The Manchester Township Council is back to full strength after its members appointed Judith Noonan, a former Berkeley Township councilwoman and longtime senior-services advocate, to the seat that has been empty since Roxanne Conniff stepped down this spring.
Noonan’s tenure comes with a short clock. The term expires Dec. 31, and the seat will go before voters in the township’s nonpartisan election this November. Conniff, who had been serving as council president, vacated the seat April 27 after moving out of Manchester; her colleagues elevated Michele Zolezi to the presidency before settling on a replacement.
The appointment hands Noonan a platform for the issues that have defined her time in town. Since relocating to Manchester she has been an outspoken champion of its senior residents, a cause she has carried as a volunteer on the Ocean County Senior Services Advisory Board, where she has zeroed in on the squeeze of rising utility bills. Most recently she worked inside the administration itself, as a confidential aide to Mayor Joseph Hankins.
Being a councilmember is familiar ground for Noonan, though her last stint ended on rocky terms. She represented Berkeley Township for a decade, from 2010 until her resignation in August 2020, a departure she has attributed to repeated friction with that town’s then-mayor, Carmen Amato, and other members of the governing body.
