Thank you to Dr. Ernest Reock, Speaker at CSC meeting on May 23, 2013

CSC’s  May 23rd meeting was headlined by the return visit of Dr. Ernest Reock, Professor Emeritus and retired Director of the Rutgers Center for Government Services.  Dr. Reock is an acknowledged expert on New Jersey State Government. After speaking at our Organizational Meeting on December 11, 2012, he has been available to us and answered our questions during our study. At the May 23rd meeting, he gave us a fascinating thumbnail sketch of the history of municipal government forms in New Jersey. He also gave us a synopsis of the forms of government that Charter Study Commission has the power to send to referendum, the forms that we could recommend in an advisory opinion only, and we discussed amending or suggesting special charters. Our minutes (8 pages) are attached to the blog and contain a reasonably detailed summary of the meeting material for citizens who could not attend.
At our May 30th meeting, Mr. James White, Township Administrator of East Brunswick and Mr. Christopher Raths, Town Manager of Roxbury, will attend to discuss their respective Faulkner Act forms of government, the Mayor-Council form and the Council-Manager form, respectively.
All of our meetings are open to the public with ample opportunity for public participation.  The May 23rd meeting will be in City Hall Library, starting at 7:30 pm.

Dr. Ernest Reock to Speak at Charter Study Commission on May 23, 2013

On May 16th, Charter Study Commission held a working meeting in the Planning Conference Room at City Hall. The Commissioners reviewed materials to prepare for their Faulkner Act meetings to be held on May 23rd and May 30th, and continued reviewing the provisions of the Plainfield Charter (1968).

We are pleased to announce that the May 23rd meeting will feature a return visit by Dr. Ernest Reock, Professor Emeritus and retired Director of the Rutgers Center for Government Services.  Dr. Reock is an acknowledged expert on New Jersey State Government. After speaking at our Organizational Meeting on December 11, 2012, he has been available to us and answered our questions during our study. He will give the Commissioners and citizens an overview of the Faulkner Act forms of government.

All of our meetings are open to the public with ample opportunity for public participation. We hope that Plainfielders will take this opportunity to hear Dr. Reock speak. The May 23rd meeting will be in City Hall Library, starting at 7:30 pm.

Charter Study Commission adds May 16th Meeting

CSC met on May 9th in the City Hall Library, where Mr. William Reid, City Council, Ward 1 and Mrs. Vera Greaves, City Council, Wards 1-4, were interviewed. We thank them for taking the time to address our questions and for being our guests. Summaries of their interviews are attached as Exhibit A to the meeting minutes.

At the May 9th meeting, the Commissioners voted to add a meeting on Thursday, May 16th in the Planning Conference Room on the Second Floor of City Hall This meeting will be a working meeting devoted to completing the line by line review of the Plainfield Charter (1968) that was started at our May 2nd meeting. The remainder of the month of May will be devoted to discussion of other forms of government under the Faulkner Act. Our meetings will feature a return visit by Dr. Ernest Reock of Rutgers Center for Government Services on May 23rd, and May 30th interviews of Mr. James White, Township Administrator of East Brunswick, a Faulkner Act Mayor-Council form municipality and Mr. Christopher Raths,Township Manager of Roxbury, a Faulkner Act Council-Manager form Municipality.

All meetings are open to the public.

Charter Study Commission prepares to Study Faulkner Act Forms of Government

Charter Study Commission entered its sixth month of study with a work and planning session on May 2nd. At the meeting, the Commissioners looked at the reports of charter study groups in two other communities for planning purposes and had some preliminary discussion of the three forms of goverment that Plainfield could be eligible to choose under the Optional Municipal Charter Law, commonly known as the Faulkner Act. The Commissioners then reviewed the first four articles of the Plainfield Charter (1968) line by line, comparing them to the Mayor-Council form of government.

During May and June, the Commissioners will mix Phase I and Phase II meeting topics and will:
- complete interviews of current elected and appointed individuals;
- hear from speakers from outside Plainfield who are well versed in the Faulkner Act; and
- have working meetings to complete review and comparison of our charter with the Faulkner Act and prepare for Phase III deliberations.

On May 9th, Councilors Reid and Greaves will be our guests for interviews, and we will continue our review of the charter provisions.

The meeting will be held in City Hall Library and is open to the public.

Thank you to Councilors Storch and Williams, Director Hellwig and former City Administrator Bonaparte

On Thursday, April 25, 2013, CSC conducted its first interviews of current elected and appointed officials. Our thanks to Director Martin Hellwig and Councilors Cory Storch and Rebecca Williams. We appreciated their candor and their very specific ideas for us to consider.

In a Subcommittee meeting on April 30, 2013,  Mr. Norton Bonaparte was interviewed via telephone. Mr. Bonaparte was City Administrator in Plainfield and is now City Manager in Sanford, Florida. He gave us insight from the perspective of a City Manager working under the Counci-Manager form that was interesting to us.

If you are a citizen who is following us via minutes, we have posted the minutes of our April 25 meeting that contain interview notes for Mr. Hellwig, Mr. Storch and Ms. Williams, and we have separately posted the summary of Mr. Bonaparte's interview.

All of our meetings are open to the public and all citizens are welcome to attend.

The next Charter Study Commission meeting is Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.  in the City Hall Planning Conference Room on the Second Floor, as we added this meeting to our original list and the Library was not available. No interviews will be conducted in this meeting, which we will use to review our charter provisions with the insight that we have gained in the last several months, and for planning.

Agenda for April 25th Meeting

Click here for the April 25 Meeting Agenda!

CSC Minutes from 4-11-13 meeting posted; with transcripts of four interviews!

CSC has posted the minutes of its 4/11 meeting. The minutes contain summary transcripts of the interviews of former Corporation Counsel Rowand Clark and Former City Administrator Hank Kita. Former City Administrator Jewel Thompson-Chin was interviewed in a subcommittee interview prior to the meeting, and the transcript of her interview is included as Exhibit B to the meeting minutes. In addition, former City Councilor Donna Vose submitted her interview responses via email, and her interview is included as Exhibit C.

Thanks to all four of these former City officials for the time and effort that they devoted to the interviews.