The Bayonne City Council voted to approve a plan by Mayor Mark Smith to reduce the number of city departments from nine to four in an attempt to create more accountability and improve efficiency.

While the move will only cut municipal spending by $500,000 at the start, Steve Gallo, chief of staff for Mayor Smith, said greater savings may be realized in the future. But he said the intent is to provide better city services and reduce duplication of duties in various departments.

The move comes at a time when the city faces annual budget shortfalls in the tens of millions of dollars.

While the upfront savings are not dramatic, Gallo said the purpose of the restructuring is not merely to save money, but to improve efficiency.
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“When he ran for office, Mayor Smith said he was going to change the way we do business.” -- Steve Gallo
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Council President Vincent Lo Re noted that the city has already gone through extensive layoffs, and this plan is designed to bring together the resources of the city so that they are utilized in the most efficient manner.

“When he ran for office, Mayor Smith said he was going to change the way we do business,” Gallo said. “Immediately following his election, the mayor assembled a committee of a number of interested citizens and people in the administration, who were charged with looking at our municipal operations in its entirety and to examine every facet to determine how efficient and effectively the organization was structured and whether or not it made sense to continue in the same vein considering the financial constraints government is under these days.”

The plan calls for reducing the city’s departments from the current nine to four, and creating subdivisions in each department to handle many of the chores departments currently handle.

Gallo said the reorganization puts together elements of government with similar purposes and provides a means for sharing employees to make departments leaner and more efficient.

The departments responsibilities include police and fire protection, maintenance of roads and other public facilities, public health, maintenance of parks and playgrounds, removal of refuse and litter, tax assessment and collection, economic development, and construction enforcement. Municipal governments also provide programs for recreation, senior citizens, sports leagues, pre-school and other educational classes, and quality of life services.

Currently, the city has departments for administration, finance, law, public works and recreation, law enforcement, fire and rescue, health, community development and the public library.

Consolidation

Under the plan, the existing departments will be consolidated into four departments: The Department of Municipal Services, the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Public Works and the Department of Business Administration.

Gallo said recreation will be removed from the auspices of public works, which would be left to maintain roads and public property. Public works also would pick up responsibility for solid waste collection and recycling. The Fire Department’s signal division will also fall under the duties of public works, Gallo said.

One of the more innovative programs instituted by the restructuring is a concept called “zone management,” which will work hand in hand with a significantly reduced Office of Quality of Life.

The Quality of Life office, when originally conceived, was supposed to act as a kind of clearing house for information, taking in concerns and making sure the proper departments were notified to address them. Over the years, it became bloated with other duties, and the restructuring would return the office to its original purpose, Gallo said.

“They would handle citizen concerns and follow up to make sure these get to the proper department,” he said.

Under zone management, the city will be divided into six zones, two zones per ward, with a person assigned to patrol every street looking for problems that need to be addressed.

“Their job would be to drive up every street in their zone and look for problems, whether it is litter or potholes, broken swings in the park, even something as simple as a tattered flag on a pole that needs to be replaced,” Gallo said. “They would be empowered to call on the resources of any department to solve the problem.”

The Department of Municipal Services will encompass all of those offices that have the most contact with the public, Gallo said.

“It will encompass senior services, the health function, the recreation function, the building department, planning and zoning and a number of different elements,” he said. “The common theme in that department is customer service and providing people with what they want in a friendly and responsible manner.”

This department will include the public library.

The Bayonne Fire Department and Bayonne Police Department will be, once again, merged into a Department of Public Safety. This department will also oversee the emergency medical services contract, currently performed by the Health Department.

Three department heads will be eliminated, and this, Gallo said, has a ripple effect in that costs are reduced even further when you consider support staff for those positions, vehicles and other costs.

The Law Department, the Finance Department and the Department of Business Administration will be merged under the banner of the Department of Business Administration. In addition, this department would oversee human resources, payroll, tax assessment and collections, purchasing, and health benefits administration.

For improved uniformity and accountability, the Working Group felt that the Tax Collector’s Office should be responsible for the collection and receipt of all cash from each department, rather then each department performing this function individually.