Résumé
Luis DePaz, MPA
Municipal government professional in Bergen County, New Jersey
luisdepaz.com/contactlinkedin.com/in/LdepazBergen County, New Jersey
Summary
Luis DePaz has served local government in Bergen County, New Jersey, since 2017: in the office of the County Executive, in the Township Manager’s office in Teaneck and, today, in the Clerk’s Office of the Borough of Saddle River. He is secretary to four municipal boards, handles 20 to 30 public records requests a month for the Municipal Clerk and has completed the coursework of New Jersey’s Registered Municipal Clerk (RMC) program, with the state exam pending. He works with frontier AI every day and publishes his own research on AI, privacy and public records.
Experience
Borough of Saddle River, New Jersey
Secretary to the Planning Board and other boards, Clerk’s Office
- Has served as secretary to the Planning Board since 2023, and since January 2026 to the Environmental Commission, the Landmarks Commission, and Parks and Recreation, which together meet about four evenings a month, all year.
- Prepares legal notices and agendas, calls the roll and takes the minutes under the Open Public Meetings Act.
- Handles 20 to 30 public records requests a month for the Municipal Clerk under the Open Public Records Act: acknowledging each one, coordinating the departments’ responses, reviewing and redacting the records, and consulting the Borough’s counsel on complex determinations.
- Keeps the Planning Board’s application files and affidavits, calculates escrow, checks each applicant’s 200-foot notice and drafts the resolutions that memorialize the Board’s decisions.
- Prepares and attests oaths of office and keeps the oath books; formats resolutions and ordinances from the attorney’s drafts; handles liquor license renewals.
- Routes requisitions and vouchers through approval under the Local Public Contracts Law and keeps the purchase order records.
- Maintains the Borough’s employee leave records and gives each employee an annual statement of leave balances.
- On Election Day, supervises polling place operations, answers poll workers’ questions and delivers the sealed results to the Bergen County Clerk.
- Rebuilt more than two dozen Borough department, board and service pages on one page system, with five content rules and a staff editing guide.
- Serves the public in English and Spanish and helps with community events.
Township of Teaneck, New Jersey
Executive Assistant to the Township Manager
- Supported the Township Manager’s office with governing body materials, records workflows, financial processing, public communications and special projects.
- Prepared the Manager’s section of the Mayor and Council’s meeting binder and handled the public records requests that came to the Manager’s office.
- Coordinated the content of the Teaneck Quarterly, worked on the website redesign and the move to a new email system, and supervised the office’s interns.
County of Bergen, New Jersey
Community Relations Specialist, Office of the County Executive
- Worked directly for County Executive James J. Tedesco III, from the County Executive’s first term into his second, in the government of New Jersey’s most populous county.
- Provided assistance and outreach to the county’s 70 municipalities, connecting local officials and residents with county programs and services.
- Coordinated countywide events and supervised the office’s interns and event volunteers.
Education
Master of Public Administration
Rutgers University, Newark, School of Public Affairs and Administration. Concentration in budgeting and financial management. Coursework included Technology and Public Administration, Applied Statistics, Applied Research Design and Administrative Ethics.
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, minor in History
Rutgers University, Newark.
Honor societies. Pi Alpha Alpha (public administration) and Phi Alpha Theta (history).
Certification and learning
- Registered Municipal Clerk (RMC) program, New Jersey: coursework complete, state exam pending.
Languages
English and Spanish.
Published work, on luisdepaz.com
- Ten research notes on AI, privacy and public records in local government, each sourced to primary public documents.
- A free toolkit for New Jersey towns: three tools, three templates, New Jersey sources and free training.
- Three Lab protocols, tests of AI on public records, published before they are run.