Mine Hill's mayor-administrator says he'll run for fourth term in office

With a population of just over 4,000, Mine Hill is not in a position to pay a full-time mayor. Yet one of the tiniest townships in Morris County enjoys the full-time attention and labors of its elected leader.

Sam Morris announced in a Facebook video that he filed on Tuesday that he plans to run for a fourth term as mayor. The Republican, first elected 12 years ago, is part of a ticket with two incumbents who will also seek their fourth term in November, Fred Willis and Bret Coranato.

The next morning, the mayor's work day began at 6 a.m. with notice that a local power outage took some residents and businesses off the grid. Power was quickly restored, but not before the Dover School District, which includes Mine Hill students in grades 7 to 12, had canceled classes for the day.

"I still get out of bed every morning enjoying what I'm doing," Morris said. "And I think for the most part, residents are enjoying having me do it."

Morris is technically a part-time mayor, but also works full-time as township administrator for a combined annual salary of $146,000. That's less than many Morris County administrators make for the one job. James "Jamie" Cryan, for example, was hired as the new administrator in Parsippay in January at a salary of $171,666.

Morris voluntarily took over administrative duties after the previous administrator retired in 2014. He was hired by resolution as administrator later that year. His formal duties also include water administrator.

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First elected in 2011, Morris was re-elected without Democratic opposition in 2015, and won again in 2019, earning 69% of the vote. As of Tuesday's filing deadline for the June primary, Morris and his ticket are running unopposed.

"I think it reflects on the quality job we do," Morris said. "We're doing our best for Mine Hill and are hoping the next four years will see even further improvements in the town."

Morris said that while his town is small, "Mine Hill is very busy," and so is the mayor.

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"A lot of time is spent here because we are doing so many infrastructure updates," he said. The impact of local affordable housing projects also take up much of his time. "I don't think people realize that dealing with affordable housing is very time-consuming," Morris added. "And my day today started at 6 a.m. There's a lot going on."

Parsippany Mayor James Barberio is the only full-time mayor in Morris County but has no additional paid administrative duties. With more than 56,000 residents, Parsippany has nearly double the population of the county's second-largest town, Mount Olive.

Like Morris, Riverdale Mayor Paul Carelli also serves as full-time administrator for his borough, population 4,105. Carelli also is up for re-election this year.

William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com 

Twitter: @wwesthoven

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Mine Hill NJ mayor-administrator seeks fourth term in office