County commissioner reorganization meetings are usually bland and ceremonial affairs, where not much new is decided. Not so this year. In this one, having taken place Jan. 4, one of the commissioners was essentially sidelined from his direct involvement going forward. The whole affair is clearly sending a message.
In the meeting, when it came time to assign oversight of county departments to commissioners, the process involved an unusual abstention from the vote by Commissioner Will Morey, who was reelected to the board in November.
Commissioner Director Leonard Desiderio took long-standing assignments from Morey’s portfolio and redirected them in ways that were perplexing. He did so without first calling a meeting of the board for discussion, leaving Morey to abstain on votes that stripped him of his oversight of Economic Development and Planning, Engineering, and Public Infrastructure, as well as liaison to education.
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County commissioner reorganization
meetings are usually bland… Not this one.
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All individuals deserve a chance to repay the voters for having faith in them. However, that does not mean it is in the public interest to ignore the variables of experience and skill sets in how the tasks are allocated to each board member.
Morey is one of the county’s most successful businessmen. He has had experience in economic development for many years as a freeholder and then commissioner. He was a driving force behind the Tech Village at the airport. That effort seeks to attract firms specializing in cutting-edge drone technology. Never has there been more need for creative engagement in economic development in this county. Why transfer the responsibility away from the most experienced person?
Now, the county board has only two members who have had more than one year of experience as a county commissioner. Commissioner Director Desiderio, who first joined the county board in 2002, and Morey, first elected in 2011. Morey was passed over as vice-director this year in favor of Andrew Bulakowski, who first took office last January as a commissioner.
Bulakowski brings a different form of experience to the job and certainly deserved consideration. He served on the county Planning Board and the Cape May, Cumberland and Salem Workforce Development Board. Yet he is relatively new to his position on the county commission. No explanation was given as to why Morey, who was the likely candidate, was passed over.
We do not challenge the ability of all the elected officials on the board, but taking a person with over a decade’s experience on the board, and a successful businessman with a proven track record concerning the board’s Economic Development agenda, and essentially sidelining him from direct involvement in that agenda going forward, appears to be sending a message, one that Desiderio does not see fit to share with the public.
Are Health and Human Services and Information Technology the best use of Morey’s skill sets? Desiderio seems to believe it is. It did not appear that Morey agreed. He abstained from the votes, including the vote to continue Desiderio as commissioner director.
Why the public display of Morey’s abstentions? Why the transfer of long-standing responsibilities from the only other board member with sustained experience in county management? Why the lack of a board meeting to discuss the assignments before a public vote?
Commissioner Director Desiderio owes the public he serves an explanation for his assignments. Yes, four board members confirmed the assignment and elected their vice-director, but there is little doubt that those outcomes began with decisions by the commissioner director.
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From the Bible: A righteous person will live by his faithfulness. Habakkuk 2:4
