Lois A. Cuccinello

Lois A. Cuccinello has served on the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders since 1997, winning re-election in 2000 and 2003. In January 1999 she was selected to serve as Freeholder Director, making Freeholder Cuccinello the first woman to hold that position in four decades.

A Passaic County native, the Paterson-born Freeholder graduated from Public School 18. Her family moved to the Borough of Hawthorne where she graduated from Hawthorne High School. She received her Bachelor’s degree from William Paterson College and in 1984, graduated from Cornell University with her Master’s Degree in Labor Relations.

Cuccinello married Don Polizzi in 1987, and they make their home in Hawthorne. She served the community of Hawthorne as its 4th Ward Councilwoman from 1994-2003.

Freeholder Cuccinello has been actively employed in the labor movement for most of her professional career. She is a Union Representative, who specializes in contract negotiation and administration, for AFL-CIO unions such as the United Auto Workers, OPEIU (Office and Professional Employees International Union), and currently the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE, a healthcare affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers).

Freeholder Cuccinello, who will serve as Chair of the Human Services Committee for 2005, oversaw the formation of the Department of Senior, Disability Services and Veterans’ Affairs. This new department has brought together all the services required by these populations into one cohesive unit and has increased the County’s ability to better serve their needs. She is the 2005 Freeholder Liaison to the Open Space & Farmland Preservation Trust Fund Advisory Committee, which allocates funds to preserve open space and to rehabilitate and renovate recreational facilities and County parks such as Garret Mountain Reservation, Goffle Brook Park and Weasel Brook Park. In recognition of her commitment to open space, Freeholder Cuccinello was recently nominated, by former Governor Jim McGreevey, to serve on the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council.

In March 2006, she announced that she will be resigning as a freeholder in June 2006 and will not seek reelection this year. She said she accepted an appointment from Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine as an Assistant Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development.

External links

* [http://www.passaiccountynj.org/freeholders/Freeholder_Bios/loiscuccinello.htm Freeholder biography]
* [http://www.state.nj.us/njhighlands/about/members/cuccinello.html New Jersey Highlands Council biography]