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A total of 123 applicants have submitted resumes in consideration for the position of city manager.

At the Sept. 4  city council meeting, Mayor Myra Campbell reported 117 resumes were received for the position. By the end of the day, which was the deadline to apply, an additional five or six resumes had been submitted, according to Mary Kay Callahan, the city’s payroll manager and person responsible for the collection of resumes.

This brought the total count to 123 resumes, “give or take one,” said Callahan.

The resumes are available to the individual council members. The establishment of a formal review process will be the next step expected of council members, according to City Attorney Frederick Raffetto.

“All members of council have been afforded the opportunity to review the resumes,” he said. “I’m sure [the review process] will be a topic that will be on agendas from this point forwards.”

In Asbury Park’s form of government, the city manager is the chief executive officer. The city council serves as the legislative body, with the power to hire and fire the city manager. New council members Campbell, Quinn and Moor, who ran together on the One Asbury slate, informed current City Manager Terence Reidy [shown above] in June of their intent to replace him at some point after they took office on July 1. Reidy has served as city manager for the past ten years.

The city council voted at their Aug. 7 meeting to enter into a separation agreement with City Manager Terence Reidy. The agreement “prescribes the terms and conditions under which Mr. Reidy will separate from his employment with the city effective October 31,” Raffetto previously told the Sun.

Under the agreement Reidy will work through the end of October and be compensated for any unused vacation time.

There is no understanding for the council to keep Reidy on after the Oct. 31 deadline stipulated within his separation agreement, Raffetto said. However, the council could potentially hire the new city manager prior to Reidy’s departure from the post, allowing for some overlap between the two to transition in and out of the job.

The state’s Department of Community Affairs [DCA] has offered its assistance in reviewing the applicants and establishing procedures for the review, said Raffetto.

The DCA has “definitely stepped forward and offered some guidance as to the steps the council should be taking between now and October,” he said. The state has also offered to “assist with the review of the resumes and the process for conducting the review,” according to Raffetto.

In the event that no suitable candidate can be found among the submissions before Reidy’s departure in October, the council could bring in an interim city manager. The interim positions are usually staffed by retired city managers, he said.

For now, Raffetto is “positive there will be further discussion as [the council] move[s] forward.”

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