Michael Mahon OCEANPORT – The borough saw immediate results last week as a presentation on the recommendations of a Blue Ribbon Panel that looked at the waymunicipal government operates was followed by a committee reorganization presentation.
The Blue Ribbon Panel had spent a period of several months studying the borough’s current committee structure and came up with a series of suggestions. The committee reorganization presentation implements many of these suggestions.
In a planning process that began shortly after the elections in November, Mayor Michael Mahon outlined the basics of the borough’s new committee structure, which was basically to divide the council into two groups, one to handle administration, the other planning operations.
“We haven’t taken a mirror image of that program,” Mahon said prior to the presentation of the newcommittee structure, “but we’ve adapted it tomatch some of the existing conditions that we have…and we simplified it.”
The Blue Ribbon Panel of three volunteers was appointed by previous mayor Lucille Chaump in April after council members were unable to adopt a municipal budget due to a disagreement over the need to hire a business administrator.
The Blue Ribbon Panel presentation, given by Mark Lower, at the council meeting emphasized “the need for council to be a more managing style council”.
This called for a subdivided council that would provide guidance to different committees.
“Originally there were three defining goals that were laid out,” Lower said. “The first onewas determining the efficiency of finance and administration. [The second and thirdwere] analyzing the effectiveness of all the departments in the borough and quantifying the need for a borough administrator.”
Apointmade by Lower was that the borough needed to “start thinking like a business” in which the residents of Oceanport are the consumers.
“We are in the service business,” Lower said. “It is all about service and quality improvement. We want to improve the quality of life for our residents. That is the goal.”
In addition to Lower, the volunteer panel was made up of Wayne Mackenrodt and George Katzenberger.
Regarding the panel’s assessment of whether the borough needs to hire a borough administrator, Lower said that there is a need.
“We feel that there is definitely a need for amanagement rolewithin the borough hall,” Lower said, “but it’s not a full-time job. Our recommendation is to add a business manager at approximately 20 hours per week.”
The presentation went over the changes that had been made with the Blue Ribbon Panel’s input.
“The Public Works system now has a Public Works order system,” Lower said. “Every task is now put down on a log.”
Additionally, each group now gives a monthly report on what they have been doing and staff meetings are held on a weekly basis.
“This is really about being proactive rather than reactive,” Lower said. “In a lot of cases what we do is in response.What we really need to do is get ahead and anticipate and plan accordingly- not that you don’t do it. But we could be doing a better job.”
Mahon and the Borough Council have taken steps to follow the panel’s advice, introducing the reorganized committee structure at the same meeting.
The new committee structure proposes six committees rather than the former structure of 18 to 24, with teams of three council members as chairs for each of them.
“Each of the committees are divided this way,” Mahon said to borough employees present at the meeting. “A council committee that is the chair, the vice chair and a member. You have limited decision-making authority; you can approve expenses within your approved funding.”
Mahon stressed the improved functionality thatwould comewith this council-committee
structure.
“Within your approved budget you are able to manage your accounts and the only people that need to sanction that, as long as you’re within those spending limits, are the three council people responsible for your committee,” Mahon said.
“You need to go back and forth with the council and we don’t have towait every twoweeks to perform our business. We can do it day in and day out as long we communicate with our three council people. You have to live within the budget that is approved for you and really stay on course, butwhere you need to deviate, the details are left to those three council people for approval.You canmanage the budget.”
An important part of this newcommittee structure for Mahon was the need to have documented communication.
“You have to communicate in writing, preferably not in e-mail,” Mahon said. “We need to share the information, everything is open.”
This process would involve employees communicating with their council groups with one-page memorandums, according to Mahon.
“Everything needs to be transparent and clear so everybody knows what they’re doing,”Mahon said. “Who’s in charge, who’s responsible, how we’re going to pay for it.
“We’re focusing on the bottom line and we’reweaving the budget in such away that you are able to manage it within the resources that you’re allotted over the course of the year.”
Mahon went on to say that both he and the Blue Ribbon Panel had looked back at the committee structure and found past discussion of its flaws.
“Council people have been asking these questions all along, but we’ve been hard pressed to make these changes,” Mahon said. “But last year, the push for a business administrator broke the ice. That’swhen the Blue Ribbon Panel got involved.
“We took the next step and we reorganized into something that would match our existing conditions”.
Mahon said that he had not heard of anyone who was opposed to the new committee structure and added that he hoped everyone would participate.
“I’m asking for your participation and your support,” Mahon said. “You guys should be able to manage your departments on your own.”