SDA / School Construction

In reading Maria’s blog today, I am happy to see that she had followed up on the issue pertaining to the $17 million that was promised to the City by the former Corzine administration during budget negotiations. The Corzine administration at that time made it clear that they could not or would not fund a $65 million project for a middle school in the 4th Ward of Plainfield.

During the course of these negotiations wherein I was accused by Cory Storch and the New Democrats with interfering with the Plainfield Board of Education’s businesses, I was only trying to help the City in obtaining these funds which would directly helped our children here in Plainfield. The Plainfield Board of Education, Councilman Storch, and the Council have done a great job in sweeping this matter under the rug as if it does not exist.

When I had a meeting with the Superintendent, his staff, and the State, the Council, led by Storch, the BOE and Superintendent dropped the ball. The information the State needed regarding this project was incomplete. So we lost $65 million. The following year, when the School Development Authority was restructured by the Corzine administration, I was again allowed to sit in on a meeting with the State and Plainfield BOE to discuss the Jefferson School and Cook School projects. Both those facilities needed upgrading.

There was a commitment by Corzine’s administration to commit $17 million to upgrade those two schools. Again, the ball was dropped. Only recently I have learned that the new Christie administration has taken that $17 million out of the budget. Nobody at the Plainfield Board of Education has questioned the Christie administration, wherein there are some Republican connections on the BOE. When it comes to them trying to find something illegal I am accused of doing, they have no problem calling. Yet, when it comes to securing $17 million for our kids, they fail to make a call.

All across the State, people recognize the fact that the Plainfield BOE is controlled by Republicans, but I have yet to hear Cory or the New Democrats question how and why we have lost $17 million in school construction funding. This is one of the reasons why I did not support last year’s State budget; because I feel that since those monies were promised to Plainfield, the City should have received it. To make matters worse, we have yet to receive any reasons as to why and how we lost the funding.

I agree with Maria that a lot of these questions should be answered, whether these answers come from the BOE itself, the Superintendent, or the Cory-led City Council. Maybe the trade off might be that the Cory-led Council and the BOE closed their eyes to the $17 million, and in return there was no cut in funding for the organization that Cory works for, being that it depends on Federal and State funding.

If we are going to pay for investigations, we need to not only be concerned about the issues people feel the Mayor has misused City funding, but also whether or not the Federal and Sate funds that the County agency Cory Storch is in charge of, is legitimately dispersing those funds throughout Plainfield. Whether he votes on these issues or not, he still has control over the majority of the Council members when it comes to voting. We are not talking about $20,000, we have talking about millions over the past years.

The public should ask Cory if he is more interested in the agency he works for, or the taxpayers here in the City of Plainfield, and how the millions that come through his agency are spread throughout Plainfield. Whether he votes on this matter or not, he still has a lot of influence over the voting members.

Ps

I have asked for the last six months as to what Cory has done as a Council person, other than pick up his check every week. For eight years, he cannot point to one project he has done, other than the Teppers site which is a low-income facility in downtown Plainfield.

His record for dealing with the public is only walking around election time, being critical of me, but yet and still, cannot prove anything productive as a Plainfield councilman. He has one of the worst attendance records as a Council person when compared to any other council person for the last eight years.

I want to make it very clear for the record, Tony Rucker is running as a 2nd Ward council person, but the difference in my support for him and Cory is that he is going to be a council person for the people in the 2nd Ward, as well as serve everyone in Plainfield. We have both agreed that I have no intentions on influencing how he votes or how he serves the 2nd Ward. That is why his campaign is going to be managed and run by people in the 2nd Ward who have independent minds and have the experience to help move this City in the right direction. That was part of our agreement, and I plan on living up to that agreement.

The reason why I am giving him my support and the line is because I thought he was the best candidate for the 2nd Ward. So as far as my endorsement and the line go, that is where my influence for Tony Rucker ends. So I am hoping that the 2nd Ward would look at him as their candidate, and not my candidate.