Cleaning Up the Local Potpourri

Reading Doc’s blog today, I would like to make myself VERY clear. Often when people read something they like to put spins on the content, and the spin they place on it makes no sense whatsoever.

When I mentioned the investigation regarding the Mayor and $20k, it would have been very simple on everyone’s part, the Council and even Doc yourself, to pick up the phone and call the Attorney General’s office to file a complaint as a taxpayer in the City of Plainfield. That office would have taken the appropriate steps to bring in professional investigators to investigate the matter. If anything criminal was to come out of it, it is obvious that the individuals involved would leave themselves wide open for criminal charges.

That is no different than the ‘Scarlet Letter’ matter; the same steps could have been taken. Leave that up to the professionals in law enforcement to investigate these matters. If anything criminal has been done, then it is up to them to use the system for these individuals to pay for their crime.

What I see and hear is a lot of grand-standing, and Doc this what I mean when I say this is small when compared to the budget problems in which the City is facing. The Council has spent the first three months of this year on issues that really should be reported to the AG’s office or the Prosecutor if they feel something has been done wrong. Why are we wasting taxpayers’ time and money by hiring lawyers that will ultimately send this issue to the AG’s office or Prosecutor’s office?

There have been some Council members who have voted and supported activities that have cost this City considerably more monies than that which they are accusing the Mayor. I am not supporting or defending any of the Mayor’s or Council’s actions. Whether it is the $20k, the ‘Scarlet Letter’, or the pipes that were bought and hidden from the taxpayers wherein there was no use for them.

When the Council from the past administration financed a train ride to Washington with taxpayer’s dollars, appointed members to the PMUA and benefited from those things which they now criticize… We can go on and on but the bottom line is that no matter how many lawyers we hire, the Prosecutor is still going to be the final voice in deciding whether or not we pursue this issue. I guarantee you that just about all of these issues have been brought to his attention.

So now to use this as a political issue, I say to the Council, let’s start talking about issues that the City is facing. Do not use the excuse that you will only have a week to make a decision on the budget, when I have been telling you for over a year that you cannot change the bottom-line but you can make line item changes.

Let’s stop trying to make fools out of the public by passing special resolutions that go nowhere, especially Cory Storch, who thought I did something wrong, and went to the Prosecutor. After the Prosecutor investigated his concerns and interviewed me regarding this matter, he concluded I did NOTHING wrong.

So Councilman Storch knows the process because he has used it before. It is time now to talk about the future of Plainfield, and how we are going to deal with this year’s budget.

So Doc, no disrespect, but I have yet to hear you talk about whether we are going to have to lay off police officers, are we going to have to cut services, or will the quality of life issues be negatively affected by the cuts in Trenton. Not one time have any of the bloggers brought to the attention of the Plainfield residents, like other towns have, how the unions are being crippled, the teachers being disrespected, people no longer receiving homestead rebate checks, how healthcare services are going to be cut back, how UEZs are going to be eliminated…

I can go on and on, so I do not have time to be critical of anyone other than the fact that as a City, we should keep our eyes on the big picture. We should be talking about how the Republican Party in Washington is disrespecting the President, and how cities like Plainfield, not just low-medium income residents, but the average taxpayer is under attack.

So let’s change the conversation and start talking about these issues, rather than talk about something that is going nowhere. For if you feel there is something out there that you can prove, please take it to the Prosecutor. It is sad that Plainfield has a council person that for eight years has done nothing but spend his time on nonsense. He personally had me investigated, but he will not print that because he knows I did nothing wrong.

Ps

I should have mentioned that his campaign manager was also one of the individuals that were complaining. So they can spend the next eight weeks talking about a letter and an investigation while I will spend the next eight weeks talking about the issues that affect the people here in the State of New Jersey, especially the 22nd District. Unfortunately, some people are clueless and cannot even discuss the issues, let alone discuss solutions.