Ocean County Clerk Named President of State Association
Posted by Michael Favor III on
Continuing the tradition among Ocean County Clerks, Scott M. Colabella will be the next one to be installed as President of the Constitutional Officers Association of New Jersey (COANJ).
"I am honored to have been selected by my peers for this position," Colabella said. "I look forward to serving the Association as its president for this one year term."
The Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders on Sept. 19 recognized Colabella on his upcoming term as president of the state association. Surrounded by his peers, members of his staff and the Freeholders, Colabella was presented with a resolution from the Board highlighting his appointment as COANJ President.
The Sheriffs, County Clerks, Registers and Surrogates of New Jersey will hold a conference in Atlantic City on Sept. 27, at which time Colabella and other elected officials will formally be installed as officers of COANJ.
"Scott has done great work in the County Clerk's Office for Ocean County and its residents over the years," said Ocean County Freeholder John P. Kelly, who serves as liaison to the County Clerk. "As County Clerk, he has implemented many new programs and services to our citizens, including our veterans and makes certain the services of his office are easily accessible to all residents of the County."
COANJ was established in 1920 as a cooperative effort among the Sheriffs, County Clerks, Surrogates, and Registers of Deeds and Mortgages of the 21 counties of New Jersey to improve services rendered to their respective communities. Association officers are nominated by a bipartisan committee of constitutional officers and then elected and installed annually.
"All of the Constitutional Officers are responsible for providing various services to the public within their respective counties and work together to promote shared services to better serve our constituents," Colabella said. "COANJ is a vital bipartisan organization that works with State Legislators and other elected officials to ensure that legislation affecting counties has a positive impact on the residents represented in each County."
Colabella follows former Ocean County Clerk M. Dean Haines, who served as Association President in 1998 and Carl W. Block who served as president in 2007.
"The Ocean County Clerk's Office has always been forward thinking and one of the most technologically advanced Clerk's Office in New Jersey," said Ocean County Freeholder Director Gerry P. Little. "Scott has continued the outstanding work of his predecessors and continues to make the Ocean County Clerk's office the best in the state.
"We congratulate him on becoming the president of the Association," Little said. "It is well deserved and we know he will do a great job."
Colabella began his public service in 1982 as an assistant to Governor Thomas H. Kean. From 1982 to 1986, he served as Deputy Director and later Acting Director of the Governor's Office of Constituent Relations.
In 1993, Colabella was appointed as Executive Assistant to Ocean County Clerk M. Dean Haines. He served in that position for nearly eleven years until his appointment as Deputy County Clerk on Jan. 1, 2004.
Seven years after becoming Deputy County Clerk, Colabella was then elected as County Clerk.
In 2006, COANJ named Colabella as the recipient of the Rita M. Rosenberg Memorial Award for his past and future years of dedicated service and hard work to advance the ideals, principles and philosophy of COANJ.
In addition, The League of Women Voters of New Jersey in 2013 presented Colabella with a "Hurricane Heroes Award" for his efforts to make it possible for New Jersey citizens to exercise their right to vote in the 2012 General Election in the face of Hurricane Sandy's devastating aftermath.
As one of Ocean County's Constitutional Officers, Colabella is responsible for the administration of a broad range of services offered by the County Clerk's Office, including the supervision of the filing and recording of all documents affecting real estate ownership and transfer throughout the County, assisting residents in obtaining passports for foreign travel and the administration of all elections in Ocean County.