Aidan Vanhoof

Aidan Vanhoof, Staff Writer

December 10, 2025

Following over 32 years spent working for the county, Chad Bruner, chair of Rowan’s Board of Trustees, has retired as county administrator for Gloucester County, effective Dec. 1.

Recent gubernatorial candidate and former Senate president Steve Sweeney, who was sworn in as a member of Rowan’s Board of Trustees this semester, will fill Bruner’s seat.

“I retired because I have worked over 32 years at the county, and my family relocated to Florida over 3 years ago, and it was time for me to join them, as my daughter will be getting married in March and my son will be graduating from Florida Gulf Coast University,” said Bruner.

Initially, he was to be replaced by deputy county administrator and close associate of Sweeney, Michelle Coryell. However, she may be charged with theft after allegedly stealing documents from a Republican county commissioner on June 11, according to the New Jersey Globe. 

This and a communication error sparked some controversy among county politicians. Republican county commissioner Chris Konawel claimed in a Facebook video that he and Nicholas DiSilvio, another Republican commissioner, were not informed of Bruner’s retirement until the evening of Dec. 2. 

“Scuttlebutt about Mr. Bruner’s retirement had been ongoing for months. We heard from people working in various departments he would be retiring at the end of summer, then it was after the next election, then it was end of year,” said DiSilvio. “We heard from friendlies in various departments that he had officially retired, beginning the workday on December 1, the chatter continued on December 2.”

Konawel speculated administrators deliberately failed to notify him and DiSilvio partly to conceal “ongoing criminal investigations.”

“Everybody’s heard it was coming, everybody’s heard the news, multiple people in the county were notified. But the sitting county commissioners, myself and Nick DiSilvio, have not heard one word about this,” said Konawel. “Certain people clearly don’t want that information coming to light. When an administrator resigns suddenly without formal notice, while someone with possible criminal exposure steps into control, and commissioners are deliberately bypassed, something is very, very wrong.”

The Republican commissioners asked to be consulted when finding a new county administrator, but they were not, according to an aide to DiSilvio. 

However, Coryell first landed the candidacy for administrator per the “County Administrative Code and Rules”, according to Eric Campo, county counsel for Gloucester County. 

Additionally, Bruner, a Democrat, applied for retirement “many months ago” via the state retirement system and received an official retirement date of Dec. 1, according to Campo. This follows a significant blow to the Republican party during last month’s election, which maintained Democratic control over the county government.

At the time of writing, Bruner intends to stay on Rowan’s Board of Trustees, as his term doesn’t expire until June 30, 2029.

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