Land use department now on the mend, mayor says

BRICK TOWNSHIP - Many of the problems found in a 2008 transition report that bashed the land use department have been corrected, Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said.

"I think that department has really turned around," the mayor said Monday. "We're about 75 percent there."

The transition report, issued over a year ago, found a department that was not run efficiently, was not properly staffed and did not assist the public in a timely manner.

One business had tried to obtain approvals for a project for two and a half years and had never been specifically told what was needed, only given rejection letters, the report states.

"They have gone through the last of their legal retainer and now given up and will no longer purse opening," according to the report.

Not all of the land use staff was courteous to taxpayers and not all employees presented a professional image, the report found.

The report recommended that the township should consider creating an ombudsman position to shepherd residents and business owners through the process.

"A citizen or business owner who perhaps needs an approval once every 10 years should not and cannot be expected to shuffle their way through the bureaucracy and various statutes and ordinances," the report states.

Acropolis commissioned the transition report as soon as he was sworn in as mayor in November 2007. A team of volunteer experts examined every department.

Acropolis restructured the land use department in March 2007, when he created the Department of Community Development and Land Use and tapped Township Engineer James A. Priolo to become the director, with no increase in pay.

"A lot of the things in the report we put into effect when we reorganized those departments," the mayor said. "Land use and community development now has one single head. There wasn't anybody there to go to in the past."

Township Planner Michael Fowler now serves as deputy department head, also with no increase in pay, he said.

Acropolis expects even more improvement when the downstairs section of Town Hall is reconfigured to create a more open atmosphere.

Construction is expected to begin by the weekend and should be completed within 90 days, the mayor said.

"It's part of the customer-friendly atmosphere we're trying to put down there," he said. "It's obvious it's still a work in progress."

The transition report also found excessively high engineering costs to outside firms. By the end of October 2007, $2,332,652 of the $2,758,615 budgeted for the year had already been spent, according to the report.

"We know of no other city or municipality the size of Brick in new Jersey that had such a high budget," the report states. "The administration should look at ways to drastically reduce this seemingly excessive item."

The report also noted that the applications the department received dropped from an average of 2,000 per year to 1,500 in 2007. Since the work load was reduced by 25%, the report suggested it was an area of potential budget savings.

The report found a lack of communication between the department and the township administration.

"Although the public appears to be completely unsatisfied with the division, the division would continue with 'business as usual,' the report states.