My Official Supervisor Activities for Q1 2021

The following is a summary of my Supervisor-related activities for the first quarter (January through March) of 2021. In Q1 2021 I spent, on average, 46 hours per month on official Supervisor business. This compares with an average of 54 hours per month in Q1 2020 before the COVID-19 lockdown.

Log of Hours Spent on Official Business

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

The following chart shows the breakdown in percent of hours spent on these various official activities.

The following table shows the numbers:

For the first three months of 2021 I earn a “stipend” of $1,031.25 before taxes. That’s works out to $7.48 per hour, which is $0.23 per hour more than PA’s minimum wage of $7.25. Luckily, unlike many working people in PA, I do no depend on that for a living.

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 email account, and via phone, Nextdoor and/or Facebook.

BTW, if you need to contact other Newtown Township Officials, download the list from the 2021 Directory published by the Bucks County Association of Township Officials.

What This Report Does Not Include

My log of Supervisor-related activities 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.

Working for You Every Day!

I was interested in seeing what day of the week I log the most hours on official supervisor business (see chart and table below). It turns out that I spend the most time on Wednesdays, which is not surprising because Board of Supervisor (BOS) meetings are on the 2nd and fourth Wednesday of every month.

Of course, I MUST attend these meetings, which require a lot of time preparing for. In fact, there’s not enough time on Wednesday to prepare for these meetings – that’s why Tuesday’s and Monday’s are number 2 and 3, respectively, in terms of hours spent on official business.

I can truly say that I work for residents EVERY day of the week, although less than 2 total hours for Sundays.

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.

Posted on 03 Apr 2021, 12:27 - Category: Open Records/Transparency