Councilwoman Linda Geevers announced that the field of candidates for the Business Administrator position, which will be vacated by Robert Hary on July 1, has narrowed to two people. Hary is retiring after 23 years of service to the township and the last three as the business administrator (WW-P News, May 25).
The committee involved in the review process includes Geevers, along with Andy Lupo, chairman of the West Windsor Parking Authority, Marvin Gardner, Planning Board Chairman, and Hemant Marathe, president of the WW-P school board. Hary is also helping the committee gather information and review candidates but he has no input in the selection of his successor. “Bob Hary has provided information and his opinions on the candidates’ backgrounds,” the mayor said.
Hsueh said once a job advertisement was placed online, the township received a total of 37 applications, and he created the search committee to start sifting through resumes. “Usually, according to our form of government, the mayor can directly appoint somebody. But I decided that I wanted there to be more of a consensus with the selection,” the mayor said.
Although he doesn’t consider politics part of the process, with the current nature of council meetings and public comments, Hsueh was careful to strike a balance with political party affiliation. “Actually I created a committee where three of the four committee members (other than the mayor himself) happen to be Republicans, as I found out after I created the committee. But I trust that they have the best interests of this town in mind when evaluating candidates,” the mayor says.
According to Hsueh the committee picked its top five candidates early on in the process, and during the first week of June the field was narrowed down to two candidates. The mayor said that the committee was to have a unanimous decision, but Lupo could not make it to one of the final meetings on selections. Hsueh then invited him to interview the two candidates, and the mayor expects that process to wrap up by Wednesday, June 20, at the latest. He would like to be in a position to make a formal announcement on the next business administrator at the next Council meeting, on Monday, June 25. But Hsueh says there remains a small possibility that the search would not wrap up by then.
