An important and often under appreciated part of any government is the bureaucracy. This is the structure and people who carry out the work of the government and understanding who they are, what they do, and how well they are funded provides a lot of insight into the priorities and goals of the government. Cherry Hill’s bureaucracy is made up of nine departments. These are specified in the charter as the Department of Administration, Law, Public Works, Engineering, Police, Recreation, Health and Welfare, Community Development, and Construction Code Enforcement. As far as I can tell though the Department of Health and Welfare doesn’t exists as there is no mention of it on the town’s website or in the budget.
It’s important to note what is not under control of the Mayor and Council. This includes the Schools, the Fire Department, and County (prisons, county roads, community college, and more). The Mayor is actually only responsible for 15% of your property tax dollars!
Of the 15% the Mayor is responsible for here’s the breakdown is in the below chart. While it is a starting point it is pretty hard to tell from the below chart what your money is actually going towards besides a police force and a library. In future columns I’ll try to breakdown the budget further so you can see what services you get and how much it cost per service. This type of thing can be fairly tricky to calculate so we’ll have to see how much data the town has collected and is willing to send me.
