Joseph A. LeFante 

Joseph A. LeFante, the fifth Commissioner of DCA, was appointed by Governor Brendan T. Byrne in 1978.

Before his appointment, Commissioner LeFante served as a member of the United States Congress, representing the 14th District. At the time of his election to Congress, he had been Speaker of the Assembly, in which capacity he played a major role in securing the enactment of Governor Byrne’s tax reform program.  He was elected to the Assembly in 1969, 1971, 1973 and 1975 and served as chairman of both the Assembly Appropriations Committee and the Joint Appropriations Committee and as majority leader.  He was also  involved in local government in Bayonne, where he served as a charter commissioner in 1960 and 1961, as a Councilman from 1962 to 1970, and as a member of the Board of School Estimate from 1963 to 1966.

LeFante attended courses at the St. Peter’s Institute of Industrial Relations and graduated from the New Jersey Real Estate Institute.

Commissioner LeFante died in 1997.