Mercer County Goverment: COMMISSIONER SPOTLIGHT: ANDREW KOONTZ

Press release from the Mercer County Government:

10/15/2021 10:03 AM

When County Executive Brian M. Hughes ordered the Administration building to be closed in mid-March 2020, as Chair of what was then called the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders, I agreed that it was a necessary step, but I also thought it was important that a way be found to continue the business of government as soon as possible. As an educator in the East Windsor Regional School District, I was already familiar with Zoom and other remote meeting applications, and I recognized these tools could be used to conduct government meetings. I then began working with County Administrator Lillian Nazzaro, County IT Tech Director Ankit Gandhi, Clerk to the Board Jerlene “Cookie” Worthy, and her staff in hopes of holding remote meetings. But working out the logistics for such meetings was complex, and as the virus continued to spread, I was forced to cancel the remaining March meetings in the best interest of everyone’s health.

Mr. Gandhi and I continued to work on finding a meeting application that was best suited to public meetings. The key was to find a solution that allowed for “tiered” participation; that is, an application that would allow some participants, such as County Commissioners, to speak whenever they wanted, and other participants, such as the public, to speak only when allowed by the host of the meeting. Back in March of 2020, neither Mr. Gandhi nor myself believed Zoom yet had this functionality, so the best option at the time appeared to be WebEx. We did some tests with a limited number of participants, and it seemed to work. WebEx, it would turn out, was a less than ideal choice, but at the time I thought we were ready to give this a try.

It was at about this time that the State weighed in and put everything on pause. It appeared they were developing “guidance” for county and municipal government virtual meetings and we would have to wait until that guidance was in place before going forward.

Meanwhile, there was a fast-approaching deadline to consider and vote on the County Budget, which County Executive Hughes had introduced just before everything locked down. Though not required to do so, the Mercer County Commissioners had always reviewed the budget with Administration in hearings that were open to the public. I reluctantly decided that the reviews would happen, but I divided the Board into small subcommittees of no more than three Commissioners, thus allowing us to meet virtually without opening to the public. Those meetings happened in early April, with each Commissioner beginning to learn the ropes of these new virtual meeting applications. Luckily, we were able to work out the technical glitches. Each subcommittee was able to review a segment of the budget along with Ms. Nazzaro and Deputy County Administrator David Miller, and we went through the entire budget in a few days. But as April wore on, we still needed to figure out how we were going to tackle a virtual open meeting.

One of the biggest challenges was how to provide me, the Chair, with the voluminous backup materials needed to put together a meeting agenda. In ordinary times, I would drive to the County Administration Building and meet Ms. Worthy, our Commissioner Clerk, in her office. There would always be stacks of folders crammed with agreements, grant applications, public contracts, and more. Ms. Worthy and I would then meticulously review everything to determine if all was in order and ready to be put before the full Commission. We’re talking thousands of pages here, and somehow all of this would have to be converted into files that could be sent to me to view on my county-issued iPad. To accomplish this huge task, Ms. Nazzaro, the County Administrator, worked with Ms. Worthy to get all needed materials to our staff. Ms. Worthy and her staff bravely ventured into the closed Administration building to painstakingly scan everything electronically to send for me to review. Believe me, I did not forget for one second as I scanned through page after page of documents until I thought I was going to wear a hole in the iPad screen the enormous amount of work that went into providing me those documents.

The State finally issued its virtual meeting guidance, and we went live with our first virtual County Commission meeting on April 7. I was deeply worried that something would go wrong and joined the meeting very early, with only Mr. Gandhi, the County’s IT director, as the only other participant. We waited nervously for the other Commissioners, County Administrator Nazzaro, other Administration officials, and the public to join. But one by one, they popped into the meeting with everyone pleased to see and hear each other again. Of course, there were some snags with getting some Commissioners and other meeting participants online. But shortly after 6 p.m., the scheduled start of the meeting, I was able to call the meeting to order and lead everyone in a salute to our flag. As Chair of my first virtual meeting, I was far too engaged in running the meeting to remember much about it, but I do remember that overall it went pretty well, and once we adjourned I was deeply relieved that county government was finally back: the people’s business would go on despite the pandemic.

March and April 2020 were scary, uncertain times. The virus was raging without a vaccine yet in hand. The government was forced to close at a time when many people needed it the most. I deeply believed then that it was vitally important for the elected officials of Mercer County to meet to reassure the public, but I also recognized that having such a meeting would be enormously challenging. I hope this article captures the extent of those challenges and helps recognize the county officials who worked so hard throughout this epidemic to do the people’s business. I am deeply grateful to my fellow Commissioners, County Administrator Lillian Nazzaro, Deputy County Administrator David Miller, and, especially, Ms. Cookie Worthy and her outstanding staff for all they accomplished in making the virtual meetings possible. Lastly, a real debt of gratitude is owed to Ankit Gandhi and the county’s entire IT department for stepping up and making so much possible: we could not have done it without you.

This press release was produced by the Mercer County Government. The views expressed here are the author’s own.