Agenda – Town Meeting 4

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Vermeule Community Center.

1) INTRO – NPCCR background, updates, agenda review, add in items as needed; discussion is open mike-format, decision-making is by majority vote of people present. (5 min)

2) STRING EXERCISE – I learned this from a Pueblo man from New Mexico, who teaches teenagers about native agriculture and uses the exercise as a way for the students to get to know each other. Everyone stands in a circle, tossing a ball of yarn. Each person, in turn, catches the ball and says their name, how long they’ve lived in North Plainfield, one thing they love about NP and one thing that upsets them about NP. At the end, there’s a web of yarn connecting all these people who care about the community. In the (metaphorical) middle are the children and the elders of the community, who we are all supporting by our work together to take care of North Plainfield. [If we have a lot of people, we might split up into two or three circles to do this, because a circle with 60 or 70 people would be HUGE; we'd need really good yarn-throwing arms.] (15 to 20 min)

3) RECALL – Presentation of recall process for removal from office of mayor and/or Council members; open discussion of pros and cons for North Plainfield; vote about whether to kick off this campaign in Jan. 2008. (15 to 20 min)

4) CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION – Presentation of New Jersey’s rules for “Criminal Penalties for Public Corruption/Violations of State Ethics Laws,” summarized here; open discussion of possible applicability to NP Mayor and/or Council members.

At this point, we are not making specific accusations against specific individuals for specific criminal acts; we’re educating ourselves about what kinds of behavior are criminal when public officials engage in them, and whether there is anecdotal evidence to suggest to observant citizens that criminal activity may be going on among local officials, because, as citizens responsible for protecting the integrity and honesty of our local government, if there is anecdotal evidence, we have a duty to support criminal investigations to gather formal evidence, to remove from office any officials found to have undermined that integrity and honesty.

More detail here: “Bribery in official and political matters” (NJSA 2C:27-2); “Unlawful Business Transaction Where Interest is Involved” (NJSA 2C:27-9); “Acceptance or receipt of unlawful benefit by public servant for official behavior” (NJSA 2C:27-10); “Official misconduct occurs when a public servant, seeking to personally benefit or to harm another, either knowingly commits an unauthorized act while purporting it to be an official act, or refrains from performing inherent job functions.” (NJSA 2C:30-2)

5) PROPERTY MAINTENANCE CAMPAIGN – NPCCR plan for coordinated citizen filing of property maintenance complaints, starting January 2008. (5-10 min.)

6) FUNDRAISING, BANKING/NONPROFIT ESTABLISHMENT, DONATION BASKET. (5 min.)

7) TASKS & DEADLINES (Posted on flip chart paper for signups):

NEXT TOWN MEETING: TUESDAY, JANUARY 8 at 7 P.M. at Vermeule Community Center

9) SOCIALIZING