My Supervisor Activities for January 2019

The following is a summary of my Supervisor-related activities for January, 2019, which was a busy month in terms of interaction with residents but light in terms of time spent at official required meetings. In January, I spent a total of 56.3 hours on official Supervisor business. For comparison, in the last quarter of 2018 (Sep through Dec), I spent an average of 46.7 hours as Supervisor.

What This Report Does Not Include

My log of Supervisor-realted activiies does not include the many hours I spend posting to this blog, maintaining my personal website, writing a newsletter, creating and posting video clips from meetings, hosting podcast interviews, summarizing decisions made by the Board of Supervisors (BOS Definition), etc. Also not included is the time I spend posting to my personal Facebook page, Twitter account, and Instagram account. These activities are NOT part of my official duties as Supervisor, but represent my personal views.

My log keeps track of the time spent on the following:

Attending “Required” Meetings
Preparation for BOS Meetings
Attending Optional Meetings/Activities
Interaction with Residents
Travel To & From Meetings

Meetings

In the month of January 2019, I spent 8 hours attending meetings. The average for the 4th quarter of 2018 was 16.1 hours per month. BOS meetings are “required” in the sense that I am expected to attend them in order to satisfy my duties as a Supervisor. These include regular bi-weekly public meetings, non-public executive sessions, public work sessions, and special meetings (see the list below).

“Other Meetings” I attended were optional. For January, 2019, the only optional meeting I attended was the Technology Committee meeting. The following chart shows the breakdown of all my Supervisor-related activities for January, 2019:

Interaction with Residents

In my opinion, personal interaction with residents regarding their concerns is an important part of my responsibilities as Supervisor. I want to be sure that I spend enough time reaching out to and responding to residents via personal contact, official email via my johnm@newtownpa.gov account and via my personal john@johnmacknewtown.info account, and via phone and/or Facebook.

In January, 2019, I spent approximately 12.8 hours (24% of my total logged hours) interacting with residents compared to an average of 6.7 hours per month in the fourth quarter of 2018. What did I discuss with residents? Here’s a partial list (some items are not included for confidentiality reasons):

Met with applicants for the newly formed Human Relations Commission (see who they are here)
Helped a resident resolve an issue with the Township
Discussed the Anti Opioid Manufacturers’ Civil Suit with residents in an online bulletin board (read “Newtown Township Joins Suit Against Opioid Manufacturers and Distributors”
Miscellaneous email communications

Disclaimer

When speaking with residents on issues that may come before the BOS in the future for a vote, I never express an opinion as to how I will vote because I may not have all the information. Needless to say, I also do NOT discuss any confidential information that is not in the public domain. These discussions with residents are meant solely to inform me of their opinions, not for me to give them my opinion. Or it is just to listen to complaints/concerns and to forward them on to the BOS if necessary

I decided to keep track of my activities as a Supervisor on a monthly basis partly because I want to be accountable to residents, but also to make sure I am making the best use of my time. It's really an honor to serve the community! I learn something new every day and have met many fine people and volunteers who also put in a lot of time without any compensation at all. Thanks to everyone who help keep Newtown in business and safe.

Previous Reports

Posted on 02 Feb 2019, 13:01 - Category: Open Records/Transparency