Politics & Government

Hayes: Administrator is Key Position

Dan Hayes plans to nominate James Naples for township administrator.

With the reorganization meeting coming up, mayor-elect Dan Hayes is preparing his appointments and plans for his new administration—and one of his biggest plans includes .

Naples left the township at the end of 2010 to take a job in the administration in Clinton Township, but now he is returning to reclaim his township administrator job in Bridgewater as of Jan. 30.

Current township administrator Robert Bogart will move back to his former position as director of municipal services.

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"I fully expect I will be nominating Jim Naples and the council will approve," Hayes said. "The township administrator is a key position, and I was familiar with him when I was on the council. Jim and I have always maintained a dialogue."

"Jim is a very talented administrator," Hayes added.

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Hayes said he began talking to Naples about the challenges coming for the township once he was elected mayor, and Hayes ended up asking him to join the team.

"By having someone who's experienced on the administration, there is a much shorter learning curve," Hayes said. "It will allow the administration to continue to provide the services and programs from day one."

Once the nomination is approved at Sunday's reorganization meeting, Hayes said, Bogart will continue as township administrator until Jan. 30 while Naples transitions out of the Clinton Township administration.

But Hayes said he is pleased to have Bogart remain in the administration as director of municipal services.

"Bob is a tremendous person and a tremendous contributor to the township," Hayes said. "For me, it was a case of needing to have a very strong engineering team and administrative team."

"By bringing Jim back, we are able to accomplish both objectives," he added.

Hayes said the nomination is all about bringing the best team together for the township.

"With the depth of knowledge Jim has of the township, and the support he has of the staff here, we will be very quickly able to work on delivering things, maintaining services and improving the ones we have," he said. "We're committed to our goals no matter what, and by assembling the most talented team we can, we can accomplish them faster and hopefully in a more efficient way than we could imagine."


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