BARNEGAT – At its most recent Township Committee meeting, local officials unanimously passed the first reading of an ordinance to establish and hire the municipality’s inaugural Information Technology Director.
Joe Jennings, who served as Toms River’s Information Technology Manager for nearly fifteen years, has already assumed the position proposed in the new ordinance. Jennings began his full-time role with Barnegat on August 31, 2023, at a starting salary of $160,000. A proposed revision to the salary ordinance lists the position from $140,000 to $200,000.
Jennings has opted out of the health benefits package available to municipal employees. Township Administrator Martin Lisella revealed that this decision translates into an approximate cost savings of $30,000 for the township.
While the sequence of hiring an IT Director before enacting the ordinance and updating municipal salaries might appear unconventional, Lisella shed light on the process. The township administrator said he polled each of the committee members about the offer before it was extended and received preliminary approval.
Until now, Barnegat has relied on shared IT services with Toms River, which means Jennings was already well-acquainted with Barnegat’s information technology landscape. He personally worked on the systems during the last two years.
“We were supposed to enter into a new five-year agreement with Toms River,” said Lisella. “They reneged on it, and we had to go in a new direction.”
The decision included consideration of outsourcing its technology-related tasks to external vendors as had been done before the town began sharing services with Toms River.
However, the limitations of this approach became evident as the town’s reliance on technology has grown for its 115 employees. Complex challenges and opportunities that required immediate attention often faced delays associated with external support services.
Lisella believes the appointment of an IT director will address those issues, ensuring a swifter response to technical challenges.
The appointment of an IT director should also add much-needed consistency to technology-related initiatives throughout the town. Jennings is expected to lead a more coherent and effective approach to technology adoption and management across the municipality.
“We found the same thing happened with our engineering department,” Lisella said. “We had two or three companies we did business with and couldn’t get an immediate response for our residents. With billing, hiring the full-time engineer turned out to pay for itself. We think this is going to be the same thing.”
The current strategy envisions the IT director as the sole responsible party for technology-related duties. Nevertheless, there is potential for future departmental expansion, leading to the possibility of sharing services with other smaller communities. Lisella said he and Jennings had already entered into discussions with other municipalities.
When comparing Barnegat to other towns with in-house IT personnel, Toms River boasts a five-member department, while Stafford operates with a team of two. Jennings noted that the typical standard is approximately one IT professional for every 45-50 employees.
“Barnegat Township is about to experience a transformative leap in its technology infrastructure, with the implementation of a state-of-the-art Active Directory infrastructure, Extreme Networks switches and WiFi, VMware virtualization, and HP servers and storage,” said Jennings. “This integrated solution is set to revolutionize the way our township manages its IT resources and provides services to our community.”
Jennings said that Barnegat is about to take a transformative leap in technology and summed up the changes as creating a new level of efficiency, security, and performance.
Barnegat’s new IT Director is 49 years old and resides in Howell with his wife, Heather, and their 15-year-old daughter, Morgan. Jennings is a 1999 graduate of Rutgers University.
Final approval for the position is expected to pass unanimously when the township committee meets next month.
