Berry Going to Mount Holly

City Administrator Eric Berry is leaving Plainfield to become manager of Mount Holly, according to a report in the Burlington County Times. The Courier News reported Berry's resignation today, effective Sept. 23.

Berry was the seventh business administrator under Trenton Mayor Tony Mack before becoming the eighth city administrator under Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs in November 2011. His tenure would have ended Dec. 31, as Robinson-Briggs will leave office on that date after serving two terms.

The mayoralty for a four-year term beginning Jan. 1 will be decided on Nov. 5. Contenders are Councilman Adrian Mapp, who defeated Robinson-Briggs in the June Democratic Primary; Republican Sandy Spector; and independents Mustapha Muhammad and D. Scott Belin.

Mapp and Berry clashed in June 2012 after Berry sent three letters to state authorities protesting the governing body's decisions. Mapp was council president at the time and called Berry's action "appalling."
See Plaintalker's post here.

It is now up to Robinson-Briggs to name an interim city administrator, with the possibility that she could name herself, as she did in March 2011.

In 2006, Robinson-Briggs named all her cabinet members in acting capacity, including Carlton McGee as city administrator. because there is a 90-day limit on acting positions, she named him to the post permanently on March 2006. He left in November 2006. Marc Dashield became city administrator in January 2007 and served through 2009, when he become township manager of Montclair. In January 2010, Finance Director Bibi Taylor was named city administrator, but left after a tumultuous year.

In January 2011, the mayor named Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson as acting city administrator, and when his 90-day term expired, she named herself. In May 2011, David Kochel of Jersey Professional Management came aboard as acting city administrator and the council extended his term by ordinance to November, then kept him on as a consultant to Dec. 21, 2011.

Al Restaino, director of the Office of Community Development, was then named acting city administrator for two weeks before Berry took office on Nov. 28, 2011.

--Bernice