Redevelopment commissioner steps down

A Redevelopment Agency commissioner has stepped down halfway through her four-year appointment, creating a vacancy on the seven-member board that is expected to be filled shortly.

Redevelopment Agency Chairman Armando Sanchez informed commissioners at their meeting on Wednesday night that Commissioner Angela Pryor resigned her seat, citing personal reasons, effective Dec. 31.

Pryor was halfway through a four-year term that expires in 2020. She was first appointed in January 2016. Also appointed to the Redevelopment Agency at the time was Brittany Hale to fill a vacancy expiring this year, and 1st Ward Councilman Rodney Farrar was reappointed along with the late Egon Berhmann. Joseph Gibilisco later was selected to served the remainder of Berhmann’s seat, which also expires in 2020. That November 2016 appointment was the last vacancy that was filled on the seven-member Redevelopment Agency.

Mayor Ray Giacobbe, Jr., who was in attendance at Wednesday’s Redevelopment Agency meeting, told commissioners that an appointment would be made “very soon” to fill the vacant seat. The next regular meeting of City Council is scheduled for Feb. 12 but a special meeting could be called sooner in order to fill the 6th Ward council seat vacated by Giacobbe, who was appointed mayor on Monday.

The Rahway Democratic Committee is scheduled to meet Saturday to select three nominees to present to the governing body for the vacant 6th Ward seat. City Council then would select from among the three to represent the 6th Ward until a special election in November for the remaining two years of the original term. Giacobbe originally was elected to a four-year term in 2016, expiring in 2020.

Redevelopment Agency commissioners are unpaid, four-year appointments by the mayor, confirmed by City Council. The seven-member board was created in 2001 to oversee redevelopment, led by a paid, part-time executive director. In some towns, the governing body acts as the redevelopment agency.

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