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After 20 years, Cumberland County's Noto prepares to exit clerk's office

BRIDGETON, N.J. - Gloria Noto is noticeably comfortable in her modest office in Cumberland County. Scattered around her workspace in the county courthouse in Bridgeton are family photos, nautical decorations, and a framed newspaper front page with a photo of her and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. A white doily drapes over her blue-cushioned desk chair.

Gloria Noto, 82, the Cumberland (NJ) County Clerk, hadn't lost an election since she first won the office in 1995 -- until this past Tuesday (11/4/2014).  She is photographed Nov.6, 2014 in the basement records room pulling out the first bound book of deeds dating from 1785.   ( CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer )
Gloria Noto, 82, the Cumberland (NJ) County Clerk, hadn't lost an election since she first won the office in 1995 -- until this past Tuesday (11/4/2014). She is photographed Nov.6, 2014 in the basement records room pulling out the first bound book of deeds dating from 1785. ( CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer )Read more

BRIDGETON, N.J. - Gloria Noto is noticeably comfortable in her modest office in Cumberland County.

Scattered around her workspace in the county courthouse in Bridgeton are family photos, nautical decorations, and a framed newspaper front page with a photo of her and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. A white doily drapes over her blue-cushioned desk chair.

Noto has filled a lot of roles in her 82 years - a paralegal, a hospital volunteer director, a freeholder, and a mother and grandmother - but she's known by most for her job here.

In a land of record books and filing cabinets and computers and microfilm, Noto is the clerk.

She has been Cumberland County's record-keeper for two decades. She was the first woman in the county's history elected to the job, and it's a position she's retained despite all election challenges.

Until Tuesday, that is.

In an unusual matchup, the iconic Republican clerk was unseated by a sitting legislator. Assemblywoman Celeste Riley (D., Cumberland) defeated Noto with a thin margin for the job, which includes a $107,000 salary.

On Wednesday, the day after the election, Noto stayed at home in Vineland. She was inundated with calls and coming to terms with the defeat, she said.

"This has been a very strange election," Noto said from behind her desk Thursday.

When she came back to work, her staff welcomed her with flowers. Many of the dozen workers have been with Noto since her first term began in 1995.

"Right now, our hearts are broken," said Barbara Fowler, 55, who joined the office before Noto.

Now deputy county clerk, Fowler notes the strides taken by the office under her boss' watch.

"When she came here, we had two computers, and they didn't talk to each other," Fowler said. There was modernization within three years, she said.

Each staff member now has a desktop computer. An electronic filing system hailed for its efficiency is in place. Documents, such as property records, submitted to the office are typically returned in three to five days, Fowler said. That turnaround used to take five weeks.

Riley's campaign promised to further modernize the operation.

While documents now reside on hard drives and in the "cloud," there remains an apparent appreciation for the way things were.

"These are my children," Noto said proudly inside a basement storage room, where tax records, court judgments, and other documents are bound in books.

Noto flips through a light-blue book of deeds from the late 1700s, complimenting the longevity and quality of the paper and marveling at the handwriting. "I think it's just beautiful," she said. "I can't even understand some people's grocery lists."

Noto talks about the office as some people talk about their homes. She points out the wall where a "horrible paint" once coated an upstairs records room. She describes the new carpet and chairs.

It's hard to keep up with Noto. As she talks, she jumps quickly and often from one story to a tangential other - perhaps recalling an inaugural ball for President Ronald Reagan or a conversation with Guadagno ("she's just what every woman should be in politics," Noto said).

Noto is a proud Republican - although, she admits, she switched parties temporarily to vote in the 1960 primary for then-Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy.

Each day, Noto commutes 45 minutes from her house in Vineland, where she lives with her husband of 64 years, Gerald. She has a daughter, Karin Bauman, and a grown grandson, Jonathan. Her son, Jeffery, died at age 25 from brain injuries sustained during a car accident.

"I have such an admiration for Gloria," said Freeholder Jim Sauro, a Republican who was reelected last week.

He praised how, in 2002, she agreed to also head the county adjuster's office. The merger eliminated an extra job.

A 1950 Vineland High School graduate, Noto touts a two-page resumé filled with awards and titles and civic group involvement. As clerk, she was criticized several times for election-related hiccups, including ballot mistakes. One year, some absentee ballots included incorrect Spanish instructions.

Bob Balicki, chairman of the county's Democratic committee, called Noto a "very good politician."

"I give her credit for working so hard," he said. "Gloria works like she's campaigning all year long."

Balicki said Riley offered a credible alternative candidate this year. Her background as an information-technology teacher will help make more records more accessible, he said.

"I knew it was going to be a close race," said Riley, 54, of Bridgeton. "She's been around for over 20 years."

"I was the person who convinced enough of the voters that it was time to change," she added.

Riley, who teaches at the Morris Goodwin Elementary School in Greenwich, Cumberland County, will step down from her teaching position in December and assume the clerk's office Jan. 1.

"It feels sad, of course," she said of leaving her teaching position. "But this is good."

The county Democratic committees in the Third District will select a replacement to fill Riley's unexpired term in the Assembly.

As for Noto, she isn't sure what she'll do next.

"I'll come up with something," she said. "This is the beginning of the rest of my life."