Passaic County, NJ

John W. Bartlett, Esq.  

COMMITTEES: 

• Administration & Finance
• Budget 
• Planning & Economic Development
• Public Works, Chair

COUNTY COMMISSIONER JOHN W. BARTLETT was first elected to Passaic County’s governing body in 2012. In his years as a Freeholder and County Commissioner, he has been a driving force behind many of the County’s major public outreach initiatives, including the Complete Count Committee for Census 2020, Impact Passaic’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program protecting vulnerable residents during and after the COVID-19 emergency, and recurring programs for families affected by autism-spectrum disorders and other disabilities. He has served on all of the Board’s standing committees, and as Director of the Board in 2019 and 2024.

As Passaic County’s representative on the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA), and the NJTPA Board chairman in 2022-2023, County Commissioner Bartlett helps prioritize and oversee $3+ billion in annual infrastructure improvements in our region. Since he joined NJTPA, more than $600 million in federal infrastructure funding has flowed into Passaic County, supporting projects from major road improvements on Routes 46, 3, 23, and 80; to completion of the county’s section of the 103-mile Morris Canal Greenway historic site; to major new investments in transit-oriented development; to safety improvements protecting vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians.

From 2013-2016 and 2022-2024, County Commissioner Bartlett served on the Passaic County Board of Social Services. At his initiative, PCBSS launched an effort to make Social Services more accessible to immigrant communities by publishing information about social services for the first time in Arabic, Bengali, and Spanish, as well as English. From 2009 to 2013, he served as the founding Chairman of the Board of Friends Of Passaic County Parks. Under his leadership, the foundation launched a summer concert series, revived the Passaic County Fair as a marquee annual event, and created opportunities for local residents to sponsor memorial benches, trees, and other commemorations for lost loved ones.

Educated at Harvard Law School, John W. Bartlett is a Partner in Murphy Orlando LLC. He has been recognized with the highest professional peer-review rating for attorneys, AV-Preeminent, from Martindale-Hubbell, and as one of the New Jersey Law Journal’s “Forty Under 40” promising young attorneys in 2010. Before law school, County Commissioner Bartlett received a B.A. degree with honors from Brown University and was a Raoul Wallenberg Scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He wrote for The Associated Press in Israel, and served as communications director for the national anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids in Washington, D.C. He lives in Wayne with his wife Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi and their son.