March 19, 2026 Millburn Township Charter Study Commission Meeting Minutes Minutes of the meeting of the Charter Study Commission of the Township of Millburn, in the County of Essex, New Jersey, held in the Bauer Center starting at 8:00 PM on the above date. Mr. Biller, presiding in the absence of the Chair, welcomed those present and read the following notice: In accordance with Section 5 of the Open Public Meetings Act, Chapter 231, Public Laws, 1975, be advised that notice of this meeting was made by posting on the Bulletin Board in Town Hall, and forwarding to the officially designated newspapers, that this meeting would take place at the Bauer Center at 8:00 PM on Thursday, March 19, 2026. All those in attendance joined in the Pledge of Allegiance. Upon call of the roll, the following Charter Study Commission members were recorded present: Corey Biller, Jerry Kung, Shaunak Tanna, and Joanna Parker-Lentz. Also present: Suzanne Cevasco, Esq. from King, Moench & Collins LLP; and Gregory Poff, Township Manager of the Township of Randolph. Ms. Parker-Lentz made a motion to approve the agenda. Seconded by Mr. Tanna. All voted in favor. Ms. Parker-Lentz made a motion to approve the March 12, 2026 meeting minutes. Seconded by Dr. Kung. All voted in favor, with Mr. Tanna abstaining. Ms. Parker-Lentz made a motion to approve Invoice No. 96519 from King, Moench & Collins LLP in the amount of $3,870 for legal services rendered through February 28, 2026. Seconded by Mr. Tanna. All voted in favor. Reports Mr. Biller reported that he had reached out to the South Mountain Civic Association to publicize the current meeting and the upcoming informal public forum scheduled for Sunday, March 22, 2026. Public Comment Mr. Biller opened the first public comment period. No one wished to be heard. Mr. Biller closed the first public comment period. Interview with Greg Poff, Township Manager, Township of Randolph Mr. Biller introduced the evening’s guest, Greg Poff, Township Manager of Randolph, appearing via Zoom. He noted that Mr. Poff brings more than twenty-five years of experience as a local government manager in New Jersey, having served four local governments, most recently as the Sussex County Administrator. In his current role as Township Manager, Mr. Poff serves as Randolph’s chief executive officer, leading and supervising day-to-day operations. He is one of only five practicing local government managers in New Jersey recognized as a Credentialed Manager by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). In 2019, the New Jersey Municipal Management Association honored Mr. Poff with the Dr. Thomas J. Davey Academic Achievement Award for his work developing and implementing training programs for newly elected officials and for lecturing on New Jersey local government. � March 19, 2026 Millburn Township Charter Study Commission Meeting Minutes A Morris County native, Mr. Poff earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Policy and Management Studies from Dickinson College and a Master of Public Administration degree from Rutgers University–Camden. The Commission invited Mr. Poff to walk through his career in municipal management. Mr. Poff described a career spanning five distinct positions: he began as Assistant Township Manager in Randolph, then served as Township Manager of Byram Township (a council￾manager municipality with a five-member governing body and a directly elected mayor), then as Business Administrator of Rockaway Township (a mayor-council municipality with a directly elected mayor serving as chief executive and nine council members), then as Administrator of Sussex County (a five-member board of commissioners), and most recently returned to Randolph as Township Manager, a position he has held for nearly four years. He noted that this progression gave him direct managerial experience under a range of governing configurations, including council-manager governments with both five- and seven-member bodies, a mayor-council government with nine council members and a strong directly elected mayor, and a county board structure. The Commission asked Mr. Poff to describe the core strengths of the council-manager form of government. Mr. Poff identified administrative competence, professional management, fiscal accountability, and operational stability as the form’s defining strengths. He observed that these qualities are not merely aspirational but are manifest in concrete outcomes that are, in his experience, far more difficult to achieve under other forms. He illustrated this with an example from Randolph: when the Township Council expressed interest in reconfiguring its engineering services, Mr. Poff prepared a report outlining alternatives, recommended restoring a full-time in-house engineer, conducted a structured interview process, and extended an employment offer to a qualified candidate — all with the Council’s blessing but without political interference. He described the result as an example of the separation between policy and administration that characterizes the council-manager form at its best: “The separation between the policy and the administration in a council-manager form of government doesn’t provide just good governance, but it produces better outcomes for residents.” The Commission asked what conditions are necessary for the council-manager form to work well. Mr. Poff identified four elements: the governing body’s genuine understanding and embrace of the form; role clarity between policy and administration; a professional hiring process for the manager; and a willingness on the part of the governing body to allow the manager to manage day-to-day operations without interference. He emphasized that the Township Manager’s authority is at once the form’s greatest strength and its greatest challenge. The Commission asked what risks pose a threat to the council-manager form working well. Mr. Poff identified three: micromanagement by council members, political interference in personnel decisions, and general governing body dysfunction. He noted that in his own career he had not personally encountered these problems, but that he was aware of other council￾manager municipalities where the form had been undermined by a governing body that did not fully embrace its principles, or by a manager with deficiencies in exercising the authority given to that role. The Commission asked how the relationship between the council and the administrative organization works in Randolph. Mr. Poff described a structure in which the council acts as a body and directs the administrative organization exclusively through the office of the � March 19, 2026 Millburn Township Charter Study Commission Meeting Minutes Township Manager. He noted that council members are legally prohibited from directing subordinates of the Township Manager. To keep the Council informed without enabling micromanagement, Mr. Poff provides written manager’s reports twice monthly, and the Council utilizes work groups of three members — structured to remain within the Open Public Meetings Act’s three-person threshold — to conduct deeper dives on specific policy matters. Work groups have addressed land use, communications, and ordinance drafting. He noted that when individual council members are approached directly by constituents, they routinely refer those residents to the Township Manager’s office, reinforcing the chain of command publicly. The Commission asked how Millburn’s Business Administrator position — created by local ordinance — differs from a Township Manager operating under the Faulkner Act. Mr. Poff drew a distinction between the roles of Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Executive Officer. A business administrator typically serves as CAO, with authority defined by local ordinance; a township manager serves as CEO, with authority defined and protected by state statute. The township manager holds independent statutory standing, including defined severance protections upon removal, that an ordinance-created administrator may not possess. The Commission asked for Mr. Poff’s view on governing body size — specifically five members versus seven — for a municipality the size of Millburn. Mr. Poff stated that in his experience, five is the most efficient, seven is manageable, and nine is particularly challenging. He noted that larger governing bodies require proportionally more communication from the manager, as each member must be kept fully informed. He observed that with a five-member body, work groups are limited to two members — which he found workable in Byram, where most policy matters were handled by the full council — whereas a seven-member body allows three-member work groups, a distinction he acknowledged affects how policy matters can potentially be handled. He added that the effectiveness of a given governing body size is ultimately more dependent on whether members embrace the form of government than on the number of seats. The Commission asked about mayor selection — specifically the difference between a directly elected mayor and one selected from among council members. Mr. Poff stated a clear preference for the self-selection model within a council-manager form. He explained that the mayor’s role in a council-manager government is fundamentally one of leadership within the governing body, not executive administration. A directly elected mayor can create confusion about where policy authority resides, blurring the critical distinction between the council’s role to establish policy and the manager’s role to implement it. Self-selection, by contrast, reinforces the principle that the governing body acts as a body and that the manager is accountable to that body as a whole. He noted that Randolph selects its mayor annually by vote of the full council and that he had observed no complications arising from that process. The Commission asked how residents typically understand the mayor’s role in a council￾manager form, and whether the method of selection affects that understanding. Mr. Poff said that in Randolph, residents have developed a clear understanding of the chain of command over time, in part because council members routinely direct constituent concerns to the manager’s office. The annual rotation of the mayoral position also reinforces the concept of the council as a body. The Commission asked about the impact of annual versus biennial elections on a municipality’s ability to govern. Mr. Poff stated that biennial elections are preferred, and that his experience � March 19, 2026 Millburn Township Charter Study Commission Meeting Minutes bears out that an election cycle of every other year allows for better governance as a result of members not constantly seeking re-election. The Commission asked whether staggered terms are meaningfully different from concurrent terms. Mr. Poff stated that staggered elections are preferable because they preserve institutional knowledge and allow experienced members to mentor incoming ones, providing continuity of governance across political transitions. The Commission asked whether the partisan or nonpartisan election structure makes a difference in terms of who gets elected, how public discourse is conducted, and how a municipality is governed. Mr. Poff observed that in his experience, the election structure does influence the candidate pool and public discourse, though perhaps less so actual governance. Nonpartisan elections tend to attract candidates who are more community-focused than issue-driven, and public discourse tends to center on local concerns rather than state or national narratives. He acknowledged, however, that the absence of a party label does not necessarily mean the absence of a partisan framework among those who are elected. The Commission asked whether elected officials in nonpartisan municipalities approach municipal issues through a partisan lens once elected. Mr. Poff said that in his experience, both things are simultaneously true: elected officials may carry partisan instincts, but when confronted with the actual work of local governance — setting a tax rate, funding a capital project, negotiating affordable housing requirements — those instincts rarely map cleanly onto the decisions at hand. He observed that local officials tend to be practical rather than ideological, and that those who arrived with strong partisan identities generally governed on the merits once they understood what the job actually required. The Commission asked Mr. Poff to describe the most important factors in making the council￾manager form work well over the long term. Mr. Poff identified four: role clarity, with the governing body committed to its policymaking function and the manager empowered to administer without interference; a professional hiring process that insulates personnel decisions from political pressure; governing body discipline, with members acting as a body and resisting the impulse to micromanage; and institutional continuity through staggered terms, mentorship of incoming members, and consistent administrative leadership across political transitions. He concluded: “When all of these elements are present simultaneously, the council-manager form consistently outperforms other structures. When any one of those breaks down, the form is vulnerable regardless of what the charter says.” The Commission asked about Randolph’s process for hiring a township manager. Mr. Poff described a structured search process utilizing a professional search firm, with a designated manager search work group of council members conducting initial interviews and the full council interviewing finalists. He noted that mentorship and institutional continuity have been key. He described the restoration in 2022 of the assistant township manager position — which had been eliminated during the Great Recession — as an investment in future leadership capacity, noting that several public servants had begun their careers in that role. The Commission invited Mr. Poff to share anything from his experience that the Commission should be weighing that had not yet been addressed. Mr. Poff thanked the Commission for its thoughtful questions, expressed appreciation for the significance of the Commission’s work to the Millburn community, and wished the Commission well in its deliberations. Public Comment� March 19, 2026 Millburn Township Charter Study Commission Meeting Minutes Mr. Biller opened the public comment period and invited members of the public to direct questions to Mr. Poff. Frank Saccomandi, a resident of Millburn, addressed the Commission. Mr. Saccomandi asked Mr. Poff whether he had observed partisanship getting in the way of a governing body conducting its business. Mr. Poff responded that while he had observed partisanship create “political theater” and disruption during meetings, it had not, in his experience, prevented governing bodies from ultimately conducting their business: questions are called, votes are held, and decisions are made. He added that deliberation in a partisan setting tends to be “more interesting” than in a nonpartisan one, but that the functional work of governance is generally accomplished in both settings. Mr. Saccomandi asked whether Mr. Poff had observed differences in how council members work together across partisan and nonpartisan settings. Mr. Poff responded that spirited debate occurs in both environments, and that a partisan framework does not map particularly well onto issues of local governance in either case. Mr. Saccomandi asked whether Mr. Poff had observed differences in campaign spending between partisan and nonpartisan elections. Mr. Poff responded that as a nonpartisan professional manager, he had not taken a particular interest in election financing and had no experience to offer on the question. Mr. Saccomandi asked whether the council-manager form affords the manager greater independence and statutory protection compared to a business administrator in a township committee form. Mr. Poff noted that he could not speak directly to a business administrator operating in a township committee form, as his own experience as a business administrator was in a mayor-council municipality where that position was also statutory. He described the nature of his current position: he serves at the pleasure of the Township Council without a fixed term, and noted that the statute provides defined severance protections upon removal. He added that while individual council members hold no authority individually, when the council speaks as a majority, the manager is obligated to effectuate its direction regardless of his personal view — a principle he described as fundamental to the form. Mr. Saccomandi asked whether the Council seeks Mr. Poff’s opinion on policy matters. Mr. Poff confirmed that the Council does ask for his perspective, and that he provides recommendations when asked while making clear that final authority rests with the elected body. He noted that he is flattered when asked but is explicit that offering policy opinions is outside his formal authority. Jeff Feld, a resident of Millburn, addressed the Commission. Mr. Feld asked Mr. Poff to confirm whether he serves at the pleasure of the Township Council without a fixed-term contract. Mr. Poff confirmed that he serves pursuant to a memorandum of understanding that outlines the terms and conditions of his employment, not a fixed-term employment agreement, and that he serves at the Council’s pleasure consistent with the statute. Mr. Feld also asked whether Mr. Poff receives an annual performance review. Mr. Poff confirmed that he does, noting that he provides the Council with a self-evaluation, which the deputy mayor compiles and presents to him, and that the review typically takes place at the last Council meeting of the year in executive session. Ben Forest, a councilmember of the Borough of Red Bank, addressed the Commission. Mr. Forest noted that he had been interviewed by the Commission the previous week and wished to attend this meeting in person. Mr. Forest described Red Bank’s experience transitioning � March 19, 2026 Millburn Township Charter Study Commission Meeting Minutes from partisan to nonpartisan elections as initially difficult for those with long traditions of partisan involvement, but ultimately very popular with the electorate, having passed overwhelmingly at referendum. He observed that nonpartisan elections are not a guarantee of a “fair, perfect” process — money, access, and campaign infrastructure still matter — but that they meaningfully change the environment for candidates and voters. He noted that Red Bank’s Democratic and Republican committees remain active in state and county races but have thus far declined to make formal endorsements in local nonpartisan elections. Mr. Forest also reflected on his experience as a newspaper reporter in a strong-mayor municipality, where he observed a mayor who had conflicts with the council and was not legally required to attend council meetings — a dynamic he described as madness and one of the reasons he advocated for the council-manager form of government. Adjournment Ms. Parker-Lentz made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Mr. Tanna. All voted in favor. The meeting was adjourned. ____________________________ Dr. Jerry Kung, Commissioner Charter Study Commission Secretary Approved: March 26, 2026�