{"id":20347,"date":"2022-07-21T00:03:46","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T04:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=20347"},"modified":"2022-07-21T02:55:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T06:55:21","slug":"ocean-county-commissioners-oust-administrator-outcry-after-ex-trooper-hired-over-longtime-cfo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2022\/07\/ocean-county-commissioners-oust-administrator-outcry-after-ex-trooper-hired-over-longtime-cfo\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean County Commissioners Oust Administrator; Outcry After Ex-Trooper Hired Over Longtime CFO"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"v-9mPVz38U-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='1000' height='562' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/9mPVz38U?hd=1&cover=1&loop=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=1&muted=0&controls=1&playsinline=0&useAverageColor=0&preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script src='https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/video\/assets\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js'><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Amidst an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/2022\/05\/amidst-fbi-probe-county-officials-admit-they-will-not-publicly-advertise-high-level-post\/\">FBI probe into county hiring practices<\/a> and a rebuke of county Republican leadership less than two weeks ago, the Ocean County Board of Commissioners split on retaining County Administrator Carl Block until the end of the year \u2013 ultimately deciding he must leave in September \u2013 and spurred a heated and contentious outcry from residents and party officials after hiring a little-known retired New Jersey state trooper as the county\u2019s future deputy administrator over the longtime and much-lauded Chief Financial Officer, who it was revealed asked to be considered for the position.<\/p>\n<p>The commissioners faced a standing-room-only crowd of onlookers as they checked off agenda items before opening a public comment session on the appointments. Ultimately, the board appointed longtime Assistant Business Administrator Michael Fiure as administrator come Sept. 1, and Tristin J. Collins, the retired trooper, to two positions \u2013 Assistant Business Administrator and Director of Management and Budget come Sept. 1. His salary was not announced.<\/p>\n<p>Collins, Commissioner Director Jack Kelly said, would begin work Aug. 1, but as a \u201cconfidential aide,\u201d an announcement that drew groans from some members of the audience. Confidential aide positions are often utilized to hire candidates for positions outside of the civil service process, and are sometimes used by officials to create positions for political allies.<\/p>\n<p>Consternation among county insiders and Republican party faithful has swirled around the rumored appointment of Collins as assistant administrator despite initial indications by members of the board that he was not under consideration for the post. Ultimately, many of the same officials were forced to admit that Collins had been spotted around the county administration building as early as March and had been interviewed for the position, which was never advertised to the public.<\/p>\n<p>There was also an outcry over the status of Block\u2019s position, with dueling theories as to whether the popular former Stafford Township mayor and elected county clerk was being forced out of the top county post \u2013 or simply retiring. At Wednesday\u2019s meeting, it was revealed by Kelly that Block had asked to remain in his position until January, at which point he would retire. It was also revealed that Julie Tarrant, who has drawn high praise for her mastery of county budgeting in her current role as Chief Financial Officer, expressed an interest in the assistant administrator position, but was not selected in favor of Collins.<\/p>\n<p>The exact connection between Collins and county officials \u2013 including how he was notified of a job opportunity in the spring, potentially before he retired from the State Police \u2013 has never been fully explained. Sources have said Commissioner Virginia Haines was the major proponent of hiring Collins, though others have said he was recommended by Sheriff Michael Mastronardy, who last week suffered a defeat in his bid to become Ocean County Republican party chair.<\/p>\n<p>George Gilmore, the longtime chair who stepped down after facing tax-related charges, was elected to return to the chairmanship post. Gilmore received a <a href=\"https:\/\/lavallette-seaside.shorebeat.com\/2021\/01\/breaking-trump-pardons-former-ocean-county-gop-boss-george-gilmore\/\">pardon from President Donald Trump<\/a> in relation to the tax charges, but may still owe a debt to the IRS.<\/p>\n<p>Gilmore was the among the first to rise to speak at the meeting before the commissioners took a vote on the appointment. The majority of the discussion centered around the then-pending appointment of Collins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI learned today for the first time that, for the position of Mr. Collins, that Julie Tarant had applied,\u201d said Gilmore. \u201cWe know the capabilities of this woman \u2013 we know how good she is, and she could do it with her eyes closed. But we\u2019re going to reject her, because some time ago you made a deal with Tristin Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Kelly said he changed his mind about the appointment of Collins and supported hiring Tarrant, who offered to remain on as CFO while also serving as the assistant administrator. A poll was taken at some point in a closed session meeting on the matter, and the majority did not waiver in their support for Collins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe majority of the board decided they felt Tristin Collins was ready to be the assistant administrator now, effective Sept. 1,\u201d Kelly said, adding, \u201cthis isn\u2019t a board of one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ruthanne Scaturro, a former Brick councilwoman who last week was elected deputy GOP party chair, excoriated the board for its refusal to allow Block to finish out the year in his position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCarl Block has served the community of Ocean County for 40 years,\u201d Scaturro said. \u201cHe had to be persuaded to come to this position about 12 years ago, and he has been doing a great job by everyone\u2019s account.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scaturro said her comments should not be construed as an attack on Collins, who she praised for his experience in law enforcement, but an endorsement of a candidate for the assistant administrator role with more experience in local government.<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Kelly said an \u201cupdated resume\u201d for Collins was made available, though there was little elaboration as to what the new resume contained.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Gary Quinn, later in the meeting, said he may have been persuaded to support the appointment of Tarrant to the position, but she applied later in the process and he had \u201cmade commitments to other people\u201d based on prior interviews and considerations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Julie came to us in the beginning, it might have been different,\u201d said Quinn, adding that he believes Tarrant may be interested in retiring in a few years and the county was looking at a ten-year plan.<\/p>\n<p>The board voted unanimously to promote Fiure to administrator as of Sept. 1. On the appointment of Collins as assistant administrator, all of the commissioners except Kelly voted in favor of the hiring. Kelly did, however, vote in favor of hiring Collins to the Director of Management and Budget position.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2022\/07\/ocean-county-commissioners-oust-administrator-outcry-after-ex-trooper-hired-over-longtime-cfo\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amidst an FBI probe into county hiring practices and a rebuke of county Republican leadership less than two weeks ago, the Ocean County Board of Commissioners split on retaining County Administrator Carl Block until the end of the year \u2013 ultimately deciding he must leave in September \u2013 and spurred a heated and contentious outcry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[24,4731,4484,4310],"class_list":["post-20347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ocean-county","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-carl-block","tag-featured","tag-ocean-county-commissioners","post_format-post-format-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_4886-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-5ib","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}