My February 2021 Supervisor Activities: Many Meetings!

In February 2021, I spent 43 hours on official supervisor business. Nearly forty percent (39%) of that time was spent attending official township meetings and one Meet Mack Monday meeting - via Zoom, of course! Read Highlights From Selected February 2021 Newtown Township Public Meetings and Summary of 10 February 2021 BOS Meeting

The height of each bar represents total hours spent on official business that day. This includes time spent at meetings. Blue indicates I attended a required meeting that day, orange indicates that I attended an optional meeting that day. This year to date I've logged on average 46 hours per month compared to 59 hours per month in 2019.
BCATO = Bucks County Association of Township Officials, BOS = Board of Supervisors, EDC = Economic Development Committee, JZC = Joint Zoning Council, EAC = Environmental Advisory Council, PC = Planning Commission,
FC = Finance Committee

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

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.

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 February 2021, I spent 4.2 hours (8% of my total logged hours) interacting with residents in my official capacity as supervisor. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, I am using Zoom to meet with residents. On February 8, I hosted a Meet Mack Monday Zoom meeting, which focused on the Arcadia III Settlement Agreement.

What did I discuss with residents? Here’s a partial list (some items are not included for confidentiality reasons):

Arcadia III Litigation
Renewable energy
Bringing new business to Newtown
Audubon Birds on the Brink Webinar
Council Rock North mascot issue
K9 Luxury Resort project

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 10 Mar 2021, 13:48 - Category: Open Records/Transparency