July 13, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 7 Mahwah Township’s mayor appoints new attorney, planner by Frank J. McMahon Mahwah Mayor John DaPuzzo appointed a new township attorney and a new professional planner during a meeting at which he also reappointed several other municipal professionals. John A. Conte Jr. was appointed as the township attorney for the period of July 1, 2011 to Dec. 31, 2011. Conte replaces the former township attorney, Terry Bottinelli, who was appointed to the Bergen County Superior Court in May. Maser Consulting, P.A., which has corporate headquarters in Red Bank and offices in New York State and Pennsylvania, was appointed the township’s professional planner, replacing Burgis Associates, which had been the township’s professional planner since October 2003. Maser was also appointed until the end of this year. The six-month appointments will permit the township to get on the November election schedule which the council decided to do in August 2010. The person elected to be the township’s mayor in November 2011 will then make his or her own appointments to be effective Jan. 1, 2012. In November 2012, there will be another election for a full four-year term for the township’s mayor and three, three-year terms for the council. DaPuzzo explained his choice of Conte, saying that he is a township resident with a fairly large law firm that has experience with the Municipal Land Use Law, the Council on Affordable Housing, and the Highlands Council with multiple attorneys who are municipal attorneys and a staff that is well versed in the necessary paperwork and resolutions. “So I chose who I thought was the most qualified,” DaPuzzo said. Conte joined Rubenstein, Meyerson, Fox, Mancinelli & Conte, P.A., as a partner in mid-2007. He has extensive experience in the general practice of wills, trusts, and estate law, land use litigation, real estate, and other transactional matters. He is widely known in the region for his knowledge and reputation for expertise in these areas of the law. Conte has also been certified for five years by the NHL Players Association as a player agent and has represented professional hockey players since 1988. He has also handled several litigation matters involving athletes. Prior to joining Rubenstein, Meyerson, Fox, Mancinelli & Conte, P.A., he was a partner at a well-known firm based in Glen Rock, where he maintained a successful practice focusing on transactional law, trust and estate law, and general litigation. From 1985 to 1999, he practiced as a full partner at a succession of firms based in Saddle Brook. During that time, he also practiced with his father, John Conte Sr., who was later named to the state bench. Conte is a former prosecutor of the Borough of Oakland and for the Borough of Norwood. For many years, he worked as a public defender in the Township of Saddle Brook, the Borough of Elmwood Park, and the Borough of Oakland. From 2001 to 2003, he served as planning board attorney for the Township of Saddle Brook. He is admitted to the New Jersey and New Jersey Federal District Courts, and the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. DaPuzzo said Burgis will deliver the township’s revised master plan by the middle of July. Maser will review the plan and handle the related public hearings. He explained the change in planners, saying that when the qualifications of those who submitted proposals for the position were scored Maser came out higher and after they were interviewed he felt that firm was a better fit for Mahwah. Maser Consulting employs an average of 250 professionals through a network of nine regional offices and those professionals include engineers, professional planners, surveyors, landscape architects, and environmental scientists. It is a leading consulting engineering firm serving the Northeast since 1984 and is known and respected as a multi-disciplined firm with a balance of public and private sector experience. The firm recently announced that they have made the Engineering News-Record’s (ENR) annual list of the Top 500 design firms in the United States for the tenth consecutive year. It has also received the (continued on page 23)