Here are New Jersey's 21 county administrators and their salaries

As caps on property tax increases squeeze school districts and municipal governments, county governments are increasing their presence in New Jersey.

The state constitution mandates that each of its 21 counties has a sheriff, clerk, surrogate and register for deeds and mortgages. The counties manage jails, courts and welfare services. They also have their own law enforcement, road infrastructure and parks. And they are increasingly offering regional services that allow local governments to downsize.

In Passaic County, for example, regionalized health services are one of several ways the county is helping towns offer the most cost-effective services. Passaic County officials are currently working on opening an up-county health center in an underused building owned by the local government to expand its reach and provide services to area municipalities at a net cost savings to area taxpayers.

To run day-to-day operations, all counties but one have an administrator to work alongside an elected legislative board of commissioners. Union County is the odd one out. Its board of commissioners selects a manager who has some veto power but fundamentally acts an administrator.

Essentially the most powerful non-elected officials in county governments, administrators work within policies and budgets set by those boards — and in Atlantic, Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Mercer counties with an elected county executive.

Administrators are pivotal figures in county governments and are often among the highest paid.

The list below details what county administrators were paid in 2023, according to salaries posted on the New Jersey Office of Information Technology's Open Data Center or obtained through Open Public Records Act requests. In the case of Mercer County, which appointed a new administrator in January, this current administrator's salary for 2024 was provided by the county's communications director.

New Jersey's county administrators

The administrators are listed based on salary, from lowest to highest. All estimated population numbers are from the Census Bureau's 2022 American Community Survey.

• Jeffrey Ridgway, Salem County — $118,216 (estimated population: 64,840). Ridgeway spent 15 years as a Pittsgrove Township committeeman and is a former county director of public works. He received a five-year contract renewal in March 2023.

• Harold Johnson, Cumberland County — $142,800 (estimated population: 153,588). Johnson worked for 20 years in the state's judiciary before becoming county administrator in 2022. He is a former Cumberland County commissioner.

• Brad Myhre, Hunterdon County — $153,750 (estimated population: 129,099). The former mayor of Frenchtown became the county administrator in July 2022, after the retirement of Kevin Davis. Myhre was previously the deputy county administrator and clerk of the Board of Commissioners.

• Alex Lazorisak, Warren County — $156,810 (estimated population: 109,739). An Oxford Township mayor in the mid-2000s, Lazorisak was the director of the Warren County Department of Public Works before being named county administrator.

• Gerald Del Rosso, Atlantic County — $160,002 (estimated population: 274,339). One of the state's longest-serving county administrators, Del Rosso has been running day-to-day operations in Atlantic County since 2005.

• Kevin Lare, Cape May County — $160,200 (estimated population: 95,456). Appointed acting administrator in late 2020, Lare became the permanent county administrator to start 2022.

• Matthew Jordan, Passaic County — $160,200 (estimated population: 519,986). Jordan, formerly the county's chief counsel, started as an administrator in 2023 after the retirement of Anthony DeNova, who held the post for nearly 20 years.

• Robert Jackson, Essex County — $160,201 (estimated population: 853,374). Jackson, a former Montclair mayor, replaced former County Administrator Ralph J. Ciallella, who retired in 2017.

• Colleen Mahr, Somerset County — $160,201 (estimated population: 344,978). Mahr started as county administrator in 2021, a few months after being appointed deputy county administrator. Formerly, she was the mayor of Fanwood and director of business development for an architectural firm.

• Ron Tappan, Sussex County — $176,247 (estimated population: 144,808). Tappan was appointed administrator in September after the resignation of now-Randolph Township Administrator Gregory Poff. Tappan was previously the Hopatcong business administrator.

• Deena Leary, Morris County — $194,871 (estimated population: 508,816). Leary, a former assistant county administrator, replaced longtime County Administrator John Bonanni to start 2023. She previously was the director of planning and public works.

• Christopher R. Marion, Mercer County— $208,000 (estimated population: 383,732). Previously the deputy county administrator in Monmouth, where he was paid $219,647 in 2023, Marion replaced Lillian Nazzaro in January 2024. Nazzaro, appointed in 2020, resigned with a $188,589 salary to become Asbury Park's city manager.

• Abraham Antun, Hudson County— $208,698 (estimated population: 712,029). Union City treasurer in the late 1970s and early '80s, Antun worked as finance director for Madison in Morris County and then for Hudson County. He became acting administrator in 1998 and was appointed permanently the next year.

• Eve Cullinan, Burlington County— $208,950 (estimated population: 461,853). Before being appointed county administrator in 2005, Cullinan was the director of the Department of Health for the previous three years. The decade before that, she was the administrator of Buttonwood Hospital in Pemberton.

• Michael Fiure, Ocean County— $212,964 (estimated population: 638,691). After serving as assistant county parks director, Fiure in 2015 was named the director of the Department of Budget and Management and served as acting administrator. He was appointed administrator in September 2022 to replace Carl W. Block.

• Ed Oatman, Union County— $225,396 (estimated population: 572,079). Oatman, appointed Union County manager in 2018, is a former chief of staff for State Sen. Nicholas P. Scutari and Union County campaign coordinator for Gov. Phil Murphy.

• Ross Angilella, Camden County — $234,268 (estimated population: 522,581). One of the longest-serving administrators in New Jersey, Angilella has been the Camden County administrator since September 2004.

• Teri O'Connor, Monmouth County— $239,773 (estimated population: 643,064) A former deputy administrator, O'Connor became acting administrator in 2002 and has been in the role on a permanent basis since 2010.

• Thomas Duch, Bergen County— $241,655 (estimated population: 953,243). Duch was a state assemblyman from 1988 to 1992 and also a Garfield city manager. He was named Bergen County administrator in June 2021 to replace Julien X. Neals, who was appointed as a federal judge.

• Chad Bruner, Gloucester County— $253,324 (estimated population: 302,621). Bruner previously was an assistant county administrator and director of the county Department of Health and Senior Services. He has been an adjunct professor at Rowan University since 1997. He was appointed administrator in January 2007.

• John Pulomena, Middlesex County— $294,699 (estimated population: 860,147). A former South Plainfield councilman, Pulomena worked for two decades for AT&T and held other private sector jobs before being named administrator in 2008. He resigned from his role as a Middlesex County commissioner to take the job and has for several years been the highest-paid county administrator in New Jersey.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: New Jersey's 21 county administrators and their salaries