Barberio out as Mamaroneck village manager, less than 10 months after landing 4-year pact
Mamaroneck Village Manager Jerry Barberio, Westchester’s highest paid village administrator, has emptied his desk, turned in his cellphone, and retired to New Jersey with three years left on his $1 million contract.
He told village officials in late December, following the surprise defeat of his key ally, Mayor Tom Murphy, in the November election, that he planned to retire. After changing his departure date a few times, he finally settled on March 10, said Mayor Sharon Torres.
By Jan. 30, the Village Board had had enough of Jerry Barberio.
The board placed him on paid administrative leave and agreed to pay him an estimated $25,000 to stay at home for six weeks as a parting gift for his five years of service.
Village Trustee Lou Young said it made sense to begin the transition earlier than Barberio’s declared retirement date of March 10 because that came in the middle of the municipality’s budget review.
“There’s no point having him here to direct the budget operations,” said Young. “We told him to go home. Dan Sarnoff is doing the budget anyways.”
More: Mamaroneck village manager Barberio's contract ratified in secret behind closed doors
Mayor Torres said it was time to move on.
“We voted that this was the best step for Jerry and the village,” she said.
Tumultuous times for village
Barberio’s departure caps a tumultuous five-year stint at the helm of a village faced with chronic neighorhood flooding, a decades-long battle over development at Hampshire Country Club, financial improprieties at its public library, growing concerns over an affordable housing development on village land on Prospect Avenue, and a supercharged citizenry involved in the democratic process.
“He’s gone, and that’s good news for the village,” said Stuart Tiekert, a homeowner known for his knack with the state’s Freedom of Information Law to obtain village records.
Neighborhood activist Amy Siskind, who helped organize village residents through a Facebook group, Concerned Village of Mamaroneck Residents, welcomed Barberio’s departure.
“People were upset with the bullying and retaliation,” she said. “They didn’t like coming to meetings and being yelled at.”
Barberio's contract received much attention
Barberio’s departure came less than a year after the Mamaroneck Village Board met behind closed doors to ratify Barberio’s four-year contract extension worth $1 million. In the days leading up to the meeting, Barberio, who was moonlighting weekday mornings as part-time administrator of the borough of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, had threatened to quit.
The contract provided Barberio with a second raise in 2023, boosting his pay to $243,700, or 7.5% over what he was paid in 2022. By 2026, Barberio's pay would have risen to $273,000.
More: Mamaroneck board, faced with lawsuit, sets public vote on village manager contract
Citizens railed against the improper backroom deal. They filed suit in state court, leading to action by the village board to subsequently vote on the lucrative deal in public.
In his wake, Barberio leaves a good deal of unfinished business that the village board and its incoming village manager must address. That includes the proposed luxury housing development at the Hampshire Country Club in the village’s Orienta neighborhood.
The fate of the development remains mired in state Supreme Court, with the developer suing the village for $58 million in light of the Planning Board’s rejection of the building plan.
The developer, Hampshire Recreation, maintains the village has colluded with opponents of the development to eliminate the possibility of developing the site for housing under zoning already on the books.
Judge calls for documents, depositions
In a ruling Monday, the court has ordered Mamaroneck to provide documents sought by the developer, and make available two village officials for depositions, including former Mayor Murphy.
“The parties are advised that they have no authority to adjourn court-ordered depositions nor do they have any authority to enlarge the deadline dates for completion of depositions,” ordered Supreme Court Justice William Giacomo.
He said that failure of the village to comply within 20 days would allow the developer to sue for sanctions.
Village Attorney Robert Spolzino, however, said that Giacomo’s order was premature because the village had appealed the justice's earlier decision allowing the developer to seek certain documents and pose questions under oath to village officials, such as Murphy.
“We appealed, so there is an automatic stay,” Spolzino said. “There’s no basis for taking a deposition of the mayor. We think the judge got it wrong.”
But Hampshire counsel David Cooper said that it appears that the judge, like the country club, have grown weary of the village’s stalling tactics in a development battle that dates back to 2013. Among the documents sought is an unredacted copy of a 2009 village study of the development potential for the site, at a time when the municipality considered purchasing it.
A version of the study provided to the developer has redacted information about the number of units that would be allowed, Cooper said. A later version obtained by the developer showed that the site had the potential for up to 110 units of housing.
“Just by filing appeal after appeal, the village keeps avoiding the production of these documents,” Cooper said. “We’re frustrated by it. Judge Giacomo is frustrated by it. The village keeps playing games. Everybody wants to know what the village is hiding.”
Sign up for Wilson's weekly newsletter for insights into his Tax Watch columns.
David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Mamaroneck NY manager Barberio out after Murphy's defeat for mayor
