Politics & Government
Do You Know Millburn's Business Administrator?
Tim Gordon discusses his role in town, what's in store for Millburn and a little bit about himself.
This week, Business Administrator Tim Gordon sat down to tell the Patch the issues he’s seen in Millburn and why he's spent the last 28 years working in town. Gordon also told the Patch a little bit about himself so residents could get to know who's working in town hall for them.
The Patch: How would you describe a normal day?
Gordon: There aren’t any normal days. You could have you day planned out, working on various projects and something may happen that will cause you to drop that and move onto something else.
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Local government is what I call the retail version of government. Because people walk in and they expect to see you right away. If somebody comes in, that they perceive as a pressing problem, it's just as easy to meet with them as not to meet with them.
So no day is the same at all and that's the thing you like about the job.
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The Patch: In the second half of the year, what's in store for the town?
Gordon: Towns like Millburn are going to have a tough time, for what I think, at least the next three years. The reason for that is, first of all, the economy is not going to get better, certainly in the next two years. Now we have the municipal cap law. And we've had cap laws in the past but they were mostly on expenses. This is also on revenue. Since our chief source of revenue is property taxes, and you can only raise them so much, the problem you are going to have is funding municipal services.
The Patch: What do you see as hardest issue in town, as business administrator that you want to tackle this year?
Gordon: Well, we had flooding in South Mountain during Irene. I think what we'll try to be working on more this year is working with the residents in the South Mountain area.
What I want to do is have some public works employees’ supervisor and these block captains [key residents in flooding areas] to develop a rapport so when water gets to a certain level in backyards they'd be able to alert their counterpart in the public works department. So then, we can get pumps out there beforehand to minimize any damage.
The Patch: What was your worst day being the business administrator?
Gordon: Hurricane Floyd. We had the National Guard in town removing people from South Mountain area. That had to be the worst day emotional when you couldn't help the residents you wanted to help.
The Patch: What is your favorite accomplishment in town over the 28 years you've worked here?
Gordon: I'd say getting that triple-A bond rating. We worked hard as a team on that and that was a memorable moment.
The Patch: Why did you come to Millburn?
Gordon: I kid and say it's the best job I never wanted to apply for.
When I was in Pleasantville [Gordon’s previous job] I was looking to move on a bit and I just so happen to be in Department of Community Affairs in Trenton on city business. I ran into this guy in the hallway and he said, "You should apply for Millburn." I said, “no I'm just going to work in Pleasantville.”
I got back to the office next day I figure well, he said I should so I sent in my application and quite honestly, I did it thinking I was so close to the deadline of submitting the application maybe they won't even accept it.
The Patch: What do you do in your free time?
Gordon: What free time?
The Patch: Okay, if you had more free time what would you like to do?
Gordon: Well I like to read. I'd like to travel more. I don't get out of the office much. I would like to learn to play golf. I've got a set of golf clubs, which have a great deal of dust on them. Every once in awhile I say I should take it up and something always comes up in town or around and I don't do it.