Parks Management: The Story that Won’t go Away

Tonight, when I stepped out of the Somerset County Freeholders meeting on Grove Street, into the fresh evening air of Somerville, this is what the freeholders decided to do about the reported management abuses of the Somerset County Parks Commission:

-- A list of 14 demands read to his peers by freeholder, Rick Fontana, will be presented to the Somerset County Parks Commission at its next meeting, Thursday morning at 8:00 a.m.

-- These demands were taken directly from the Wolff and Sampson Report costing taxpayers over $150,000. One item, for example, calls for a review of below-market housing rentals – three of which are in Bridgewater – to certain park employees, as well as their free use of vehicles around the clock.

-- Another initiative, not originally contemplated by the freeholders, will be to direct Wolff and Sampson to perform a forensic audit of Park Commission employee expenditures and policy. It was not made clear at the meeting just how extensive this forensic audit will be, and it will come at additional cost.

-- If the Parks Commission rejects the freeholders’ recommendations, then Rick Fontana recommends that the county move immediately to dissolve the Parks Commission under a referendum put to the voters in the fall. All Freeholders agreed to this.

Of the 16 speakers who came to the mike (a large proportion were from Bridgewater Township) most were highly critical of the policy and practices of the Park Commission, some of its key employees, and of the freeholders themselves. Only a few were sympathetic, citing a “feeding frenzy by the press” as the cause of this problem. Baloney!

My Conclusion: There is no doubt that the average Joe or Jane working for the Parks Commission is a hard worker and keeps his/her nose clean – many probably knew what was going on and would not have approved, had it been their call to make.

The issue is that the Somerset County Parks Commission, established by referendum in 1956, is a quasi-public, non-transparent entity of appointed people, accountable to no one but themselves. So, over the years, abuses have crept in, one by one. Under law, the freeholders have no direct say in parks management, except to fund it to the tune of over $8 million yearly, as of last count.

Even if the Parks Commission accepts all of the recommendations of the freeholders on Thursday morning, it will not solve the problem. The freeholders want to make the engineering, procurement, and accounting functions of the Parks Commission subject to their direct oversight and control. This should be done immediately. But it will lead to other problems: overlap; redundant personnel, especially at the management level; poor morale; and a questionable role for the Parks Commission.

Freeholder Jack Ciattarelli, visibly distressed and seemingly sincere about wanting to fix this, referred to political feedback he was getting about, “…not throwing the baby out with the bath water.” There no longer are any babies left: It simply looks like dirty bath water. It’s time for the freeholders to recommend that a referendum be held calling for abolition of the Somerset County Parks Commission. Its duties should be folded directly under the accountability of elected Somerset County Freeholders