Surprise Township Move

Jim Naples addresses attendees at the Township open house.

As I powered up my PC late this afternoon, thinking of which subject I might address in this, the first New Year’s post of The View from Bridgewater, I had planned to write about a visit which Priscille and I recently enjoyed in the Washington, D.C. area over the holiday.

However, as I checked the home page of MyCentralJersey.com, Kara Richardson’s well-written article about the resignation of Bridgewater Township Administrator, Jim Naples, caught my attention. 

The wheels of memory began to crank, and they delivered a mental view of some photos I remember taking of Jim in the fall of 2010, at the formal open house for Bridgewater Township’s new facilities on Commons Way.

The announcement of Jim’s career move took me by surprise.  Not that it should have.  People are always changing jobs for an infinite variety of reasons, some of which are so intensely personal, that they make sense only to the job mover.

In public life, when those reasons are legitimate, it is, frankly, none of our business.  Nevertheless, such a move, simply because of the public nature of politics, can’t escape the spotlight of the public forum. 

Because of that, people will always tend to speculate on the reasons for a public employee’s departure.  The reality is that Jim’s reasons for leaving may be as simple and as true as what is related in Kara Richardson’s article.  But, if there is another motivation, the chances are that no one will ever really know, except, that is, the insiders within the Township.

It appeared – at least to this observer – that Jim Naples always had a very good working relationship with Bridgewater Mayor, Patricia Flannery.  Indeed, she had commended Jim Naples publicly from the lectern at the Township’s Open House on October 13, 2010, citing his efforts as a principal reason for the successful outcome of that project.

Maybe that’s why the announcement of his departure caught me off guard.