Trio of contenders

Three vie for position of Hudson County Clerk in June 5 Dem primary

Ricardo Kaulessar - Hudson Reporter -- 05/18/2007

There are three contenders for the Hudson County Clerk's office in the June 5 Democratic primary.

Incumbent Mary Jane Desmond wants to keep the seat, and faces challenger Barbara Netchert.

Independent candidate James Farina is also running, but was unable to come to a scheduled interview and could not be reached for this article.

Desmond has served as the acting Hudson County clerk since 2006 when former clerk Javier Inclan stepped down to take a position in the administration of Gov. Jon Corzine.

It is a five-year term.

Desmond has worked in Hudson County government since 2003, much of that time as deputy county clerk.

Netchert is currently the head of the Jersey City Department of Housing, Economic Development & Commerce, and has worked in Jersey City government since 1988.

Farina is the long-time Hoboken City Clerk and member of the Hoboken Board of Education.

Who is backing them

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Netchert is running with the backing of the long-time Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO).

Desmond is the candidate for the recently-formed Democrats for Hudson County (DFHC).

Farina is running independently.

Both Netchert and Desmond spoke last week about why they want the job.

Like a well-oiled machine

When Desmond was interviewed, she was not feeling well and showed it in her voice, for which she apologized. "Despite the drone in my voice, I love my job," said Desmond.

She described it as "a lot of troubleshooting, a lot of customer service, but I am proud to have this opportunity to be Hudson County clerk."

Mary Jane Desmond was born and raised in Bayonne, the oldest of the 11 children. She attended St. Mary's Our Lady Star of the Sea grammar school, Holy Family Academy, and St. Peter's College. She also attended the New Jersey Professional School of Business, Securities Training Institute; the New York Institute of Finance, and the Rutgers University of Government Studies.

Her career has spanned both the public and the private, including her first 13 years of employment at Furman Selz, a Wall Street firm. Also, she has worked for six years at Christ Hospital in Jersey City.

Since 2003, she has been employed by Hudson County government, first as the confidential aide in the Finance and Administration Department.

She became Deputy County Clerk in 2004. When Javier Inclan left in late 2006, Desmond became the Acting County Clerk.

Desmond said she learned a great deal under Inclan and grew to admire him.

"He was quite an innovator and started a number of wonderful things in this office," Desmond said.

Desmond plans to do a number of her own "wonderful things" if she is elected to Hudson County Clerk.

One of the first things she plans to do is continuing to transfer records from paper to digital storage. This falls in line with her role as Hudson County Project Manager for NJ DARM PARIS Grant Program, which provides funding for Archives and Records Management.

"The county has been securing millions of dollars of grants to manage our records," Desmond said. "We have to destroy paper copy to save space and time."

Desmond also has plans to have county departments put more of their records online and to create a mechanism for the public to pay by credit card for copies of those records they seek.

And she plans to do whatever is necessary to keep the staff that currently works with her.

"I have a great staff that works in one of the three busiest county offices next to the Welfare Division and the county registrar," Desmond said. "This office is like a well-oiled machine."

'Ready to roll up her sleeves'

Desmond's challenger, Barbara Netchert, who is running on the HCDO line, says she sees herself as a public servant and not a politician. She is currently the executive director of the Jersey City Department of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce.

"This is all new and daunting for me," she said. "I find it hard to sell myself, my platform and my goals to people."

Running for county clerk is not like running for other political offices, she says, because it is more about her ability to do a job than it is about differing political positions.

She grew up in Union City, but has family in Weehawken. She is currently a resident of Jersey City.

"I've lived in Hudson County all of my life," she said.

What she brings to the job, she said, is her 18 years as a public servant. Netchert has worked for the city of Jersey City since 1989, under several administrations that included Jersey City Mayors Gerald McCann, Bret Schundler, Glenn Cunningham, L. Harvey Smith, and Jerramiah Healy.

As the executive director of development in Jersey City, Netchert has overseen many of the most significant development changes in Jersey City over the last decade, and has worked with municipal, county, and state leadership.

Over her career with Jersey City, Netchert has developed a good working relationship with County Executive Tom DeGise, on whose ticket she is running this year.

"He is remarkably fair and honest," she said. "I worked closely with him when he served as council president (for Jersey City City Council). In my position [in Jersey City], my bosses are the mayor and the nine council members. But I worked with a lot of people throughout the city and county."

Her husband, William Netchert, serves as the general counsel for the Hudson County Improvement Authority and as chairman for the Hudson County Community College Board of Trustees. He has close ties to DeGise going back to the early 1980s.

With her office over looking the Exchange Place, the Hudson River, and the site of the former World Trade Center, Barbara seems at the center of a beehive, with constant activity around her.

She admits she will miss the hustle and bustle of her current position - partly because of the central role economic development plays in the life of Jersey City.

"As county clerk I will be doing more constituent services," she said. "That is a change from what I have done over the last 18 years."

Prior to her service in economic development, Netchert worked as a paralegal in a law office and in real estate.

Overall, her career has made her familiar with many of the services the county clerk provides, including business filings, trade names, and corporate filings.

"I understand that as county clerk I will be dealing with a lot of paperwork," she said.

She said when DeGise proposed she run for the office, she was a little nervous. But after talking about the job with DeGise and former Hudson County Clerk Javier Inclan, she felt more confident about the election.

"I think Javier did a wonderful job," she said. "The more we talked about the job, the more I liked the idea."

She said she would like to pursue some of the initiatives Inclan started such as web-based access program and increased constituent services. She also said she would like to find a way for the clerk's office to again issue birth certificates. Three years ago, federal authorities closed down that aspect of the clerk's office because workers were charged with having provided false identification. Although Inclan played a large role in cleaning up the mess, federal authorities banned the issuing of birth certificates out of that office.

Netchert may look into providing a satellite office to serve residents in northern Hudson County.

In focusing on her qualities, Netchert said she is detailed oriented and good at multi-tasking, and that her years of experience in government have given her the tools she needs to handle the clerk's job.

"I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and go to work," she said. "But I'm open to suggestions as to how to do things, and I'm willing to listen to people and to work with the mayors."

In getting the word out to the public, she said, "I want people to know that I am an honest and hard-working individual, and that I can be beneficial in providing services to the public."

The reluctant candidate

There's a third candidate for Hudson County Clerk - longtime Hoboken City Clerk and Hoboken Board of Education member James Farina.

Why is Farina running, after being such a longtime staple of Hoboken City Hall?

Farina rescheduled an interview that was originally set up for last week, and was unable to be reached for an interview since.

Farina is a lifelong resident of Hoboken and product of the Hoboken School System. In 1974, he was elected to serve as a member of the Hoboken Board of Education. He has been serving continuously since then. During his tenure on the board, he has served as president, vice-president, and chairman of athletics.

He pioneered the efforts to rebuild the Hoboken High School stadium. Years ago, he also championed the right of a Hoboken girl to play Little League baseball.

Farina is married to his wife Patricia and they are the proud parents of two children.

Recently, Farina's name got into the newspapers over a nutty incident that took place in Hoboken City Hall on March 28. Police were called to City Hall because of an alleged verbal dispute in Mayor David Roberts' office between him and Farina. Rumors said that the dispute was about politics.

Eventually, the pair patched things up, and Farina was the only Hoboken school board candidate whom Roberts publicly endorsed in that city's April school board election.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.

Al Sullivan can be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com