The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission: Measuring and Tracking Performance

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The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission Measuring
and Tracking Performance

• Prepared for
• 4th Sino-US International Conference on Public
  Administration
• Prepared by
• Dr. Marilyn Rubin
• John Jay College, City University of New York

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The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission

• The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission is a
  regional zoning, planning and regulatory agency
  created by the New Jersey Legislature in 1968.
• Its three mandates are to protect the
  environment, ensure orderly economic development,
  and provide for solid waste management in the New
  Jersey Meadowlands District.

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The New Jersey Meadowlands District

• The New Jersey Meadowlands District is located
  in northeastern New Jersey just west of New York
  City.

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The New Jersey Meadowlands District

• The Meadowlands District stretches mainly along
  the terminus of the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers
  where they flow into Newark Bay which is part of
  what is known as the Hudson Raritan Estuary
  (HRE).
• The HRE covers more than 16,000 square miles and
  surrounds the Ports of New York and New Jersey in
  a region populated by 20 million people close
  to seven percent of the total U.S. population.

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The New Jersey Meadowlands District

• The Meadowlands District, a part of the Hudson
  Raritan Estuary, encompasses 30.4 square-miles or
  nearly 20,000 acres in parts of 14 northern New
  Jersey municipalities.
• About 8,200 acres constitute what are referred to
  as wetlands. The remaining 12,000 acres in the
  District are highly developed with offices,
  warehouses and entertainment venues built over
  what were, at one time, also natural wetlands.

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Wetlands

• Wetlands are a collective term referring to land
  that is intermittently or periodically
  waterlogged including marshes, tidal estuaries
  and swamps.
• Wetlands generally host a multitude of plant and
  animal species. About 40 percent of the 800
  species of birds in North America breed in or use
  the wetlands in the Meadowlands during spring and
  fall migrations.
• Wetlands, which also filter pollutants from water
  and help to mitigate flood damage, have been
  disappearing from the Meadowlands area for
  several centuries.

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The Meadowlands Over Time the Changing
Environment
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Before the Europeans

• Before the arrival of the Europeans, the area we
  now call the New Jersey Meadowlands was home to
  the Lenape people.
• The area the Lenape inhabited was a marshy forest
  of tamarack and Atlantic white cedar trees that
  covered most of the lands along the river
  running through the meadowlands.
• The Lenape called the river the Atchensehaky
  meaning the River of Many Bends. They treated
  the River and the land around it with reverence.

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The Meadowlands Develop

• Europeans first sailed up the river they renamed
  the Hackensack in the early 1600s.
• They built dozens of drawbridges spanning the
  Hackensack River to facilitate movement of goods
  and people by land as well as by water.
• In the 19th century railroads began to crisscross
  even the formerly impenetrable marsh now known as
  the New Jersey Meadowlands. The area would
  eventually become todays regional transportation
  hub.

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The Beginning of Environmental Problems

• As the regions population increased, the
  Hackensack River was used more and more for waste
  disposal, creating pollution in the water and in
  the nearby areas.
• Environmental problems increased during the
  industrial revolution of the 19th and early 20th
  centuries when companies routinely dumped their
  raw sewage into the Hackensack River and the
  lowlands on both sides of the River.

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The Meadowlands Become a Dumping Area for the
Region

• In the 1940s and 1950s and into the 1960s, the
  Meadowlands were the regions garbage dump with
  more than 100 municipalities dumping and burning
  garbage, polluting the air, ground and water in
  the area.
• Some of the trash was buried the rest was
  deposited in what are called landfills or trash
  mountains which are built into or on top of the
  ground destroying the wetlands that they cover.

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Trash Being Dropped at a Landfill
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Trash Being Loaded and Compacted in a Landfill
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Economic Development Comes to the Meadowlands

• In the 1960s, while trash burning and
  land-filling continued to destroy acres of
  wetlands in the Meadowlands, there was also rapid
  economic development taking place in many
  northern New Jersey municipalities along and
  close to the Hackensack River
• The new development quickly took over what had
  been acres of natural wetlands.

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Need for Control

• By the late 1960s, it had become increasingly
  clear that continued dumping and uncontrolled
  economic growth would, if left unchecked, wipe
  out the rest of the wetlands and the remaining
  open space in the Meadowlands area.

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The State Steps In

• In recognition of the need to address economic
  development and environmental issues in the
  Meadowlands, the Legislature of the State of New
  Jersey State passed the Hackensack Meadowlands
  Reclamation Development Act in 1968.
• The Act created the Hackensack Meadowlands
  Development Commission (HMDC) to provide for more
  orderly economic development and to regulate
  solid waste disposal in what was designated as
  the Meadowlands District.

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Hackensack Meadowlands Reclamation and
Development Act

• When the Commission began operations in 1969,
  landfills had buried 1,200 of the 20,000 acres in
  the District with garbage. Offices, warehouses,
  highways, railroads, and a sports complex covered
  a large part of the remaining acreage.

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The Meadowland Commission Mission Evolves

• Over the next two decades, as the HMDC carried
  out its two primary mandates, its work took a
  much greater environmental focus.
• This realignment reflected the growing
  realization of the linkage between protecting the
  environment, especially the wetlands, and
  sustainable economic development.
• In 2001, the Commissions evolving mission was
  reflected in its name change to the New Jersey
  Meadowlands Commission (NJMC).

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NJMC Master Plan

• In 2004, the NJMC issued its first Master Plan
  which provided a blueprint for promoting economic
  development while protecting the endangered
  environment and, at the same time, managing solid
  waste disposal.

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The NJMC Comprehensive Action Plan

• In 2006, the NJMC developed a comprehensive
  action plan (CAP)
• (1) to provide a more strategic approach in its
  management and planning operations and
• (2) to establish a set of performance measures
  that would help to track activities and to assess
  how well the Commission was meeting the goals and
  objectives set forth in the Master Plan.

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The Comprehensive Action Plan Has Five
Components

• I Strategic Plan - sets measurable goals,
  objectives, and strategies
• II Performance Measures - establishes metrics
  and the tracking of goals and strategies
• III Human Resources Management - links employee
  performance to NJMC goals and objectives
• IV Performance Budgeting - links the NJMC
  budget to Strategic Plan goals
• V Financial Plan - helps ensure long-term
  availability of resources in changing environment

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Focus in My Presentation Is on the First Two
Components

• I The Strategic Plan
• II Performance Measures

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Part I The Strategic Plan

• The Strategic Plan sets measurable goals,
  objectives, and strategies for the Commission
  evolving from its vision and mission.

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The NJMC Vision and Mission
Vision As steward of the 30.4 square mile
Meadowlands District, the NJMCs vision is to
create a revitalized, green, and sustainable
urban community for people who live, work,
commute to, or visit the District.
Mission To protect and promote the Meadowlands
environment ensure orderly economic development
and growth in the District and provide for
shared regional services including, but not
limited to solid waste management.
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Five themes Organize the Goals, Objectives and
Strategies in the Strategic Plan
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Four Themes Set the Action Plan for the NJMC
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The Fifth Theme Focuses on Improving the
Operational Efficiency of the Agency
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Each Goal has Several Objectives and Strategies
Objectives
Strategies
Objective 2.1 Enhance and maintain
educational/outreach programs Objective 2.2
Enhance existing research and wetlands monitoring
initiatives
Strategy 2.11 Improve publicity for
eco-tourism Strategy 2.12 Increase eco-tourism
participation Strategy 2.13 Expand use of the
Meadowlands Environmental Center (MEC) by school
children Strategy 2.14 Enhance the publics use
of, and satisfaction with, the MEC Strategy 2.15
Enhance the MEC website for educators Strategy
2.16 Develop distance learning capabilities at
the MEC for grades K-12 Strategy 2.17 Increase
the number of volunteers participating in
environmental protection activities Strategy
2.21 Continue to encourage research
opportunities and collaboration with New Jerseys
institutions of higher education

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Part II Performance Measures and the Strategic
Plan

• Metrics are linked to individual strategies for
  each goal and its related objectives.
• A tracking system is established to assess
  progress in meeting the goals, objectives and
  strategies set forth in the Strategic Plan.

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Performance Metrics An Illustration
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Tracking An Illustration
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The Tracking System

• The Meadowlands Performance Measurement Tracking
  System will provide the NJMC with a electronic
  means to collect, track and report performance
  data (See Handout).
• The system will utilize web-based software that
  allows for data entry and report generation and
  automatically generates graphic images (e.g.,
  line graphs, pie graphs, and bar graphs).
• The system will produce quarterly as well as
  multi-year reports and provides for adaptability
  to meet the changing needs of the Commission.

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Progress in Implementing the Strategic Plan

• The governing board of the NJMC has adopted the
  Comprehensive Action Plan.
• The NJMC has, however, not yet implemented the
  data collection and tracking system described in
  my presentation.
• Only time will tell if and how strategic planning
  is used to guide the operations and activities of
  the Commission.

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