Freeholders Tap Faella As County Manager

Mountainside resident to succeed retiring Devanney.

Union County freeholders tapped the head of the county’s parks and community renewal department as the new county manager during a meeting Thursday evening. Alfred Faella will assume the county manager’s post on August 1, following the sudden retirement of County Manager George Devanney. Faella, a Mountainside resident, has served for several years at the helm of the county’s parks system and community development program. “Al has developed a reputation as someone who is a problem solver and gets the job done,” Freeholder Chairwoman Deborah Scanlon said in a statement. “He is also uniquely qualified having served in county, state and municipal government at different levels. He understands public policy and we are looking forward to …

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County Manager Announces Retirement

Devanney, nephew of powerful senator, has attracted opposition from county government opponents while in office.

Union County Manager George Devanney announced his retirement, effective Aug. 1, in a press release Tuesday afternoon. Devanney, a Berkeley Heights resident, said that new state rules regarding pensions and benefits for public employees impacted his decision to retire. A 27-year public employee, he said that he had been considering retirement for a year. “I have been privileged for the past three decades to serve the residents of Union County and the State of New Jersey,” Devanney said in a prepared statement. “I would like to thank the our residents, the freeholders and the many public officials and private partners who I’ve worked with over the years in making Union County on of the greatest places to raise a family and work.” Devanney …

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Westfield Votes 2011

Letter to the Editor: Former Freeholder Candidate Attacks County Budget

Paterson calls for defeat of incumbent freeholders.

To the Editor, This is the second time I have seen this exact same quote from the Union County government regarding the 2011 Union County tax increase.  The first time was during a freeholder meeting in April, from county manager George Devanney and whose claim to fame is he is the nephew of Senator Lesniak and has overseen county taxes double in 10 years.  The other time is just now in a local paper (Westfield Leader 5/19/11 edition page 1) and credited to Freeholder Hudak who has been on the freeholder board all of 5 months.  Hudak was probably credited so he sounds like he knows what he is talking about.  Unfortunately to put it simply they both have lied to the public.  Regarding the county budget tax increase, both had blamed the …