Assemblyman Jerry Green: Taking Advantage and Creating a Distraction

Assemblyman Jerry Green is taking advantage of my being out of the country for a family funeral

Plainfield, NJ – April 10, 2015

It is regrettable that Assemblyman Jerry Green is taking advantage of my being out of the country for a family funeral to try and make more hay out of the discussion of homophobic language. It is distracting us from more important matters concerning the well-being of Plainfield.

Waiting on my desk when I get back in a few days will be the task of resolving matters surrounding the recent emergency demolition on North Avenue. So far, my administration’s investigation suggests gross negligence and mishandling by Green’s hand-picked and closely mentored protégé, my predecessor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.

When I get back, I will be getting a more detailed report on why the Robinson-Briggs administration, under Green’s guidance, did not insist that the burned building be demolished after the fire and why, after they had tracked down the owner, they let him elude their grasp. To aggravate matters further, one has to ask whether Robinson-Briggs purposely failed to pursue the owner over his failed promises to repair or demolish the building.

Thanks to Robinson-Briggs’s laxness, the owner evaded his responsibility. Now we find we may not even be able to track him down, and there is a warrant for him on another property-related matter. And the city is left holding the bag on the demolition costs. All thanks to Sharon Robinson-Briggs—which means thanks to Assemblyman Jerry Green.
Plainfield’s bloggers have posted and re-posted videos of Jerry Green using foul language to declare that he “runs this town,” and that has been the problem for too long.

Take, for instance the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority (PMUA), a source of frustration for ratepayers almost since its beginning twenty years ago. As a councilman and now as Mayor, I have wanted to get to the bottom of such questions as why it has such a top-heavy administrative staff (with all the associated costs) and why its rates are so out of line with those of other utilities authorities.

But Green has stymied those efforts at every turn. It is only since I was able, finally, to get some new commissioners appointed that things are beginning to change. The new PMUA board is now carefully reviewing its professional service contracts and has announced a search for a new executive director as well as a new chief financial officer.

Things are looking up, but it has been an uphill struggle against Green and his hangers-on every step of the way.

There will be more to be said once I am back in Plainfield.

Mayor Adrian O. Mapp