WOODBURY Gloucester County administrators and department heads will serve as liaisons to the region's 24 municipalities Ð including attendance at town meetings.

Freeholder Director Stephen Sweeney announced the program Saturday night during the board's 324th annual reorganization meeting.

"We need to communicate better," Sweeney suggested shortly after his freeholder colleagues returned him to the director's post he has held since 1998. Towns will have a "go-to person to deal with county issues and vice versa."

"If he does not have an answer, he will get the answer," Sweeney said of the liaisons.

Essex County has a similar program. Sweeney said Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. has told him the program "really has improved communication" between individual municipalities and the county.

The program will be launched as soon as liaisons are named, Sweeney said. The liaisons will be department heads and salaried individuals Ð which means the program will not present a cost to the county, Sweeney said.

The reorganization ceremony marked the official return of Freeholders Giuseppe Chila and Robert M. Damminger to the board for another three years.

Chila was sworn into his new second term by Assemblywoman Celeste Riley. Damminger was sworn into his fifth term by Sweeney.

Sheriff Carmel Morina, who also won re-election in November, was also sworn in a new term Ð his second Ð by Sweeney.

Damminger was re-elected by his colleagues as deputy director of the board.

Chad M. Bruner Ð who has been administrator for three years Ð was given a five-year term to continue.

Sweeney noted that the county has the power to make either a three- or a five-year appointment.

"He's proved himself," Sweeney said.

When Bruner was promoted to administrator in 2007, the freeholder director reflected "we were confident we had the right guy."

Bruner justified the five-year term with his performance, Sweeney said.

Bruner currently is paid $193,000.

"You get what you pay for," Sweeney offered, noting that Bruner oversees 1,500 employees and a $200 million budget.

County Tax Administrator Edward Burak was appointed assessor for a five-year term at a salary of $125,000. Gloucester County has been selected as a pilot county to have property assessments handled on a countywide basis instead of by individual municipalities.