Ernest Reock downplays special charters
while reviewing optional forms of government
By:Purvi Desai
The Charter Study Commission moved onto the second phase of their study during their regular meeting on March 28 and heard from an expert about what government forms are viable should they decide to change the form of local government.
Dr. Ernest C. Reock Jr., professor emeritus of the Rutgers University Center for Government Services, gave the charter commission a brief rundown of three forms of government under the optional municipal charter law, or Faulkner Act, that are available to the township and used more than others in state municipalities.
"Your vote on them would put it on the ballot automatically," he told the charter commission.
Dr. Reock said three "easy" forms currently exist a mayor-council form, where both entities are separately elected, a council-manager form, with an elected legislature and appointed chief executive, and third is a mayor-council-administrator form, where a five-member elected legislative body splits into sole responsibilities for different township departments.
For mayor-council form, the mayor and council members, who can vary from five to nine, have four-year terms, Dr. Reock said.
"They have powers to act as checks and balances on each other," he said, adding that the mayor is named by law as the chief executive office. "The mayor appoints all of the department heads. The mayor can fire them during his term."
Dr. Reock said the mayor prepares budget, and submits the items, and the council can reduce some of the costs, if they wish to. He said the administrator acts as the right hand of mayor in the mayor-council form.
"The mayor is not required to attend council meetings and some mayors hold their own meetings," Dr. Reock said. "The council is told they can deal with employees only through the mayor."
Kathy Cupano, a program development administrator at the Center for Government Services at Rutgers University and an associate of Dr. Reock, was present to talk about her experience as a council member in New Brunswick’s mayor-council form.
Ms. Cupano said she served with two mayors who never attended meetings. She said it was frustrating because the council could not reach a resolution the same night of a meeting. The council was not allowed to answer administrative questions or requests, as they had to go through the administrator, Ms. Cupano said.
"However, I will say it is a very, very efficient form of government having a centralized power," she said. "It served the city of New Brunswick very well. It is good to have a separation of power. If you have conflicts between the majority and the mayor can stalemate operations of the government."
Dr. Reock said there is no power available to a council in the mayor-council form to make the mayor attend. Ms. Cupano said that in New Brunswick, individual issues were best handled by calling into the mayor’s office.
"There was a lot of frustration off and on by the public who did not understand how the government was organized," she said. "We felt ineffective or the citizens felt we were ineffective. There were often misunderstandings on how to solve a particular issue."
In the end, Ms. Cupano said, "so much depends on the working relationships of the individuals."
In the council-manager form, only members of the council are elected, Dr. Reock said.
"The council is legislative body only," Dr. Reock said. "The manager is the chief executive. The council may remove the manager at any time.
"The only protection the manager has is a three month guarantee to salary and a public hearing on their firing," Dr. Reock said. "There is a practice of candidates for manager requesting a personal services contract to give them some financial contribution if they are fired. The manager serves at pleasure of council. The council appoints the clerk."
Dr. Reock said that in the council-manager form, the mayor is merely the presiding officer of council, regardless even if they are elected. He said there has been a trend of electing mayors under council-manager plan. The negative aspects of a council-manager form comes mostly from elected officials, who said they feel they can’t go directly to departments but have to go through the manager, Dr. Roeck said.
The mayor-council-administrator form is a newer form, which only surfaced in 1981, he said. There are only three places that currently use this form, and include North Brunswick and West Milford. "Berkeley Heights just came under this form as of January this year," Dr. Reock said.
After a research study in 1970 on which government forms were working best, he said a case was made to the legislature to make the borough mayor-council form available to everyone in the state, as they were happy with it.
"They took the borough form with an administrator by ordinance and required it," Dr. Reock said. "They included the mayor’s powers a little more stronger than borough form but left a lot of features of borough form in there."
The features of the mayor-council-administrator plan include a six-member elected council, a four-year mayor term, where the mayor does preside at meetings and votes only to break ties, and a mayor-appointed administrator, he said. "The council can remove the administrator, even though the mayor appoints him under their council," Dr. Reock said. "The council prepares budget themselves."
Although other forms of government do exist, the three outlined above are the easiest and most popular ones, Dr. Reock said.
If the charter commission wanted to have a special charter, it would have to be put on the ballot by residents’ petition. "It is a rigorous process," he said. "In order to pass effectively, two-thirds of the legislature has to vote on it."
After that, the governor has to sign on it and then it could come back to the township for adoption merely by an ordinance, Dr. Reock said. "But you have to find a legislator who would push it for you."
New commission member Bill Page pointed out that according to state law, Hillsborough couldn’t request another special charter until another four or five years, since residents made a petition for a special charter in 2005.
In conclusion, Dr. Reock said that if the government is changed at any time, the departmental offices are cleared but all ordinances stay in effect.
"Lastly, changing the form of government does not authorize Hillsborough to do anything more than it is authorized to do right now," he said. "Power is given equally to all municipalities throughout the state, and is listed under general law. Most of the general state laws are beyond municipality control."
Commission member George Ostergren said that if the commission were to recommend a form, it would take a whole year’s hiatus for political parties to think about who to appoint to the township departments, due the time taken in elections.
Dr. Reock said there is some but not a large disruption during a transition of government. "As far as I can remember, only two places have reverted back (to their old forms)," he said. "Almost no places that have reverted back. You could go back to the township committee form in Hillsborough because you had it in place before."
Dr. Reock said that in his conversations with municipal officials who have changed governments, he has formed the impression that it is not that expensive to change governments.
"In fact, your council members’ load might be lightened," he said. "I can’t see any need for any special staff beyond what you have at present. You won’t have any new positions. I don’t think you would anticipate a lot more, maybe not any."
Dr. Reock said the Rutgers Center for Government Services did a study in the early 1960s when approximately 40 towns had changed to the Faulkner forms of government. "Regardless of which change they made, their expenditures went down," he said, adding that figures may have slightly changed from back then. "We didn’t find any evidence of a substantial increase."
In the end, he said "there is a potential for some disruption any time you have a change in government." All commissions and boards have to be re-appointed.
Commission Chairman Chris Jensen said it would entail a change in political atmosphere and the government would "have to bring people up to speed."
"The idea is you’re bringing in a new form of government," Dr. Reock said. "You should give them a new slate."
The next Charter Study Commission meeting will be held 7:30 p.m. in the municipal court room on Wednesday.

