BY COLLEEN LUTOLF
Staff Writer
Scott MacFadden For 17 years, Scott R. MacFadden has served as the Brick Township business administrator.
As of July 1, MacFadden, 51, will forfeit that post to become the president of Birdsall Engineering Inc., an Eatontown engineering firm with strong ties to the township. MacFadden announced the move at a press conference May 10.
“This is a day I didn’t think would come,” he said. “I thought I was going to have to retire from Brick Township. This is an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
MacFadden has already begun transitioning out of his position, but he will not submit his letter of resignation until 14 days before he resigns, he said after the press conference.
Brick Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli said he will recommend the Township Council approve Chief Financial Officer Scott Pezarras as acting township business administrator to fill MacFadden’s role.
“As long as I’m mayor, he’d be acting B.A.,” he said.
Currently, MacFadden, who was reappointed to his post in January by Scarpelli, earns $138,671, plus the additional $19,440 he earns as the township’s recycling coordinator.
MacFadden implemented the township’s recycling program and listed it last week as one of the highlights of his Brick career.
He also cited as a major accomplishment the township’s affordable housing program. Mac-Fadden’s approach to affordable housing in Brick has now been implemented statewide.
MacFadden hails from the Port Reading section of Woodbridge and began his career in government in that town over 25 years ago.
He was hired by former Mayor Daniel F. Newman Sr., a Democrat, in 1985 as an assistant business administrator. Three years later MacFadden became business administrator.
MacFadden retained his position despite a change in administration when former Republican Mayor Steven Zboyan took office in 1990.
“By all rights he should have fired me,” MacFadden said. “I saw him pull in in his ’57 Chevy panel truck, and we hit it off.”
MacFadden marked the beginning of Scarpelli’s administration in 1992 as the start of a renaissance in Brick.
“He is the best mayor I’ve ever worked for,” he said. “It was a special time for me in my career. … These 12 years have been unparalleled. I will always be proud to have been part of Joe Scarpelli’s administration.”
Brick turned from a pro-development town to an aggressive protector of open space, MacFadden said.
He also lauded the expansion of the township’s athletic complexes, the automated waste disposal program, and SummerFest, a free concert series scrutinized by the Republican-majority council in recent years.
“It’s the best thing we ever did,” he said. “It’s made Brick Township thought of in a positive way throughout the state.”
Once he resigns, MacFadden will have to forfeit his post as chairman on the New Jersey State League of Municipalities Finance and Taxation subcommittee, but will retain his spot on the state’s Local Finance Board, a position he was appointed to in 2004 by then Gov. James E. McGreevey.
“It hurts me to leave the people; it doesn’t hurt me to leave the situation,” he said. “It’ll be a challenge. I’m young enough to do it and I’ll make some money.”
MacFadden wouldn’t say what the firm’s CEO Howard C. Birdsall offered him to leave his public post.
“I don’t have to,” he said last week, commenting on the full disclosure aspect of the public sector.
“Being a public employee is increasingly less rewarding over the past few years because of a lot of things that have happened,” he said. “There’s more suspicions surrounding the motives of public employees; these Web-sites that say whatever they want whether it’s true or not; salaries in the newspapers.”
MacFadden said he was speaking generally and not specifically about Brick Township.
He said “no one thing” led to his decision.
“I think the relationship between the council and the administration made it an easier decision to make,” he said.
Since the super-majority Republican council took power Jan. 1, council members have routinely scrutinized administration recommendations and repeatedly criticized the administration for not delivering the 2006 municipal budget document to the council sooner than it had in previous years.
Why political acrimony would play a role in the departure of someone so politically savvy could be chalked up to his age, MacFadden said.
“Or whatever it is,” he said. “Maybe it’s an accumulative effect. If things went smoother and everything was lovey-dovey, it’d be a harder place to leave.”
When asked if the ongoing FBI investigation that led to former Department of Public Works Director Jack Nydam’s indictment had anything to do with his resigning, MacFadden said: “No, not really. It goes to the whole atmosphere of public employment. All things accumulate and create more pressure and stress. I’m ready for a new type of pressure and stress.”
Although MacFadden does not have an engineering background, Birdsall said his firm, which has done business with the township since the Newman administration, is looking to expand its municipal services and would like MacFadden to lead that expansion.
“Scott understands towns and the problems municipalities deal with,” Birdsall said.
Birdsall’s current president, Robert J. Collins was a Monmouth County administrator, Birdsall said.
MacFadden can do the same for municipal issues, Birdsall said.
“He’s a great fit,” he said.
Stephen Scaturro, president of the Brick Republican Club and local political veteran, said he was shocked by MacFadden’s decision.
“I don’t believe he was threatened by that,” Scaturro said of the corruption probe. “I think the offer was so good, a prudent person would have to take it.”
“I hate to see him go,” he said. “I’ve known Scott a long time. He’s the best business administrator in the state of New Jersey. .He made a lot of friends and a few enemies, but more friends. I’d like to consider myself one of them. Pezarras is a nice guy. He’ll have big shoes to fill.”
Pezarras currently earns $123,070, according to township records.
Pezarras will make less than MacFadden, Scarpelli said but probably more than he makes now.
“We have to set his salary commiserate with experience,” he said.
During the conference, Scarpelli said he was “numb” when MacFadden told him he was leaving.
He described MacFadden as the township’s quarterback.
“It was a great team,” he said. “Nobody’s going to miss you more than I will.”