Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Charter Study Commission Final Report is now available!


CSC filed its original signed copy of the Final Report on Monday, August 5, 2013 in the City Clerk’s Office. The Final Report is available as a PDF file on the City website. Check the scrolling items on the left hand side of the homepage, or go to the Plainfield Charter Commission pages from the City Clerk page. Citizens who subscribe to Clerk Blast have already received an electronic copy via email. Hard copies were delivered to the City Clerk’s Office, the Plainfield Senior Center on Front Street, the Public Works City Yard on South Avenue and to the Plainfield Public Library. A counterpart signed and dated original was delivered to the Plainfield Public Library on August 6, 2013 for filing in the Plainfield Room, along with copies of historical charter study records from the 1970’s to the 1990’s that CSC obtained from the City Clerk. 
Any citizen who would like to obtain a copy of the report can go to one of the live or virtual locations described above, or can obtain a copy via email. Send an email to meburgwinkle@comcast.net, with a subject line message “Please send me a PDF of the Charter Study Commission Final Report”.
We will post updates concerning action by City Council on the Commission recommendations as that information becomes available this fall.

Monday, July 29, 2013

CSC Study Winding Down

CSC met on 7-18-13 in the City Hall Planning Conference Room, to continue deliberating over proposed changes to the charter. The Final Report is in the drafting process, and will be finally reviewed and edited by the Commissioners at the 8-1-13 meeting at 7:30 p.m. in the Planning Conference Room. Any last minute deliberations will also be conducted at that meeting.

Time has flown, and the 8-1-13 meeting is our final scheduled meeting. Our Final Report is due on 8-6-13 in the City Clerk's office, and will be available to all interested citizens shortly after that, check the blog next week for details. 

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

CSC Holds Public Forum and Deliberates

At the July 11th meeting, CSC held a public forum during the first hour of the meeting, and deliberated during the second half of the meeting.

Commissioner Criscione prepared and presented a slide presentation reviewing the activities of the Commission to date. Thank you to the members of the public who came to watch and participate. The entire presentation can be downloaded from the City Clerk's website.

Deliberations regarding amendments to our special charter will continue at our next to last meeting on Thursday, July 18, 2013 in the Planning Conference Room. The Commission's final meeting will be held on August 1, 2013, and our Final Report is due on August 6th.   

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Charter Study Commission announces Public Forum

The first hour of the Charter Study Commission July 11th meeting will be devoted to a Public Forum. A PowerPoint presentation will outline the work that we have done since our organizational meeting on 12/11/12, and we will seek comment and feedback from citizens.

The Commission has welcomed public participation at all of our meetings and participation will be encouraged at this meeting as well. We will answer charter study related questions from any citizen who wishes to attend. 

If you cannot attend, but have been following our meetings by reading minutes, email your charter related questions to meburgwinkle@comcast.net. We will deal with as many questions as time permits at the meeting, and will answer the others on the blog.

The meeting will be on July 11, 2013, starting at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall Library.  All Charter Study Commission meetings are open to the public.
 

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Thanks to all after a busy week for CSC


Thanks to former 4th Ward City Councilor Elliott Simmons for taking the time to give us an interview on 6/18. Marie Davis and Mary Burgwinkle conducted the interview at a subcommittee meeting that was also attended by Mr. Robert Edwards. Mr. Simmons had interesting thoughts about qualifications for office seekers, and he observed that “politics should not be personal, even though they both begin with “P””. 
 At the regular meeting on 6/20, three officials gave us interviews.  Mr. Al Restaino, Director of the Department of Administration, Finance, Health and Human Services, Mr. Eric Berry, City Administrator and Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs appeared. We thank them for their time, and it is fitting that CSC ended the series of interviews that we started in January with three of our highest ranking city officials.
After the interviews on 6/20, the Commissioners turned to deliberations, which they will continue at the 6/27 meeting.  Summaries of all of the interviews described earlier will be attached to the 6/20 minutes.