Donna Lent leaves Town Hall for the last time as Town Clerk. Photo from Donna Lent
After more than two decades of public service, Brookhaven Town Clerk Donna Lent (I) has retired after nine years in that office.
The announcement was made at the Nov. 10 Town Board meeting, where Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) and council members thanked Lent for her service.
“It was a lovely day,” Lent said in a phone interview. “I was not expecting the big send-off from the board that they gave me, which was very generous.”
Lent ran for her third term in office against Ira Costell (D) in the 2021 election. She said she started having a painful case of sciatica after getting hurt in May. Lent was on medical leave for six weeks.
“It just got me thinking,” Lent said. “Here I turned 70 in September, and my husband retired in 2015.”
She initially thought she would retire in August, but she said Romaine asked her to stay longer.
Her first day of retirement was Nov. 14, just a few days after the Town Board send-off. Lent said she stayed on to help in the office because both of her deputies had their children’s birthday parties during the weekend. Soon after her last day, Lent and her husband moved to South Carolina.
Deputy Town Clerk Lauren Thoden is now serving as interim town clerk. A special election will be held in the near future, and the winner will complete Lent’s term which ends in 2025.
Lent said during her tenure she was immersed in the day-to-day operations of the office. She also oversaw the implementation of the town’s electronic content management system, which included a central-scanning repository where the town clerk’s office can scan both department and town records in real time.
Regarding office operations, Lent said she has no concerns, for now, as she knows it will be “smooth sailing” for the current staff members. However, she does worry that whoever is elected town clerk may not keep the same staff.
“My advice to the new clerk would be to keep the people who know what they’re doing and just let them do it,” she said.
Most people don’t understand the multitude of tasks the office is responsible for, she added, and the new clerk needs to know all the ins and outs of how everything works.
“It’s important to have some continuity,” she said.
Before being elected town clerk, Lent managed a lawyer’s office. She entered public service in 2001 when she became former state Assemblywoman Patricia Eddington’s chief of staff. When Eddington (WF/D/I-Medford) went on to become Brookhaven town clerk, Lent was appointed deputy town clerk.
As Lent looks back at her career, she feels fortunate.
“I was really so privileged to be able as a staffer to end up being an elected official and so honored to have held that position and get reelected twice to serve the residents of the Town of Brookhaven,” Lent said. “It really was a job that I loved.”
In a statement, Romaine thanked Lent.
“Donna Lent has a long history of public service to the Town of Brookhaven, and she will be missed by all of us at Town Hall,” he said. “Her efforts to make the department run more efficiently helped to streamline public facing operations, making it easier for residents to conduct their business with her office. On behalf of the Town Board and all the residents of Brookhaven Town, I say thank you Donna for your many years of exemplary service as Brookhaven town clerk.”
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 St. James Veterans Day Parade. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Right before the St. James Veterans Day Parade began on Nov. 11, the rain began. However, veterans, Scouts, fire department volunteers and school marching bands weren’t going to let that stop them from heading down Lake Avenue.
The marchers started at Woodlawn Avenue and continued down Lake until St. James Elementary School.
2022 Setauket Veterans Ceremony. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 Setauket Veterans Ceremony. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 Setauket Veterans Ceremony. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 Setauket Veterans Ceremony. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 Setauket Veterans Ceremony. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 Setauket Veterans Ceremony. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 Setauket Veterans Ceremony. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 Setauket Veterans Ceremony. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 Setauket Veterans Ceremony. Photo by Rita J. Egan
2022 Setauket Veterans Ceremony. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Despite weather forecasters calling for rain, Setauket residents showed up for veterans on Friday, Nov. 11.
In an abbreviated ceremony to avoid the pending bad weather, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3054 hosted its annual recognition service at the Setauket Veterans Memorial Park at the corner of Shore Road and Route 25A in East Setauket.
Scouts and veterans laid wreaths at the memorial that recognizes the various wars American soldiers have fought in.
Booth busy at work in a 1980 photo. File photo by Maxine Hicks
The New Yorker cartoonist and former Stony Brook resident George Booth died on Nov. 1 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 96. The cartoonist died a few days after his wife, Dione, who passed away on Oct. 26.
George Booth drew some cartoons for Frank Melville Memorial Park, including the one above. Image from Kerri Glynn
According to his obituary in The New York Times, the cause of his death was complications of dementia.
Booth was known for his cartoons that featured various quirky characters depicted as cats, dogs, mechanics, cave dwellers and churchgoers in the weekly magazine over 50 years. The magazine’s unofficial mascot was a bull terrier that appeared in several of his cartoons.
While living in Three Village, Booth and his work was featured in The Village Times and The Village Times Herald. In 1980, he was named the paper’s Man of the Year in Media.
According to the 1980 article, the former Stony Brook resident lived in a house that once belonged to a sea captain. In the interview, he said fellow residents “let me put them in my cartoons.” However, he didn’t divulge any names.
He also received inspiration from his wife.
“Dione has been an education to me on the subject of plants, minuets and pussycats,” he said.
In The Village Times article, he said he and his two brothers grew up in Missouri, where his father trained him as a printer’s devil, an apprentice in a printing establishment. His mother was a cartoonist and musician, and she served as inspiration for his character Mrs. Ritterhouse.
In the 1980 article, he said he developed an interest in auto mechanics while living in Cold Spring Harbor. He had a Model A that always had issues.
“In order to keep it running I had to live at Bohaty’s garage in Centerport,” he said.
Among his favorite artists were Fred Lasswell, who created the “Snuffy Smith” comic strip, and portrait artist Thomas Hart Benton.
When asked which one of his cartoons he would put in a time capsule, he said “Ip Gissa Gul,” which means “ape gets a girl.”
a recent photo of George Booth taken for the documentary ‘Drawing Life.’ Photo rom Nathan Fitch/Drawing Life LLC.
He was born in Cainsville, Missouri, on June 28, 1926, according to The New York Times obituary and grew up on a farm near Fairfax, Missouri. His parents were teachers.
Booth was drafted in 1944 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Eventually he became a cartoonist for the Marine magazine Leatherneck. He attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., and the School of Visual Arts in New York City, on the G.I. Bill. After moving to New York in 1952, he sold art to publications such as Collier’s, Look and The Saturday Evening Post. The cartoonist and his wife married in 1958.
Booth sold his first cartoon to The New Yorker in 1969. He also illustrated children’s books, including “Wacky Wednesday” by Dr. Seuss (as Theo LeSieg) and “Here, George!” by Sandra Boynton. His art career also led him to advertising campaigns, greeting cards and animation.
In recognition of his work, Booth won the Gag Cartoon Award by the National Cartoonists Society in 1993, and the society’s Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. He was an honorary member of Colgate University’s Class of 1939 and was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Stony Brook University in 2003,. He is the subject of “Drawing Life,” part of The New Yorker Documentary series.
Local reflections
Jeffrey Levinton, of Stony Brook, said he and his wife, Joan Miyazaki, were the Booths’ neighbors. He described George Booth as a kind man. The cartoonist would invite Levinton’s son Nathan when he was younger to his Stony Brook studio to see his cartoons.
Levinton added George Booth loved to tell stories and jokes.
“They often had punchlines I did not understand, but George would laugh out loud after telling them,” Levinton wrote.
He remembers one of The New Yorker covers Booth showed them.
“Dracula and a cat at the dinner table – cat with a bowl of milk and Dracula with a bowl of blood,” he said. “George also had a truly amazing pair of drawings of a carnival ride, built in his backyard — you could see the steeple of the church on Christian Avenue. The ride was physically impossible, but George had an explosion diagram of all the impossible parts of a ride where a guy zoomed about the yard and landed in a couch. This masterpiece is apparently lost.”
Levinton remembered a story that Dione Booth told him about her husband that he feels reveals the cartoonist’s character best.
“They met and George asked her out,” he said. “He told her to wear a formal dress and he appeared at her door, also dressed formally. He took her out on a very expensive night in Manhattan, night clubs and the rest. Then she didn’t hear from him for a month, and he called again, making the same invitation, same night on the town. And again. She thought, ‘Wow, I have met a rich guy.’ But he was only inviting her after selling a cartoon, blowing the whole fee on a night out. As Dione said, ‘I thought he was rich but eccentric, and I learned that he was only eccentric.’”
A recent photo of George and Dione Booth taken for the documentary ‘Drawing Life.’ Above image from Kerri Glynn; inset photo by Maxine Hicks; photo below from Nathan Fitch/Drawing Life LLC.
East Setauket architect Robert Reuter considered George Booth a treasured friend and worked in the same Stony Brook building with the cartoonist where they both had studios.
“It was sometimes just hilarious because I would be working on the other side of the wall, and all of a sudden there would be a bellow of laughter where he had drawn something or written something or whatever that just cracked him up so much,” Reuter said.
He would often get a peek at some of The New Yorker cartoons, and Booth gave Reuter’s son, Jordan, drawing lessons “from the time he could hold the pencil.”
The architect said the cartoonist was a generous man, creating illustrations for Frank Melville Memorial Park and other organizations and people.
Reuter said over the years Booth used BIC and similar pens because he liked the “blobby ink.” Often he would draw a few versions of a character and then choose one to put into the cartoon by copying and pasting. He also was known for using Wite-Out.
Reuter said Dione was a brilliant gardener. “There was a time when her abilities as a decorator and designer, especially in landscapes, was highly revered.”
Nancy Bueti-Randall, of Stony Brook, met the couple in the 1980s when she lived in Brooklyn and was running a studio sale in St. James, and they both bought a piece of jewelry each from her. She reconnected with them when she moved to Three Village nearly 30 years ago.
“They were such an integral part of the community,” she said.
Bueti-Randall and Dione Booth belonged to the Creative Women’s Group. At each meeting, women would talk about their careers and creative pursuits.
Dione was a delightful, kind and loving person who was extremely supportive of her husband’s work and devoted to him, Bueti-Randall said. She added George consulted with his wife often.
She remembered Dione’s gardening, too, and said she made “flower arrangements that would knock your socks off.”
Bueti-Randall was also fortunate to see George Booth’s drawings in progress, and she said he always had a full workload.
“George was the most humble person,” she said. “You would never guess this man was at the top of his field.”
Bueti-Randall said Booth would go to 7-Eleven in the morning, and sit in his car for about an hour and observe people.
“He loved all kinds of people, and he was just an observer of life,” she said. “That’s what he brought to his cartoons. That was part of his work, just to sit there and observe and try to see something that was funny to him or ironic.”
The Ward Melville Heritage Organization president, Gloria Rocchio, and her husband, Richard, knew Booth and his wife. Rocchio said the cartoonist would read children stories and children’s books at the Educational & Cultural Center during WMHO’s Hot Cocoa Series.
“Richard and I admired him,” she said. “He had a very interesting life. He and his wife lived in Stony Brook for a very long time, and they wanted to be very unassuming. To many people George was a world-renowned cartoonist, and rightly so, but to many of us in Stony Brook he was just our friend George.”
George and Dione Booth leave behind their daughter Sarah, who lives in Brooklyn.
Brookhaven Town Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich, state Assemblyman Steve Englebright and county Legislator Kara Hahn unveil the new sign. Photo by Robert Pellegrino
A sign featuring photos and a historical narrative now marks the spot of a local landmark.
Three Village Community Trust members celebrate the unveiling of the new sign at Patriots Rock. Phot by Rita J. Egan
Elected officials, members of the Three Village Historical Society and a handful of residents joined the Three Village Community Trust in the unveiling of its new interpretive sign at Patriots Rock. The trust has been working to install signs at its properties throughout the Three Village area.
The 18-inch-by-24-inch sign at Patriots Rock, across from the Setauket Post Office on Main Street, sits atop a small metal pedestal and provides information about the area’s local importance, including the spot being a Native American meeting place and the grounds of the Battle of Setauket. During the Revolutionary War, American Patriots used the rock as a base to launch an attack against British soldiers occupying Setauket Presbyterian Church.
Signs also are situated at the Smith/de Zafra House, Brookhaven’s original town hall, and the Factory Worker Houses. TVCT began the project a few years ago, and the trust’s president, Herb Mones, said the project was based on three ideas.
“One was our hope to educate and inform residents about the history, the architecture, the economy and the culture that existed in our ever-evolving community,” he said.
The president added the hope was also to show how unique the area was, and the signs demonstrated TVCT was an active organization.
At the unveiling, Mones thanked those who worked on the project, including Robert Reuter, Greg de Bruin, Norma Watson, Paul D’Amico, Peter Legakis and Gretchen Oldrin Mones. He added Three Village Historical Society historian Beverly C. Tyler and Town of Brookhaven historian Barbara Russell assisted in verifying the information, and Tammy Burkle of Studio 631 finalized the design of the plaques.
A county cultural grant obtained by Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) and a matching-challenge state grant from Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) funded the project, according to Mones. He added Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) provided guidance during the process. All three were on hand for the unveiling.
Mones said the property once belonged to Tyler’s family, and when TVCT acquired the property the trust was able to do so with a grant through Englebright’s office.
Community members joined the Three Village Community Trust in the unveiling of a new sign at Patriots Rock. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Hahn said she often wonders what was going through the minds of the soldiers who hid behind Patriots Rock during the Battle of Setauket.
“[That kind of history] is why this community is so special — it’s that strong sense of place tied to the birth of this great nation. Helping to remind folks of the significance of this spot, and every other spot that we were able to place signs at, is important to educate about and honor the tradition and history here.” Hahn said.
Englebright, who is a geologist, said in addition to remembering the history of the site, he said, “I can’t help but get excited about it because it’s very geological.”
He said Patriots Rock is only one or two main rocks in the community, and “this is the one with the greatest significance.”
“The first thing we had to do was save it,” Englebright said. “The next thing we have to do is what we’re doing today, which is to make sure that it’s properly interpreted, and that it is accessing the public’s excitement about our history because the history of our community helps you find a sense of place — and our sense of place is integral to our quality of life and a sense of community pride.”
State Assemblyman Steve Stern and his opponent Aamir Sultan discuss where they stand on local issues during a TBR News Media debate. Photos by Raymond Janis
Whoever wins the 10th District of the New York Assembly, incumbent Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills) or Republican Aamir Sultan will find a slightly changed district awaiting them. The district has lost areas in the current southern portion of the district and will gain portions toward the west. Beginning in 2023, it will include Cold Spring Harbor, Dix Hills, Greenlawn, Huntington, Huntington Station and Melville in Suffolk County and Old Bethpage, Plainview and Woodbury in Nassau County.
Candidate backgrounds
Sultan, of Dix Hills, said he came to the United States from Pakistan when he was young. His education and career background are in computer sciences and artificial intelligence. He said his uncle, the former Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, inspired him to pursue public service. Sultan said since 2015 he has been involved in Urban League of Long Island, been part of the Suffolk County Asian American Advisory Board and the Nassau/Suffolk Anti-Bias Task Force.
Stern has served as state assemblyman for two terms. Previously, he was a Suffolk County legislator for six terms. In April of 2018, Stern became the first Democrat elected to represent the district in more than 30 years when he defeated Republican candidate Janet Smitelli, 5,748 to 3,969 votes.
Reproductive rights
Stern said many constituents are worried that New York State laws regarding abortion may be overturned. He said he has the same concern, especially if gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY1) is elected.
“Make no about it mistake that a woman’s right to choose is absolutely on the ballot,” Stern said. “We know that after the Supreme Court decision, not just a ruling that throws out 50 years of judicial precedent, but in additional commentary that says other rights that we have taken for granted, for generations, are now up for discussion and possible change as well.”
Stern said a woman’s right to choose involves her family and her doctor — and not politicians.
Sultan quoted former President Bill Clinton (D) who once said abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.” He said Zeldin will not change the law if elected.
“The Supreme Court has left it to the states to make a decision, and [Zeldin] has several times stated that he’s not going to change anything, even if he tries he has to come to the Assembly,” Sultan said.
Crime
Sultan said crime is up 40% in New York State and violent crimes are up 21.7% in Huntington. He said cashless bail and defunding the police has created the increase.
“They want to weaken the hands of law enforcement agencies and give a free hand to the criminals,” Sultan said.
He said cashless bail has to be repealed and more funding should be provided to empower the police.
“If there are any issues people are having with law enforcement agencies, we have to train them — maybe they lack training,” Sultan said. “Instead of taking resources away we have to give them more resources, because that’s their job to serve us right and protect us.”
Stern said local elected officials have not talked about defunding the police, and he feels the Suffolk County Police Department officers are well trained.
“They are the model and example of training,” he said. “For anybody to say that the hardworking men and women of our local law enforcement need more money thrown at it for better training just does not understand the current status of our local law enforcement that we should all be very proud of.”
The assemblyman said when bail reform was first presented, he was new to the state Assembly. He said he did not support bail reform as it was first presented.
“It was not a very well-written bill, and you knew where ultimately it might lead to,” he said.
Stern added he has introduced, sponsored and co-sponsored more than 25 bills to impact bail reform to get “the right balance of fundamental fairness in our criminal justice system, while keeping us safe as well.”
He wrote a bill that included offenses that should be bail eligible. He asked for 19 crimes to be reinstated and got 15 back on the bail-eligible list. He added there is more work to do.
Sultan rebutted that are still more cashless crimes that need to be taken off the list such as stalking, rape, child porn, endangering the welfare of the child, manslaughter second degree and more.
Education
Sultan said he decided to run for office after hearing his nephews were required to receive the COVID-19 to return to school in person. He doesn’t believe in a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He also believes that students are being taught things in school that has nothing to do with math, science, English and other basics. Sultan said at one school he visited he was disturbed by some books being available to students that he felt weren’t age appropriate and he feels damage is being done.
He said he also had a problem with his 5-year-old son coming home from school and telling him he was told if he wanted to be a girl, he could be a girl.
“These little minds are being corrupted,” he said.
Stern commented on the debate about books made available in school libraries. He said there are specific guidelines that are followed by educational professionals and school boards that he says reflect community standards. He added it’s not the role of professionals and not the politicians.
Water quality
Stern said the county is still 70% unsewered and it can’t continue as such.
“We have to be more aggressive when it comes to preserving the integrity of the water that we drink, and one of the keys is sewer infrastructure,” he said.
He added more county legislators need to begin identifying areas in their district that require sewers.
“They need to start that process and then it will be up to us on the state level to deliver the funding,” he said.
Stern gave the example of the stretch of Route 110/New York Avenue through Huntington Station that he said the lack of sewering has delayed revitalization. While in the county Legislature he introduced the bill that began the planning process for the area, and recently delivered the last $22 million needed to deliver the infrastructure.
Sultan said he is for sewering in downtown areas. He added he would like to see a website that shows the funds allocated for sewers as well as where the money is coming from whether federal, state or elsewhere.
Bankruptcy attorney Cooper Macco hopes to unseat incumbent Keith Brown in the 12th Assembly District. Macco’s photo from candidate; Brown’s photo from his Facebook page
In the New York State Assembly race in the 12th District, incumbent Keith Brown (R-Northport), who was elected to the office in 2020, is being challenged by Democrat Cooper Macco. The latter is a consumer bankruptcy attorney who lives in Halesite.
Brown’s campaign didn’t respond to requests from TBR News Media to participate in a debate with Macco at our offices. Macco was interviewed over the phone. Brown’s camp also did not respond to a request for a phone call, and his comments in this article are taken from an Oct. 26 debate with his opponent hosted by the League of Women Voters of Huntington and his campaign website.
In addition to northern and eastern sections of Huntington, the 12th Assembly District also includes the northeast section of Babylon and northwest section of Islip.
Cooper Macco
For Macco, it was his clients experiences that led him to the state Assembly race.
“Working as a bankruptcy attorney kind of showed me a lot of the issues facing Long Islanders right now, particularly financial issues that you’re seeing everywhere as a result of the high cost of living, the lack of affordable housing, lack of health insurance, high medical costs related to loss of insurance or other unexpected illness or injury,” he said.
Long Island needs to have its fair share of the New York State budget, he said, “in order to expand infrastructure and make much-needed capital improvements. I think that, right now, we are seeing a lot of money leave Long Island to go upstate.”
In addition to addressing infrastructure budgetary concerns, Macco said it’s also important to preserve water quality.
“As Long Islanders, I think we are so lucky to have the water around us, the natural resource around us,” he said. “I think we need to make sure that we can preserve that for future generations. We have such high nitrogen levels in the water which leads to algae blooms, fish kills as a result of that. Largely that’s due to cesspools and septic tanks that are leaching into our groundwater.”
He added the district needs to move toward self-contained home wastewater treatment centers and to expand Huntington and Northport sewers, “including in some residential areas.”
Financially, he said he would seek to help working families with expanding universal pre-K, child care tax credits and grants for child care providers.
“You see a lot of families on Long Island who are put in a situation where surviving on a single income on the Island is very difficult,” he said. “And a lot of times you have a family, young family, that has child care needs, and in such certain situations, you see people working just to afford child care. The cost of child care on Long Island is only getting higher, it’s only getting harder to find that in an affordable way.”
He added he feels pre-K programs help with food insecurity, too.
“The most innocent, the most vulnerable children have a place where they can get one or two meals a day without issue and that can start at a younger age,” he said.
Macco said currently the universal pre-K system is good, but it’s still on a lottery basis. He said he will aim to make it a global option for all.
Regarding public schools on Long Island, Macco said while there are excellent schools in the district, more funds can always be used.
“I think we need to make sure that money in the budget is going into public schools, and not being rerouted by entities looking to operate charter schools and operate for-profit institutions that are only taking money from the public schools,” Macco said.
He is a proponent for expanding public transportation on Long Island, including a more comprehensive railroad system in Suffolk County with the mode of transportation connecting into more areas. The hope, he said, is for fewer people relying on driving everywhere. “The cost of living and working on Long Island is high,” he said. “So, we need to make sure that people who work on Long Island can live on Long Island.”
Touching on the subject of cashless bail, Macco said he would like to see slight amendments such as more judicial discretion, but said he supports bail reform as it is overall.
“It’s important to remember the purpose of bail and the purpose of the bail reform,” he said. “Bail reform was to prevent underprivileged people who couldn’t afford cash bail, to avoid sitting in jail for several months or a year awaiting trial. People are innocent until proven guilty.”
Keith Brown
Brown, who is a practicing attorney, said during the League of Women Voters debate that his career experience has been an asset during his two-year tenure as an assemblyman.
“What sets me apart from my opponent is really my experience,” he said. “It’s that 27 years of building relationships, of working as a municipal lawyer in all of the towns throughout Long Island.”
He gave the example of working with five layers of government to get Northport Harbor dredged. Brown said working with elected officials throughout the years led to him getting the help he needed in this pursuit.
During the debate, the assemblyman said his top concerns are public safety, hyperinflation and the opioid epidemic. He added there is a supermajority in both houses, and it’s important to have checks and balances.
“New York state is a mess right now, and it’s a mess because it’s been controlled by one party for far too long,” Brown said.
The assemblyman said while there have been measures to help residents during the recent rise in inflation, including the gas tax moratorium, he believes there also needs to be assistance when it comes to groceries and heating oil.
“There’s a lot of hurting people out there,” he said. “We have food insecurity here in Huntington and Babylon and in Islip. These things are happening around us.”
On his campaign website, Brown said the New York State budgets in two years rose from $176 billion to $212 billion.
“We should cut unnecessary, wasteful spending, help drive inflation down and demand more fiscal conservatism in Albany,” he wrote.
The assemblyman also commented on bail reform at the Oct. 26 debate.
“We have seen the harmful effects of cashless bail in the state of New York,” he said.
In order to reform the current law regarding cashless bail, he said meaningful and comprehensive revisions need to be done. He would elicit the help of judges, district attorneys, public defenders and victim rights groups.
He said one of the downfalls of bail reform has been that addicts no longer have the choice of treatment in lieu of incarceration if arrested.
Brown is a member of the Assembly’s Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee. According to his campaign website, he has advocated “that the Opioid Settlement Fund be distributed as quickly as possible and given Suffolk County recommendations on where these funds should be allocated.”
On his campaign website, Brown calls to “fully repeal bail reform, restore judicial discretion and eliminate crime from our streets and public transportation.”
TBR conducted a phone interview with Democrat Lisa Jimenez, left, and Republican Vincent Puleo, right, stopped by the office to discuss the 2022 county clerk race. Photo of Jimenez from candidate; photo of Puleo by Raymond Janis
After a June primary, current Suffolk County Clerk Judith Pascale (R) will not be running for the position.
Republican Vincent Puleo, town clerk of Smithtown, defeated Pascale, who has served in the position since 2006, in the primary election. In November, Puleo will face Democrat Lisa Jimenez, a newcomer to running for political office.
Jimenez was unable to come into the TBR News Media office for a debate. Puleo stopped by for an in-person interview with the editorial staff, and Jimenez answered questions from the writer in a phone conversation.
Vincent Puleo
Puleo, a Nesconset native, was a bar and restaurant owner for 26 years before a turn in the insurance business and then becoming town clerk in 2005. He has been a volunteer with the Nesconset Fire Department for 50 years and is the president of the Nesconset Chamber of Commerce.
He said he feels it’s important to be community-minded regarding his current position, and he will bring that mindset to the county.
“Without community interaction, people don’t know who you are, they don’t know what you do,” he said.
The county clerk position oversees access to deeds, title searches and supreme court records. Puleo said he has priorities if he wins the election, including transparency, constituent services and making records more accessible, including online.
Puleo added that he feels Pascale has done a good job regarding transparency, and he will look to see if anything else can be done to make the process even more transparent. His aim, he said, is to make all processes smoother.
Puleo said he feels people shouldn’t have to go to the county clerk’s office in Riverhead to get a record when it could be as simple as registering on the county’s website and accessing it virtually.
He said he has obtained $350,000 grants three years in a row to digitize Smithtown records for the town itself, as well as the villages and fire departments within the township.
He said 90% of the supreme court records are digitized, and he would continue that trend. He added that unions have been concerned with records being digitized because it may eliminate employees.
“Not really, what it does is it gives you more time to service more people,” he said.
Once the county’s website is back up and running after the recent cyberattack, he said he feels improvements can be made to the site to make it more user-friendly. Before the cyberattack, title searches were already backed up, and he would like to make the process more efficient. He said first it’s important to meet with department heads to work together for the common goal.
Puleo said to avoid cyberattacks such as the one the county suffered from early in September, IT professionals need to be in charge overall of the entire county system and know what goes on in each department to ensure that everything that is imported or exported is protected. He said he understands the county is moving in that direction, which he finds encouraging.
Puleo added that he and other elected officials can advocate for the county to spend more money, and he applauds Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) for allocating $8 million toward IT measures.
The Republican candidate added it helps to have relationships with elected officials, and over the past few months he has met with every county legislator.
“It’s a situation where you need to have those people understand where you’re coming from, and they have to trust you, and you have to trust them,” Puleo said.
Lisa Jimenez
Jimenez, of Medford, has worked at the Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting for more than four decades. Before working full time for OTB, she worked as an assistant in Congressman Michael Forbes’ office (R/D-NY1).
She has been a member of Teamsters Local 237 and the AFL-CIO. The candidate also has volunteered as a catechist and at local food banks. She was active in her children’s PTA and recently was certified with Washington-based Underground Railroad which works to raise awareness about human trafficking and prevent it.
Jimenez said she feels her work experience and volunteer endeavors would be an asset to the county clerk position.
“I’m used to working with fast-paced, large groups and working with the unions,” she said. “I’ve learned how to come up with solutions quickly.”
Jimenez said she is open to learning new things.
“I’m willing to sit down and learn whatever I need to do to get the job done,” she said.
During her time with OTB, she has gone from cashier to human resources manager.
“As a manager, as a cashier, I’ve done it front and center,” Jimenez said. “It’s not below me to do the job of the cashier. My branch needs to be cleaned then I’m out there cleaning. I will make myself as accessible as possible.”
After the recent cyberattack, she said she doesn’t think the county has made the best decisions as far as improvements to minimize security issues in the past, and she would meet with IT professionals to seek better solutions for internet security.
Regarding the website in general, she said she has had issues at times navigating through the county’s website and would like to see it be more user-friendly, especially when trying to access records.
“There’s always ways to improve upon what’s already there,” she said.
Jimenez believes completely digitizing records is better for the constituents, and she doesn’t feel that all records being digitized would lead to less employees.
Jimenez said if there was room in the budget, she would like to see the county open up satellite county clerk offices so residents wouldn’t have to travel to Riverhead to get paperwork. She would also suggest the offices stay open later than usual one or two days a month to make it easier for people who work a 9-to-5 job.
She said she would look to make the office more efficient with document processing being quicker.
“I think the next thing is the turnover of the paperwork,” she said. “How can we get that? You look at any other county, the paperwork is in and out. Ours isn’t.”
She also suggested providing assistance, possibly an office liaison, for veterans or those with disabilities to make it easier for them.
Jimenez agrees that Pascale has run a transparent office.
“I think she’s done a great job all these years,” she said. “I have nothing negative to say about her or Vinny. But, I think there’s always room for improvement.”
State Assemblyman Mike Fitzpatrick stopped by the TBR News Media’s offices to discuss the 2022 race. Photo by Raymond Janis
While there will be two names on the ballot for New York’s 8th Assembly District, incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick (R-St. James) and Democrat Jeanine Aponte of Hauppauge, the latter is not actively campaigning.
The district covers the Town of Smithtown and northern parts of Islip.
Fitzpatrick stopped by the TBR News Media offices recently to discuss the race with the editorial staff. He has been an assemblyman for 20 years and is running for his 11th term. Prior to being an assemblyman, he was a Town of Smithtown councilman from 1988 to 2002; he was also a financial services representative.
Cracking down on crime
“We have a problem, and something has to be done about it,” Fitzpatrick said when talking about bail-free crimes.
The assemblyman said when bail reform was first debated in the Assembly, Republicans and Democrats all agreed that something needed to be done. However, he said, the progressives were dominant, and in the end, he said he felt the police, district attorneys and judiciary members were excluded from creating the law, representatives he said were important to have at the table.
“No dangerousness was taken into consideration, and all the judges were saying this is not going to work and the DAs as well,” he said. “They did not like this.”
Fitzpatrick added there is a feeling of disappointment in Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) that she’s not pushing back, and he feels she fears that she will lose the progressive base and thinking they will “stay home and not vote.” Especially, he said, since her gubernatorial opponent, current Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-NY1), has been making inroads including with the Asian, Black and Latino communities.
Fitzpatrick said the Republicans’ goal in the Assembly, despite currently being in the minority, is to get to 50%.
“So that we can take away that veto-proof majority,” he said. “That forces compromise, at least forces discussion at the table, and the same in the Senate.”
Fitzpatrick said if Hochul is elected the hope is that she will move more to the center politically.
“What I fear, if the crime issue is not dealt with, and dealt with soon, you’re going to see, I think, a continued exodus of people and jobs out of the city,” he said. “We’ve had a significant loss already. I believe it will accelerate if nothing is done about it, and the concern is you’re going to have a hollowed-out New York City.”
Fitzpatrick explained it would mean the city would be left with the wealthy and the poor with the middle class leaving as well as jobs.
“You already have the challenge of getting people to come back into the office,” he said. “They like working from home. They got used to it for the past two years, but the crime issue in the subways is not helping matters.”
He said he doesn’t see New York City returning to normality until there is a handle on crime.
Gun safety
Fitzpatrick said he supports the Second Amendment. He added the Republican side in the Assembly includes members who are former military and law enforcement personnel as well as farmers.
“We have more people on our side of the aisle who can speak with authority on gun ownership, gun safety, gun training,” he said. “There’s virtually nobody on the other side of the aisle who has that kind of experience and depth of knowledge. So, we know what their agenda is. We get it. This is the world of politics. But, you know, I think whenever those debates come up, we just, we wipe the floor, hands down, but it doesn’t matter, because they have the numbers”
Regarding recent stabbing incidents in New York City, he said he believes the majority involve those with mental illnesses.
“With bail reform, you’re letting people out,” he said. “You’re not remanding people to jail. Not to serve time, but until they have their day in court. But some of these people are not well, we’ve heard this from the correction officers, we’ve heard this from the attorneys. They’re not well, but because of the new bail reform, they can’t be held and they’re let out.”
Recent migrants
He said he is unhappy with the federal administration for leaving the border open with an increase in drugs coming over, also people on the terrorist lists and gang members. He said the borders should be more secure.
“The border towns have been totally overwhelmed,” he said. “They can’t provide the services.”
He said it wasn’t a surprise that cities in the South sent migrants to sanctuary cities such as New York. The assemblyman said sending migrants back is not possible, and he believes there should be some way to give them a pathway to citizenship.
Smithtown
Along with state Sen. Mario Mattera (R-St. James), Fitzpatrick said he is most focused on sewer installation in Smithtown’s downtown areas. To revitalize downtowns, he said, it’s important to look to towns that have done it successfully, such as Patchogue and Farmingdale. Fitzpatrick added it’s important to pick areas near transit hubs for density building.
He didn’t support Hochul’s accessory dwelling unit proposal earlier this year. The bill would have given everyone the right to have an ADU in their home, something that wouldn’t work with cesspools on Long Island and burden school districts, he said.
“Your transit-oriented development is really the way you address the affordability issue because the price of land is so high, you lower that price with density,” he said.
Fitzpatrick gave the example of the overlay district in the Hauppauge Industrial Park and the proposed development plans for it as an example of a walkable community where people can walk to stores, restaurants and even work, something he said many people look for when searching for a home.
He said such housing will help the area to remain relevant, especially with some choosing not to move here due to the high cost of living.
Stony Brook University
For the past few years, Fitzpatrick said he’s been talking to colleagues, elected officials and students about the possibility of the State University of New York, also known as SUNY, becoming a national brand and having Stony Brook University be its flagship.
He said he would like to see the acronym SUNY be dropped and the educational institution be known as the University of New York or UNY.
He believes it needs to be rebranded to draw more students nationally.
“We are a great state university, but we’re not a national brand,” Fitzpatrick said.
He gave examples of University of Michigan, University of North Carolina and University of Alabama, and said SBU is “as good or better than any of them.”
He added he would love to see SBU among the top 10.
If SUNY can be rebranded and SBU made the flagship he said it would help the athletic department and could lead to being part of a major conference. This could mean the expansion of Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium or building a newer one closer to the Long Island Expressway or another major roadway.
He said it makes sense as SBU is near the city.
“Why don’t we take a shot and get into a major conference with the University of New York,” Fitzpatrick said. “This makes sense. I think it would be good for the entire system, and it creates a fair level of economic activity by being in a major conference.”
Former county legislator Susan Berland and incumbent Mario Mattera will be on the ballot for state senator in the second district. Photos by Raymond Janis
Aiming for New York State senator in the 2nd District are incumbent Mario Mattera (R-St. James) and Democrat Susan Berland, formerly Suffolk County legislator in the 16th District and Town of Huntington councilwoman.
The two have worked together in the past on local issues, and despite differing on some political issues and eyeing the same job, the two remain friendly. When they stopped by the TBR News Media offices recently to discuss the race, the debate was a cordial one, and the two agreed on a few issues and were civil when they disagreed.
Currently, District 2 encompasses Smithtown and sections of Brookhaven and Huntington. Beginning in 2023, it will include all of Smithtown and Huntington and no Brookhaven hamlets.
Background
Berland was an attorney before becoming a town councilwoman in 2001. During her tenure as county legislator, she served as the majority leader of the Legislature. In 2021, she lost to Republican Manuel Esteban by 156 votes. When she heard Jim Gaughran (D-Northport) wasn’t going to run again for the state Senate after district lines changes, she said she decided to join the race.
A former union leader in the Plumbers Local Union No. 200, Mattera beat Democrat Mike Siderakis in 2020. The state senator is also a former board member of the Suffolk County Water Authority and has sat on Smithtown’s advisory board for new construction projects where he was active with the Lake Avenue Revitalization project in St. James.
Bail reform
Both candidates agreed that the current bail procedure is not working.
“It needs to be repealed,” Mattera said. “We need to get the proper people to the table.”
He added the proper people would be judges, district attorneys and law enforcement professionals.
The state senator said the problem lies in that many people who are released think they can get away with a crime again.
“If people know they can get away with it, they are going to keep doing it,” he said.
Berland said if she was a state senator when the bail-reform measure was passed in the state budget, she wouldn’t have agreed to it as it was written. She said she believes it should have been drafted more eloquently and more public relations should have been done to educate the public about it.
“I would not have voted for it in its current incarnation, but I would not repeal it,” she said. “I would amend it”
Berland said with people in the past being released on their own recognizance, in a way cashless bail has always existed. Regarding bail, she said unfortunately not everyone can afford it. In the last couple of years, she added she feels there have been improvements with amendments that have added judges back into the process and taken certain crimes off the bail-free list such as arson.
She thinks it’s important to have a judge’s discretion.
“I don’t want anyone selling drugs to kids by a school to be released on his own recognizance,” Berland said.
Both agree that such measures and amendments shouldn’t be tied to the budget, and policy decisions should be voted separately.
Drugs
The two candidates said they were against the legalization of marijuana.
Regarding the war on drugs, Berland said she felt Suffolk County has been successful with prevention and treatment programs and, if elected, would ensure municipalities received the resources they needed for treatment, prevention and education. She added it’s important to support the police.
“We need to give them the resources to investigate and recover the drugs that are out there,” she said. “I’m very much pro-police. I’ve always supported their budgets, their efforts.”
Mattera also said prevention programs are important in schools. He was upset about the marijuana legislation passing, and he feels marijuana is a gateway to other drug usage.
He said he is also worried when he sees or hears news stories that report children confusing THC gummies for candy because they are shaped like bears.
Mattera is proud that both Smithtown and Huntington opted out of dispensaries. The state senator met with supervisors over Zoom together to look into opting out of dispensaries, a decision that Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim (R) and former Huntington Supervisor Chad Lupinacci (R) strongly supported.
“I’m very concerned that we have drug dealers that were incarcerated that are the first ones who would be able to open these dispensaries,” he said.
Sewer installation
Both candidates are advocates for sewers in downtown business areas.
Mattera has worked on getting sewers in Kings Park, downtown Smithtown and St. James. He added sewering Route 110 is also important as it has been piecemealed in the past.
Berland pointed out Mattera voted against funding for sewers in Huntington when it was in the budget. He said there were other things in the budget which made it difficult to vote “yes.”
“That’s another thing where if you voted against the budget, and you’re voting against infrastructure money, where maybe there are things I think from the budget that Democrats or Republicans can agree on, and try to take some of those things out of the budget,” Berland said. “I don’t think anyone disagrees that we need infrastructure money.”
Berland said she supported the Suffolk County grant program for homeowners who wanted to install an advanced wastewater treatment system on their property.
“For people who can’t hook up to a sewage treatment plant, we want to be able to give them the money they need to put their individual systems in,” she said.
Education
Berland believes that schools need more resources to teach children the way they need to be.
“I don’t think children need to all be taught the same cookie-cutter way,” she said.
She believes in mainstreaming students, but also feels there may be a need for more teaching assistants in classrooms and breaking students into groups.
“One teacher to 25 kids in a classroom, I don’t think that really works anymore,” Berland said.
Mattera said mental health help assistance in schools is also vital, especially after the pandemic. He noticed that with his own children, theywere excited to stay home at first during the early days of the pandemic, but the excitement soon faded. He worked to get students back to “normalcy” such as back in the classrooms for in-person teaching and taking part in their usual activities such as sports and proms.
Despite the obstacles COVID-19 presented, Mattera said, “Our school districts did a great job, and I commend all of our teachers.”
Both are proponents of BOCES programs available to students with training young people for the careers in the trades.
Reproductive rights
Mattera is endorsing Congressman Lee Zeldin (R), and Berland is voting for current New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in the governor’s race.
Berland is afraid that Zeldin will repeal rights to an abortion in New York, and she feels that Hochul is the only gubernatorial candidate that will protect a woman’s right to choose, a decision she feels should be made among a woman, her family and doctor.
“Our reproductive rights and our rights in general are only as safe as the people who are sitting in the offices that make those decisions,” Berland said. “I would absolutely protect a woman’s right to choose.”
Mattera believes after speaking with Zeldin, that the latter will follow through on his promise not to overturn state law regarding abortion, and he himself would not vote to do so either. The state senator said his feelings on abortion is that it should be available if the pregnancy is a risk to a mother’s health or in the case of incest or rape, and if the woman is in the first trimester. He said if nothing’s wrong in the second or third trimester he has problems with a woman getting an abortion at that point.
Hochul v. Zeldin
In addition to reproductive rights in the state, regarding voting for governor, Mattera also had an issue with health care workers losing their jobs if they weren’t vaccinated, which was a measure Hochul passed.
He added he feels the governor has not dealt with the recent migrants to NYC.
“What are they doing about all these people who are coming into New York state,” he said.
He added the “vibrant city” is going to get worse, and he wonders why the governor isn’t dealing with the issue.
He said there needs to be a process for migrants especially with recent drug problems.
Berland disagreed and believes Hochul has done a good job since taking over office after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) stepped down.
“As a woman in government for 20 years, I see the difference in how women govern than men,” she said. “When there’s an issue that comes in front of her, she’s looking outside the box, she’s looking to try to fix those issues. There isn’t a single issue that she’s avoided since she started, that she got thrown in. And I think she’s hit the ground running.”
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