Something To Believe In

Ask yourself these questions...What has the Point Pleasant Borough Council given or asked you to believe in?  Have you ever heard an inspiring speech from any Council member? Have you ever received a cogent, profound, and well thought out idea from any Council member? Do you have any idea about what the Council as a whole, or any individual member really thinks about the direction of the Borough? Is there a strategic plan with specific objectives for the direction of the Borough?

If you are like me, the answer to all these questions is "NO". That being said, the only other question to be asked is "WHY". The answer lies somewhere in between the Borough Council is and always has been a reactive body, and sheer incompetence (not the kind of malicious incompetence, but rather the incompetence that comes form not knowing what you do not know). The fact that the staff is in the same boat doesn't help much either.

It is very hard to understand why there is such staunch opposition to strategic discussion and planning among the Council members. Let's turn to the literature to find a clue...

A basic assumption is that government in general, including local government, is bureaucratic in nature. That is to say, there are prescribed ways of doing things (laws), and there is a long history of doing things the same way time after time (written and unwritten procedures of conformity). Although the following contrast table is used to describe the conflicts among different orientations, it nonetheless, applies to the conflicts between the bureaucracy in government and individual Council members.

     Individual Council Member Orientation                            Bureaucratic Orientation                      

                  Service to the Public                                                              Service to the Organization

       Colleague-Oriented Reference Group                                                  Hierarchical Orientation

           Autonomy in Decision Making                                                         Disciplined Compliance

       Self Imposed Standards of Control                                              Subordination to the Organization

Herein lies part of the problem. Individual Council members see themselves as servants of the public, with a responsibility to do what is in the best interests of the community in cooperation with other members of the Council. In order to best discharge this responsibility they view autonomy of decision making and self imposed standards of control as essential ingredients. However, these needs for good governance are frustrated by the bureaucracy, which requires service to the organization, not the people, hierarchical decision making and stern adherence to compliance with and subjugation to the organization.

These are REAL conflicts and bear heavily on each Council member. As a result, governance is frozen in place (doing things the same way over and over and expecting different results). For example, in turn the majority within the Council ushers in "their" team of consultants, and the minority gripes about it. There is an expectation that some time in the future this will all be different without actually ever addressing the problem. Council members can not act the way they should, because they are fearful of the bureaucracy and the way things have always been done. Good practices are unattainable, and bad practices are copied over and over.

Another example may make this point more clear... The Council may wish to meet to conduct strategic planning, which is a positive hallmark of all organizations, but can not do so because it is believed the Council can not meet to plan without public notice, inviting the public and conducting nearly all business in public. As silly as it sounds, the Point Pleasant Borough Council members actually believe the forgoing to be true. They cite state law as the determinant for this stringent management process. As you can readily observe, this is a classic struggle emanating from the the conflict between individual and bureaucratic orientation.

Does anyone really believe that the state enacted a law that made it impossible for sound organizational management (in this case a governmental entity)? I doubt that the law was structured in such a manner, because the state legislature often meets to plan, sometimes in groups, sometimes by party affiliation and sometimes all together in private. The only reason that the Council does not plan may be for the sole reason that someone long ago proclaimed it to be taboo, and mindless obedience has followed.

As I have often said to the Council, there is a reason why Spring Lake looks the way it does, why property values are unaffected by recessions, and even the smallest hunk of land sells for millions of dollars...A group of people PLANNED it that way!

President and Five Star General Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, "Plans are nothing, but planning is everything". That quote came from a man who led the way to the greatest land and sea military assault in all of history, which came to be known as D-Day.

The Council is guilty of giving us nothing to believe in as citizens and taxpayers. The Council is a reactive body mired in bureaucracy. The Mayor has not assumed a position of leadership. The ship is foundering with no apparent hope of righting itself and charting a course for the future. What do you think?