Discussions continue as two members absent
By:Paul Szaniawski
The Charter Study Commission was stopped in its tracks as it examined a council-manager form of municipal government May 30, attempting to progress on its study of municipal governments.
Two of the commission’s five members weren’t present at the May 30 meeting, the first of four extra gatherings added for sufficient deliberation time. The absences of members Glenn van Lier and George Ostergren prevented a group conclusion on the council-manager form of government.
The Charter Study Commission is studying different municipal forms of government to decide if Hillsborough should switch from a township committee to another government form. Last November voters approved a study of government options for Hillsborough.
The charter study’s next public hearing was moved up to June 27, to incorporate residents’ feedback into the commission’s final recommendation. Initially the hearing was slated for late July or early August.
"The problem is by then the report will have to be mostly written," said Commission Study Chairman Chris Jensen. "Theoretically, at that point we will have reached a conclusion or very close to it."
In addition to calendar rearranging, the commission sped things up by continuing discussions and moved on to a council-manager form, despite the absences.
The second most popular form of township government in the state, council-manager involves a single figure, chosen by the town’s lawmaking council, to handle day-to-day functions.
"In this form there are two separately elected and co-equal power centers, similar to what our current form is like," said Commission member Gloria McCauley. "But I do feel the manager’s function is to carry out the will of the council here."
Like Hillsborough’s current committee, the council can have five members and can instate the manager for a year at a time. Other possible options include having a seven- or nine-member council and allowing voters to choose the manager. If chosen by ballot, the manager’s term can be one, two or four years.
Mr. Jensen and Mr. Page agreed that Hillsborough’s committee mayor has less power than a typical manager. Mr. Jensen pointed out that the manager alone handpicks the head of each department such as zoning and planning boards.
"The day-to-day functions are not handled by the council, they are handled by the manager," said Mr. Jensen. "The manager does have an awful lot of power specifically appointing department heads. Everyone reports to the manager. It just seems the manager does most of the work here."
Besides appointing the heads of departments, the manager’s responsibilities include hiring and firing municipal employees, communicating with those employees alone without council interference and negotiating municipal contracts.
Similarly to Hillsborough’s committee mayor, the manager also attends council meetings, deliberates with the council (but doesn’t hold a vote), prepares the budget and writes an annual report.
Unlike a council-mayor form of government where a part-time or full-time mayor’s job is sufficed by a business administrator, the manager takes care of both roles himself.
Mr. Page and Mr. Jensen showed concern the manager has a substantial amount of power, yet doesn’t necessarily need to be elected by residents.
"If the manager didn’t have as much power it wouldn’t be as much of an issue but the manager is extremely powerful in this form," said Mr. Jensen. "In essence it does whatever he or she pleases."
The lack of checks and balances further drove the commissioners’ concern. A council’s only check or way to halt their manager is to "withhold the checkbook," meaning to refuse funds for the manager’s initiatives.
However, Ms. McCauley reiterated her point that the manager seems to carry out the will of the council. She added that the manager holds power over the executive side, not legislation.
"It’s not like he is governing the whole township," Ms. McCauley said. "The council is setting policy."
If a manager poorly runs the town or fails to represent the council he or she can be voted out by a council majority vote.
Mr. Jensen said rarely would a majority party cross lines and vote out their own chosen manager. It would also be unlikely for a manager to be of the minority party, he added. It occurred only once in Hillsborough Township Committee’s history.
Among Mr. Jensen’s personal research he found that opponents of the council manager form feel the manager can stay in power too long because it takes too much to remove them.
Mr. Page said a sense of continuity would be generally better than Hillsborough’s current one-year mayoral term.
"Given the choice I think four (years) would be perfect," he said. "I think it gives you the time to do things."
One way to avoid having one particular mayor or ruling party in control for too long would be to have a non-partisan form, as one resident brought up.
"Too many people align themselves with major parties," Alex Ford, of Atkinson Circle, said. "What the Democrats and Republicans think at the national level just doesn’t filter down to here."
Mr. Ford was informed a non-partisan form of government was examined at the prior week’s meeting when the commission interviewed representatives from West Windsor, now a non-partisan mayor-council municipality after a 1992 charter study.
Mr. Ford believed the average person who doesn’t follow politics would take a closer look at the issues.
"If you take took away Democrat and Republican and somebody walked in and felt stupid because they didn’t know who to vote for maybe that’s a good thing because they should read the paper and see who’s standing for what," Mr. Ford said.
The Hillsborough resident added that if the council was going to recommend a change then all changes should be done at the same time, including different options like non-partisan.
If a recommendation is made to change the government specific options need to be chosen as well. Other options would include if elections were held in May or November, if candidate needed a plurality vote to win, if terms are to have staggered lengths and how many seats are up per year.
Mr. Ford continued, saying that people vote on party lines alone if they do not know a candidate’s name or political views.
"In essence, in West Windsor that’s exactly what happened," Mr. Jensen replied. "There was a polarization and the separation of that mindset had evaporated."
On Wednesday, Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine is scheduled to be interviewed at the commission meeting, beginning at 7:30 p.m.