A major leadership change is ahead for the Redevelopment Agency — the second in four years — along with a related shakeup of the Parking Authority.

Leonard Bier will retire effective at the end of the year, both as executive director of the Redevelopment Agency as well as executive director of the Parking Authority. He informed both agency boards during their respective meetings last week.

In a brief interview after Monday’s City Council meeting, Interim Mayor Ray Giacobbe, Jr. said he hopes to hire a new executive director for the Redevelopment Agency before the end of the year. He has a list of several prospective candidates in mind that he plans to interview over the next couple of weeks, beginning this week, but declined to identify any of the individuals in particular.

Bier’s departure coincides with the administration’s plan to dissolve the Parking Authority and replace it with a Parking Utility under control of the city, similar to the city’s Sewer Utility and Water Utility. City Council introduced an ordinance and related resolutions to start that process at its regular meeting on Monday (look for a future post with more details on that).

City Administrator Cherron Rountree said in a brief interview after Monday’s meeting that the combination of Bier’s retirement and parking concerns often raised in recent years led to the decision to shift to a Parking Utility.

Bier has served as executive director of the Redevelopment Agency for almost four years, appointed by former Mayor Samson Steinman in October 2014. As executive director, he earns annual compensation of $70,000 for the part-time position.

Bier, 65, succeeded Peter Pelissier, who had been executive director and city administrator for many years before stepping down in 2014. He has served as executive director and general counsel of the Parking Authority, and until this year as general counsel, on a contract basis for many years, for which he earns $72,000. A parking consultant and principal of Bier Associates, Bier also is executive director and corporate counsel for the New Jersey Parking Institute and serves as general counsel for the Trenton Parking Authority and was in the same role at the New Brunswick Parking Authority for many years.

The Parking Authority is an autonomous agency overseen by a board of five commissioners  appointed by the mayor and confirmed by City Council. The authority operates the 524-space parking deck on Lewis Street and about a dozen surface lots downtown in addition to on-street meters. The seven-member Redevelopment Agency oversees redevelopment within the city.