Two resolutions approved by the Redevelopment Agency last month filled the agency’s two executive posts for 2019.
The Redevelopment Agency adopted Resolution 10-19, executing a $70,000 contract with Landolfi & Associates Government Solutions, essentially appointing Robert Landolfi as interim redevelopment director for 2019. Landolfi had been appointed by City Council to be interim city administrator for 2019, also at a rate of $70,000 through a contract with his firm, Landolfi & Associates Government Solutions.
The seven-member Board of Commissioners adopted Resolution 12-19, appointing Cynthia Solomon, director of the city’s Division of Planning, as assistant executive director of the Redevelopment Agency for $15,000. The post was vacated on Dec. 31 when former City Administrator Cherron Rountree, who also served as assistant/deputy redevelopment director, stepped down.
The Redevelopment Agency has no full-time employees but shares city staff for tasks such as finance, clerk, planner and engineer, who are paid a stipend. The two resolutions were approved at the Redevelopment Agency’s Jan. 16 regular public meeting and obtained via a subsequent Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request.
In addition to being appointed interim city administrator and interim redevelopment director, Landolfi briefly served as interim Parking Authority director after Leonard Bier stepped down and before the Parking Authority was dissolved and brought into city operations as a Parking Utility.
Last summer, City Council approved a $30,000 contract with Landolfi for the remainder of 2018 to serve as a consultant to analyze operations of the city and early this year approved a $70,000 contract for 2019 to serve as interim city administrator. In his proposal to the city in July, Landolfi outlined a dozen specific assignments related to the “goals of 2030 Vision Plan for the city, as discussed with Mayor Raymond Giacobbe, Jr.” The Rahway 2030 Initiative aims to identify “next steps in order to move the city forward, encourage growth and create development opportunity in Rahway.”
Landolfi succeeded Rountree as interim city administrator after Rountree ended her tenure on Dec. 31. She was appointed city administrator in November 2013 under former Mayor Samson Steinman and later appointed deputy redevelopment director in 2016.
