The Village of Munsey Park has eliminated the position of village administrator, created two years ago but never filled after an initial appointment raised concerns about ethics.
The village is able to manage everything in the largely residential area with its current staff, said Mayor Lawrence Ceriello, who introduced the resolution to eliminate the position Wednesday.
“I don’t see any need for the position or for filling the position,” he said. “We’re a small village, we have the right number of employees … and I think we’re doing a pretty good job as it is.”
The position was created through a resolution, so to eliminate it another resolution had to be passed. It was approved unanimously at the village Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday.
Former Mayor Frank DeMento introduced the resolution to create the position in 2017.
Soon after, the village appointed a member of the village utility crew who was also the mayor’s brother-in-law as village administrator, a paid position.
After village residents and ex-officials criticized the decision, the appointee, Daniel Breen, declined the job.
In the meantime, however, the village board had sent out a letter defending Breen as its appointee and saying “there is a clear need for greater assistance with administrative work and consistency of Village representation in meetings.”
The village administrator, according to the original resolution, would oversee village employees and departments, code enforcement and examine ways to increase governing efficiency, among other responsibilities.
While some villages only have clerks, others, such as Great Neck Estates and Flower Hill, also have village administrators.
Ceriello was a new trustee on the board at the time the position was created in Munsey Park, voting in favor of the resolution.
Now, the village is back to where it was before the resolution was passed, even though it never spent any funds on the unfilled position, he said.
“If future administrations find that there’s a need for it, let those future administrations go through the right process to have that position established and filled, but there’s no need now for a village administrator,” Ceriello said.
