City Hall Shuffle: Dominick Pandolfo Out as Healy’s Chief of Staff; Deputy Mayor Rosemary McFadden to Take the Reins
By Shane Smith • Sep 7th, 2010 • Category: Featured, News, Politics
The Independent has learned that Dominick Pandolfo, who has been Mayor Healy’s chief of staff for three years, will resign from his post at the end of this week.
But Pandolfo isn’t going very far. According to city spokesperson Jennifer Morrill, Pandolfo will head down the hall to the Business Administrator’s (BA) office, where he will take on the role of overseeing special projects.
Pandolfo’s primary task in his new position, which begins September 13, will be to assist city business administrator Jack Kelly in the implementation of revenue-generating and cost-saving ideas, such as the review of standing contracts and leases as well as the reduction of the city’s motor vehicle fleet, according to Morrill.
Facing an $80 million budget gap, the administration is searching high and low for creative ideas to cut costs, and Morrill says that Pandolfo, Kelly and Healy all agree that Pandolfo’s experience will be an asset to the BA’s office in the coming months. Pandolfo worked for Healy as a deputy chief of staff for two years before being promoted to chief; he has also worked in the administration of county executive Tom DeGise and former mayor Bret Schundler.
Healy tells JCI he is confident about the move. “[Pandolfo] has been a dedicated and valuable asset to this administration and will continue to be so as he assists us in his new role,” the mayor says.
Pandolfo’s replacement is coming from familiar quarters: deputy mayor for economic development Rosemary McFadden (at left) will add the chief of staff position to her current duties.
McFadden was brought into the administration in 2007, when she was hired to take on the role of “economic development czar” for the city. Since then she has overseen or had a hand in a variety of projects related to growing the city’s business landscape; a recent example is Jersey City’s package of tax breaks and incentives that successfully lured the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) from NYC to the Hudson River’s western shore.
Healy says that McFadden is “the most knowledgeable [and] capable individual to assume this critical position,” citing her “wealth of knowledge not only from her time with the city but from her days in the private sector in finance and business.”
McFadden was the president and chief operating officer of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) for the better part of the 1980s; she also held executive positions at large international financial firms such as Price Waterhouse and Credit Suisse First Boston before working for Jersey City.
Pandolfo will keep the same salary ($98,500) in his new position; but it is not yet clear whether McFadden will be offered additional compensation for her new duties. McFadden currently draws a salary of one dollar per year for her work as deputy mayor.
Photos: Steve Gold
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Shane Smith is the managing editor of Jersey City Independent.
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