Manville has been without a permanent Administrator for 5 months, and without a permanent Clerk for 3 months. While a temporary replacement is in place, there appears to be no sense of urgency in moving forward and hiring staff for these open and critical positions.

At the May 12th Council meeting, there were 3 people in the audience who appeared to be potential job candidates, who were interviewed during Closed Session. One of them was a former Councilwoman who served on Borough Council from 2020 to 2022.

After June 9th's Closed Session concluded, Council returned with a Resolution to pass. Council President Skirkanish read into the record Resolution #2025-155, which extended the agreement with NJ Community Solutions again for a 5th time.

Unfortunately, it was extremely difficult to hear what the Council President said so we submitted an OPRA (Open Public Records Act) to get the details of the Resolution.

The contract has been extended for another 4 weeks, with a total cost of $105,000.

ManvilleToday has written extensively on this topic, especially related to the on-going costs the Borough is incurring each time the contract is extended.

The original contract amount was $32,000 for Administrator search services. (Resolution #2025-62). These extensions have added up to an increase of $73,000 over the original contract amount.

In addition to the on-going costs, we need to ask how one person can reasonably function doing both roles (Administrator & Clerk) without adequate support staff.

The posting of meeting minutes and resolutions online are months behind, appearing to have stopped once former Clerk Bray left.

The Borough needs to move quickly in identifying and hiring a permanent Borough Administrator and Clerk. There is no excuse for the constant delays of these vital job positions.