Warning sign
It's not clear whether or not the abrupt resignation of Teaneck's public information officer is itself a good or a bad thing. Were the services of a public information officer necessary to begin with? There was not too much debate surrounding the appointment, which was made by the Council with little fanfare several months ago. It is similarly difficult to discern any impact from the public information efforts, as the position was apparently a behind the scenes one, which makes it hard to answer the question of whether the $11,000 spent on public relations was a good investment for Teaneck, or whether we are better off that the other $14,000 already allocated will remain in Teaneck's coffers for the time being. What is abundantly clear, however, is that there was a major management failure here. When an external service provider opts to resign and forego future payments rather than continue to work with you, that is a sign that something is not right. In his comments to the Record, Stan Steinreich alleges that he was not even able to extract a cogent job description from those who had hired him.
If correct, this is a shocking revelation. It suggests that half-baked ideas are being approved and funded by our municipal government with no process in place for monitoring their implementation. This is not only a recipe for the failure of potentially good ideas, but it is supremely wasteful of scarce financial resources. One shudders to think what may be going on with the far more expensive Birdsall Engineering contract and other larger projects.
posted by Teaneck Blog @ 10:57 AM
14 Comments:
What is abundantly clear, however, is that there was a major management failure here. When an external service provider opts to resign and forego future payments rather than continue to work with you, that is a sign that something is not right. In his comments to the Record, Stan Steinreich alleges that he was not even able to extract a cogent job description from those who had hired him.
If correct, this is a shocking revelation. It suggests that half-baked ideas are being approved and funded by our municipal government with no process in place for monitoring their implementation. This is not only a recipe for the failure of potentially good ideas, but it is supremely wasteful of scarce financial resources. One shudders to think what may be going on with the far more expensive Birdsall Engineering contract and other larger projects.
It does not take a rocket scientist to see that Teaneck has some serious issues wasting the tax payers funds!
Whether it be an employee or a consultant, it is imperative to define up-front a clearly defined listing of the tasks to be performed (in the employee world that would be a job description), the management process (who is responsible for supervising the work) and deliverables (what work will be done at specified milestones), combined with an ongoing review of the process along the way. I re-read my copy of the resolution that brought Mr. Steinreich on board and it does not seem clear that these criteria were met beforehand, and based on Mr. Steinreich's quotes in today's Record, it doesn't seem that they were set after the fact.
The Birdsall contract does a far better job of defining the scope of the contract and the deliverables. Hopefully, we will shortly see what we bought for $85,000 for 8 weeks of work.
In both cases, Township residents ought to be concerned that an initial contract was just a foot in the door for more work down the road. Mr. Steinreich billed $11,000 in the three months he was employed, nearly half of the $25,000 that had been allocated in the contract for the entire year. In Birdsall's case, the Township may have a case of "smurfing" (adding on additional bits of work, a small amount at a time), awarding additional work in two separate resolutions for up to $2,000 and $19,000 respectively in unrelated work in the past few weeks, in what may likely be a portent of even more work heading Birdsall's way in the months and years to come.
In all cases -- be they public relations, engineering, planning or legal services -- the Township of Teaneck needs to more actively consider which work can be brought in-house and performed by a municipal employee whose assigned job (and loyalty) is to perform their job for the Township, without the potential conflicts of interest that may arise from other clients and the goals of obtaining new business, work that can often performed in-house at far lower cost. Where outside contractors are brought in, residents need to be assured that all necessary steps have been taken to ensure that both sides fully understand the requirements and obligations of the work to be performed before a contract is signed, and that the Township is properly protected in the event that any problems crop up along the way. We need to be convinced that the Township is getting the best value possible in terms of the quality and cost of the work to be done.
The Township's track record in large-scale projects, most notably with Police Headquarters and the Cedar Lane Streetscape, shows the risks involved when issues not thoroughly addressed in advance, fall through the cracks later on.
Mr. Steinreich's departure should serve as an object lesson to our Council of its responsibility in managing outside work, especially as it seems quite likely that much bigger projects may well be on the way.
With the position now open, I hereby offer this post as a writing sample. Rates and terms are negotiable... in advance.
Alan Sohn
Alan Sohn said...
... In all cases -- be they public relations, engineering, planning or legal services -- the Township of Teaneck needs to more actively consider which work can be brought in-house and performed by a municipal employee whose assigned job (and loyalty) is to perform their job for the Township, without the potential conflicts of interest that may arise from other clients and the goals of obtaining new business, work that can often performed in-house at far lower cost.
There is no one on the Township payroll right now who has the skills/time to do the above. That means we would need to hire more people, pay more benefits and increase the budget by that much more. Outside contractors make much more sense.
I agree with the anonymous commenter that many of the tasks described by Alan above are best handled by private consultants and I agree with Alan that it's imperative that work scopes be carefully laid out in advance or the town risks being "smurfed".
The benefit of consultants are that they perform narrowly defined tasks, for which they are presumably high qualified to undertake, for a defined fee over a defined time period. They don’t collect a salary nor benefits. They can be fired at will. Most importantly though, consultants provide political cover for elected officials. When things go right, the elected officials can take the credit and when things go wrong, the responsibility falls squarely on the bad advice provided by those darned consultants.
Situation Normal: All Fouled Up.
Great job we voters did last May.
Why not create a new volunteer board to handle public relations? If the township has capable citizens who handle so very many other functions on such a basis, it can find volunteers for this as well.
I agree Alan has been doing a fine job and nominate him for chairman of the Public Relations Board.
If the Community Relations Board was doing a better job, I'd be inclined to agree. This should be left up to the professionals.
TOO BAD THE TOWNSHIP MANAGER HASN'T RESIGNED. HOW DO WE GET HER USELESS BEING OUT OF TEANECK?
Anon-
totally agree the Twonship manager needs to go...she is totally worthless and useless!
Who instructed the public relations guy not to publicize events? Was it the Manager or somebody else?
and what form of government do we have. our manager wears the Pants when it is convient. when not she defers to others that she is not Fond of. That is my take it..what is yours
The Township Manager must GO!! It is clearly evident that she does not play well with others and has caused nothing but tension between police and fire unions. The council needs to wake up and take charge of this situation that has already spun out of control. The time has come for a forced resignation. The Manager can't even retain outside contracters that are supposed to help make her ill thought out decisions look and sound better. She is nothing but a joke.
As for the council...grow a set and do the right thing!
Anybody care to speculate how many of the last five posters actually live in Teaneck?
Well I do and I have the lovely(plse note the sarcasm) tax bill to prove it!
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