Board considers public office hours for commissioners

More extensive information could be posted ahead of August meetings

Township officials want to know from Upper Gwynedd residents whether they would attend public office hours to meet and greet the commissioners, and whether the board should try to post more publicly before meetings.

Both topics were discussed at the commissioners’ July workshop meeting, and board members said they plan to try several new approaches in the upcoming months.

“The board had brought to staff the idea of sharing more of the backup packet info, that you all get in Dropbox, with the public, and there are ways we can do that,” said Township Manager Mike Lapinski.

Currently, the township only posts the commissioners’ agenda ahead of each public meeting, with additional documentation sent to each board member via the file-sharing app Dropbox to their tablet devices. Lapinski told the board that he and administrative assistant Deanna Logan have begun looking into ways to post more publicly, and could do so by linking to the supporting documents from the agenda page of the website.

“A resident or interested party would come on the website, and see a red block around the item. You just click on it, and there it is,” Lapinski said, demonstrating during the board workshop meeting.

“It’s an easy way for Deanna to organize more information, and doesn’t take her that much more time,” he said.

Board President Ken Kroberger and solicitor David Onorato both said the attorney would need to review all documents first to see if any confidential information would need to be redacted before posting, and Lapinski said that could become part of the procedure.

“This would be what we’d ask Dave and the board to look at, to say ‘No, don’t link that one, let’s keep that off,’” Lapinski said.

Kroberger said he had two main concerns with posting more information, both of which

“Let’s give it a try. The thing I worry about is, number one, how much time does Deanna have to spend to do it? And second, we have to look at it, and make a determination what information we really want to put on there,” he said.

Lapinski said staff would try doing so ahead of the board’s August meetings, and police Chief David Duffy said he would do the same for documents coming from his department, by sending one copy with information meant for the board only and a second with any sensitive information removed that can be posted publicly.

“Is that time consuming?” Lapinski asked.

“Not at all. I can go right through and pull it out,” Duffy said.

During their July workshop meeting, the board also discussed a proposal from commissioners Denise Hull and Liz McNaney to establish a regular set of office hours for residents to share their thoughts with board members. McNaney said she had the idea after hearing of public information sessions being hosted by North Penn school board members to discuss a new tax rebate available for lowincome seniors, and said a similar meeting, and/or open office hours, could help build relationships.

“I don’t know what kind of response we would get, but I think it would be nice to be able to put something out there, to be able to explain to the population in Upper Gwynedd that would be affected by this, on a more intimate stage than going to a school board meeting,” McNaney said.

Lapinski said he would look into available dates for Upper Gwynedd to host a one-time meeting to discuss the school district rebate program. Hull and McNaney said they would also like to establish weekly open hours for residents to be heard on any topic, and to go over or explain any documents or plans up for discussion.

“This would give us a time that we know, for example, on Wednesday from 1 to 3 (p.m.) we can sit down and say ‘Hey , did you see this? Or read this or that,” McNaney said.

“While making ourselves available for someone in the community to talk to us,” Hull added.

Kroberger and commissioner Tom Duffy said their biggest concern would be that the public office hours do not disrupt staff, by bringing questions directly to staff during normal work hours.

“The concern I would have would be if a resident comes in, sits down, starts talking about something, and you go grab Alex (Kaker, assistant manager) or Mike (Lapinski) or Dave (Onorato), and take them out of their normal day to day activity,” Kroberger said.

Hull and McNaney said any specific questions or concerns they can’t answer would be noted and sent to staff after the office hours, to minimize disruption, and said they thought the open office hours could preempt any complaints on social media about the township not being accessible to residents.

“You’ll take that no matter what. You can be God and take that — after doing this for 40 years, you will take it, no matter what you do,” commissar Jim Santi said

Kroberger asked that the two keep the rest of the board updated on any questions or topics that come up during office hours, in case a resident brings up an issue more than once in different settings.

Hull and McNaney said they were also considering going door-to-door in certain neighborhoods to touch base with residents, who said during campaign season last fall that they only see local officials during elections and never after.

“If they’re not home, we could have a card saying ‘We were here, here are some things going on in the township: don’t forget about the upcoming carnival,’ or whatever,” McNaney said.

Hull and McNaney said they would start walking neighborhoods in the coming weeks — “hopefully, it will happen before winter,” Hull said — and would let the rest of the board know about any major issues or questions raised.