Fair Lawn's Baratta to Head County Exec-Elect's Staff

Fair Lawn Council member Jeanne Baratta has been named the chief of staff for Republican Kathleen Donovan, the Bergen County Executive-elect announced on Friday morning.

Baratta, in the middle of her second term on the Borough Council, currently serves as the . She will complete her council term—which ends Dec. 31, 2013—but will not seek re-election, Donovan said.

In an interview with Patch, Baratta said she is "looking forward to the challenge" of simultaneously serving on the Fair Lawn council and Donovan's staff. Stepping down from the council was "something that I just wouldn't do," said Baratta, a lifelong Fair Lawn resident.

"It means a lot to me, and I did not want to give it up," Baratta said about serving on the council.

"I'm going to finish what I started," she said.

Baratta said in a statement that she shares "fiscal conservative beliefs and the pledge to bring honest and open government to the people of Bergen County" with Donovan.   

Donovan said in a statement that Baratta "has distinguished herself as a member of the Fair Lawn Council where her record mirrored our campaign platform."

"She has consistently taken positions against waste and unchecked spending," Donovan said. "She campaigned for office on a pledge to oppose unnecessary and costly borrowing.  She has kept that pledge." 

Baratta said she shares Donovan's fiscal conservative beliefs and goals of making Bergen County government leaner, stronger and more open.

"We meant what we said [during the campaign] and we are going to do that," Baratta said.

As a Fair Lawn council member, Baratta has never taken compensation and that will remain the case for the remainder of her term, Donovan said.

Baratta said the council has been her primary focus in recent years. For about 10 years, Baratta said she worked in information technology "when IT wasn't even called IT," and then took a break to raise her three children—Amanda, now 24; Ricky, 20; and Maria, 15. Additionally, Baratta was an art teacher at the St. Anne School in Fair Lawn for 15 years.

Donovan said Baratta will bring "political and organizational skills along with her knowledge of government to the County Executive's office." The future county executive, whose term begins Jan. 1,  on election day in November.

Another Fair Lawn councilmember, Ed Trawinski, is the executive director of Donovan's Transition Committee.