PARSIPPANY — Parsippany taxpayers learned an expensive lesson before the new Mayor even had a chance to take office.
On December 21, 2025—weeks before a new administration was set to begin—the Township executed a separation agreement with then-Business Administrator Jamie Cryan that guaranteed him six months of pay, totaling $94,860, effective upon his departure on January 6, 2026.
Six months.
That figure should raise eyebrows, particularly because New Jersey law places a clear limit on severance payments to municipal administrators. N.J.S.A. 40A:9-138 caps such payouts at three months’ salary. Curiously, that statute is nowhere cited or discussed in the agreement itself.
Instead, the agreement openly concedes that Cryan was paid in excess of statutory limits in exchange for a release of claims. Translated into plain English, Parsippany taxpayers paid an extra three months of salary—approximately $47,000—to buy peace.
The obvious question is: peace from what?
Jamie Cryan was an at-will administrator who served entirely at the pleasure of the governing body. There has been no public disclosure—none—of any discrimination claim, retaliation claim, whistleblower allegation, or other legally cognizable grievance that would expose the Township to liability.
That matters, because New Jersey law is unambiguous. An at-will municipal administrator may be terminated for any reason or for no reason at all, including nothing more than a newly elected Mayor and Council wanting leadership aligned with their own priorities. That is not controversial. It is the job description.
Yet Parsippany paid as though it were settling serious legal exposure, without ever identifying what that exposure supposedly was. The separation agreement was signed by Former Mayor James Barberio just days before his last day in office.
The timing only deepens the concern. The agreement was executed before the incoming Mayor and Council took office, effectively tying their hands and locking in a generous payout to the ousted Mayor’s departing political ally before voters’ choices could take effect. One wonders what urgency justified rushing this deal through the door.
Perhaps residents should not be surprised. This is, after all, the same Mayor whose own unsuccessful legal efforts to reclaim an office he lost at the ballot box reportedly cost the Township significant sums. When public funds are treated casually, six-figure goodbye checks begin to look less like aberrations and more like standard operating procedure.
The agreement itself includes no admission of wrongdoing by either side and contains an extraordinarily broad release of virtually every conceivable employment-related claim under state and federal law. What it does not include is any explanation to the taxpayers as to why paying double the statutory cap was necessary, prudent, or even defensible.
Ramon Rivera, the labor attorney who represented the Township at the time the agreement was executed, did not return Parsippany Focus’s request for comment.
Until someone does, taxpayers are left with a simple question: if the law caps severance at three months, and there was no apparent legal threat, why did Parsippany pay for six?
