In the last post I gave an overview of the structure of Cherry Hill’s government. This explained the legal structure of the government but doesn’t really explain how the government currently functions. In recent history (and maybe always?) the Mayor and the Council have all been member of the Democratic Party. This has contributed to very little public discussion of politics. At the 4/24/17 Council meeting Rena Margulis stated “she has attended or watched on live stream every meeting of council since May 23, 2016…” and that “she has never seen deliberation by this governing body.” From what I can find published this is absolutely true. This is not to say debate doesn’t occur however it is clear that it happens outside the public eye. To the public the Council and Mayor present a unified front. So what is going on?
New Jersey has a ballot system that encourages a winner take all approach to local elections by grouping candidates by party. Further a lack of information on individual candidates leads voters to select the entire party ticket either based on what information they do have or based on knowing one of the party’s candidates. The result is a government controlled entirely by a single political party who has strong incentives to be cohesive. Power is centralized in the hands of the leader of the party.
A second important facet in understanding Cherry Hill’s government is that the Council does not have any paid staff or bureaucracy supporting it. Council members as not paid as full time employees. This means the Council has very limited practical ability to draft budget and ordinances independent from the Mayor.
Third, the Council like the Mayor is elected by the whole township. This does not provide Council members a natural constituency to represent. This does ensure that the government operates in the interests of the entire township but again limits public debate as the Council members must consider the political power of the Mayor and the Democratic Party since they cannot rely on a local base of support.
For these three reasons Cherry Hill’s government essentially functions as an Executive and advisory council arrangement. The Council does not have power to oppose the Mayor in public and must influence decisions behind closed doors. The purpose to this post isn’t to say if this is a good or bad thing. In fact I don’t think I know enough to write a column yet but eventually I’ll make this the subject of an opinion column. One thing is clear to me, if another party or faction one control of the Mayor or Council the government would operate very differently.