Bayonne business administrator won’t be reappointed for Davis’ third term, letter says

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Bayonne Business Administrator Melissa Mathews won’t be reappointed for Mayor Jimmy Davis’ third term, according to a letter signed by the mayor.

Bayonne Business Administrator Melissa Mathews. Facebook photo.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:69A-1 et seq., your term of appointment as Director of the Department of Administration/Business Administrator (“Director”) expires at the conclusion of the Mayor’s term,” Davis wrote in a letter to Mathews yesterday.

“As such, by statute, your appointment as Director shall cease June 30, 2022. Please allow this letter to serve as notice that you will not be appointed to the position of Director for the new term.”

Mathews, a former board of education candidate and clerk for the city, took over as business administrator on May 1st, 2020, recognized as the first woman to ever hold the post.

However, less than a year later she filed a gender discrimination suit that claimed abuse of of public office allegations were ignored by other officials at City Hall.

The case is still pending and few developments have occurred thus far, outside of three defendants getting dismissed by a Hudson County Superior Court judge last summer.

Just prior to that, Mathews also made headlines for drawing the ire of Law Director Jay Coffey in a secretly recorded conversation with another employee, as well as for the city withholding CDBG funds for a food bank she ran with outgoing Council President Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski.

To that end, Mathews was a political support of Ashe-Nadrowski in last month’s mayoral contest where Davis pulled off a clean sweep, with she and her husband making donations to support the challenger’s campaign.

Davis’ letter continues that on July 1st, when he and the city council will be inaugurated, Mathews can return to her role as a Clerk 1 for the Division of Planning and Zoning.

“Please arrange with the Mayor’s Office to verify the City property in your possession no later than 4:00 p.m. on June 30, 2022. On behalf of the City and its elected officials, thank you for your service as Director to the residents of the City of Bayonne,” the letter concluded.

In response, Mathews said “at least they didn’t hire a hit man to kill me,” in reference to political operative Sean Caddle, who pleaded guilty in January to a 2014 murder-for-hire scheme earlier this year.

About five weeks prior, a super PAC set up by state Senator Ray Lesniak to bolster Davis’ bid for a third term had paid Caddle a $2,500 consulting fee, but his guilty plea ensured that the political entity never got off the ground and therefore didn’t play a role in the race.


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