Familiar Fair Havenite Pegged as Perfect Choice for New Assistant Rec Director

He has a very familiar Fair Haven name, but officials say that made it even more difficult for him to pass muster and get hired as the borough's new assistant director of the Parks and Recreation Department — Darryl Breckenridge Jr., or D.J.

Yes, said Mayor Ben Lucarelli, he is the son of Fair Haven Police Chief Darryl Breckenridge, but that is, if anything, a factor that made the governing body's choice a more thought-out, heavily self-scrutinized one.

"He really crushed the interviews," Lucarelli said in an interview after the choice was made. "D.J. is just a ball of energy. He made it through a very competitive hiring process. In the final phase, there was a lot of discussion about the fact that he is the chief's son, but we have a very strict nepotism policy here and, if anything, that just made the choice more heavily weighed. The consensus was that he just really wowed us, especially in the interviews."

Lucarelli said that once the job was posted, there were about 40 candidates that applied. That list was whittled down to about five or six who went through interviews by the borough's Recreation Committee and at the administrative level.

Two finalists were then interviewed by Recreation Committee liaison Councilwoman Susan Sorensen and Administrator Theresa Casagrande and presented, on administration's recommendation, to the mayor and council for a decision.

Breckenridge Jr. was then chosen, after acing the interviews and much debate, Lucarelli reiterated. He was officially appointed to the full-time $30,000-a-year job at Tuesday's council meeting.

An assistant baseball coach at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, Breckenridge is a recent college graduate with a degree in criminal justice. He is a lifetime Fair Havenite whose family spans generations in the borough.

"The bottom line is that his energy is incredible, he played baseball all through college, knows the people in town and how the recreation program here works," Lucarelli said. "We're thrilled to have him."