City Council confirmed the appointments of a new city business administrator and police director, ushering in a reorganization of City Hall.

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At its meeting on May 10, the governing body unanimously passed resolutions appointing Jacqueline Foushee as business administrator (AR-120-21), effective Sept. 1 through Dec. 31, 2022, and Jonathan Parham as police director (AR-121-21) , effective July 1 through Dec. 31, 2022.

Current City Administrator Robert Landolfi said Foushee’s effective date may be as early as Aug. 1 but no sooner; he will remain executive director of the Redevelopment Agency. Foushee has been director of community development since 2016.

Parham retired at the end of 2017 after 25 years with the Linden Police Department and then became a Union County Undersheriff. He earned about $173,000 as Linden police chief and receives a monthly pension of about $7,200 ($86,400 annually), according the New Jersey Office of Information Technology Open Data Center. 

City Council renewed a $65,000 contract for 2021 with Landolfi in January. The previous city administrator, Cherron Rountree, earned an annual salary of about $136,000. It’s unclear what the annual salaries for the new business administrator and police director. 

The governing body introduced an ordinance (O-13-21) to set annual management compensation ranges for directors, including the incoming business administrator ($96,900-$213,000) and police director ($96,900-$174,900). UPDATED, July 6:  As business administrator, Foushee will earn an annual salary of $170,000. Parham will earn an annual salary of $165,000.

The ordinance is expected to come up for a public hearing and final approval at the June City Council meeting, along with ordinances to establish a Department of Code Enforcement and Engineering and Land Use (O-16-21) and another  to create the position of police director (O-14-21).

There’s no significant expense or savings to the reorganization, Landolfi said, but aligning existing personnel should create better supervision, clear lines of authority and a better understanding of responsibilities.

The advantage of a police director is that it functions like any other director and runs with the term of the mayor but has no permanent civil service status, Landolfi said. As with other directors, the police director “bridges that gap between executive function and line function in a very direct way,” he said.

A police director is the civilian authority in charge of the Police Department, although typically is a former police chief, but does not have arrest powers and cannot initiate investigations. The director is appointed by the mayor, reporting to the administrator and mayor, as theoretically does the chief but in a different capacity, Landolfi said. A Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) will be designated from among the current superior officers, responsible for pure law enforcement functions and reporting to the director.

A civilian director comes in at a much lower annualized salary than a chief, Landolfi said. Current Police Chief John Rodger is expected to retire July 1. He earned an annual salary of $207,243 last year, according to the Asbury Park Press Data Universe.

The former Department Community Development will be split into two separate departments, engineering and land use, and code enforcement.

The Department of Community Development had included health, engineering and code enforcement, which included property maintenance, as well as  uniform construction code/international building code. “All of that was consolidated under one department, Landolfi said. “There were no clear lines there, everything was kinda jammed into one super department,” he said. “We tried to align the departments by function,” first breaking out health last year, and now code enforcement and property maintenance with engineering and land use fitting together. “Whether planning, zoning, engineering, the land use function all makes sense,” Landolfi said.

The way it was organized under previous administration like was based around personalities as opposed to function, and probably some personnel issues, Landolfi said. “When you do that, you end up without organizational structure,” he said, adding that it’s now organized by function and is linear.

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