WEST MILFORD A new era is upon West Milford with the swearing in of its new Mayor, Bettina Bieri. On the eve of taking office, Mayor Bieri discussed her life and the priorities she has for her new position. Born in Teaneck, Bieri grew up in Bergen County with her parents and her older brother before moving to West Milford in 1986. Since then she has lived in Pinecliff Lake and has two teenage children, Dominique (19) who attends the University of Scranton and Alexandre (17) who will start college in September. Being a mother and a mayor might seem like a tough double-bill but Bieri is ready for it. “My family and my friends have all been very excited and extremely supportive of my election and the time commitment involved with the position.” Following in the footsteps of mom’s academic success in the Bieri household will be quite the challenge considering her educational prowess while at Pace University. Starting at the age of 17, Bieri earned her BBA and her MBA within a four year period majoring in Public Accounting. She passed the CPA exam in 1985. Just three years later Bieri started her home-based accountancy and tax business which has operated ever since. Income tax preparation and small business accountancy have been her specialty. Volunteering has also played a big part in Bieri’s life, in particular her work with animals. Bieri has been working with the West Milford Animal Shelter (WMAS) for 15 years now and said, “I have always been motivated to make as much of a positive difference in as many lives as I can, and the WMAS is where it all began.” Although it is the cats, dogs, various other pets and future loving owners that receive the direct benefit of Bieri’s work, it is the broader impact on the town that motivates her. “While animals are the obvious focus at the shelter, volunteering there is a community service that helps people as well as animals.” As mayor Bieri doesn’t expect her presence at the shelter to be diminished by her township duties. “The time I devote to the WMAS and my continued commitment is based on my devotion as well as my ability to provide certain needed services and specialized skills,” said Bieri, “While being mayor and maintaining my current level of volunteerism will be very difficult and draining at times, I do not intend to reduce my volunteer hours for the WMAS.” Bieri would welcome more volunteers at the shelter though, and with the skills of persuasion that will be needed in the mayoral role Bieri made a brief advertisement for new faces, “Just a few hours a week can make a tremendous difference. We have great camaraderie and our work warms the heart.” Until now, concern with family commitments prevented Bieri from considering running for political office, but with her children more grown she felt able to put herself forward. “While I thought about running for council many times over the last 10 years, I felt my family would suffer from the time commitment needed for the position at that time,” said Bieri. “My children are older now, and I decided to run for mayor at the beginning of 2007.” Her opponent in the mayor’s race, Bill Gervens, had been thought to be the favorite partly because he was on the Republican Party ticket. Bieri, a former Republican herself, switched affiliations; however, she doesn’t believe that made any difference. Bieri said, “During the election, I never attempted to predict the outcome. I knew any candidate could win the election and that it would be an uphill climb since I was running on the Democratic ticket. I was, however, very pleased to see that the residents made their choices based on the individuals rather than their political parties.” On Wednesday evening the traditional start-of-year swearing in ceremony for newly election officials took place. In anticipation of this event Bieri said, “I’m not a ceremonious type of person, nor do titles matter to me, so I view my swearing in differently than most others do. Other people focus on the excitement of the evening. Instead, I view that evening as being the formal beginning of my mayoral duties.” On the question of any pre-ceremonial jitters, Bieri said, “Nerves? Well, I think any human being would be a bit on edge, myself included.” Although Bieri will become a Democrat mayor in town she will be working with a council which has a 5-1 Republican Party majority. She does hope, though, to be able to set goals for the years ahead in her four-year term and find support among her council colleagues. “I have many priorities, including passing a well-scrutinized, reasonable budget on a timely basis to help stabilize taxes,” said Bieri. “We also need to move forward on some important issues that have remained open for months or even years, such as Hillcrest and Wallisch.” Outgoing mayor, Joseph DiDonato, offered Bieri some words of advice on her new role which she will take on board; however, she also hopes to impact change in her time. “In particular, I am hoping for less politicizing and more cooperation among the mayor and council, which should be achieved though open, fair and logical discussions on the issues before the council.” Bieri said she has not been sitting on her hands over the past two months and has used the lag time to get to know her colleagues better. Bieri said, “I have already met with each council person on an individual basis, and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversations and exchanges of ideas. I am looking forward to a positive working environment.” Town hall meetings can come in many varieties sedate, adversarial, and unpredictable but Bieri hopes that in her time as mayor meetings and the business of the township will gather more interest from a wider group of people, especially to volunteers. “Everyone’s lives have become so busy that it has become difficult for the average resident to stay informed of township business,” said Bieri. “It requires an actual commitment that gets scheduled into your life.” Bieri added, “Most people are either not able to do so or are disheartened by the government processes. As a result, they do not attend meetings and are not well informed.” Taking action already, Bieri has shown initiative to entice more residents to get involved. Bieri said, “In an effort to create a more inviting atmosphere, I have already directed the township staff to update our Web site to list all committees and boards, including a brief description of its duties, number of members, dates of meetings, and vacancies, if any. These updates will provide the residents with more information that is easy to access. This may help increase volunteerism and awareness. “Furthermore, perhaps more people will be inspired to attend council meetings and become more informed and involved by creating a more inviting and friendly atmosphere. I am hoping to be able to achieve such an atmosphere.”