MANCHESTER – During a recent council meeting Mayor Robert Hudak introduced the township’s future acting business administrator, Brandon Umbra of Medford.
There’s been a bit of a shuffle in this department. The business administrator, who basically oversees the town since Manchester’s mayor is not full time, used to be Donna Markulic. She resigned this year to become the business administrator of Egg Harbor Township. Prior to Markulic’s resignation, Assistant Business Administrator James Gant resigned to take a position as business administrator in a Monmouth County community.
In spring, Michael King was appointed to the spot as acting business administrator. Hudak said his tenure ended prior to his becoming mayor on June 28.
Umbra now replaces King. Umbra had previously served as business administrator in Franklinville and prior to that in Lumberton managing the day-to-day operations of the township’s departments which consisted of over 65 full and part time employees.
Like Manchester, township departments include, Finance and Administration, Payroll and Purchasing, Police, Public Works, Construction, Land Development, Municipal Court, Volunteer Fire Services and Fire Official.
He will oversee the introductions, adoptions and implementation of the Township’s yearly budget which consists of roughly $9 million in the municipal budget and $10 million in the ongoing capital budget, while ensuring department heads stay within their appropriated budget amounts.
Umbra said his major achievements “during my tenure with Lumberton Township includes reducing the local tax rate in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 from a .421 rate to .389 rate, all while growing the township’s surplus of a little under $2.8 million dollars.”
He also oversaw the architectural design and project construction of the Lumberton’s new state of the art Emergency Services Building, with a project budget of $6.5 million.
He also served as Township Administrator of West Deptford and was an account executive, for Anderson Jackson Metts Insurance Agency in Cherry Hill and served as District Representative to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst where he researched and advised on local issues in the 3rd Congressional District.
In that position he implemented and supervised “Get Out The Vote” operation throughout the 3rd District, which included telephone and door to door outreach and assisting the campaign manager with design and oversight of direct mail piece messaging.