Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Plainfield's Pay to Play


Plainfielder's BE WARNED-  The administration put forth an ordinance eliminating the local Pay-To-Play Law.  Council President Rebecca Williams estimated that P2P adds 15-20% to the cost of affected contracts and pledged to make sure that " Plainfield passes the strongest municipal P2P ordinance possible."  Councilman Storch wrote that P2P was an "invisible tax on Plainfield residents" and "creates a lack of confidence among voters."  Even City Committeeman Bob Bolmer wrote that the P2P reform ordinances passed in 2011 were "historic measures".  I guess we'll see on Tuesday if this was really all about principle or simply meant to hinder the political opposition.  Meanwhile, the 'whereas' portion of the repeal ordinance is totally disingenuous:  This is not about Citizen's United and the unknown sources of Federal PAC money.  It is about making municipal political contributions AND receiving municipal contracts.  Our City Council should reject this race to the bottom with the same unanimous vote Rebecca urged for passage, that "would clearly demonstrate that we are public servants in the best sense of that phrase."
 
Sincerely,
 
Alan Goldstein

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