Jim Gant awaiting the vote to confirm his appointment to the job Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After more than two years with a placeholder, the Red Bank council filled the top job in borough government Friday, choosing a 38-year-old municipal administrator who began his career as a police dispatcher.
The selection of Jim Gant as borough manager put a capstone on a year of enormous change at 90 Monmouth Street, Mayor Billy Portman told redbankgreen.
Chief Darren McConnell, left, with borough Attorney Greg Cannon and Mayor Billy Portman at Friday’s special session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
At a special afternoon session held solely to vote on the matter, the council unanimously approved a $194,500 one-year contract with Gant, a Matawan resident who currently serves as borough administrator in Sea Girt. He’ll also get a car allowance, Portman said.
In comments echoed by others on the governing body, Portman said Gant was “at the top” of a field of about a dozen contenders for the position.
“He’s super-qualified, he’s young, he’s hungry, so I think he’s going to be a good fit for us,” Portman said after the meeting.
Gant told reporters he began his career as a civilian emergency dispatcher in Ocean County’s Manchester Township, where he grew up.
A graduate of The College of New Jersey with a bachelor’s in sociology, and Seton Hall University, where he said he earned a master’s in human resources, Gant later served as the 82-square-mile, 50,000-resident township’s human resources director and eventually, assistant township business administrator.
After eight years in Manchester, he was hired in early 2021 by Sea Girt, where the population “exploded” in summers, he said.
“I think what’s nice is I’ve diversified my résumé at this point to be able to handle more and more challenges,” he said. “Municipal management, that’s my bread and butter.”
A resident of Matawan now for about seven years, Gant said he and his wife, Amanda, are frequent visitors to Red Bank, and both their daughters were born in town at Riverview Medical Center.
“It’s just bustling, there’s so much going on,” he said.
In July, with the start of a new “council-manager” form of government approved in a voter referendum a year ago, the already powerful borough administrator’s title was changed to “manager.”
The job also carries significantly expanded authority over the daily operations of the $25 million-a-year government, with the power to hire and fire employees without council approval, though the manager serves at the pleasure of the council, which is now more focused on policy and law.
Councilman Ben Forest, who served on the Charter Study Commission that preceded the 2022 referendum, called filling the position “the most important decision we can make as a council.”
“This is the final piece” of a groundswell demand for change that Portman said he detected when he jumped into the Democratic primary race in the spring of 2022, he told redbankgreen. “We’ve been likely a fully provisioned ship just waiting for a captain,” he said.
When he starts the job December 18, Gant will succeed police Chief Darren McConnell, who has served as “interim” administrator and manager for two and a half years, since the May, 2021, resignation of Ziad Shehady.
In turn, each of the council members thanked and praised McConnell for his work as manager. Deputy Mayor Kate Triggiano said he had proven an “amazing asset” to the town.
McConnell continues, for now, as police chief, a post he announced in June that he planned to retire from by July 31. But his retirement has been held up by a pending complaint filed with the New Jersey Attorney General by the local Police Benevolent Association union alleging nepotism and ethics violations. The council has selected Captain Mike Frazee to succeed McConnell as chief of the 39-officer police department.
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