Lower Merion Government Considers Hiring Parliamentary Consultant

The Lower Merion Administrative and Human Resources Committee voted 6-4 on Wednesday night to recommend that the Board of Commissioners hire a parliamentary consultant to provide a parliamentary opinion on the Board of Commissioners and advise it how committee and board meetings can be more efficient.

In other matters, the Finance Committee learned that the township manager would be making his first non-police hires in 30 months to fill two township vacancies.

The Administrative and Human Resources Committee’s recommendation states that Jonathan M. Jacobs, a professional registered and certified parliamentarian, should be hired as a consultant and the unbudgeted cost of for his work should not exceed $2,000.

During a discussion before the vote, Commissioner Lewis Gould asked, “Why is this in any way needed?”

Liz Rogan, president of the Board of Commissioners, said any legislative body that exists uses parliamentary procedures to manage their meetings.

“Since we’ve had so many complaints about it, this is our chance to learn about it and how to manage meetings better,” Rogan said.

Gould said the meetings would be “much more fluent than they are now” if people used their common sense and common courtesy.

“I think this is clearly fluff of the worst kind in that it costs $2,000 and it’s not needed,” Gould said. “I certainly won’t vote to support this.”

Commissioner Brian Gordon said he was in favor of hiring a parliamentary consultant.

“If this service saves even an hour of time of this board, we win…If we don’t go until one or two o’clock in the morning and can function the next day in our real jobs, we win,” Gordon said.

Commissioner Brian McGuire, the vice chairman of the Administrative and Human Resources Committee, said he was concerned that some of the board’s decisions could be legally challenged because its members were not knowledgeable about parliamentary procedures, and he viewed hiring a consultant as “risk management.”

Commissioner Scott Zelov said if the board needed to consult someone, it had a solicitor “who’s often here.”

“I don’t see the sense and logic in this,” Zelov said.

As part of its agenda for the meeting, the Administrative and Human Resources Committee included Jacobs’ fee schedule as “exhibit B.”

According to the fee schedule, Jacobs has four separate hourly rates:

The mail rate is $50 per hour. It is the rate for preparing documents at home, with all business conducted by mail or telephone.

The meeting rate is $60 per hour and is charged for the attendance of meetings or briefing members.  A minimum fee of $120 is charged for meetings of less than two hours.

The presiding rate is $125 per hour. This fee is for presiding, depositions, court appearances and media interviews.

The teaching rate is $65 per hour. This fee is for teaching classes.

The fee schedule states that in addition to the rates, certain fees are charged.

Following the Administrative and Human Resources Committee, Township Manager Douglas Cleland addressed the Finance Committee regarding township staffing levels.

There are 52 township employee vacancies, which include positions that have been eliminated, positions that are no longer being funded, and newly-vacant positions, Cleland said.

Cleland said that while he has filled some vacancies internally through transfers, and asked for employee assistance with the increased work load, he has not done any external hiring for non-police positions in the past 30 months.

However, that is about to change as Cleland said he recently authorized hiring a parking attendant. 

The 13-person Parking Services Department has one eliminated position and one other vacancy, Cleland said.  The department struggled with the work load recently when the township replaced 1,425 parking meters and had to hire outside assistance to help with the project.

Cleland said the township’s parking attendants more than pay for themselves by bringing in $50,000 in annual net revenue over their salaries.

The second hiring Cleland has authorized is a human resources professional, he said.

The township will also consider later this month whether to fill six police vacancies, Cleland said.  Cleland has the authority and funding to fill township vacancies, except for police positions, which require the Board of Commissioner’s approval.