News
Sea Bright Borough Administrator Appointed Shared Services explored
By Ryan Fennell
SEA BRIGHT - Although it has been a part of her job since being hired as the Municipal Clerk, Maryann Smeltzer was officially named Sea Bright's Borough Administrator on Tuesday night.
Although the Borough Administrator position already existed there had been no job description in place for the position.
The Borough Council passed a resolution defining the job description and subsequently named Smeltzer as the Administrator.
According to Smeltzer she has been doing the Administrator's job since being hired as the Municipal Clerk.
"In a small town like Sea Bright the Municipal Clerk wears many hats," said Smeltzer. "So basically I've been doing this since I started this job, and I've just gotten better at it and have been participating in a lot more things including attending a lot more meetings and overseeing different departments and personnel."
According to Smeltzer the only aspect that will be different from the duties she currently carries out is job performance evaluations of the various department heads.
"I've done them for my departments but never for the other department heads," Smeltzer said. "It will be good though because it will alleviate the governing body from having to do them. I have more day-to-day experience with the department heads than they do, so it'll be easier for me to evaluate them."
Mayor Maria Fernandes thanked the council for moving on this issue and congratulated Smeltzer on her "well-deserved promotion."
The borough also unanimously passed a pair of resolutions to explore the possibility of sharing several services.
The first option being explored is a feasibility study for sharing solid waste removal initiated by Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornick. Participating in the study will come at no cost to Sea Bright according to Council President Dina Long.
According to Long, municipalities currently participating in the study include Marlboro, Manalapan, Englishtown, Hazlet, Matawan, Atlantic Highlands, and Oceanport.
The feasibility study is being conducted by Eatontown-based Patriot Consulting.
"They are trying to put together the largest group possible for the study," Long said. "It is not a done deal. We are just participating in the feasibility study. Hopefully they will find it feasible to include us."
Currently, Sea Bright pays a third-party contractor to help deal with the borough's waste removal and recycling.
"We are trying to minimize costs everywhere," said Long.
As for the approximate savings associated with sharing this service, Long said the borough would not know until after the study is completed.
The second shared-services option has come down from the Monmouth County Freeholders in the form of a commodity resale and shared- services program. The commodity resale program would allow Sea Bright and other participating municipalities to purchase items like gasoline, snow removal chemicals, public works materials and supplies including road and road construction materials.
The County would not profit from the program and would only seek to recoup its costs.
The shared-services portion of the program would include a long list of services that range from sign installation to equipment rentals to snow removal Long said. As for what it could save the borough Long said that the governing body will find out by completing a request form and returning it to the county.
"We'll find out but you would think (we'd save money)," Long said. "Sometimes shared services don't save money but with this we are not obligated to use the services but we will certainly be doing our due diligence to see if we can save money."
According to Long the concern with shared services is that a municipality becomes a customer unless that municipality is actually providing the service. "As customers if we can catch a 'sale' then indeed we will save money," Long said. "Theoretically with a lot of municipalities, when you increase your numbers you have the power to buy in bulk, which certainly produces savings."
Sea Bright had been participating in a feasibility study regarding sharing public works services with neighboring Monmouth Beach. According to Long, Sea Bright was informed last week that Monmouth Beach was not interested in sharing services with the borough which came as a surprise to the council.
Monmouth Beach officials did not return phone calls by press time.
Mayor Fernandes has been in discussion with Rumson regarding shared services of the municipal court while Sea Bright is also engaged in informal discussions with neighboring communities about sharing police services.
