Details Emerge on South Orange Administrator Search

With John Gross officially leaving his administrator job in to become the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of West Orange, residents have begun to ask questions about the future of the job as well as Gross’ other main position, CFO of South Orange.  Village officials have provided new details involving the search process and the CFO job.

The search committee includes Village President Alex Torpey, Village Council Steven Rother, Village Clerk Robin Kline and Trustees Deborah Davis-Ford, Howard Levison and Nancy Gould.  The first task of the committee is to find an interim administrator to help with the day-to-day activities until a permanent administrator is hired.  The Village is looking into outside companies for help finding the interim administrator for the immediate future.  John Gross will then assist in the transition to the interim administrator before he leaves for his new full-time position in West Orange. 

Once an interim administrator is selected, the committee will search to for a permanent administrator.  This is expected to take several months due to the importance of the job.  Once a permanent administrator is selected, the interim administrator will participate in a transition process to the new administrator.

In addition to Village Administrator, John Gross’ other principal job is CFO of South Orange.  The position of CFO is a statutory position, with very specific state-mandated requirements.  It is not uncommon for towns to share CFOs. 

Unlike some other towns, the CFO position in South Orange is a part-time position due to the finance department of South Orange being an outsourced service.  Since March 2008, the Village has had a shared services contract with Battaglia Associates for their accounting purposes.  The contract with the firm calls for a monthly fee of $14,162.59.  With the fewer hours and responsibilities, Village officials believe it is acceptable for John Gross to remain as CFO in South Orange on a part-time basis. 

At the Board of Trustees’ (BOT) regular meeting on September 12, the BOT is expected to address this situation and provide more updates to the public regarding the search.