstentions or dissent. Ms. Burgwinkle will contact the City Clerk on 5/10 to give notice of the meeting.
-Commissioner Working Meeting, time permitting.
In view of the vote to add a meeting, the working meeting was deferred to 5/16.   

Announce date and time of next meeting:  Thursday, 5/16/13 at 7:30 pm in City Hall Planning Conference Room. 

Public Participation: No members of the public requested to be heard (observers were allowed to ask questions during the interviews).

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m.


Exhibit A
Following are interview questions and a brief summary of Mr. Reid’s and Mrs. Greaves’ comments.
1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government.
Mr. Reid: Mr. Reid described his extensive experience in the private and public sectors in Newark, Orange, Asbury Park and Plainfield, with an emphasis on Housing Authority expertise. He has been Treasurer under ELEC for many Plainfield Candidates over the years, and for Democratic City Committee. He has served on PMUA as commissioner, as City Councilor from Ward 1, as Chair of Plainfield Redevelopment Authority under Rick Taylor. Is currently City Councilor from Ward 1 and is on the Planning Board.
Mrs. Greaves: My name is Vera Greaves, was appointed in 2/2011 to an unexpired term on City Council, was elected in the 2011 general election to the Wards 1 - 4 seat on City Council.
2. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?
Mr. Reid: Yes
Mrs. Greaves: yes
3.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?
Mr. Reid: the advantages are the two bodies, the administration for policy and council with a role of oversight,  and we have professional management (City Administrator) for money matters. Disadvantage is that there is no way to handle the differences of opinion and political differences (used WBLS matter as an example), but he is not sure that anything in the charter could handle this in any event. 
Mrs. Greaves: Disadvantage is that since the state legislature enacted it, the counsel cannot amend it, only the state legislature can amend it.
4. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?
Mr. Reid:No
Mrs. Greaves: No
5. If your answer to Question 8 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?
Mr. Reid: N/A
Mrs. Greaves: N/A
6. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?
Mr. Reid: Has worked for Newark, Orange, Asbury Park and Plainfield. All of the them were the same, it is the people, really. If you have good people, you have good government.
Mrs. Greaves: No other experience.
7.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?
Mr. Reid: Number of 7 is a good number, should not be less. Should be one from each ward, he likes the 1-4, 2-3 because the 1-4 councilor helps out a lot in his ward. Does not agree with all elected at large.
Mrs. Greaves: She believes that is should stay the way that it is, does not see a reason to change it.
8. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?
Mr. Reid: He has suggested raising the city council salary from $9,000 to $15,000 and the president and the committee chair should get an extra $1,000. City Council is a job and they work, going to City Council and other meetings (he is on Planning Board, for instance. He runs into people at the grocery store and the gas station, and listens to their issues, and he contacts City Departments to look into issues in his ward. Council should be paid for that work and get benefits if they choose to. He, however, would refuse benefits such as cell phone and car. Believes that those types of benefits are the first things that people attack when they try to derail you.
Mrs. Greaves: The City Council should be compensated and receive benefits.
9. in your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, is appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?
Mr. Reid: Should stay the same, Mayor appoints and City Counsel reviews. Also, we are fortunate in Plainfield, only two City Clerks over many years; issue does not come up often.
Mrs. Greaves: I believe that the City Council should appoint the City Clerk.
10.  Do you think that the Plainfield City Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council? 
Mr. Reid: No, does not think that the City Charter has anything to do with the working relationship, should not tamper with the charter for political reasons. We need people with many different thoughts and ideas who can work with people and take care of the entire city, charter cannot improve that relationship.
Mrs. Greaves:  No, we are all different people with different personalities and the Charter cannot dictate how we relate to one another.
11. the Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.  
(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?
(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?
(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?
Mr. Reid: If everyone does their jobs for the good of the city, no need to tamper with assignment of divisions. He does believe that Urban Development should be part of Public Works. We should separate and try to get a development department so that we can try to take advantage of the kind of development that is going on in the little cities around us such as Cranford and Garwood. Regarding the Department of Public Affairs, the mayor should be a boss; he has worked for Mayors who were bosses. They have to set their policies and make sure that the police are doing their work in a strong way. He thinks that the operation that we have now works for us. 
Mrs. Greaves: Mrs. Greaves did not wish to answer this question.
12.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?
Mr. Reid: Lawyers must explain the law as it is, or risk their license. City Council did get into some arguments over this, and people see that office as a political and partisan office.  It is true that the lawyer can be fired, but if you are not doing your job correctly, you should get fired.  If you get a lawyer who understands his role, he can represent both.  He is representing the City, not the Council or the Mayor. We spend a lot of money on extra lawyers.  If we could get around some of this by having Corporation Counsel who is not political and doing the job, would be better.  We can handle the need for attorneys for Council by hiring counsel in situations where there is a conflict. He believes that we should have corporation counsel full time, because City has challenges every day. Corporate Council should sign off on expenditures and contracts in excess of the threshold, and should understand municipalities and the office he holds.
Mrs. Greaves: There should be full time in house counsel, and separate attorney for the City Council.
13. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?
Mr. Reid: He does not recall any referendum or recall activity, so leave it the way it is.
Mrs. Greaves: Should not be less than 25%, should be more if anything.
14. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies?
Mr. Reid: He does not think that we need more wards, does not think that it would improve representation, all city councilors work hard now. 
Mrs. Greaves: She thinks that the set up is fine the way that it is.
15. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections?
Mr. Reid: Everywhere he has worked, it is the same whether partisan or non-partisan elections. In the quest for power, everyone will get involved in the elections. Everyone is partisan personally and elections are partisan, regardless.
Mrs. Greaves:   Stay the way it is, non-partisan would cost the City more and not be better.
16. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?
Mr. Reid: They work together, does not remember a question coming up.
Mrs. Greaves: They have to work together for Council to get work done.
17. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?
Mr. Reid: Just the department change that I mentioned early.  We also ran into a problem whether we could fine someone as provided in the Charter, but were told that we could not legally do that, need to resolve that.
Mrs. Greaves: The main thing is that people have to work together, if we decide to bicker among ourselves and not get anything done, there is not a thing that the Charter can do about it. We have to learn how to get along and how to agree to disagree pleasantly.
18. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?
Mr. Reid: It is a nice, compact, simply written document. Was surprised how small it was when I first saw it. No other comments.
Mrs. Greaves: If it is not broken, don’t fix it.
 






City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Charter Study Commission
 Minutes of Meeting
 Thursday, May 2, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall Planning Conference Room, Second FloorCall to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:33 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Treasurer Jeanette Criscione, Assistant Secretary Marie Davis, Chair Rick Smiley and Vice Chair John Stewart were all present.

Minutes: The Minutes of Meeting of April 25, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Correspondence to Commission:  Ms. Burgwinkle indicated that there is ongoing correspondence with representatives from other communities about coming to meetings but she will not discuss it at length so that we save time for the planned work session.

Treasurer Report: Ms. Criscione is waiting to hear from the City Clerk about his contacts at the newspapers when publishing meeting notices.
 
New Business:
-Discussion of agendas for the next several meetings.
Ms. Burgwinkle noted that Councilwoman Brown, Councilwoman Greaves and Councilman Reid have been invited for 5/9, have not responded as of 5/2. Ms. Burgwinkle will follow up. Also, some city officials who are candidates will be interviewed in June, after the primary. At the 5/23 and 5/30 meetings, we will be discussing Faulkner Act forms of government.  Dr. Reock will join us on 5/23 and Mr. White, the business manager of East Brunswick, a Mayor-Council Faulkner form most similar to Plainfield’s form, will join us on 5/30. We are in discussions with representatives of two other municipalities for interviews on those dates. We may consider going to two other communities in subcommittee to get more information on other forms.  Meanwhile, the current (5/2) meeting will be devoted to reviewing Plainfield Charter (1968) provision by provision, comparing it to the Faulkner Act Mayor Council form and evaluating it for antiquated or provisions superseded by general law.
 
-Commissioner Working Meeting
The Commissioner were asked to bring to this meeting their copies of the Plainfield Charter (1968), the Faulkner Act that Dr. Reock gave to each of us at the organizational meeting, and the reports of the Hopewell Charter Commission of 2005 and the South Orange Charter Review Committee of 2011.
 
Mr. Smiley asked why South Orange’s report was included in this meeting. Ms. Burgwinkle acknowledged that the South Orange special charter form of government is dissimilar to Plainfield’s, however, that special charter was adopted in the 1970’s and its form and general provisions are similar to Plainfield’s.  The South Orange Committee reviewed its charter for antiquated and outdated sections now covered by general law, and Ms. Burgwinkle thought that it would be useful to check our own assessment of those provisions against theirs. In addition, the method that the committee used to record and report on its votes was a useful form to consider.
 
Ms. Burgwinkle also indicated that Hopewell is dissimilar in form to Plainfield, but their Commission’s report contained a concise and helpful summary of the features of the 3 Faulkner Act forms that would be available to Plainfield. Reading their lists of features may give each Commissioner a perspective on each of the forms prior to going to the statute, which can be difficult to read without context.  Also, Hopewell’s Commission made several advisory recommendations in their report, that did not rise to the level of charter provisions, but were suggestions about the management of the town. In addition to delivering its charter recommendations, this Commission should develop a list of advisory recommendations for the Mayor, Governing Body and City Administrator, based on the many issues that were raised to us in numerous interviews and our own observations.
 
Ms. Criscione offered that in reading the Faulkner Act statutes, all of the forms did not seem distinct from each other. A discussion ensued about the three Faulkner forms available to Plainfield. The Faulkner Act Mayor-Council-Administrator form has been described as the “Faulknerized” Borough form, and has only been chosen by 3 New Jersey municipalities since its adoption in 1981 (North Brunswick, West Milford and Berkely Heights.)
The Mayor-Council form is similar to Plainfield’s form under the Special Charter, with some notable differences in appointment of certain offices, in departmental organization, and in distribution of City Council (a four ward municipality can have 7 councilors, one from each ward and three truly at large), among other things.
 
The Council-Manager form is widely used in New Jersey and elsewhere, and features an elected council (charter can designate all at large, or wards and at large), a mayor selected by the council from its ranks (or elected by the citizens, with one at large council seat being designated as mayor in the election), and a “CEO” who is the City Manager.  The conventional wisdom on this form appears to be that it works best in municipalities that are heterogeneous and with few chronic problems. Former City Administrator Norton Bonaparte is the City Manager of Sanford, Florida. He was interviewed by Ms. Burgwinkle and Mr. Smiley in a subcommittee interview on April 30th to accommodate his schedule. He was very enthusiastic about Council-Manager form. He told us that the City is a corporation, the City Manager is the CEO, and the Council is the elected Board of Directors, dealing with policy and community relations, with a mayor generally selected by the councilors from their ranks. When questioned about his prior Council-Manager position in Willingboro, NJ, he told us that people moving to Willingboro from cities were dismayed to learn that they did not have “their” City Council member (all at large in Willingboro), and that they did not elect their mayor. He told a story about a frustrated mayor, speaking to citizens, telling them that he had no power to do anything, that they needed to talk to the City Manager.
 
The Commissioners then turned to the main task of the evening. They worked on a line by line discussion of the Plainfield Charter (1968), cross referencing each Charter provision with the Faulkner Act Mayor-Council form provision which was most similar to it, so that the Commissioners could compare the Faulkner approach to the approach taken by the drafters of the Charter. The Commissioners also cross referenced the work of the South Orange Charter Review Committee for language that they drafted to replace antiquated and superseded charter provisions, and for approaches that they took for our Commissioners to consider.  Over the course of the next two hours, the Commissioners went through the first four articles of the Plainfield Charter (1968), identifying items that need to be updated (Gender Neutral, antiquated or superseded provisions, for instance), and comparing the applicable Faulkner Act provisions. There was a spirited discussion about departments when comparing the Faulkner approach to the Plainfield Charter (1968) approach, that will be continued. This was a working session, not a deliberative session and no votes were taken. At the next meeting, this discussion will continue after interviews have concluded.  Ms. Burgwinkle offered that she will be working on reviewing the Plainfield Charter (1968) during the upcoming week, and invited individual commissioners to meet as a subcommittee of two with her to discuss Faulkner or Plainfield Charter (1968) issues.       

Announce date and time of next meeting:  Thursday, 5/9/13 at 7:30 pm in City Hall Library. 

Public Participation: No members of the public requested to be heard (observers were allowed to ask questions during the interviews).

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 10:05 p.m.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.



On April 30, 2013, a subcommittee of the Plainfield Charter Study Commission conducted a telephone interview of Mr. Norton Bonaparte, former City Administrator of Plainfield and present City Manager of Sanford, Florida. The interview was conducted in City Hall Library at 6:00 p.m. by Rick Smiley, Chair and Mary Burgwinkle, Secretary. The interview was recorded and the following is a summary of the interview.1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government.
I served as City Administrator under Mayor McWilliams until his term ended. Currently City Manager of Sanford, Florida.
2. To whom do you or did you report?
Mayor Mc Williams and the City Council
3. How frequently do you or did you meet with members of the governing body?
Was at each meeting of City Council, was at table at work sessions and at formal meetings. I met with the Mayor when he was in his office sporadically, and met with Councilors when they wanted to come over and talk.
4. If you are or were involved in budgeting for your department or division, describe the budget process.
He does not remember the budget process, worked with Finance Director, Ron West on that.  Knows that in NJ, after the budget is approved by the City Council it goes to Department of Community Affairs for their blessing, but does not remember process specifics.
5. Do you or did you have any contact with your counterparts in other municipalities? How often and in what context? 
New Jersey Municipal Managers Association, an affiliate of International Municipal Managers Association, met on a monthly basis, was president of the Association when he left Plainfield. Good opportunity to meet other managers from Union County and around the state.
6. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?
Not recently.
7.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?
Can’t speak to disadvantages, having the City Administrator position is very good, perhaps the City would consider going to a City Manager, the difference being that a Manager is appointed by both the Council and the Mayor so reports to both. In Plainfield, the City Administrator was appointed by and associated with the Mayor.
8. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?
No
9. If your answer to Question 8 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?
n/a
10. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?
That relates to my prior comment. The strictest form of Council Manager has a manager that is appointed by the Mayor and City Council and reports to both. Up to the citizens and elected body which they like best. His preference is that he finds that Council Manager, where Manager is selected by the City Council and Mayor, that the Manager is more responsible to everyone, and not just a partisan to the Mayor, and not just the interests of the person who appointed him.
11.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?
He has worked in Cities where all councilors are elected at large, he thinks that at large was good as there was a perception that all were acting for everyone in the community. He has also worked where councilors were elected by district, and that is good for the perception that everyone has a councilor of their own. He thinks that 4 districts and 7 councilors is good for Plainfield with the mix of at large and districts that we have.
12. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?
City Councilors  serve out of a sense of loyalty, but I think that there should be reasonable compensation, he recalls between five and ten thousand in NJ when he was there. $1 is not reasonable, there should be a stipend that certainly does not compensate them for the hours they put in but helps to defray the cost of working for your constituents. Looks cleaner to him if they get compensation and not benefits, but could do it so that some can purchase health insurance with the compensation if they need it. He believes that the challenge is giving something that makes well qualified people willing to serve, but not so much that people want the job just for the compensation and benefits.
13. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?
Similar to the City manager and cleaner line of responsibility if appointed by both council and mayor.  Otherwise risk that person feeling allegiance to one person and not the entire governing body
14.  Do you think that the Special Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council? 
He has worked for a number of cities and regardless of what is written, the dynamics between an elected official, the mayor and the council will depend on who the mayor and councilors are.
15. The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.  
(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?
(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?
(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?
He thinks that the Department of Administration and Finance is way too big, would do well to consider separating some of the divisions in that department. Thinks that three departments for a city the size of Plainfield is too few. Public Works is fine, Public Safety with Police and Fire reporting to one person is unusual, used to Police Department and Fire Department, not divisions. He thinks that there is some value, but he saw the Director doing admin and personnel and he thinks that there is an argument that Police and Fire heads shoudl be directly working on budget and admin with the City Administrator.  Thnks 6 departments would be fine. having the police chief and fire chief report directly to City Administrator would be fine, no need for Director of Public Affairs and Safety.  In general, it is not unusual to have 6 to 8 reports to the City Administrator. 
16.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?
Having a person to facilitate assigning work out and being corporate counsel is good, must realize that a generalist will not be able to handle everything that comes in such as environmental litigation, for instance. I think that the Corporation Counsel should be appointed by both Mayor and City Council, because the office will be seen as more aligned with the Mayor if the Mayor appoints, and then the Council will want its own representation. 
17. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?
Citizens should decide that, in a referendum.
18. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies?
Four wards for the demographic and the way that Plainfield is laid out, 4 is fine. should the citizens want more, that should be a ballot question for them.
19. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections?
I do not think that there is a Democratic or Republican way to do trash collection or fix potholes so favor non-partisan, but recognize that some people want parties.
20. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?
Does not recall.
21. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?
Look at City Government as a corporation where the City Council is the elected Board of Directors, who hire someone to run the city on a day to day basis. Suggestion that City Manager, Clerk and Corp Counsel, be selected by both Mayor and Council, so that they are not seen as favoring one or the other or representing everyone.
22. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?
When he worked in Plainfield, he had a competent staff and thought that the City had many successful operations going. He enjoyed working for the ‘Queen City’.

 




City of Plainfield, New JerseyCharter Study Commission 
Minutes
Minutes of Meeting of Thursday, April 25, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Plainfield City Hall Library

Call to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 12/26/12, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Treasurer Jeanette Criscione, Assistant Secretary Marie Davis, Chair Rick Smiley and Vice Chair John Stewart were all present.

Minutes: The Minutes of Meeting of April 11, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Interviews: Live interviews were conducted of Mr. Martin Hellwig (Director of the Division of Police and Director of the Department of Public Affairs and Safety), Ms. Rebecca Williams (City Council Wards 2-3) and Mr. Cory Storch (City Council, Ward 2) Attached as Exhibit A are the interview questions and a brief summary of the remarks of Mr. Hellwig. Attached as Exhibit B are the interview questions and a brief summary of the remarks of Ms. Williams. Attached as Exhibit C are the interview questions and a brief summary of the remarks of Mr. Storch. 

Correspondence to Commission:  Ms. Burgwinkle indicated that there is ongoing correspondence with representatives from other communities about coming to meetings and she should be able to report at the next meeting.

Treasurer Report: Ms. Criscione reported that there has been ongoing discussion about finding out the cost of publishing our final report in the Courier and Star Ledger in the event we decide to do that. She has made multiple phone calls to both papers and to Mark Spivey, but has not been able to get responses. She will ask the City Clerk who he goes to when publishing meeting notices.
 
New Business:
-Discussion of agendas for the next several meetings.
Ms. Burgwinkle distributed a table of existing and added meeting dates through August 6th, the due date of the final report. On May 2, 2013, the next meeting will be held in the Second Floor Planning conference room, which is very small, because the Library was not available. The meeting will be a working meeting (with no interviews) including going through the charter provision by provision critically. Ms. Criscione suggested that the meeting be used for strategy as well and that meetings be added if necessary. Mr. Smiley requested deferring discussion of the remaining meeting agendas to the next meeting.
-Assignments for Commissioners
Ms. Burgwinkle requested that each Commissioner bring to the next meeting their copy of the Plainfield Charter (1968), the Faulkner Act provisions that Dr. Reock gave to each of us at the first meeting, and the Hopewell and South Orange Charter reports.  

Short debriefing of interviews by Commissioners: Mr. Stewart was interested in the topic of term limits.  Mr. Smiley commented that he believes that a candidate has a term limit every time they run, because they can lose and Ms. Burgwinkle indicated that she does not like term limits.  Ms. Davis commented that she does not understand how 6 wards would improve representation of certain minority groups who do not vote and a short discussion with Mr. Smiley ensued. Mr. Stewart commented that it is a good exercise for us to talk about these ideas that are brought up to us.

Announce date and time of next meeting:  Thursday, 5/2/13 at 7:30 pm in City Hall Planning Conference Room on the Second Floor. 

Public Participation: No members of the public requested to be heard (observers were allowed to ask questions during the interviews).

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m.


Exhibit A
Following are interview questions and a brief summary of Mr. Hellwig’s comments.
1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government.
My name is Martin Hellwig and I am the Director of the Department of Public Affairs and Safety and the Police Director for the City of Plainfield.
2. To whom do you or did you report?
I report to the City Administrator.
3. How frequently do you or did you meet with members of the governing body?
I meet with members of the governing body once a month, if not more, and regularly meet with Councilor Williams.
4. If you are or were involved in budgeting for your department or division, describe the budget process.
I am involved in the budget.  I work on the budget with the police and fire divisions. I have regular meetings with my senior staff and look through the budget. I also review the budget with others outside my department, including the Finance Director.
5. Do you or did you have any contact with your counterparts in other municipalities? How often and in what context?
Yes, I meet regularly with the Union County Prosecutor and was at the Union County Police Academy today.
6. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?
Yes, I have.
7.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?
Coming from a law enforcement background, I like the order and organization of the Charter and I like the way that it lays out the responsibilities of the Mayor, Council, Administrator. I do not see any disadvantages.
8. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?
No.
9. If your answer to Question 8 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?
N/A
10. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?
Yes, both were Faulkner Act forms, both worked well, as does this charter.
11.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?
My opinion is that the number of City Council members and how they are chosen meets the needs of the community.
12. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?
Yes, the City Council should be compensated for the work they do, but he does not believe that they should receive benefits.
13. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?
City Council, in his opinion.
14.  Do you think that the Plainfield City Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council?
He does not believe that anything in the Charter could get people to work together.
15. The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety. 
(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?
(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?
(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?
(a) He believes that the responsibility of some of the Department Managers is enormous, and that it would be a good idea to try to expand the number of Departments somehow.
(b) yes
(c) His suggestion is that there should be two departments with civilian oversight for each department - civilian for police and civilian for fire.  Both should report to the City Administrator.  The current structure bestows an excessive amount of responsibility on one person.  This makes it difficult for the current person in the position of Public Affairs and Safety to do either job well.  Verona is a good example of how the Police and Fire Departments are structured.
16.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?
He consults Corporate Counsel on a regular basis, is not otherwise comfortable answering the question.
17. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?
He does not think that recall should be less than 25%.
18. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies?
He does not believe that he is qualified to answer this question.
19. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections?
He thinks non-partisan is a good idea.
20. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?
Work well together.
21. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?
Position of Public Safety should be reviewed.
22. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?
No, not really.

Exhibit B
Following are interview questions and a brief summary of Ms. William’s comments.
Interview Questions
1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government.
Elected to City Council in 2010, took office in 2011. Also, was employed in a prior administration as head of public access TV for 20 months, to get the station up and running with some content.
2. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?
Yes
3.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?
It is well organized, provides for professional management.  Outdated in some parts (fines and penalties) and does not provide for term limits. She likes that it addresses a ban on dual office holding.
4. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?
Outdated provisions, such as fines in the Charter, but no enforcement power. There are inconsistencies with updates from State Law
5. If your answer to Question 4 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?
It was the actual provisions of the Charter, not the interpretation. She would like Charter to address including legislative aides for the council
6. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?
No Experience.
7.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?
Right now, I am thinking 5-6 wards and 7-9 Councilors, all Councilors and Mayor should run at the same time once every 4 years, and City Council should have legislative aides.
8. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?
City Council should be compensated, it is important to me that people are compensated for their work. I do not think that an uncompensated City Council is a good idea because it could result in an elitist council with some of the councilors less interested due to lack of compensation.
9. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?
By the Council.
10.  Do you think that the Plainfield City Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council?
No. Issues are not with the Charter but rather personality issues.
11. The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety. 
(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency? No, see below.
(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance? Yes, at least 5.
(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form? see below
Departments -
Public Safety (Police-Fire)
Public Affairs (DPW - Inspection - Technology-Health Dept.)
City Administrator (including Municipal Clerk)
Economic Development
Administration and Finance (including Tax Assessor - Tax Collector)
12.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?
Counsel should appoint, hard to get straight advice sometimes. If there is a full time in-house counsel, that person should not be allowed to do outside work for their law firm.  They should be a full time city counsel with no other commitments.
13. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?
Plainfield City Charter should be amended to follow the Faulkner Act so that people can participate in government. Should be a reasonable percentage of signatures for initiative and referendum, and even for recall, to get on the ballot, because after all, once the item gets on the ballot, the voters still get to decide.  For recall, 25% sounds reasonable, but that should be 25% of the people who voted in the last election.
14. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies?
One or two more wards, maybe 5 is good, lines should be redrawn. In my experience over the past 12 years, there are some areas where people do not come out to vote, Apartment dwellers vs. Homeowners is one. Perhaps redrawing the lines would make some people feel more invested, that should be the goal.
15. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections?
Non-partisan, all at the same time, every four years. Could take a little bit of the politics out because it would be before the partisan primary. Looking at Newark as an example, everyone gets a line, not a column, take Democrat and Republican bashing out of it. Also, she believes in term limits for mayor and counsel, should be able to run one or two times, then take a break. No one should feel entrenched.
16. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?
Worked together pretty well but should look at some of the language to update it,  acknowledge electronic communications, etc.
17. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?
I would say provisions that deal with the preparation and delivery of the budget. There are deadlines and dates, and they are never adhered to. Should be looked at. Appointments to commissions and boards need to be looked at as well, many stay vacant for a long time. It is a failure of responsibility not to appoint, that should be looked at as well.
Section 7.4, Conflicts of Interest. The terms “agency or instrumentality of the city” should be clarified as to PMUA. If you are serving the City, should not be able to have contracts or business interests with the any City Agency, for instance.
7.6, Fraud provisions. The provision discusses consequences, but does not set forth who has the power to enforce, may be deliberately vague.
18. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?
 
One more, in 2013, the Charter should be updated for gender neutral language, default seems to revert to male, which is not acceptable.  Also, regarding the Human Relations Commission at 4.9, she presumes there was a time it was extremely necessary. If it is to have any meaning now, it provides for the City to appoint an Executive Director with no compensation, should be updated along with all Commissions. We do not take Commissions seriously now.

As indicated before, consider implementing term limits for Council and the Mayor. Mayor role is important in a City our size, candidates for Mayor should be a legal voter for 4 consecutive years.




City of Plainfield, New Jersey

Charter Study Commission 

 Minutes

Minutes of Meeting of Thursday, April 11, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

Plainfield City Hall Library

Call to Order: Mr. Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Open Public Meeting Act Compliance Statement: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 12/26/12, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call: Mr. Smiley took roll call. Secretary Mary Burgwinkle, Treasurer Jeanette Criscione, Assistant Secretary Marie Davis, Chair Rick Smiley and Vice Chair John Stewart were all present.

Minutes: The Minutes of Meeting of March 28, 2013 were approved in a unanimous vote with no dissents or abstentions.

Interviews: Mr. Smiley announced that Former City Administrator Jewel Thompson-Chin was interviewed prior to the meeting and that a recording can be played, time permitting. Live interviews were conducted of Mr. Rowand Clark, former Corporation Counsel and Mr. Henry Kita, former City Administrator and Member of the 1990 Charter Study Evaluation Committee. Attached as Exhibit A are the interview questions and a brief summary of the remarks of Mr. Clark and Mr. Kita. Attached as Exhibit B are the interview questions and a brief summary of the remarks of Ms Thompson Chin. A verbatim recording of the meeting is available upon request. After the live interviews, the decision was made to play the recording of Ms. Thompson-Chin’s interview at another meeting, given the length of this meeting. Also, attached as Exhibit C are the questions posed to Ms. Donna Vose, former City Councilor, Planning Board Member and Member of the 1990 Charter Study Evaluation Committee, as well as her answers. 

Correspondence to Commission:  Discussion of Correspondence was deferred to the discussion of interviewees in New Business.

Treasurer Report: There was no Treasurer’s report. 

  

New Business:

-Discussion of interviewees for the next meeting: Mr. Martin Hellwig, Director of Public Safety, Honorable Cory Storch, City Council Second Ward and Honorable Rebecca Williams, City Council Second and Third Wards, are scheduled for interviews.  Ms. Burgwinkle advised that she planned to send email letters to the existing City Councilors, the Mayor, the City Administrator, the Department Heads, Freeholder Carter and Assemblyman Green, advising them that CSC was commencing interviews of current elected and appointed officials and advising them of the approximate date and location of their interviews.  In addition, the letter will advise that all persons who are candidates for office in the June 4 Primary Election will be scheduled for interviews after the election, as CSC does not want them to have to focus on an interview while campaigning.  

-Discussion of Plan for April to August and adding meeting dates-Ms. Burgwinkle and Mr. Smiley held a subcommittee meeting on Sunday, April 7 to plan the work and meeting schedule for the final four months of the CSC study. They distributed a table of the existing scheduled meeting dates through August 6, when CSC Final Report is due, as well as a list of dates to be added, and a list of tasks to be accomplished at each meeting. The new dates are Thursdays, May 2, June 20, July 18 and August 1. Those meetings will be held in the Planning conference room on the second floor of City Hall, as the Library is not available those days. Ms. Burgwinkle advised that the City Clerk had reserved the room, but had not sent Open Public Meeting Act Notices pending availability of Commissioners. She asked Commissioners to promptly advise if they cannot be present on any of the days.  Mrs. Davis advised that she is on vacation the whole month of July.  Mr. Smiley cannot be present on May 9 and May 30, which were regularly scheduled meetings. Ms. Criscione can be available on all of the dates.    

-Other New Business-Ms. Burgwinkle announced that the May 23 and May 30 meetings would be dedicated to the study of other forms of goverment under the Optional Municipal Charter Law (Faulkner Act). Dr. Ernest Reock will join us at the May 23 meeting to give an overview of the Faulkner Act forms that are available to Plainfield (Mayor-Council, Council Manager and Mayor-Council-Administrator).  Mr. Marc Dashield, former City Administrator and present Manager of Montclair, a Council-Manager government, has also been invited to appear on May 23rd, but has not responded and Ms. Burgwinkle will continue to seek a speaker regarding Council-Manager. Mr. Jim White of East Brunswick will address CSC on May 30 regarding Mayor-Council form. There are only three Mayor-Council-Administrator municipalities in New Jersey (Berkeley Heights, West Milford and North Brunswick). Ms. Burgwinkle has faxed a letter to Mr. Robert Lombard, City Administrator in North Brunswick, as that was the first community to choose M-C-A, and the choice was made via a Charter Commission, but has not heard back (immediately after the meeting, Ms. Burgwinkle discovered that she had received an email from Mr. Lombard, who will find persons to attend a meeting).  

Short debriefing of interviews by Commissioners: The Commissioners passed this agenda item due to the length of the meeting.

Announce date and time of next meeting:  Thursday, 4/25 at 7:30 pm in City Hall Library   

Public Participation: No members of the public requested to be heard (observers were allowed to ask questions during the interviews).

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 10:03 p.m.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.

Exhibit A

Following are interview questions and a brief summary of Mr. Clark’s and Mr. Kita’s comments. A complete recording of the meeting and comments are available for review as described above.

1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government. 

Mr. Clark:  My name is Rowand Clark. I served as City Prosecutor between 1982 and 1985, as City Solicitor from early to mid 1990 and as Corporation Counsel from mid 1990 through 1993. 

Mr. Kita: My name is Hank Kita, and I served three administrations in Plainfield. In 1986 and 1987, was deputy City Administrator under Mayor Taylor, reported to the City Administrator and the Mayor. I then worked in State Government and the private sector and returned as City Administrator in the Fury Administration, reporting to Mayor Fury. I then spent four months as Director of Public Works in the McWilliams administration.

2. To whom do you or did you report?

Mr. Clark: To the Mayor and Council.

Mr. Kita: See answer to Question #1.

3. How frequently do you or did you meet with members of the governing body?

Mr. Clark: Attended every City Council Meeting and Agenda Setting.

Mr. Kita: Weekly faces to face meetings and spent a lot of time on the phone with city council members, about constituent issues, resolutions and ordinances. Spoke with them multiple times per week.

4. If you are or were involved in budgeting for your department or division, describe the budget process.

Mr. Clark: No involvement in the budget.

Mr. Kita: As City Administrator, I took on the role of person orchestrating the budget process for the administration.  I worked with the finance department to make sure that the right forms and instructions went out to the departments and spent time on internal budget interviews, went through the budget line by line many times, spent lots of time, hours days to try to reach a budget that everyone could live with. 

5. Do you or did you have any contact with your counterparts in other municipalities? How often and in what context?  

Mr. Clark: Some contact having to do with inter-municipal issues. Plainfield was at that time switching from the Joint Meeting (for sewer) to what ultimately became PMUA, Dunellen and North Plainfield involved. There was litigation over an archaic sewer system that was physically and legally broken down. Also, Plainfield had constructed a storm water discharge at the Scotch Plains border that caused flooding there when it rained, worked on that.

Mr. Kita: Sporadically had contact with other City Administrator types, there was a state association of City Manager/Administrators. County brought us together a few times.  I sat on joint insurance fund for the City, and would talk to clerks, city managers about issues of mutual concern such as traffic, police, economic development. 

6. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?

Mr. Clark: Yes, many times over the years and also in the past few days.

Mr. Kita: Yes, many times, and read it again after 15 years in the last several weeks.

7.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?

Mr. Clark: Advantage is that it lays out a professional management system; disadvantage is the manner in which the council is elected, but that is separate from the government itself.

Mr. Kita: Pretty simple, does not seem to contradict itself, pretty straightforward. Simplicity is part of the beauty of it, compare it to the constitution. No need to get into a lot of interpretations of it. Disadvantage, we are sitting here 45 years later and it has not been changed, probably needs to be tweaked. I sat on the last Charter Study Committee in the early 90s. He hopes that our input is taken seriously, did not happen in 1990. 

 8. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?

Mr. Clark: Not sure what that means, did not see it as a hindrance, his problem is the manner in which the City Council is elected.

Mr. Kita: No. Political tussles are another issue, but duties of City Administrator were OK.

9. If your answer to Question 8 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?

Mr. Clark: N/A

Mr. Kita:  N/A

10. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?

Mr. Clark: Had a private practice in Land Use, appeared before Planning Boards in the central part of the state, and sometimes local Councils, most were suburban communities with Common Council governments.  

Mr. Kita: Has not had that experience, Plainfield only municipality he worked for directly.

11.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?

Mr. Clark: Main problem in Charter is the way that City Council is elected. The 1968 Charter was fabricated by the then controlling downtown Republican interests to suppress the black vote, and it did for a while. Now, downtown is gone and the Republicans have self-destructed and will not come back, and we are left with a shell that was designed to keep the downtown interests in power. The main problem is the ward configurations described in Section 2.3 

setting out how the mayor and city council will be elected. In 1969, the Mayor was elected for 4 years and all Councilors were elected at once, with certain Council seats up for election each year after that as described. The next year (1970), the 1st ward seat and the 2-3 seats were up for election.  The controlling interests did not expect to win in the first ward or the fourth ward, but were comfortable about 2-3, and so would not lose control and government would not change that year. The following year, 1971, the 2^nd and 1-4, were up. Republicans did not expect to win 1-4, but expected to win 2, so they would continue to control. The following year, 3^rd and at-large were up, and they expected to win both. In the end, it took 12 years to get them out of power. Problem now is that no one can change the government because the whole slate never comes up for election at the same time (despite that the Governor and all legislators come up every two years).  It is possible to change the legislature in one day if there is pressing issue, cannot do that in Plainfield.   Mayors care about getting four votes and maintaining that. It would take a much disciplined effort to effect change.   

Mr. Kita: Number 7 is a good number, never should be smaller, too much power concentrated in too few people. Should be one councilor from each ward, thinks city has evolved since 1968, he likes that someone is at large and that two councilors are partly at large, and a good mix. Union County argument that since freeholders are elected at large, some towns are not represented at all, that is the problem with all at large. 

12. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?

Mr. Clark: Has lost track of what they are paid, but whatever it is should not be so substantial that it is a full time job and persons have a vested interest in keeping the seat for the money or benefits, he does not think that is in the best interests of the City. He also believes that there is a statute that prevents 

Mr. Kita: No reason why they should not be compensated, to defray costs of constituent relations, buy stamps, gas to drive around. Do not think that benefits are bad either, impose term limits to keep people out of lifelong office.

13. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?

Mr. Clark: That is covered by the charter, the Clerk of Council can be the City Clerk or someone else, that is up to the Council.

Mr. Kita: Charter provides that the City Council can choose, he thinks that it is OK the way that it is.

14.  Do you think that the Plainfield City Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council?  

Mr. Clark:  Right now, any Mayor is always trying to have four votes. When he was there, everyone was trying to cut everyone else off at the knees. We need a break from politicking every year to do some actual governing.  

Mr. Kita: Short of making it a felony that they don’t get along, don’t know what to do.  It is a people issue, always has been. I moved to Plainfield in 1978 and the Mayor and Council were fighting, and I moved out in 1998 and they were fighting. I understand that they are still fighting. I also wish that the US Congress and Executive could get along. 

15. The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.   

(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?

(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?

(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?

Mr. Clark: (a) Cannot address the specifics now, but not good to have lots of Departments, views each as an empire. (b) No, 3 reduces the hierarchy. The best part of the charter is professional management, maybe need one more Department for a catch-all, but the fewer empires the better. (c) Director of Public Safety is chief law enforcement officer, as compared to County Prosecutor and State Attorney General, he knows that there is no longer a Police Chief, otherwise cannot answer. 

Mr. Kita: (a) Probably not at peak efficiency. (b) Probably not enough departments to make it work the way that it should. Maybe room for another Department to take on things City has taken on over the years and some core functions. Some Social Service functions could be in it, for instance, call it community affairs, community services. (c) Police Fire and Inspections are fair for that department, would keep it to enforcement areas, will leave Police Chief question to others who have been here over the past 15 years.

16.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?

Mr. Clark: There was a lot of animosity when he was there, like representing a husband and wife in a contentious divorce, hard to represent both. Hopes that Council does not need separate counsel, as that is asking for litigation.  Once again, he believes that letting the whole government be elected at once would help. When he was Corporation Counsel, Councilor Miller sued Mayor Mitchell over appointments to Planning Board. He represented neither, assigned counsel for both sides. There is an opinion, Miller vs Mitchell. Mayor Mitchell believed that he could appoint Planning Board members without counsel approval under the charter.  Court held that the Municipal Land Use Law took precedence over the Special Charter and that City Council approval was required. Important decision for Charter Study Commission to consider. Regarding full time corporation counsel, he believes that if you pay someone a living wage, from day one that person that the person will try to figure out how to keep the job, and the mayor appoints the person. He never became full-time in government jobs, tried not to take jobs that he could not afford to lose.   

Mr. Kita: In the best of all worlds Corporation Counsel can represent both, but we are dealing with people. City Council should not have its own attorney, but should be able to bring on special counsel without the express consent of the mayor. He did not have full time counsel as city administrator; he does not think that someone should be allowed to be in for four years without being subject to Mayor and city Council, that would create another, non-elected, situs of power.

17. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?

Mr. Clark: Higher percentages were designed by those in power at the time of the charter adoption to make it hard for the people not in power to make changes. Does not know the right percentages, should be at least 20%.Should not be too easy to get a recall petition going because that stops the governing cycle, if you are subject to recall you are fighting it, not governing. 

Mr. Kita: Recall is a nuclear option, so to speak, mechanism that can be abused. Very disruptive, should have a very high standard for number of signatures you need to start it. Recalls disrupt everything, not good for anyone. 

18. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies? 

Mr. Clark: Close call, substantial divisions between 2 and 3 and 1 that existed when he moved here 40 years ago do not exist, but there are differences and there should be at least one council person from each ward, but he regards the 1-4, 2-3 seat as a gimmick. 

Mr. Kita: Number of wards just right, Plainfield not a sprawling 50 square miles. Number right for the size. More would put too many people on the council.

19. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections? 

Mr. Clark: He thinks we should be non-partisan, not only do you have to work your way through the staggered election system, but have to be nominated. Republican nomination is worth nothing, but the Democratic nomination is very hard to get, like a soap opera, we should try to get away from that. He wants to elect the whole government in the year that the governor is elected.   

Mr. Kita: In last charter Study, I thought that non-partisan was a good idea, and 20 years later, I still believe that. It is expensive, elections don’t come cheap, but I think that it would be easier for more people to put their hats in the ring.

20. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?

Mr. Clark: Not sure that the Municipal Code has been appropriately updated for years.  If we are planning a substantial change to the charter, will need to recodify. Not easy to get it done when sides are not getting along. 

Mr. Kita: Code was a hodge podge in his day and if it has not been neatened up it should be. Nonetheless, I did not see anything in the Code that was inconsistent with the Charter.

21. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?

Mr. Clark: First, election cycle and partisan elections. Changes because of obsolescence should be taken care of. Example is changes in ward population can’t be more than 10%. Baker vs. Carr, Supreme Court case, must be as close as possible. Change charter to reflect current law and fairness.    

Mr. Kita:  He likes simplicity and he finds the charter to be a good document in that regard. It all gets down to the execution and the ability of folks to work together. Not getting along is not a reason to change it, anymore that the US constitution.

22. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?

Mr. Clark: Election of counsel and mayor is antiquated, designed by special interest group that does not exist, should be changed.

Mr. Kita: No, your questions were a good compilation of issues.  I wish that my group 20 years ago had been more organized, it is a good thing to have this consistent battery of questions.

Exhibit B

Former City Administrator Jewel Thompson-Chin was interviewed in a CSC subcommittee meeting held at 6:00 pm on Thursday, 4-11-13. Commissioners Mary Burgwinkle and John Stewart were present.

1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government. 

My Name is Jewel Thompson-Chin, and I am presently Borough Administrator for the Borough of Tenafly. I was City Administrator of Plainfield from 1990 to 1993 in the administration of Mayor Harold Mitchell.

2. To whom do you or did you report?

Mayor Mitchell. Supervised by the Mayor and on a “dotted line” reporting basis to the City Council

3. How frequently do you or did you meet with members of the governing body?

4. If you are or were involved in budgeting for your department or division, describe the budget process.

My Background was finance, and I was intimately involved in the budget process.  I worked with an excellent Director of Finance, Nathan Bean, and we worked closely together. Every year, we came up with a budget package, which was slightly different every year depending upon priorities and state statutes. We would then send a request to Department Heads, which they would fill out and return to her and to the Finance Director. They separately reviewed everything and then came together to agree on a joint recommendation to the Mayor, then worked with the Mayor on the final budget to go to the City Council. Her borough’s budget is done by 1/1, we all know that the state date is 1/15 and will be extended, should be done for planning purposes by 1/1.

5. Do you or did you have any contact with your counterparts in other municipalities? How often and in what context?  

Yes, fairly frequently on a monthly and at least quarterly basis. She was a member of the Municipal Manager’s Association that met monthly and of a Union County Administrator’s group that met about quarterly, unless they held a special meeting at the request of a community that wanted advice or help with something. She was also involved in regional transportation and attended meetings related to that.

6. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?

Yes.

7.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion? 

The advantage is the breadth and width of responsibilities assigned to government. It is well written, mostly well thought out, but contains a few provisions that end up thwarting working together collaboratively. For instance, Section 3.4 makes it clear that the Mayor is in charge of Administrative functions, but then there is language describing what items the mayor must provide to individual councilmen upon request. Minor sentences that seemed to undermine the powers they were describing.

8. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?

I can’t say that it hindered it to the point that you threw your hands up and stopped working, but there were things that made it more difficult at times, time spent on political wrangling that detracted from doing administrative work.

9. If your answer to Question 8 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly? 

It was interpretation, mostly people had the tendency to liberally interpret their powers under the charter, lengthy discussions and debates about requests and where the request was supported in the charter, a lot of those discussions.

10. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?

She has operated in Faulkner forms, now in the borough form, a little easier to navigate. No requests can be made by individual councilors, only by the council as a whole, so less time spent wrangling with council people, less distraction when attempting to do your administrative tasks.

11.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?

She thinks that at large is good, she finds wards to be limiting. Wards not global, limiting to the thoughts of your own neighborhood. Opens the door to unnecessary controversy.

12. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?

Should not be full time, should be paid, counsel can decide that for themselves, no benefits.

13. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?

Council should appoint. She sees the Municipal Clerk as the administrative office of the council, same as Administrator is the administrative arm of the Mayor. Even though the clerk has mandated duties by the state, should be appointed by the council,  

14. Do you think that the Special Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council?

She thinks that if the few phrases and sentences that give power and take it back or make it less clear were removed and that clarity and clear lines were the goal, that would serve to help a lot, but in the end, the words and provisions are only as good as the people who follow and adhere to them. 

15. The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.   

(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?

For a government the size of Plainfield, three departments is too few, even a fourth would be beneficial. Separate Public Affairs from Public Safety. 

(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance? Needs to be more than three, maybe not six, large financial impact in adding Department Heads.

(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form? goes in too many directions, take pubilc affairs out.

16.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?

Majority of places she has worked, Corp counsel reps both and it worked. Must choose the right corporate counsel, it is about integrity and not playing politics it is to serve the City. Dueling Corporation Counsel is a recipe for disaster, does not serve the City well and opens up to more liability, not less. More cost effective was in-house corporation. Full time can be defined by hours, choosing someone who does not have outside legal offices is not realistic. Council 

17. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?

She likes I&R, glad that we have it, it is for the people. Recall is more serious, should not be less than 25%.

18. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies? 

Wards are anachronistic, as a society, we have moved to a more holistic view, and compartmentalizing people into wards is counter to that, prefers at large. She thinks that wards set up the city for fights between the neighborhoods. She thinks that you should plan by segments, but not govern by segments.  

19. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections? 

I don’t have a problen with partisan elections, 99% of the time that we talk about politics, we talk about parties. Tough to have an election where you are not supposed to think about parties.

20. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?

They really had to be used together, but sometimes the charter was not clear enough and a lot of discussion ensued to get an accurate interpretation.

21. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest? 

Separation of powers are clear, with some little provisions that undermine the powers given that should be taken out.

22. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter? City Administrator qualifications said that the person does not have to a resident of the State at appointment, not true anymore. 

Exhibit C

Ms. Donna Vose, former City Councilor, Planning Board Member, and Member of the Charter Study Evaluation Committee of 1990, submitted the answers to her questions via email. Her message to the Commission and her responses follow:

Members of the Plainfield Charter Study Commission:

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to an interview by mail.  I will answer the questions in the order you have posed them.

1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government. 

I am Donna Vose and was on the Council in the early 90s and later on the Planning Board.  I was also on the informal Charter Study Commission during the McWilliams administration.

2. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?

Yes.

3.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?

Since it is a charter specifically mandated by the legislature for Plainfield, we were able to avoid many state mandates that applied to other municipalities.  

4. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?

No.

5. If your answer to Question 4 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?

N/A.

6. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?

I have had experience in Massachusetts with a Town Meeting form of government.  Plainfield is too big and too heterogeneous for that.

7.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?

The number and distribution of Council members is appropriate.  At-large representation would result in under-representation of the 4^th Ward and over-representation of the 2^nd.

8. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?

Councilors should receive no compensation, benefits or other emoluments.  They should be reimbursed for expenses.  (Incidentally, cell phones should be reimbursed a set amount per month, e.g. $25.00, for city business until cell phones become like land lines and do not bill by the minute.)

9. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?

Now that the City Clerk position is tenured and has educational requirements by statute, it will become less politicized.  This means there will be fewer conflicts than there were in my time (Oh, the stories I could tell!)  So appointment by the Mayor with advice and consent of the Council should work.  Of course the Council can also have its own clerk according to the current Charter, but the coordination problems would be great.

10.  Do you think that the Plainfield City Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council?  

 When I was on the previous Charter Revision Study,  DCA (Department of Community Affairs) sent us a consultant who said that no change in content or form would change politics or personalities.

11. The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.   

(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?

Not necessarily.  But that is subject to ordinance as times change.  It’s not a charter issue.

b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?

Probably not, because department heads are political appointments which are for a term of office.  It’s hard enough to get 3 qualified people for short-term jobs, let alone 6.  Now if you are talking about these Department heads becoming civil service, then the City Administrator would control. That radically changes the political calculus.

(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?

 The original rationale for the position no longer exists.  There needs to be a professional fire chief and a professional police chief.  That does however set up for turf battles between the 2, but for the most part those have already been worked out.

12.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?

Corporation Counsel represents the city, not the Mayor or Council.  Easy to say.  If all he did was advise on the implementation of Title XVIIII, deal with outside regulatory agencies, review proposed ordinances for “form and sufficiency”, and parcel out litigation to other attorneys, this all would be a non-issue.  And he could work on a retainer as he does in other places.  However, the culture in Plainfield has developed differently.  He is a “player” in the system.  Unless that culture changes, each team will want its own player.

13. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?

I don’t favor I&R (See California).  It weakens representative government.  So it should not be casual.  Recall tends to be destabilizing to government, so should also not be easy.

14. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies? 

Four wards is fine.  The boundaries change every 10 years to reflect changing demographics.

15. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections? 

I have lived under both.  Partisan works better.  Argument is made that Plainfield has only one party.  Semantically speaking, that is true.  But there are 2 factions in the one party, both of which are quite stable and broadly representative.  In non-partisan elections, there are narrow interest groups, e.g., real estate, small business, or unions, etc., that dominate.  

16. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?

I have lived under both.  Partisan works better.  Argument is made that Plainfield has only one party.  Semantically speaking, that is true.  But there are 2 factions in the one party, both of which are quite stable and broadly representative.  In non-partisan elections, there are narrow interest groups , e.g. real estate, small business, or unions, etc. that dominate.  

17. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?

18. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?

17 & 18.  I used to oppose charter change because we could lose the prohibition against dual office holding for which we were almost unique.  That is now moot since there is a state statute to that effect. However, I still have concerns: 1. It will go to the legislature which is huge crap shoot.  One cannot predict the outcome and it is unlikely to be precisely what you want.  2. The Assembly does not introduce local legislation unless the local assemblyman is in favor.  Is he?  3.  The legislature has said it wants the municipalities to have Faulkner Act charters, so it is unlikely to approve a tweaking of an old non-conforming one.

Thank you for this opportunity to contribute to your work.

Charter Study Commission

City of Plainfield, New Jersey

Meeting Minutes 

March 28, 2013 Meeting

Plainfield City Hall Library, 7:30 p.m.

Call to Order:  Mr.  Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:32 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Open Public Meeting Law: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 12/26/12, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call of Commission Members:  Mr. Smiley took roll call.  Commissioners Jeanette Criscione, Treasurer; Mary Burgwinkle, Secretary; Marie Davis, Assistant Secretary; John Stewart, Vice Chair and Mr. Smiley, Chair were present. 

Minutes:  The 3/14/13 meeting minutes were adopted unanimously by voice vote, with no dissents or abstentions.  

Interviews: Mr. Smiley announced that Former Finance Director Ronald West was interviewed prior to this meeting and that a recording can be played, time permitting. Live interviews are scheduled with Mr. Daniel A. Williamson, former Corporation Counsel and Ms. Laddie Wyatt, long time former City Clerk. Attached as Exhibit A are the interview questions and a brief summary of the remarks of Mr. Williamson and Ms. Wyatt. Attached as Exhibit B are the interview questions and a brief summary of the remarks of Mr. West. A verbatim recording of the meeting is available upon request. Between the live interviews, Mr. Smiley acknowledged that Hon. Rebecca Williams, City Council Wards 2-3, Corporate Counsel David Minchello, and City Clerk Abubakar Jalloh were in attendance at the meeting. After the live interviews, the decision was made to play the recording of Mr. West’s interview at another meeting, given the length of this meeting.

Correspondence to the Comission: Ms. Burgwinkle reported that there was no correspondence to the Commission; there was correspondence from the Commission to Mr. Restaino and a verbal response from Mr. Restaino. Ms. Burgwinkle requested deferring that discussion to the Treasurer Report.   

Treasurer Report:  Ms. Burgwinkle and Ms. Criscione reported that email had been sent to Mr. Restaino, inquiring about the status of the budget. Mr. Restaino subsequently called Ms. Burgwinkle, indicating that a budget amount of $20,000 has been allocated, and that there will be one additional chance to request more when the budget comes before City Council.  Ms. Burgwinkle remarked that CSC would price means of distributing the final report.  For instance, we got a copy of the report of the Barnegat Charter Study Commission in 2005. They distributed by placing the report on line, placing a stack of reports in the City Clerk’s Office, Library and Post Office, and by publishing it in the official newspaper. We are planning to price doing those things, to check to see if $20,000 is adequate.  As we anticipated, we have not spent any money yet.

Discussion of list of interviewees for the next meeting:  

For the 4/11 meeting, Mr. Rowand Clark, former Corporation Counsel, Ms. Sandy Spector, Republican City Committee Chair, and Mr. Hank Kita, former City Administrator and member of the 1990 Charter Study Evaluation Committee are confirmed. Ms. Jewel Thompson-Chin will be interviewed in a subcommittee meeting in the City Hall Library at 6:00 pm on 4/11. Mr. Norton Bonaparte has requested a telephone interview which needs to be scheduled, need a volunteer to be the second subcommittee member.

Short Debriefing of Interviews: Mr. Stewart requested that Commissioner discuss what they learned from tonight’s interviews.  Ms. Burgwinkle mentioned learning about budget preparation and completion process from former Finance Director Mr. West. Mr. Smiley was interested in Ms. Wyatt’s suggestions that the City Clerk’s office should be elevated to a Department and that some of the statutory, non-union employees should be grouped together in the same section, he had not thought of that until she mentioned it. Ms. Burgwinkle and Mr. Stewart mentioned that it was also interesting that Ms. Wyatt mentioned the New Jersey Statute providing that the governing body will appoint the Municipal Clerk. Ms Burgwinkle will bring a copy to the next meeting. CSC is not sure whether it supersedes our special charter, which is also a state statute.  

Next Meeting:  The next meeting will be on 4/11/13 at 7:30, with a subcommittee meeting at 6:00. Prior to adjourning, Ms. Burgwinkle distributed copies to the Commissioners of the Barnegat and Jackson Charter Study Committee Reports, as well as the Westfield, Montville and Gloucester City Special Charters.  Also, Ms. Burgwinkle noted that Mr. Jalloh had provided a folder of City Clerk materials on charter study, including copies of the 1971-2 Charter Study Committee, and a 1983 press release about the 1982 Charter Study Feasibility Committee. The CSC was unaware of the existence of those committees prior to seeing this folder. CSC will work with the City Clerk to make sure that the reports are transmitted to the Plainfield Room at the Public Library.  They are noteworthy as pieces of Plainfield history, and it is interesting to note the questions being asked about the charter in those documents. Ms. Burgwinkle will ask for subcommittee meeting with Chair to look at our remaining schedule, see if we need to add meetings.

Public Participation: No members of the public requested to be heard (observers were allowed to ask questions during the interviews).

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.

Exhibit A

Following are interview questions and a brief summary of Mr. Williamson’s and Ms. Wyatt’s comments. A complete recording of the meeting and comments are available for review as described above.

1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government. 

Mr. Williamson: Began working for the City in 1982 or 1983 as City Solicitor under Mayor Lattimore. Was elevated to Corporation Counsel and served Mayors Lattimore, Taylor and Mitchell. Worked for other organizations for a ten year period. Returned to work as Corporation Counsel under Mayor Robinson-Briggs in 2006, left in July 2012 to become Executive Director of PMUA. 

Ms. Wyatt: Ms. Wyatt distributed a printed biographical statement that Mr. Smiley read into the record as follows: Laddie Wyatt-Twenty years of educational and administrative experience including management and supervision within all aspects of education, real estate sales, public relations, and local government has led to numerous recognitions for exercising leadership in establishing professional precepts. Laddie Wyatt has served as Chief Administrative Election Official, the Administrative Officer responsible for issuance of licenses and permits, Chief Registrar of municipal voters and Coordinator and Records Manager responsible for implementing local archives and records retention programs as mandated by law. As Certified Municipal Clerk, Laddie was responsible for coordinating, researching, developing and finalizing City Council agendas, preparing reports and committee agenda minutes and preparing resolutions as they relate to state statutes and codes. Among her many professional networks, Laddie has been president of the Union County Clerk’s Association, a member of New Jersey League of Municipalities, the International Municipal Clerk’s Association, State of New Jersey Clerk’s Association, State Association Peer Learning Program, and the National League of Women Voters. Laddie has served as Municipal Clerk for the city of Plainfield since 1987, having completed Master Clerk Academy and ongoing continuous training as a Registered Municipal Clerk. Laddie resides in Plainfield. Ms. Wyatt added the following facts to her bio at the meeting as follows: She was the first African American appointed as City Clerk in Plainfield, and she has worked for 7 corporation counsel, 36 city councilors, 5 mayors and 7 city administrators.     

2. To whom do you or did you report?

Mr. Williamson: Mayor and the City Council, as Charter specifies that Corporation Counsel is chief legal officer for both. 

Ms. Wyatt: Reported to the Mayor, the City Council President and members and the City Administrator.

3. How frequently do you or did you meet with members of the governing body?

Mr. Williamson: Went to City Council meetings, scheduled and special, as well as Council Committee meetings

Ms. Wyatt: Every week

4. If you are or were involved in budgeting for your department or division, describe the budget process.

Mr. Williamson: Took a good look at the previous year, then looked at outstanding litigation and other matters, spoke with Department Heads affected by his budget, and then defended before the City Council.

Ms. Wyatt: The budget process for Division heads was that you got a wish list, wrote down what you wanted, and returned it to the City Administrator, who discussed it with the Director of Finance. Then it was discussed with the Mayor, then presented it to the City Council.

5. Do you or did you have any contact with your counterparts in other municipalities? How often and in what context?  

Mr. Williamson: Very rarely. If he attended League of Municipalities, there were meetings with other lawyers talking about what was going on in the other towns and sharing information.

Ms. Wyatt: Quite often. As Chairman the Peer Learning Program, matched new clerks with more senior clerks who could teach them. 

6. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?

Mr. Williamson: Not fluidly, disjointedly over the years. Sure he has seen all of the provisions over the years.  Has not sat down and read it.

Ms. Wyatt:Yes

7.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?

Mr. Williamson: Advantage: Notion that we have home rule and can control our destiny, so long as consistent with State law. Section 1.5, Powers, lays out the rules of governance over the town.  Disadvantage: Somewhat inflexible, tedious process to amend it as it is a state statute, passed by the legislature. 

Ms. Wyatt: Does not know if she can define what is good and bad, because she worked with it all these years. She feels that the Charter should define the Mayor’s role, the City Council’s role and the City Clerk’s role more specifically. Charter should define exactly how far the Mayor can and cannot go, it should state exactly what the Mayor is responsible for, too broad now. Actually, the Charter does say that the mayor can only do specific things, but the interpretation of different people who read the Charter go beyond the restrictions in the Charter, in her opinion.  

8. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?

Mr. Williamson: Yes, the inherent conflict in trying to be the legal advisor to both Mayor and City Council. Works well when everyone is getting along. Clients can lose confidence in what you propose.

Ms. Wyatt: Not posed to Ms. Wyatt

9. If your answer to Question 8 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?

Mr. Williamson: Question not posed to Mr. Williamson.

Ms. Wyatt: Question not posed to Ms. Wyatt.

10. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?

Mr. Williamson: Has not been involved with other forms.

Ms. Wyatt: No, they basically follow the Faulkner. 

11.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?

Mr. Williamson: He thinks that this is a political question, not a legal or analytical question about the Charter. Seven City Councilors works for him. Success depends on people’s attitudes and agendas, and the same issues would be presented  regardless of the number of people. 

Ms. Wyatt: Present form is fine. Before this Charter, the City had 11 council members (this is 1957 or 1958), and the Council had standing committees that followed the divisions. They operated like the school board. One committee was personnel, one was purchasing, for instance. They would place items on the agenda to approve vacations and raises, for instance, before the committee of the whole. Councilors who were heads of committees would meet at a table like this and decide what to do about requests that would be put on agenda to approve. Under the new charter, the council was reduced to 7 and gave up their administrative duties, and they were assigned to the City Administrator.

12. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?

Mr. Williamson: Arguments for both sides, but no one should forget how important and time consuming the jobs are. He has no opinion which is better or worse.

Ms. Wyatt: Yes, most City Councilors in New Jersey and other states are paid a fee. Years ago, when the city was run by wealthy people who worked in New York and lived here, they worked for $1 or for free, they were volunteers, but that was before 1957.

13. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?

Mr. Williamson: City Clerk serves both administrative responsibilities and City Council. Charter says Mayor appoints, with advice and consent of City Council. He does not see a problem with that.

Ms. Wyatt: City Clerk should be appointed by the council as the statute provides, that is for the whole state of New Jersey, it is the law. When this charter was written, the duties had not expanded the way that they have today. You have to be very educated to be a City Clerk today, cannot be a City Clerk until you pass the state exam. New Jersey is the only state that mandates a state exam, must be a Certified Clerk and a Registered Municipal Clerk in New Jersey. Must have continuous studies to keep the certification, every two years you have to take a certain amount of credits.  As this Charter is written, the Mayor appoints the City Clerk, but the statute provides that the Council sets the salary and should appoint the City Clerk. City Council is not aware of this. Over the years, they were so unaware of their real legislative powers and duties, they looked to the attorney to tell them what their rights were. Very important to for all City Councilors to focus on taking the required courses that are offered.   

14.  Do you think that the Plainfield City Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council?  

Mr. Williamson:  Does not think that the document would make a difference. Depends on the people in the jobs. Both sides need to understand that there is a need to compromise, this was how the country was founded, and that when there is compromise, neither side gets everything that it wants.

Ms. Wyatt: Very much like Mr. Williamson said, but again, must define the duties of the Mayor and the Council.  Also, City Clerk is in this organization as a Division Head, should be a Department Head. Every other municipality in New Jersey, has City Clerk as a Department Head. Cannot do anything in a town without the City Clerk signing off and making it official. City Clerk is involved on the administrative end on the Mayor’s side, with the City seal, contracts and documentation and on the Council side on the legislative body of the agenda, but also in purchasing, contracts, planning, everything. City Clerk needs to know everything that is going on in town, or you do not get things done.  The City does not get a two volume code book without a lot of work. Getting back to the budget and the City Clerk, Plainfield is the only municipality that does not appreciate the City Clerk, and what they have to do. All other towns involve them more. This is a town that likes to have power and does not want to share it. City Clerk is viewed as a threat. City Clerk can get into a bad position because of reporting to both Mayor and Council when the two sides are not getting along.  Clerk is so involved in everything in the city, does many jobs that neither Mayor or City Council have knowledge of, but it all gets done.  If you do your job correctly, and if you walk a straight line, and if you don’t favor one any more than another, you are still not going to be liked and may not be trusted. I feel that City Clerk belongs to the Council. 

15. The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.   

(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?

(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?

(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?

Mr. Williamson: (a) Probably no, only three departments, Administration has a slew of divisions, so if there is a change in the Charter, this is probably a topic for change. (b) Answer is probably yes, but someone would need to sit down and analyze the situation and figure out the right number of Departments and the assignment of the divisions. Cannot do that now, as there are only 3 allowed. (c) He believes yes, some civilian input is important, monitoring the uniformed forces and action. The person running that department must have a good understanding of the underlying operations. 

Ms. Wyatt: Department of Administration and Finance contains the Tax Assessor, Tax Collector and Chief Finance Officer. Those are three protected statutory positions, because of the jobs they do, along with the City Clerk.  They do not belong in that Department, or any Department for fear that they will be asked to do favors for or be influenced by local officials. She was in that Department when she started, but proved her point that the City Clerk did not belong there.

16.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?

Mr. Williamson: Full time corporation counsel came about due to the thought that it would be less expensive. However, in-house counsel cannot do everything, so outside counsel needs to be engaged. He does not know which is better. Regarding the conflict, a Corporation Counsel can represent both, but sometimes there is an appearance of conflict of interest, hard to represent both and be credible to both. He believes that the City Council can engage its own counsel, but who is in charge then? Need to do an ordinance regarding authority of Corporation Counsel over that person.

Ms. Wyatt: Position of in-house corporation counsel came through in 1988 or 1989. Joe Scott always wanted in-house counsel, they talked about it over and over, thought that it would save money. That remains to be seen, but, the first full time in house counsel position was created while Al McWilliams was Mayor. As far as the Corporation Counsel position, after it started, the City Administrator is not being recognized as it should be. City Administrator is in charge of the day to day operations of the city.  Complaints and Problems in the City should be addressed to the City Administrator, who would then go to Corporation Counsel if he or she needs advice. This is how it was always done. You did not have all of this serving two masters if you were Corporation Counsel, because you did not have City Council members going to Corporation Counsel directly, this should be accomplished by going to the City Administrator. 

17. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?

Mr. Williamson: Does not know the answer, but would be wary of tampering with this. Some people are never happy, and you would not want to interfere with governance. If that percentage was lowered too much so that people could do this willy nilly, not a good thing. Numbers were designed so that it is possible, but not easy to do these things.     

Ms. Wyatt: There is a statutory requirement for that, she has completed recalls, had to go by the statutory number.

18. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies? 

Mr. Williamson: Does not know the answer, political question.

Ms Wyatt: It should stay the same.

19. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections? 

Mr. Williamson: Does not make a difference, problems that exist under partisan would be bigger under non-partisan, this is a political question. He is a creature of habit, used to partisan approach, acknowledges that both have problems. 

Ms. Wyatt: Has no opinion.

20. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?

Mr. Williamson: Code is the working document that interprets the Charter, he believes that most of the Code is consistent with the charter, which is very broad. Corporation Counsel’s responsibility to make sure that the ordinances are consistent with the Charter.  

Ms. Wyatt: They work pretty closely, have to look to Charter to refine certain ordinances.

21. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?

Mr. Williamson: “Improving” is subjective, not sure he is qualified to say, but the inherent conflicts for Corporation Counsel and the City Clerk are possibilities.     

Ms. Wyatt: Bring the role of the City Clerk more effectively into the administration 

22. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?

Mr. Williamson:  No.

Ms. Wyatt: No.

Note from CSC on Mr. Wyatt’s interview: The day after the above  interview, Ms. Wyatt contacted the CSC Secretary to make sure that she adequately explained her position on operation of the City on a day to day basis under the Charter.  She emphasized that the Charter calls for a full time professional City Administrator to handle operation of the City on a day to day basis. It also contemplates a part time Mayor, who should not encroach upon the responsibilities of the City Administrator.  

Exhibit B

Former Director of Finance, Ronald West, was interviewed in a CSC subcommittee meeting held at 6:00 pm on Thursday, 3-28-13. Commissioners Mary Burgwinkle and John Stewart were present.

1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government. 

Served as Director of Administration, Finance, Health and Social Services and Technology from 2003 to the end of 2005.

2. To whom do you or did you report?

Reported to City Administrator, but also worked closely with the Mayor.

3. How frequently do you or did you meet with members of the governing body?

At least once a week; attended council and other meetings and certain of the Councilors stopped by on a regular basis to discuss matters and get a better understanding of things.

4. If you are or were involved in budgeting for your department or division, describe the budget process.

He asked Departments to do zero based budgeting rather than putting an incremental increase over the prior year budget. He wanted them to start from scratch and think about the upcoming year. Also worked with Mayor and City Administrator on what he called the Budget Call, which was their key strategic and tactical goals for that budget including raises, hiring, other spending possibilities.  During his first year, Plainfield was in a budget crisis, looking at a 15% increase, so he did not focused on getting the budget done early.  The next year he introduced an early start to the budget. Plainfield was on a fiscal year then, so the budget preparation started in March and was essentially done by the beginning of the next fiscal year. Also took a multi-year approach, looked forward a year or two, for the purpose of being able to get a trend on the future tax rate. Also looked at future capital needs (like police cars, roads, a technology plan) to get an idea what we needed to do in the city to make a difference and tighten up finances. Also looked for “low hanging fruit” to raise revenue. Plainfield owned some properties that were not being used, so an effort was made to market them. The tax sale foreclosure process was speeded up, and the City took ownership of some properties that had not paid taxes in as much as 20 years.  

5. Do you or did you have any contact with your counterparts in other municipalities? How often and in what context?  

Not often, but did participate in the Municipal Managers Association, as City Administrator was president. He reached out to them and other municipalities to get copies of ordinances or procedures.

6. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?

Yes, once again.

7.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?

He views the Charter as a form of government that sets up and separates the executive, legislative and administrative branches and that worked fine when he was working for the City. The important thing is to have everyone working together for the betterment of Plainfield. There was a good attitude during his time as a City employee, with the Mayor, the City Council and municipal employees all working together. 

8. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?

No.

9. If your answer to Question 8 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?

n/a

10. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?

No other municipal government experience.

11.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?

He thinks that the current structure works. The challenge faced by the City, in his opinion, is that everyone needs to align themselves for the overall common good and work together. There is too much infighting, should be less political and about the overall good for the City. 

12. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?

In his opinion, City Councilors work hard. They are expected to do a lot, and be out in community; what they receive is a small token for what they do. Benefits are a different issue. He thinks that they are too rich in general, and should be looked at along with municipal employee salaries in order to take the tax burden into consideration.

13. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?

He is of mixed opinion on this, and he views the City Clerk as a State level employee in any event.  The Clerk’s role expands far beyond just the City Council. When you look at the function, he thinks that the Mayor should likely appoint, but in the context of the City Clerk as a state employee for all practical purposes.

14.  Do you think that the Special Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council?

This issue is not about the charter. What needs to happen going forward is a formal commitment by the executive and legislature to identify the highest priorities for the city, work together to get them done, with performance metrics to demonstrate to the rest of the city how they are doing.  

15. The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.   

(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?

(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?

(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?

He thinks that the 3 departments were fine, with some challenges. One was that recreation never seemed to fit within Public Works, another was that when he was Administration and Finance Director he had 11 direct reports in divisions, which is on the brink of unmanageable. It worked, but with reliance on the divisions to carry out their tasks, and with performance based objectives and metrics to make sure that jobs were getting done. Does not believe that we need to go to up to 6 by ordinance.  The most challenging is the Director of Public Safety. The position is the right position, someone needs to be supervising police and fire, but the issue is whether that person needs to have police experience.  He thinks that any good manager could do the job, make the business decisions necessary and work closely with the operations.

16.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?

He believes that Corporation Counsel can represent both. Special Counsel can be placed on board when necessary. Everyone should be working together. Does not think that governing body should have its own counsel, waste of money. His experience was that full time corporation counsel in place when he worked for the city had a lot of work on the table at all times, approached it with rigor. 

17. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?

He does not want this to be easy. All are serious steps, do not water down, stay with high % of voters.

18. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies? 

If you have good City Council people who are actively involved and having meetings in neighborhoods to see about issues, status quo should be fine. Citizens should be holding City Councilors accountable, no need for more wards.  

19. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections? 

Non partisan makes no sense to him; partisan elections are the American way, works for him.

20. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?

Used the Code far more than the Charter. The Code, along with state regulations, gave him the guidance he needed.

21. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?

Does not think that any provisions are not working to the point that they need to be improved. He thinks that citizens should hold elected officials accountable, not change the Charter. Government should be transparent and letting people know when they can expect changes to happen. 

22. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter?

Thinks that the Charter works. This Commission is a wonderful way of gathering information to see if it needs to be changed. Everyone should work together and elected officials should be held accountable.

__________________________________________________________________








Charter Study Commission
City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Meeting Minutes
March 14, 2013 Meeting
Plainfield City Hall Library, 7:30 p.m.Call to Order:  Mr.  Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:31 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Open Public Meeting Law: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 12/26/12, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call of Commission Members:  Mr. Smiley took roll call.  Commissioners Jeanette Criscione, Treasurer; Mary Burgwinkle, Secretary; Marie Davis, Assistant Secretary and Rick Smiley, Chair were present.  John Stewart, Vice Chair was excused.

Minutes:  The 2/28/13 meeting minutes were adopted unanimously by voice vote, with no dissents or abstentions. 

Interviews: Mr. Smiley announced that Ms. Laddie Wyatt, former City Clerk, was scheduled to be interviewed at this meeting but is attending the 3/28 meeting instead. As a result, this agenda item was deferred until the arrival of Mr. Rashid Burney, former City Councilor and City Council President and the first interview of the meeting. Former Mayor Mark Fury also gave an interview. Attached as Exhibit A are the interview questions and a brief summary of their remarks. A verbatim recording of the meeting, including all of their remarks, is available upon request.

Correspondence to the Commission: Ms. Burgwinkle reported that there was no correspondence to the Commission; there was correspondence from the Commission to potential interviewees. Ms. Burgwinkle requested deferring that discussion to the agenda item dealing with future interviews.  

Treasurer Report:  There was no Treasurer report. Mr. Dan Damon asked a question about the status of the budget request CSC submitted. Ms. Burgwinkle and Ms. Criscione reported that they had not heard anything other than that a $10,000 temporary budget had been assigned. Ms. Burgwinkle will call Mr. Restaino.

Discussion of list of interviewees for the next meeting: 
Mr. Daniel Williamson, former Corporation Counsel and Ms. Laddie Wyatt are confirmed for 3/28. Mr. Walter McNeil was invited but has not responded. Mr. Smiley will contact Mr. McNeil. For the 4/11 meeting, Mr. Rowand Clark, former Corporation Counsel, Ms. Sandy Spector, Republican City Committee Chair, and Mr. Hank Kita, former City Administrator and member of the 1990 Charter Study Evaluation Committee are confirmed. Mr. Norton Bonaparte, former City Administrator, promptly responded to an email request, and asked to see the questions and ground rules prior to agreeing to participate. Ms. Donna Vose, former City Councilor, has agreed to submit answers via email. Annie McWilliams has not responded to email and a letter.  Mr. Mark Dashield, former City Administrator and now the Municipal Manager in Montclair, has been contacted, but has not responded. Ms. Burgwinkle will pursue his invitation since he could address both the Plainfield Charter and a Faulkner Act form.  In addition, Jewel Thompson-Chin, Lisa Love, Bibi Taylor and Tom Morrison have been contacted recently. Ms. Burgwinkle also reported that Mr. Ronald West, former Director of Finance, has accepted an interview, but must be finished by 7:00 pm. Discussion ensued over having a subcommittee of two commissioners conduct and record the interview and report back to the CSC. Ms. Burgwinkle moved that in some circumstances, when interviewees cannot be available to physically attend a meeting, that their interview be conducted by a subcommittee of a maximum of two Commissioners, that the substance be reported back to the Commission and recorded for our record, with any such interview approved by the Chair.  The motion was seconded by Mr. Smiley. Discussion ensued and Mrs. Davis suggested an amendment to remove Chair approval from the motion. The motion passed as amended with no dissents.      

Short Debriefing of Interviews: This agenda item was passed in Mr. Stewart’s absence.   

Next Meeting:  The next meeting will be on 3/28/13 at 7:30.

Public Participation: No members of the public requested to be heard (observers were allowed to ask questions during the interviews).

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.

Exhibit A
Following are interview questions and a brief summary of Mr. Burney’s and Mr. Fury’s comments. A complete recording of the meeting and comments are available for review as described above.

1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government.
Mr. Burney: Served 5 years on City Council, thanked all of us for this work, which is likely well due.
Mr. Fury: Born and Raised in Plainfield. In 1990s served on a previous Charter Study Committee, served as attorney for the Housing Authority, belonged to Frontiers and other organizations, served as Mayor, was a Vice Chair of the Democratic State Committee, among other things.
 
2. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?
Mr. Burney: yes
Mr. Fury: yes
 
3.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?
Mr. Burney: Has not worked with any other form of local government. Looking at ours in detail, he feels that the drafters created a significant  balance of power that keeps each part of the government in check, and that this works when things are going well. On the other hand, it acts as an anchor when you are trying to move forward and one of the government partners will not go along with the others to get things done, you get stuck, can seem like too many checks and balances.
Mr. Fury: Remembers when Plainfield was a shopping destination, had four movie theaters, and remembers when the change came. From an African American experience perspective in NJ and America, there is no place like it in his opinion; it is the center of the universe. Evidence is that it is the birthplace of Parliament Funkadelic, and of Bill Evans of Jazz fame, of an Olympian, an attorney on the OJ team, a unique place.  Advantage to form is that it is similar to the strong mayor Faulkner Act form, with a few special wrinkles that do not take anything away from the form. He is certain in hindsight that the charter was enacted after the changes in Plainfield so that some things did not change too fast, and he is OK with that. His theme throughout the interview will be that the problems in Plainfield are not in the charter.   
 
4. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?
Mr. Burney: Question not posed to Mr. Burney
Mr. Fury: He does not think so, had a reasonably responsive City Council at first, and got some minor changes done in Departments. He tried to treat Mayor as a full time job as long as he could. His goal was to reach down at least two levels, to directors and their immediate reports so he would know them if he needed something.  Charter did not bar him from reshaping the government in a way that suited him.
 
5. If your answer to Question 4 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?
Mr. Burney: Question not posed to Mr. Burney
Mr. Fury: N/A
 
6. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?
Mr. Burney: Has not had experiences with other forms of government.
Mr. Fury: Would never recommend a strong council- weak mayor form. If you have to depend on 5 very different people to agree, nothing will get done. Need one person to point at if something does not get done.
 
7.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?
Mr. Burney: All councilors should not be elected at large. We are not a homogeneous city; there are large income disparities, at large only could result in one neighborhood having all of the representatives. He strongly disagrees with that outcome, must have representation from all geographic parts of the City. He does not see the current number and distribution of City Councilors as a problem.
Mr. Fury: Seven City Councilors is fine for a city of about 50,000 people, he cannot imagine less. Regrets that he could not get a census that totaled 50,000 when he was Mayor because he is convinced there are that many people in the City.  Distribution is fine as it is, one from each ward, and three in at large roles. He does not like the idea of all councilors elected at large. He explained by talking about the effect of the closing of the Mack Truck plant on Plainfield. It had drawn African American and other residents of different races and ethnicities to live in Plainfield for employment at working class jobs. He believes that the closing of the plant started Plainfield’s problems. Residents did not have jobs (hundreds of African American, and other families), merchants did not have customers. Three years after the plant closed, Plainfield had a race riot. Plainfield was the smallest city to have a riot in 1967 with Newark and Detroit, the year before it was ”cool” and everyone had a race riot. This explanation was made to emphasize the importance of representation from every ward, because you want the separate voices. If the representative from the first and 4th ward and the representative from the 3rd ward can all shake their heads on something, that is probably a good policy.    
 
8. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?
Mr. Burney: He does not know anyone who sought council seats for the purpose of compensation. He does not think that made a difference on how often they attended, how hard they worked. When he was on Council, they took a cut to demonstrate to unions that they would sacrifice as well. Times are hard, we should recommend the $1. However, council members incur expenses, so, cut back on salary and give each a budget to attend local functions.  Some discretion, can’t use it to see movies, but for mail or local functions with constituents.
Mr. Fury: Tough question. In the days that he grew up in Plainfield, Plainfield was by far wealthier than other surrounding communities. Plainfield had three public pools, when no one had any. Plainfield was the first city on the east coast to have a fully enclosed sewer system. At that time, the City Council was not paid, but times have changed. Higher salary may attract better people, but he does not think that this is a big enough city to make City Council a career position. Small salary to make up for the inconvenience is appropriate. Not enough to attract someone to do it in the first place, which is OK.
 
9. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?
Mr. Burney: Thinks that appointment by City Council might be a greater tie between them, but larger issue is that City Council’s work is to make laws, but everyone works full time, hard to find the time. He remembers late at night going onto a website where he could look at other City’s codes to look for ordinances, on the Tree Commission, for instance. He cut and pasted from other communities and brought them to Corporate Counsel for “clean up”. City Council needs some staff to research and make calls and help them with their work. That person would likely work in the Clerk’s office. The Charter appears to give that help to the Mayor, but is silent on the City Council.
Mr. Fury: His disclaimer is that he is an acolyte of the school of Laddie Wyatt. It takes tremendous talent to serve at the pleasure of the mayor but at the will of the City Council.  If Plainfield has someone remotely as talented as Laddie, he would not change a thing. Problem would be that if the City Clerk only works for the Council, the Mayor will be closed out of their deliberations completely and then you have non-cooperative government.  He hopes that whoever serves is good enough and gets tenure, can then be independent of the Mayor.   
 
10.  Do you think that the Special Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council? 
Mr. Burney: He does not know of any amendment that would help this, what matters seem to be the faction you are aligned with. When he was on City Council and Al McWilliams was mayor, it was easier because most of the Council and the Mayor were aligned together, for instance.
Mr. Fury: For this question, he suggested that maybe the salaries should be doubled, to draw the best talent for these part time jobs, and that is how you could make relationships better.  When he was Mayor, he came to the opinion that every City Council person wants to be Mayor, every preacher wants to be a City Councilor, and every Mayor wants to be a community activist. This does not work, better to get people who want to do the job they have when they have it, so need to draw better talent. The challenge is always that the City Council gets asked to rule on 20-30 things a week.  Mayor has an hour or so to think about each thing, with staff for briefing. He did not know how to manage sharing his thoughts when he was a young Mayor.  City Council stands at a disadvantage of being not fully informed about any decision. His wish would be to draw a larger, more qualified pool of City Council persons who could make decisions faster on the limited info available or could be better politicians about why the mayor wants something done.    
 
11. The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.  
(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?
(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?
(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?
Mr. Burney: Needs to be a greater outreach in Public Affairs. That seemed to languish in both administrations that he has seen. Not sure if we need more department heads or different breakout. He does not understand how that would help. There may be disparate functions under departments, but they all have allocated funding to do specific jobs and their activities are laid out, so may not require a lot of time from the department head. If our study finds that the department head is spending more time than if the divisions were organically aligned, then consider change.  Regarding Public Safety, agrees that Fire and Police should be under equal footing (as opposed to Fire reporting to Public Safety Department Head), as Fire always seems to run well. In a 2006 budget study, only Fire of all Plainfield divisions was at the top of efficiency level when compared to other municipalities. Others were 4th or 5th out of 5 as far as money spent per capita.  Never got a complaint about Fire in 5 years. Opposite for police, not necessarily efficiency, but morale issues, inconsistency, huge battles between rank and file and whoever was in charge, whether it was a chief of police or the Public Safety Director. If someone can be devoted only to Police, that would likely be better, as public safety is the number one priority in his opinion, and our largest expenditure. The police and fire heads, whoever they are, should be accountable to the mayor, not a blockage as under the police chief scenario. Public expects the Mayor to be able to seek change when things are going badly. The people chose the civilian government, and they expect that the mayor can make changes, and in many cases, the police chiefs are not receptive to that.          
Mr. Fury: Does not make a difference, good people in their positions will get their jobs done. Regarding Department of Public Affairs and Safety, it was borne of the 7 years of bad relationships between the African American community and the essentially white police department in 1968. The Department of Public Affairs and Safety was created to get African American blood into the police force, which has now happened. Director of Public Safety is just a politician who carries the police message to the community.
 
12.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?
Mr. Burney: Absolutely not. The Corporation Counsel works for the Mayor, period. When confronted with legal questions, the Council got very narrow legal responses, needs better service. He does not blame Corporation Counsel, can’t work for two bosses sitting in front of you. Need a full time counsel for mayor, council could use part time. Would not be different if the Mayor had a business background, this current situation stems from politics.
Mr. Fury: Against separate counsel, if that happens, the result will be constant lawsuits between the mayor and the governing body. Does not have an opinion one way or the other on full time counsel. 
 
13. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?
Mr. Burney: Recalls are very distracting, do not want one of these every election, but 33 1/3% is too high. Referendum is people trying to change a law, percentage should be lower, should be 10% so that it is more accessible.  
Mr. Fury: He does not have the slightest idea about this. Being that this is his home town, he feels qualified to point out that Plainfield is a contentious city on a good day, and that there are factions in Plainfield that fight for the sake of fighting. This all depends on how easy we want to make it for people to fight.
 
14. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies?
Mr. Burney: No, just make sure that local people in the wards are active.
Mr. Fury: He does not think that the number of wards is important. He noted that there are people who have lower incomes who need more services, people who commute and want to be left alone, and people who live in wards with beautiful housing that they want to preserve. They all need to be represented.  He mentioned that better schools are the key issue, and noted his inability to get control of the school board when he was mayor. 
 
15. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections?
Mr. Burney: I think that it is a nice idea, but if you look at Newark and Hoboken, same people are in charge regardless and it does not change anything.
Mr. Fury: The only difference is the election is at a different time of year.  The parties will still spend what they have to spend to get control of the seats that they need to give out contracts.
 
16. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?
Mr. Burney: They were used together to the letter consistently, but the spirit may have been inadequate.   The budget for instance, is just too late. This is the single biggest action City Council takes, introduced when at least ¼ of the year has gone by. This leaves few options to really change anything, weighs in the administration’s favor to do it this way. He does not believe that there are dramatic changes in the city budget year to year. Must clear snow, pick up leaves, we have an idea what is going to happen, does not change that much in City Hall. Most changes are decimal points, so no reason that the budget should not be promptly done to allow for figuring out the right workloads and priorities, making the changes that we need. Charter should say that the Mayor should introduce the budget on December 1 as a working budget, clean up decimals in January, if financial people think that we could do this.  Books aren’t closed until March, but why not do the working budget before the end of the year, pending the books closing.
Mr. Fury: he paid a lot of attention to the charter, not much to the ordinances
 
17. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?
Mr. Burney: Change the charter to give the Mayor a date to submit the budget. 
Mr. Fury: Every provision could be improved, charter should be reviewed periodically. Hard to say where the review will go, but never a wasted process.
 
18. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?
Mr. Burney:  Don’t know if the Charter can solve this issue, but Council and mayor are good at execution, or getting things done, when there is a task in front of them, but the planning is very short in our city government. Organically, it is not happening so maybe it can be legislated. There have been citizen budget committees; however, administrations have not liked that process. He does not know why, as citizen involvement, with ward captains going back to constituents to explain their budget cut recommendations would let the administration off the hook in a way. Planning is very short, in any event.  His other advice, Charter Commission should think 15 years out, when none the current leaders will be key players. Don’t let our opinions of current leaders influence our decisions, we need recommendations that will stand the test of time. Believes that terms for Mayor and Council should be 4 years, terms should be 2 terms for mayor and 3 terms for council. Thinks that full time mayor would be a good idea, for planning purposes, and to sell the agenda, does not like the Council-Manager form, sees City Administrator as someone who executes, not plans.   
Mr. Fury: The City Charter is unique, thought it was a pain when he first read it, but after studying it, he came to believe that it is part of the City’s heritage. While it is inconvenient not to be able to change it when you want to, getting the right people in the city council seats and in the political positions are more important than changing the charter. In his opinion it is not dramatically different from the strong mayor-council form under the Faulkner Act.


__________________________________________________________________







Charter Study Commission
City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Meeting Minutes
February 28, 2013 Meeting
Plainfield City Hall Library, 7:30 p.m.

Call to Order:  Mr.  Stewart called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Open Public Meeting Law: Mr. Stewart announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 12/26/12, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call of Commission Members:  Mr. Stewart took roll call.  Commissioners John Stewart, Vice Chair, Mary Burgwinkle, Secretary and Marie Davis, Assistant Secretary were present. Rick Smiley, Chair and Jeanette Criscione, Treasurer were excused.

Minutes:  The 2/14/13 meeting minutes were adopted unanimously by voice vote, with no dissents or abstentions. 

Interviews: Mr. Harold Gibson, former City Councilor, City Council President and City Administrator, Mr. Lawrence Bashe, former City Administrator and Mr. Donald Davis, former City Councilor, gave interviews. Attached as Exhibit A are the interview questions and a very brief summary of their remarks. A verbatim recording of the meeting, including all of their remarks, is available upon request.

Correspondence to the Commission: Ms. Burgwinkle reported that there was no correspondence to the Commission; there was correspondence from the commission to Annie McWilliams and Laddie Wyatt. Ms. Burgwinkle will follow up on contacting Ms. McWilliams and Mrs. Davis will follow up with Ms. Wyatt.  

Treasurer Report:  There was no Treasurer report.

Discussion of list of interviewees for the next meeting: 
Mr. Rashid Burney, former City Councilor and City Council President, is confirmed for 3/14 at this juncture. Mrs. Davis will attempt to reschedule Mr. Mark Fury and Ms. Laddie Wyatt for 3/14.   

New Business: Ms. Burgwinkle discussed homework for Commissioners, requesting that they continue to read the special charters of the other special charter municipalities in the state, with emphasis on South Orange and Englewood, comparing them to Plainfield Charter (1968).  Also, Commissioners should volunteer to attend City Council Town Hall meetings, and should choose a Faulkner Act form to present to the group in Phase II.

Next Meeting:  The next meeting will be on 3/14/13 at 7:30.

Public Participation: No members of the public requested to be heard (observers were allowed to ask questions during the interviews).

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m. by the Chair.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.



Exhibit AFollowing are interview questions and a very brief summary of Mr. Gibson’s, Mr. Bashe’s and Mr. Davis’ responses. A complete recording of the meeting and comments are available for review as described above.

Interview Questions-February 28, 2013
1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government.
Mr. Gibson: 60 years of public service in Newark, Plainfield, Union and Essex Counties. Former Plainfield City Administrator and Public Safety Director (simultaneously for one salary), among other offices and positions.  Degrees from Rutgers and Seton Hall Law School.
Mr. Bashe: Resident since 1971, MPA from Syracuse, trained to be a city manager, moved to Plainfield from Wisconsin to work in the Model Cities program, was Planning Director. Appointed as Deputy Administrator, then appointed as City Administrator by Mayor Paul O’Keefe in 1974, stayed briefly after Mayor Lattimore was elected. Left in 1982 to become an investment banker in the public finance area. Now works for Raymond James. Works with many municipal officials around the country in that capacity.
Mr. Davis: Former City Councilor, Electrolux franchise owner with two stores, proponent of Plainfield, one of the founders of the Plainfield Chamber of Commerce, among other activities and volunteer positions.
2. To whom do you or did you report?
Mr. Gibson: Reported to Mayor when employed as Public Safety Director and City Administrator.
Mr. Bashe: In Model Cities, Tom Parks. As Deputy Administrator and staff for Human Relations Commission, to Kennedy Shaw, first City Administrator after Charter was enacted. Then reported to Mayor Paul O’Keefe as Administrator and briefly for Mayor Lattimore.
Mr. Davis: Question not posed to Mr. Davis, who was an elected official.
3. How frequently do you or did you meet with members of the governing body?
Mr. Gibson: Met weekly when City Administrator and Public Safety Director, as meetings were held weekly at that time.
Mr. Bashe: No City Council staff, so lots of work with them regarding citizen groups or their legislative responsibility. At least one meeting a week. Lots of involvement with Block Associations and citizens and city council.
Mr. Davis: Question not posed to Mr. Davis, who was a member of the governing body.
4. If you are or were involved in budgeting for your department or division, describe the budget process.
Mr. Gibson: Department Heads were given a budget format to complete, would go over it with the Chief Finance Officer, and then presented to City Council and Mayor prior to formal presentation as part of Mayor’s Executive Budget
Mr. Bashe: Budgets from bottom up at that time, by Division and Department Heads. There was a Budget Officer, who helped put together an executive budget. Budget process in NJ is unusual, as cities end up adopting a budget 3 months into the year, not optimum with severe financial problems, as city only gets the benefit of part of the year of cuts if necessary. Formed a citizen’s advisory committee.
Mr. Davis: Question not posed to Mr. Davis, who was an elected official.
5. Do you or did you have any contact with your counterparts in other municipalities? How often and in what context? 
Mr. Gibson: Met at professional meetings, and on as needed basis otherwise.
Mr. Bashe: Goal of charter was professionalizing management, had been viewed as a part time government, not fully engaged.  Lots of professional association involvement.
Mr. Davis: Question not posed to Mr. Davis, who was an elected official.
6. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?
Mr. Gibson: Yes
Mr. Bashe: Yes
Mr. Davis: Yes
7.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?
Mr. Gibson: Does not have a problem with the charter so long as it is adhered to, understands that he should not evaluate city officials in this interview and he agrees with that approach, but he has concerns about whether or not the city adheres to charter requirements. Has some issues with the three departments and the assignment of divisions to Public Safety, for instance. He does not believe that division of recreation, for instance, should have been part of Public Safety. He thinks that there are some changes that need to be made. Section 2.10, listing of separation of powers, for instance, and section 2.13 which mentions clerk of City Council but does not make it clear who should be the clerk.
Mr. Bashe: When you decide to create a unique Special Charter, there are many compromises along the way, and it is unfair to identify any one element and take issue with it, the element was probably the result of compromise. That having been said, he favors the separation of the legislative and executive functions for our kind of City. The basic professional model in his industry is a council and professional manager form, but that works best when there is a homogenous community with not a lot of basic issues, where it is just a matter of running the city operations. An elected executive and an elected legislature work best when there are many legislative issues to deal with, and so in each issue Charter Study is addressing, he falls under separation of powers. System works best when you set those boundaries and always have them to fall back on. There is no form of government that is really better than any other form, you have to set the environment in which the work takes place. You can fall back on the structure, but success requires people working together.  If it gets to the point where the City Council does not feel that the city administration and staff are not working to help them accomplish what they need, the system breaks down and you start getting requests for separate staff, etc.  
Mr. Davis: Advantage is that it sets out everyone’s role and there is a balance of power for all sides to stay in check. Disadvantage is also the separation of power when factions try to interfere with the other powers, whether executive, legislative or administrative. Everyone needs to learn their role.
8. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?
Mr. Gibson: No
Mr. Bashe: No   
Mr. Davis: No
9. If your answer to Question 8 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?
Mr. Gibson: n/a
Mr. Bashe: n/a
Mr. Davis: n/a
10. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?
Mr. Gibson: Was not involved in governmental operation in Newark, only other municipality where he worked
Mr. Bashe: In Plainfield during his tenure, he felt that we did things inefficiently on purpose. Spent lots of time on citizen issues, healing, citizen participation, not merely on running the operations of the city. 
Mr. Davis: He had exposure to other forms in one of his professional association roles and believes that form is not the key, the key is people. We can have problems with personalities who want to change laws to suit their own needs.
11.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?
Mr. Gibson: Does not like “at large” concept; “at large” representative really does not have a defined group of people to represent. Instead of 7 councilors, he would prefer 9, two from each ward and an elected city council president. That way, City Council President can focus on operating City Council without any specific allegiances to other Councilors, and other Councilors can tend to constituents.
Mr. Bashe: Seven is a good number, thinks it could be less, maybe. One “at large”, one for each ward and two hybrid “at large” seemed like a good compromise to him. “At large” is designed to let people focus on larger issues, not always be bound by very local issues.
Mr. Davis: Number is sufficient, perfect the way it is. Doesn’t like all “at large” concept, could have all councilors from the same family in the worst case.
12. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?
Mr. Gibson: They should be paid, but not provided with a benefits package. He does not believe that persons in part time jobs should get benefits. Not meant to be negative, but City has a budgetary concern, benefits cost same as pay. Most Councilors have jobs where they should get the benefits.  A person should run for office with the idea of serving, not being served.
Mr. Bashe: Should not create a financial disincentive, so some minimal compensation designed to cover expenses OK. Does not like the idea of elected officials depending upon their elected position for their livelihood, prefers part time concept.
Mr. Davis: Thinks that $10,000 is an honorarium. Should not be full time, but should receive compensation to allow for gas and out of pocket expenditures, should be able to take courses to learn about the job since they are like a board of directors of a multimillion dollar corporation .  Regarding benefits, he views it as a small part of the total, and not a big deal.
13. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?
Mr. Gibson: City Clerk should be appointed by Mayor. Under current governmental system, the mayor is the hiring and firing authority, should stay that way.  The clerk serves both the Executive and Legislative branch of government, sometimes can be difficult, but the City Clerk works for both, should not be put in a position to have to take sides. If Council needs separate clerk, they should budget for that.
Mr. Bashe: Already stated that he favors separation of executive and legislative. City Clerk has responsibility that is outside City Council responsibilities. Should be appointed in the normal way provided in the charter.  Three department heads was a compromise that limited advice and consent, bulk of hiring done administratively.
Mr. Davis: City Clerk should be appointed by council. Clerk of Council is main job. He believes that council should have aides or interns in the Clerk’s office to assist council, even if unpaid from local colleges.
14.  Do you think that the Special Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council? 
Mr. Gibson: Charter is not a device or document that could eliminate conflict between City Council and Mayor. Amending it to try to do that would not work out for the benefit of the citizens of the City. 
Mr. Bashe: Charter has little to do with the working relationship between the Mayor and Council. He believes that Charter should set the boundaries between legislative and executive.  Then the citizenry must elect quality officials and demand performance from them, Charter only sets the boundaries.
Mr. Davis: No charter or other law can make people work together. Voters need to hold officials accountable.
15.  The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.  
(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?
(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?
(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?
Mr. Gibson: Mr. Gibson does not believe this is a charter issue, but recommends a major evaluation of current division responsibility to see if current divisions best serve the citizens needs, as well as budgetary impact on the Departments that are covered by the Charter.  Department of Public Safety should be only that, with Police, Fire and Emergency Management. There should be a Health and Welfare Department  with code enforcement, Public Works (no urban development), a Department of Administration and Finance and a Department of Public Affairs (Senior service, recreation). 
Mr. Bashe: Whatever form we choose should provide flexibility, and the three ”super departments”  does that. There is flexibility in assigning divisions and allowing for advice and consent by city council of the key employees while the actual work is done at lower levels.  He thinks that there is enough flexibility to work across departments. People thought that Public Safety was too big, too many things under it.  Public Safety, with fewer resources when federal money dried up during his tenure, is and has been a priority, should not have to deal with recreation and health.
Mr. Davis:  Divisions should be assigned to meet the needs of the time. Does not think there should be more heads of divisions when people below are doing the work, should work within the budget. Three Departments are OK in his opinion. He agrees with Public Safety with director not police chief, voted as such when on council.
16.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?
Mr. Gibson: Corporation Counsel should represent the City, both executive and legislative branches, and can assign special counsel when necessary.  City Council should not hire its own attorneys. Plainfield is not financially capable of resolving in house disputes via outside counsel in courtrooms. City Council and Mayor should sit in a room and work things out. There should be a full time, in house, corporation counsel.
Mr. Bashe: Corporation Counsel represents the City, not the mayor or the City Council. If Corporation Counsel is uncomfortable, corporation counsel can appoint special counsel to deal with a special issue. Does not believe that everyone should have their own legal staff.
Mr. Davis: Personally speaking from his experience, would want council to have its own lawyer, but realizes that corporation counsel can represent City, use special counsel if necessary. City should have full time corporation counsel.
17. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?
Mr. Gibson: Believes they are adequate as in current charter. Does not believe that you can pick and choose among Faulkner Act provisions, does not believe that recall is generally beneficial to the government, and so prefers current percentage.
Mr. Bashe: There was a referendum that overturned an ordinance that he supported when he was Administrator. He recognizes that there needs to be some power for people to take action, but in his opinion the bar should be set as high as possible since, after all, we elected these people in the first place to do the governing and legislating.
Mr. Davis: Favors no change.
 18. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies?
Mr. Gibson: Retain four wards but amend boundaries when population requires it.
Mr. Bashe: Plainfield is only six square miles with fairly distinct neighborhoods, likes 4.
Mr. Davis: Fine as it is.
19. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections?
Mr. Gibson: Not in favor of non-partisan. May open up the electoral process to more people, but if you look at non-partisan municipalities, such as Newark, it is not successful in his opinion. He believes that there should be a two party system.  Non partisan elections are also more expensive because of runoff elections if candidates do not get the required percentage of votes to be elected.
Mr. Bashe: The people who propose nonpartisan are the people who are on the minority side. He is not a fan. Parties create discipline and participation; citizens should make them do that. Look at the Plainfield school board elections, non partisan elections do not have as much voter involvement.
Mr. Davis: Likes present system.
20. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?
Mr. Gibson: He can’t fairly answer, has been out of government for a while and does not have a copy of the code.
Mr. Bashe: Code is more detailed, from time to time he recalled discussion about what the Charter meant, but he does not remember a time when there was a big debate about the Code.
Mr. Davis: They have to work with one another, no issues.
21. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?
Mr. Gibson: 2.10 separation of powers, both are strong and both sides have to be cognizant and respect each other.
Mr. Bashe: Keep in mind that the Charter was a compromise, not fair to isolate one or two things that were the subject of compromise to criticize. Also, Charter Study should recommend things that we think we can get passed, have to keep that in mind, must compromise.  He recalls a Charter Study when he was administrator where  there was a recommendation to have two more at large council seats, and it did not gain traction because it did not have support at the time, viewed as political. An example of compromise under the Charter is that the mayor appoints the City Administrator and the three department heads who work for the City Administrator. He believes that was a compromise aimed at giving city council advice and consent of all of the department heads, but with a smaller number of departments. Under some Faulkner act forms, there are a lot of departments with city council advice and consent of all of the department heads.    He prefers the concept of an elected mayor, and the concept of the citizen politician for all elected officials, that is, citizens with jobs outside their elected positions who govern part time, with professional people to manage operations. City administration must be willing to work with elected officials to get things done. He perceives that charter study is concerned about the executive and legislative branches not getting along. We should acknowledge that right now, political process is bad everywhere, everything is a moral issue, people taking positions and backing into the facts, very hard to get people to compromise. The process is not just breaking down here in Plainfield.   
Mr. Davis: Charter is OK, we must keep elected officials accountable, no document can get them to work together.
22. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?
Mr. Gibson: Vacancies provisions, acting mayor provisions where City Councilor gets the job of mayor. Does not like the conflict of interest when a legislative branch person acts as executive branch person at the same time.  
Mr. Bashe: If you are going to try to do a special charter, that is a very tough job, must do every little issue, and debate and compromise. Consider looking at the Faulkner Act forms, and if you don’t like any of them, use one of them with a few adjustments to get to a special charter. 
Mr. Davis: Charter not perfect, but OK. Many issues can be dealt with by ordinance if necessary.




__________________________________________________________________
Charter Study Commission
City of Plainfield, New Jersey
Meeting Minutes
February 14, 2013 Meeting
Plainfield City Hall Library, 7:30 p.m.


Call to Order:  Mr.  Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:36 p.m.

Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Open Public Meeting Law: Mr. Stewart announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 12/26/12, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.

Roll Call of Commission Members:  Mr. Smiley took roll call.  Commissioners Mary Burgwinkle, Secretary; Marie Davis, Assistant Secretary; Rick Smiley, Chair and  John Stewart, Vice Chair were present.  Jeanette Criscione, Treasurer was excused. Mr. Smiley noted that there was a quorum present.

Minutes:  The 1/24/13 meeting minutes were adopted unanimously by voice vote, with no dissents or abstentions. 

Correspondence to the Commission: Ms. Burgwinkle reported that there was no correspondence to the Commission, but that there was correspondence to third parties from the Commission and that discussion would be deferred to the discussion of lists of interviewees.  

Treasurer Report:  There was no Treasurer report in Ms. Criscione’s absence.

Interviews: Ms. Elizabeth Urquhart, former City Councilor, and Mr. Harold Mitchell, former Mayor and City Counselor gave interviews. Attached as Exhibit A are the questions given to each and a very brief summary of their remarks. A verbatim recording of the meeting, including all of their remarks is available upon request.

Discussion of persons to invite for interviews on the present form of local government: 
Ms. Burgwinkle announced that former Mayor Mark Fury, who was scheduled to be interviewed at this meeting, was on trial and requested to call in rather than attending in person late on 2/13/13. Lacking the logistics for a call in, we asked him if we could reschedule his interview. Ms. Burgwinkle distributed an updated interview contact spreadsheet and advised that former City Administrator Larry Bashe had agreed to be interviewed on 2/28, along with former City Administrator and City Councilor Harold Gibson. Mrs. Davis indicated that former City Councilor Don Davis will attend either on 2/28 or 3/14. Ms. Burgwinkle further announced that former Corporation Counsel Jacqueline Drakeford was in the process of moving from Plainfield to Georgia, and requested to answer her questions via email rather than be present for an interview. Mrs. Davis suggested that all invitees should be given the opportunity to answer the questions via email.  Ms. Burgwinkle requested review of the interviewee list for persons to invite to participate via writing or email.  Mr. Smiley suggested that any interviewee who lives 30 or so miles away should be invited to participate by mail.  Ms. Burgwinkle and Mrs. Davis will continue to invite interviewees.  Mr. Rashid Burney, former City Councilor is confirmed for 3/14 at this juncture. Mrs. Davis will attempt to reschedule Mr. Fury for 2/18 or 3/14.   


Discussion of questions to be asked of interviewees: 
Ms. Burgwinkle announced to Commissioners that their packets included the edited questions that Commissioners worked on at the 1/24/13 meeting.  The questions were edited and divided into questions for employees, questions for non-employees and questions for the Commissioners to use in their own deliberations.
 
Announce Next Meeting:  The next meeting will be on 2/28/13.

Public Participation: No members of the public requested to be heard (observers were allowed to ask questions during the interviews).

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. by the Chair.

A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.

Exhibit A
Following are interview questions and a very brief summary of Ms. Urquhart’s and Mr. Mitchell’s  responses. A complete recording of the meeting and comments are available for review as described above.

Thank you so much for agreeing to an interview with the Plainfield Charter Study Commission and for your prior service to the City of Plainfield. Your interview will help us to study Plainfield’s current special charter, the Plainfield Charter (1968), hereinafter described as the “Plainfield City Charter”, a copy of which is attached to these questions. 

Kindly review the interview questions below. These are the questions that we will ask at your interview. We want to emphasize that we are studying our form of government only. We are not auditing or questioning the acts or policies of our current or past elected or appointed officials. We ask that you limit your responses to the following questions to charter issues, exclusively. If there are questions that you prefer not to answer, just let us know that during the interview and thank you again.

Interview Questions-February 14, 2013

1. Please briefly introduce yourself and describe your present or former role in Plainfield’s government.
Ms. Urquhart: Lifetime Plainfielder, married a Plainfielder, Plainfield Schools, retiree from AT&T, City Councilor for 16 years, among other things, acting mayor, deputy mayor, suggested last charter study.
Mr. Mitchell: Former Mayor, City Councilor, PMUA Commission Chair, PASA, PJM, among other things, goal is to reduce garbage rates, bring business in and to serve the community.

2. Have you read Plainfield’s City Charter?
Ms. Urquhart: yes
Mr. Mitchell: yes

3.  What do you consider to be the most important advantages of Plainfield’s present form of local government, the Plainfield City Charter? What are its disadvantages, in your opinion?
Ms. Urquhart: Advantages are flexibility; city can organize internal affairs, establish and abolish offices and define their functions and
exercise all powers of local government in such fashion as Council believes necessary. Disadvantage is revisions must be approved by 2/3 vote of legislature. For example, Mayor could be made fulltime by local ordinance, however, three departments can only be changed with legislative approval.
Mr. Mitchell: Advantages are need for legislative approval of any charter changes, and Public Safety Director to work with Mayor and City Council rather than Police Chief. Disadvantage is that Council does not have its own Counsel.

4. Is there anything in the Plainfield City Charter that hindered you from carrying out your role in Plainfield’s government?
Ms. Urquhart: No
Mr. Mitchell: No

5. If your answer to Question 4 was yes, were the provisions of the Plainfield City Charter the problem or do you believe that the Charter was being interpreted incorrectly?
Ms. Urquhart: n/a
Mr. Mitchell: n/a

6. If you have had experience with forms of municipal government other than Plainfield’s City Charter, how did the operation of the municipal government under those forms compare?
Ms. Urquhart: No other experience
Mr. Mitchell: Must adhere strictly to the charter, but “wiggle room” on some items under Faulkner Act Forms.

7.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the Plainfield City Charter? Is the City Council too large or too small? Should there be one City Councilor from each ward, and three elected at large from the whole City, rather than 1-4, 2-3 and one at large?   Should all City Councilors be elected at large?
Ms. Urquhart: Satisfied with status quo
Mr. Mitchell:  City Council is too small , would prefer 3 at large Councilors, but thinks that all wards should be represented, not in favor of all Councilors elected at large. 

8. Should City Councilors be compensated or should they receive $1 per year for their services as in some other municipalities?  Should the council receive benefits?
Ms. Urquhart: Council should be compensated, with benefits
Mr. Mitchell: Council should be compensated because of the work that they do at meetings and in the community

9. In your opinion, should the City Clerk, who acts as clerk of the City Council, be appointed by the Mayor or by the City Council?
Ms. Urquhart: City Council
Mr. Mitchell: Mayor, but should be a working relationship.

10.  Do you think that the Special Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the Mayor and City Council? 
Ms. Urquhart: No
Mr. Mitchell: Possible, but should have a cooperative working relationship

11.  The Plainfield City Charter provides for three City Departments, Administration and Finance, Public Works and Public Affairs and Safety.  
(a) Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the appropriate Departments for peak efficiency?
(b) Should the Plainfield City Charter be changed to allow for between 3 and 6 Departments, to be established by ordinance?
(c) Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?
Ms. Urquhart: Ms. Urquhart could not receive the information she needed to answer this in time for the meeting.
Mr. Mitchell: Does not have a current opinion on assignment of divisions, was satisfied in his administration. Does not have an opinion of number of departments. Is in favor of Public Safety Department in its present form, key is qualified people with cooperative attitudes. 

12.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Plainfield City Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel?
Ms. Urquhart:  Counsel should have its own attorney, no attorney can serve two masters. 
Mr. Mitchell: Counsel should have its own attorney, should be full time in-house corporation counsel.

13. The Plainfield City Charter provides for initiative and referendum upon petitions with signatures of 20% of registered city voters, and for recall of elected officials with signatures of 33 1/3 % of registered voters. Should the Plainfield City Charter be amended to follow the Faulkner Act (10%-15% of voters who voted in the last election for initiative and referendum under circumstances described in the law and 25% for recall)?  Should the recall percentage be less than 25%?
Ms. Urquhart:  maintain status quo
Mr. Mitchell: maintain status quo, should be a high percentage of voters to recall any elected official.

14. In your opinion, should Plainfield have more or fewer Wards? Would more or fewer Wards provide better representation for all constituencies?
Ms. Urquhart: 4 wards
Mr. Mitchell: 4 wards

15. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for Mayor and City Council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections?
Ms. Urquhart: Her opinion is that there must have more than 50,000 in population for non-partisan and she objects to cost of elections in May, believes that current system provides for seasoned candidates after screening.
Mr. Mitchell: Partisan

16. How does the Plainfield City Charter work with the Plainfield Municipal Code? Were they used together consistently in your experience? If NO, what is your recommendation?
Ms. Urquhart: Must work together, in her experience, they functioned together
Mr. Mitchell: They function together, must cooperate if there are issues

17. Are there any provisions of the Plainfield City Charter that you think can be improved? If so what do you suggest?
Ms. Urquhart: She could not get all of the information she needed to answer.
Ms. Mitchell: None other than mentioned above.

18. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of Plainfield City Charter?
Ms. Urquhart: Section 2.6 provides that counsel meeting must be held at city hall, that could be amended.
Mr. Mitchell: None other than already mentioned.


__________________________________________________________________

Charter Study Commission

City of Plainfield, New Jersey

Meeting Minutes

January 24, 2013 Meeting

Plainfield City Hall Library, 7:30 p.m.


Call to Order:  Mr.  Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:37 p.m.


Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.


Open Public Meeting Law: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 12/26/12, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.


Roll Call of Commission Members:  Mr. Smiley took roll call.  Commissioners Mary Burgwinkle, Secretary; Jeanette Criscione, Treasurer; Marie Davis, Assistant Secretary and Rick Smiley, Chair were all present. John Stewart, Vice Chair was excused.


Minutes:  The 1/08/13 meeting minutes were adopted unanimously by voice vote, with no objections or abstentions.


Correspondence to the Commission: Ms. Burgwinkle reported email correspondence from Dr. Ernest Reock answering the question about forms of government posed after the last meeting, as follows. 


In response to the questions raised about forms of government available to Plainfield-

Leaving aside the possibilities of a special charter or amendments to the current special charter in Plainfield, the only “pre-packaged” forms of government that you, as a Charter Commission, can recommend and place on the ballot for a referendum are the forms in the OMCL: the Mayor-Council form, the Council-Manager form, and the Mayor-Council Administrator form (Plainfield is too big for the Small Municipalities form).


The Commission Form and the 1923 Municipal Manager Forms remain available to any municipality, and you could recommend one of them, but this would have to be an “advisory” recommendation, and the question of adoption could only be placed on the ballot by a petition process, not by the Charter Commission.


In terms of usage, the Commission form was very popular early in the 20th century, with adoption by about 65 places, including most of the larger cities. The form has been losing favor over the last 60 years, with the number of places using it down, as of 2011, to only 30 – mostly small seashore resorts. The main criticisms were that it placed all municipal functions in three or five departments, each headed by a very powerful commissioner, and there was little in the form to encourage any central coordination of the departments or to ensure that the departments received professional administration.


The 1923 Municipal Manager Form was never adopted by very many municipalities, although a few of those places have used it for many years, apparently with some success. The original major criticism of the form was that it created a very strong position of Municipal Manager and then provided tenure in office for that person after a brief period of years. Many communities did not want to place themselves in such a situation. The tenure provision for the Manager has now been eliminated but, by the time this was done, attention had shifted to the OMCL version of a Council-Manager Plan. Only seven places still use the 1923 version.


I hope this answers your questions.

Ernest Reock


Treasurer Report:  Ms. Criscione reported no new Treasurer report.


Interview: Dr. Harold Yood gave an extensive interview. Attached as Exhibit A are the questions given to Dr. Yood and a very brief summary of his remarks. A verbatim recording of the meeting, including all of Dr. Yood’s remarks is available upon request.


Discussion of persons to invite for interviews on the present form of local government:

An extensive list of current and former elected and appointed officials and other involved citizens was developed at the 1/08/13 meeting. Mr. Thomas Morrison and Mr. Edward Santiago were added at a subcommittee meeting between Mr. Smiley and Ms. Burgwinkle on 1/19/13. Mrs. Davis added Mr. Albert Hendrix at the 1/24 meeting.  Ms. Burgwinkle distributed a spreadsheet with interviewee contact information and requested that the Commissioners review it and add missing information. Ms. Burgwinkle received permission to send a letter from the CSC to existing elected and appointed officials that the interview process was beginning and letting them know that they would be contacted. For the 2/14/13 meeting, the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary will contact prior mayors and city councilors for interviews. There was discussion about asking some of the persons on the larger list to answer questions by email or in a manner other than an interview at a meeting.


Discussion of questions to be asked of interviewees:

The Commissioners reviewed the interview questions that each Commissioner submitted for consideration after the last meeting. Consensus was reached on a list of questions for former and current elected officials and employees and on questions that will be addressed by the Commissioners during their study and deliberations.

 
Announce Next Meeting:  At the next meeting on 2/14/13, at 7:30 p.m., the Commission will attempt to conduct three interviews. It was suggested that the former mayors and former city councilors be approached.   Ms. Burgwinkle suggested that the Commissioners read the South Orange charter and committee report and the Englewood charter as they compare to Plainfield’s charter.


 Public Participation: No members of the public requested to be heard (observers were allowed to ask questions during Dr. Yood’s interview).


Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:38 p.m. by the Chair.


A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.


Exhibit A

Following are interview questions and a very brief summary of Dr. Yood’s responses. A complete recording of the meeting and comments are available for review as described above.


Thank you so much for agreeing to an interview with the Plainfield Charter Study Commission.  Attached is a copy of the Plainfield Charter (1968) (the “Special Charter”). Following are the questions that we will ask at your interview. Please confine your responses to the form of government.


1. Please state your name and address, and give us a brief explanation why you are interested in Charter Study in Plainfield.

Harold Yood, MD, of 1353 Cushing Rd. Dr. Yood has an extensive CV, is a lifelong Plainfield resident, whose family roots in Plainfield go back to 1868. Dr. Yood has followed the City Council for 20 years, writes a blog on City issues and takes a serious interest in the well being of the City. 

2. Have you read the Special Charter?

Yes, and have publicly referred to it several times.

3. What do you consider to be the most important advantages of our present form of local government, the Special Charter?

Present charter represents the purest efficient form of local democratic government.

4. What do you consider to be the most important disadvantages of our present form of local government, the Special Charter?

Major disadvantages of the charter are that City Council does not have independent legal support and the Department structure is illogical and inefficient.

5. How can the present form of local government be improved, in your opinion?

The past 7 years have demonstrated a weakness in the strong mayor concept. That is not necessarily fatal, but perhaps the Mayor/Council/City Administrator format with the Administrator responsible to the Council would be more efficient, although I do not feel that we need such a change. 

6. Are you aware of any provisions of the Special Charter that may be obsolete based on revised state law?  Regardless of state law, are there provisions of the Special Charter that seem obsolete to you? Which provisions?

There may be some provisions that are obsolete about which I am unaware.

7.  What is your opinion on the number of City Council members under the present form of government? Is the City Council too large or too small? Seven members of sufficient quality are sufficient to conduct council functions. Five members are too few in Dr. Yood’s opinion. Nine members may be better with a rearrangement of the selection process. Possible that a larger body would result in a greater percentage of strong members.   

8.  Should City Council members be elected for four year terms every other year, rather than our present system of electing council members every year? Dr. Yood believes that 4 year terms are too long for City Council, but 4 year term for Mayor should not be changed, but there should be a term limit. City Council should be 3 year terms with maximum 3 terms. If 9 city councilors, should have three elected every year.  

9. Are the Wards (as presently drawn) representative of our overall community, in your opinion? Should there be more or fewer wards? Dr. Yood believes that there is demographic inequality under our present 4 ward system, believes that 6 wards with a councilor per ward and three at large should be considered.

10. What is your opinion of non-partisan local elections (for mayor and council) rather than primaries and partisan local elections?

Dr. Yood believes that there should be no place for political parties at the local level, however, there is no such thing as a non-partisan election. It is too easy for small power groups that can have a greater impact on the makeup of the counsel to be elected. As a result, he believes that we should retain the party primary election format.

11. In your opinion, should the City Clerk be appointed by the Mayor or the City Council?

Dr. Yood believes that the clerk is the Secretary of the Council and should be appointed by the Council.

12.  Do you think that the Special Charter could be improved in any way that would enhance the working relationship between the mayor and council?  No

13.  Do you believe that the Office of Corporation Counsel can properly represent both the Mayor and City Council as provided in the Special Charter? Should there be a provision for separate counsel for the governing body? Should there be full time in-house Corporation Counsel? Dr. Yood does not believe that counsel appointed by and serving at the will of the Mayor will represent the Council’s interest in a dispute and that the Council should have separate counsel.  No need for full time corporation counsel.

14. The Special Charter describes three departments of government.

A. Do you believe that three departments are sufficient?

B. Do you believe that the current city divisions are assigned to the departments described in the Special Charter for peak efficiency?

C.  Should the charter allow for between 3 and 6 Departments?

D. Does Plainfield need the Department of Public Affairs and Safety in its current form?

Dr. Yood does not believe that the three departments are workable, that there is no rhyme or reason for the assignment of divisions to departments. He suggests 5 departments, Administration, Finance, Public Safety, Public Works, Urban Development.  He believes that there should be a Police Chief.

15. If you are familiar with any other forms of government in New Jersey, how do they compare to the Special Charter?

Dr. Yood believes that a more powerful City Administrator form would not work in our single party environment as too much political pressure could be placed on the Administrator and that Weak Mayor/Strong Council forms only work in smaller, homogenous municipalities.

16. Do you have any other observations that you would like to share about the provisions of the Special Charter? Dr. Yood believes that the charter worked well in times of civic minded individuals, that there should be a provision that allows council to fill critical vacant positions that exist over a time period to be determined, and that nepotism should be prohibited.  He also believes that the percentage of voters needed for Recall is much too large at 33 1/3%, suggests 25% of the number of voters who voted in the last election or 10% of the registered voters.

 








Charter Study Commission

City of Plainfield, New Jersey

Meeting Minutes, page 1 of 5

January 8, 2013 Meeting

Plainfield City Hall Library, 7:30 p.m.



Call to Order:  Mr.  Smiley called the meeting to order at 7:28 p.m.



Salute to the Flag: Mrs. Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.



Open Public Meeting Law: Ms. Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on 12/26/12, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.



Roll Call of Commission Members:  Mr. Smiley took roll call.  Commissioners Mary Burgwinkle, Secretary; Jeanette Criscione, Treasurer;  Marie Davis, Assistant Secretary;  Rick Smiley, Chair and John Stewart, Vice Chair were all present.



Minutes:  On a motion made by Mrs. Davis and seconded by Mr. Smiley, the 12/11/12 meeting minutes were adopted unanimously by voice vote, with no objections or abstentions. Ms. Burgwinkle commented that she had done a summary transcription of Dr. Ernest Reock's comments at the meeting as he was a renowned guest, and that there is a complete recording of the comments for anyone who wants to hear his remarks verbatim.



Correspondence to the Commission: Ms. Burgwinkle reported email correspondence from Mr. Al Restaino and from David Minchello, Esq. and requested deferring discussion of the correspondence until the Budget Committee Report.



Treasurer Report:  Ms. Criscione requested deferring discussion to the report of the Budget Committee.



Report on Blog: Mr. Stewart reported that the blog is up and live at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com. No comments have been received on the blog to date, and Mr. Stewart has coverage for the blog while he is on vacation.



Report of Meeting Dates Committee: Ms. Burgwinkle reported that a meeting was held with the City Clerk on 12/14/12 to schedule meetings for the term of the Commission. The public notice of the schedule is on the Commission blog and the city website. Meetings will be at 7:30 on Thursdays in the Library. 



Report of Budget Committee: Ms. Criscione reported that she was at the City Council meeting on 12/17/12 and was asked to address the council on the Commission budget, which had not yet been drafted. She and Ms. Burgwinkle, the other member of the Budget Committee, discussed the budget on 12/18/12, and Ms. Burgwinkle also discussed the budget with Mr. Stewart on 12/18/12. Ms. Burgwinkle reported that she drafted the budget, using consultant Dr. Reock's budget worksheet as a model, with adaptations. She explained that the budget contained both a requested amount, as well as a second column which factored into the budget estimates for in-kind and complementary services.  She is contributing secretarial services, including recording meetings, preparing and copying meetings and agendas and report writing.  Mr. Stewart is contributing blog creation and maintenance and report design and the commission is receiving consulting for no consideration from Rutgers. The budget also contains an estimated time when the expenditures would be made as well as

notes for each line item which are critical to an understanding of the budget. The total budget request column is $34,615.24.  Of that amount, $29,160.24 relates to printing, preparation for mailing, and mailing and distributing the final report.    Ms. Burgwinkle reported that after submitting the budget via email to Mr. Berry's office on 12/19/12, the Commission was granted a meeting with Mr. Restaino on 12/21/12. At the meeting, Mr. Stewart and Ms. Burgwinkle explained that the estimate for the final report was a highest possible estimate, and that the Commission intended to deliberate on complying with the statute regarding distribution to all interested persons in the most cost effective manner.  Mr. Restaino suggested that the City would ask Corporation Counsel for an opinion whether the report needed to be mailed to every household. Subsequently, Mr. David Minchello, City Solicitor, issued the following opinion which was read into the meeting record.



"At your request, I have reviewed whether the Charter Study Commission is required to mail its final recommendation to every resident in the City of Plainfield. In examining this question, I reviewed N.J.S.A. 40:69A-10 and any relevant case law. It is my opinion that there is no requirement that the Charter Study Commission mail a copy to every resident in the City. The language of N.J.S.A. 40:69A-10 specifically states that the Commission, “shall file with the municipal clerk an original signed copy of any final report containing said findings and recommendations made by any member of the commission. It shall also deliver to the municipal clerk sufficient copies of any such report to permit distribution to any interested citizen. The municipal clerk shall deliver a copy of any such report to each member of the governing body.” Nowhere within this section is there an affirmative obligation on the part of the Commission to mail the findings to every resident.

If the Commission desires to make the final report available at various locations within the City (Library, City Hall, etc.), that is perfectly permissible. However, I recommend that the Commission speak with the City Clerk on this matter as it is ultimately his responsibility to disseminate the final report.

If you have any questions on this matter, or any other matter involving the Charter Study Commission, please feel free to contact me."



The Commission will continue to work on the budget to refine the expense for printing and distributing the final report to be as cost effective as possible. Ms. Burgwinkle read the following notes from the Budget Request into the record.



"Introduction: Expenditures by Charter Study Commissions are contemplated by the New Jersey State Statute that governs the election and duties of Charter Study Commissions, N.J.S.A. 40:69A-1 et seq. Section 8 provides that Charter Commissioners shall serve without compensation but can be reimbursed for their necessary expenses incurred in connection with their duties.  It further provides that commissions may pay reasonable compensation to consultants, clerical and other assistants, within the limits of such appropriations and privately contributed funds that are made available to them. Section 10 provides that commissions must deliver to the municipal clerk sufficient copies of their final report to permit distribution to any interested citizen. (The complete text of both sections are attached as Exhibit A). In the letter and spirit of the statute, the Plainfield Charter Study Commission submits its budget request for the calendar year 2013.  Because there is no modern precedent for a Charter Commission budget in Plainfield, we modeled our budget after a worksheet provided by Dr. Ernest Reock of the Rutgers Center for Government Services at the Commission organization meeting held on 12/11/12, a copy of which is attached as Exhibit B. This budget is designed to estimate as much printing expense as possible, with further deliberation on the actual necessary amount as the Commission meets during 2013, with an emphasis on being as cost effective as possible. Please also note that Commissioners are volunteering to perform clerical, design, writing and public relations tasks that would customarily require expenditures, and using consulting at no cost from Rutgers in order to be as efficient as possible.  Finally, please note that these notes are a material part of the budget request, which should not be read without referring to each line item note."





"Note 4:  Final Report will be the largest expense of the Commission by far. Regarding layout and formatting, the Commission Vice Chair has volunteered to provide this service, conservatively estimated at 10 hours at $75 per hour, for a $750 savings.  As previously noted above, Section 10 of the statute attached as Exhibit A requires the Commission to deliver sufficient copies of the final report to permit distribution to any interested citizen. A typical size for such reports is approximately 24 pages, either printed on one or two sides (Hopewell 2005 Report was 23 pages printed on both sides, Plainfield 1990 Charter Committee report was 21 pages, for instance). The report deadline is 9 months after the election, so delivery would be August 6, 2013 and distribution would happen after that.  The interpretation of "distribution to any interested citizen" will be the subject of much discussion and deliberation as the Commission proceeds with its work. Interpretations can range from mailing a copy to every household, to mailing a copy to every registered voter, to mailing a copy to every household that contains a registered voter, to posting the report as a PDF on the city website, and delivering an undetermined number of copies to the public library or municipal clerk's office for citizens to pick up.  The Commission is very conscious of the need to be cost effective, while respecting its responsibilities under the statute, and we believe that we will arrive at a responsible interpretation.  Meanwhile, however, in order to give a budget estimate, we are giving the estimate that will result in the highest possible cost. We obtained an estimate from Mr. Alan Strober of Direct Mail Depot, formerly of A&E Mailers, and a vendor of the City of Plainfield. The estimate contemplates copying a double sided 24 letter size page report, inserting into envelopes, addressing, sorting and mailing to every Plainfield household (18,684, rounded up to 19,000 to allow for copies to public officials, Commissioners, Municipal Clerk, Public Library, community organizations.)   The estimate is attached hereto as Exhibit C. Total is $29,160.24."



Later in the meeting, Mr. Smiley requested a motion to approve the budget request, which was made by Ms. Burgwinkle and seconded by Ms. Criscione. The motion passed unanimously by voice vote with no objections or abstentions.



Discussion of first phase of study: Mr. Smiley and Ms. Burgwinkle made brief remarks on the phases of study for the Commission.  The Commission is about to embark on Phase I, study and examination of the present form of government, as generally discussed in Change in New Jersey Municipal Organization, pages 12 to 17, by Dr. Ernest Reock.



Discussion of persons to invite for interviews on the present form:  Phase I of Charter Commission study generally involves interviewing municipal officials and directors from the present and past on the operation of the government under the present form. Commissioners were assigned homework at the 12/11/12 meeting concerning a list of invitees.  The inviting protocol followed by the 1990 Plainfield Charter Study Evaluation Committee was to interview representatives of the State Department of Community Affairs, then City Councillors and former Mayors and City Administrators, ending with the current mayor and the current heads of the Democratic Party and Republican Party, and Ms. Burgwinkle suggested following that protocol.  The Commissioners held a roundtable brainstorming and the following names were suggested to be on the initial list (by the Commissioners and by observers in the audience), to be further refined, especially since the Commission is close to a month behind as a result of the storm.



The brainstorming list included:



All current City Councillors, current City Administrator and Division Directors, current Mayor, current City Democratic Party Chair.  Past Mayors Harold Mitchell and Mark Fury. Past City Administrators Larry Bashe, Jerry Harris, Bibi Taylor, Al Smith, Hank Kita, Mark Dashield, Harold Gibson, Jewel Thompson Chin. Past City Councillors Annie McWilliams, Rashid Burney, Harold Gibson, Elliott  Simmons, Elizabeth Urquhart, Donna Vose, Don Davis, Jon Bramnick, Linda Carter, Faheemah El-Amin, Gwen Crews.  Past Corporation Counsel Rowand Clark, Dan Williamson, Harold Hamlette, Jackie Drakeford, Lisa Love, Siobhan Teare. Past Division

Directors Ron West, Priscilla Castles, Michael Lattimore, Siddeeq El-Amin, Norton Bonaparte, Peter Sepelya, Walter McNeil.  Former City Clerk Laddie Wyatt. Current Republican Party City Chair. Bloggers who have expressed a point of view on city government and charter study, such as Dr. Yood. 



A short discussion ensued about civic organizations such as neighborhood watch groups and other neighborhood associations, unions, senior citizen groups. Ms. Criscione suggested that those groups be extended a formal invitation to appear at the public hearing/town hall at the end of the first phase of study. The list of interviewees will be discussed and refined at future meetings. There was also discussion about establishing a two person outreach committee to attend meetings of the various civic associations to talk about the process.



Discussion of questions to be asked of interviewees:  The Commission discussed questions for interviewees. Dr. Reock's consulting topics do not include drafting our questions, but he supplied a set of sample questions for us to see.  The questions are comprehensive, but general in subject matter and not necessarily relevant to our charter or to a large community with a Mayor and City Administrator in place. Looking at the questions/issues discussed by the 1990 City Charter Evaluation Committee, the approach to questions was very specific to the articles of our charter. The Commissioners generally agreed that the questions we use should be specific to the charter, and that more work needs to be done on the questions. Each Commissioner will draft 5 or more questions by Monday, January 14 and email them to the Secretary for compiling and distributing. There was also discussion about the forms of government that Plainfield is eligible to use. Ms. Criscione suggested that the Municipal Manager or Commission forms were possible, other commissioners believed that the Special Charter or three of the Faulkner Act forms were our options.  A decision was made to contact Dr. Reock via email to ask for help with that question.



Announce Next Meeting:  At the next meeting on 1/24/13, at 7:30 p.m., the Commission may begin interviews. It was suggested that either Dr. Yood or former mayors or city clerk could be possible subjects. 





 Public Participation: The following members of the public participated.



Alan Goldstein,  939 Madison Avenue. Mr. Goldstein suggested that the City should have nine smaller wards rather than four wards.  He believes that smaller wards would make them more representative, that it would be easier for a city councillor or candidate to canvass or communicate and that more people may be interested in running. He also suggested changing to non-partisan elections and sending Commissioners into the schools for a civics lesson with the idea that parents may become more involved.



 Dr. Harold Yood,  1353 Cushing Road. Dr. Yood approved of questioning interviewees how the charter helps or impedes their jobs. He also favors tweaking our special charter rather than getting locked into a Faulkner Act form. He believes that Corporation Counsel provisions of the Charter should be amended, as it is a conflict for Corporation Counsel to represent the legislative and executive branches. He also suggested that a larger number of divisions should be considered. He asked if Dan Damon could place the Charter Study Commission blog on his blog and he was told that it had been done.



Bernice Paglia, 124 E. Seventh St. Ms. Paglia suggested that we consider how the charter could better fit the functions of the City regarding the divisions. For instance, for Public Affairs and Safety, high level public safety officers may not need to have someone over them. That was a remnant of the civil disturbances of the 1960's which are no longer an issue.



Robert Edwards, concerned citizen. Mr. Edwards suggested that we should consider reducing the % of signatures for recall to 25% (the Faulkner Act percentage) rather than the 33 1/3% in our charter.



Dan Damon, 661 W. 7th St.  Mr. Damon suggested that we should settle the issue of the choices that we have and compare them to the current charter now. He fears our amassing a "mishmash" of information with no compass. He suggested devoting more energy to specific questions and knowing how our charter differs from existing state law. He suggested asking possible interviewees who cannot be physically present to fill out a form with questions so that we get their input. He also warned the Commissioners against violating the Sunshine Law by copying each other on emails.    



Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m. by the Chair.



A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.








Charter Study Commission

City of Plainfield, New Jersey

Meeting Minutes, page 1 of 4

December 11, 2012 Organizational Meeting

Plainfield City Hall Library, 7:00 p.m.


Call to Order: Commissioner Burgwinkle called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and presided over the balance of the meeting as temporary chair, noting that all commissioners had been sworn in prior to the start of the meeting.


Salute to the Flag: Commissioner Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance.


Open Public Meeting Law: Commissioner Criscione announced that the Notice Requirement provided for in the Open Public Meeting Law had been satisfied. Notice was properly given, said notice having been transmitted to the Courier-News and the Star-Ledger on November 28, 2012, as well as posting on the City website and on the City Clerk's bulletin board.


Introduction of Commission Members:  Commissioners Mary Burgwinkle, Jeanette Criscione, Marie Davis, Rick Smiley and John Stewart briefly introduced themselves to those present.


Adoption of Bylaws:  Commissioner Smiley moved for adoption of the "By-laws of the Plainfield Charter Study Commission", contained in a document that had been reviewed and distributed to the Commissioners prior to the meeting. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis.  The Chair asked for discussion items and hearing none, conducted a voice vote of five yes votes, with no objections or abstentions. The motion passed and the Bylaws were adopted.


Nomination and Election of Officers:  Commissioner Stewart nominated the following slate of officers: Rick Smiley, Chair; John Stewart, Vice Chair; Jeanette Criscione, Treasurer, Mary Burgwinkle, Secretary; Marie Davis, Assistant Secretary. Each nominee separately verbally accepted his or her nomination. The Chair conducted a voice vote on election of the slate officers of five yes votes, with no objections or abstentions, and the officers were elected.


Discussion of Charter Study Commission Process: The Chair introduced two guests, Dr. Ernest Reock, Professor Emeritus at Rutgers College and retired Director of Rutgers College Center for Government Services, and Assistant Director Kathy Cupano. Dr. Reock's remarks are briefly  summarized on Exhibit A to these minutes. A verbatim recorded transcript of the meeting and the remarks can be obtained by contacting the Commissioners on the Charter Commission blog, http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com.


Announce next meeting and Work Assignments for Commissioners: The Chair announced that the work planning meeting will be 1/8/13 at 7:30 pm at City Hall Library. Before then, all meeting dates will be set so that City Clerk can send out one set of Public Notice Ads. Regarding work assignments, Commissioners Burgwinkle and Criscione will be Budget Committee and will meet as soon as possible. Commissioners Burgwinkle and Davis will be the Meeting Schedule Committee.  Meeting has been set up with City Clerk for 12/14/2012. Commissioner Stewart is constructing a blog, and he advised that it would be live on 12/20/2012. Homework for Commissioners for the next meeting is to make lists of prospective interviewees about our existing form of government, and lists of questions to pose to interviewees. Commissioner Smiley asked Dr. Reock if he had suggested questions and Dr. Reock agreed to forward a list of questions via email.



Charter Study Commission

City of Plainfield, New Jersey

Meeting Minutes, page 2 of 4

December 11, 2012 Organizational Meeting

Plainfield City Hall Library, 7:00 p.m.



 Public Participation: The Chair read Article V, Section 4. of the By-Laws regarding Public Participation.

The following members of the public participated.


Honorable Adrian Mapp, President of City Council, greeted the Commissioners and Dr. Reock, advised the Commissioners that the administration was setting aside money for the temporary budget which will be acted on by the City Council in January. He further asked a technical question confirming treatment of reports under the Faulkner Act.


Honorable Cory Storch, City Council Second Ward, 705 Ravine Road, thanked Dr. Reock and the Commissioners for their service. 


Dan Damon, 661 W. 7th St., asked whether a majority of Commissioners could conduct an out of town visit without violating the Open Public Meetings Act and Dr. Reock answered no.  He further suggested that the Commissioners build a list of emails of persons who want to be notified about Commission meetings to use as a communication tool.


Robert Edwards, concerned citizen, asked if minutes, and hard copies of minutes would be made available to the public. He was told that minutes will be put on the blog and the City website to be available to the public.


City Clerk Abubakar Jalloh greeted and thanked Dr. Reock and offered his services to the Commission.


Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m. by the Chair.


A Full Length Recorded Copy of this Meeting is available by contacting the Charter Commissioners at http://plainfieldcsc.blogspot.com/.




Charter Study Commission

City of Plainfield, New Jersey

Meeting Minutes, page 3 of 4

December 11, 2012 Organizational Meeting

Plainfield City Hall Library, 7:00 p.m.


Exhibit A-Brief Summary of the Remarks of Dr. Ernest Reock


Dr. Reock congratulated the commissioners on their elections, and told us that he was sure that we would find Charter Study Commission to be a time consuming but rewarding job. Dr. Reock proceeded to hand out copies of the Faulkner Act, updated to be current to his best knowledge, to each of the commissioners. He pointed out that Kathy Cupano, also in attendance, is assistant director of the Rutgers College Center for Government Services and that he is the retired director and that they operate as a tag team in trying to provide some assistance to Charter Study Commissions, at no cost, as a service of the university.


He described his role as strictly neutral, he will not make recommendations on the findings of the Charter Study Commission, but calls on their considerable experience to help charter study commissions that request their help. They will attend meetings occasionally, be available by phone and will provide materials that could help in the work of the commission. He commented that previously, consultants attended every meeting, but consulting of that type has gone out of style.


He pointed out that the Faulkner Act tells commissioners what to do, but not how to do it, there are very few specific ground rules in the law. He pointed out that the Act mandates organizing, selecting a chair, adopting rules, setting meeting dates within 15 days of the election.  He pointed out that none of the three Charter Study Commissions elected in the 11/6/12 General Election had organized in 15 days due to the Hurricane (referring to the fact that the General Election was not certified until 11/26/12 due to the complications from the storm).  Duties of Charter Study Commissioners enumerated in the statute are to study the government that we have now. Then, we compare our form of government to the forms of government that are available to Plainfield in order to determine if our government could be strengthened, made more clearly responsive or accountable to the people, or made more economical or efficient.  He emphasized that we should keep our eye on the target, that we were not elected to reexamine or audit policies that have been adopted or actions of our city council in the past. We are looking at the form of city government and whether it helps the city operate efficiently.


He further noted that there are four types of reports that we can make, ultimately. One type would be to examine our form of government and the others available and come to the conclusion that the present form is best and that there should be no change.  If that report is made, the Commission is discharged upon making the report and work is finished. The next type of report would be a recommendation that our present form should be changed to one of the forms available to us under the Faulkner Act. According to Dr. Reock, that recommendation would lead to the form being placed on the ballot for a vote of the citizens. The third type of report would be that having examined our present form and the Faulkner Act forms, we do not believe that the pre-packaged Faulkner Act forms are appropriate for us, so we would draft a new special charter or amendments to the special charter that Plainfield already has. That report would go directly to the state legislature, would need 2/3 vote of both houses and a signature of the governor. If that is accomplished, the legislature would send it back to the City for either a referendum of the people or a vote of the governing body, whichever the legislature required. The fourth and final type of report would be advisory recommendations on city government, but if that type of report is made, the Commission has no power to put the recommendations into place.


Charter Study Commission

City of Plainfield, New Jersey

Meeting Minutes, page 4 of 4

December 11, 2012 Organizational Meeting

Plainfield City Hall Library, 7:00 p.m.


Exhibit A-Continuation from page 3


He pointed out that we need to operate under the Open Public Meeting Act and make and keep minutes.  We must also hold public meetings where we allow citizens to come to tell us what they think. He pointed out that we have 9 months from the election to finish our work, that we do not need to take the entire 9 months, but we have already lost time due to the storm.  He brought handouts including a timetable for charter study commissions, not mandated for following, but helpful.  Generally, he told us that Commissions divide their work into phases, and usually take the first month to organize and plan out the rest of the work time. First phase would be reading our charter and talking to people who work in government to find out everything we can about how it works now.   Second Phase would be looking at other communities' forms of government, reading about them and interviewing people so that we can compare them.  After that, we will deliberate, make a decision and write a report.  He passed out a handout with a list of activities that consultants may help with, in order to illustrate that they will not write our report.  He pointed out that in the past, consultants, including himself, had written the reports and that the reports are better now that most commissions are not hiring consultants for that purpose. He emphasized that it is work and a big job to write a report, but worth it, and better because we know our community. Report will be due in early August.


Dr. Reock then handed out a budget worksheet, and told us that we need to prepare a budget and submit it to our city council.  The budget worksheet does not contain numbers, it contains categories based on what other Charter Study Commissions have done in the past. In past years, consultants were the largest expense, but that has gone out of vogue. Otherwise, the biggest expense is generally the final report (what does it look like, how large is it, how is it reproduced, and most importantly, how do you get it out to the people).  Regarding getting the word out, it is tough, can try moving meetings around town, most people have, unfortunately, likely completely forgotten about charter study commission. Our job to drum up interest.


Dr. Reock ended his formal remarks and took questions from the Commissioners about a variety of topics, including distinction between public hearing and public meeting, very limited reasons to go into executive session. He does not believe that we can have working meetings not under the Open Public Meetings Act, at least not if we have a majority. Two of us can get together to work, two of us can attend neighborhood meetings to talk about Charter Study.  Regarding dissemination of information, we must give the City Clerk a copy, must file copies of report for each elected official as well, and we need an undetermined amount of reports for citizens.  Some municipalities have mailed a copy to every household, must find out how much we can spend and how many we might want to send. Dr. Reock has never heard of charging for a report. Some municipalities have distributed by hand, or put a pile of reports in a public place.  Email is possible, or a link.  We cannot send a summary, if you can email the entire report, that should be acceptable.


John Stewart, Jr. for One Plainfield
jstewartjr@me.com