Brookhaven reorg advances

Haley doesn't lose his job

December 09, 2009 | 02:46 PM
The Brookhaven Town Board on Tuesday approved most of Supervisor Mark Lesko's proposals for reorganizing town government. The sole exception? The council did not approve merging the Building and Fire Prevention Department into the Planning and Public Safety departments respectively. The result? Lesko's Republican opponent in November's election, Marty Haley, still has a job after Dec. 31.

As proposed by Lesko, Building would have ceased to be a department and therefore would no longer have a commissioner — a position currently held by Haley. Although Lesko said Tuesday he still felt the mergers would save taxpayer money, he also noted "I can count," acknowledging he did not have the votes to achieve that part of his plan.

Councilwoman Connie Kepert (D-Middle Island) led off the discussion by proposing to amend the supervisor's resolution to remove that portion of Lesko's plan. Kepert said, "Planning is not yet fixed," stating improvements to that department's procedures were still failing to "move projects" expeditiously.

Republican majority leader Councilman Tim Mazzei (R-Blue Point) concurred and added, "Building is doing a great job now," and said it would be wrong to "burden Planning with this."

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Kepert's amendment to Lesko's planned reorganization was approved 5-1 with only the supervisor opposed. The amended resolution was then approved 4-2 with council members Jane Bonner (C-Rocky Point) and Mazzei voting against.

The net effect of the action Tuesday is to undo much of what a new GOP majority accomplished in January 2008 when they won back control of the Town Board. At that time then-Supervisor Brian Foley, a Democrat, watched as divisions of town government were stripped from the supervisor's control and transferred to Town Board authority. Under a reorganized format many of those functions have now returned to the supervisor's office.

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