The Huntington Town Board held its January 4, 2022 meeting, where they reestablished the automatic renewal of the Senior/Disability Low Income Exemptions for 2022, appointed Department Directors to fill vacancies and set the Town Board meeting schedule for 2022.
“I want to express how honored I am to be sitting here and serve as Town Supervisor,” said Supervisor Ed Smyth, at the beginning of his first meeting presiding as Town Supervisor. “We sit here and serve the Town, representing all residents of the Town to the best of our ability, and I look forward to doing so with my colleagues on the Town Board.”
The Town Board reestablished procedures allowing the automatic renewal of the Senior/Disability Low Income Exemptions for applicants who received these real property tax exemptions in 2021; those who received the exemption in 2021 will receive the same exemption in 2022 automatically without an application, as long as their eligibility for these exemptions is maintained. If the applicant believes their income has changed, making them eligible for a greater benefit, they can request a new application from the Assessor, which will not be required to be filed in person. The Assessor may require a renewal application to be filed if she has reason to believe that an owner who qualified in 2021 may have since changed his or her primary residence, added another owner to the deed, transferred the property to a new owner, or died. Applicants may call the Assessor’s Office at (631) 351-3226 or email AssessorInfo@huntingtonny.gov to request a new application, which may also be downloaded on the Town website at huntingtonny.gov/tax-exemptions.
Additional regular Town Board meetings were scheduled for Tuesday, February 1, 7pm; Tuesday, March 15, 2pm; Tuesday, April 12, 7pm; Tuesday, May 10, 2pm; Tuesday, June 14, 7pm; Tuesday, July 12, 2pm; Tuesday, August 16, 7pm; Tuesday, September 13, 2pm; Wednesday, October 12, 7pm; Thursday, November 3, 7pm; Thursday, November 17, 7pm; and Tuesday, December 13, 2pm.
In other action, the Town Board:
- Appointed Deborah N. Misir as Town Attorney and reappointed Thelma Neira as Deputy Town Attorney. Lloyd Harbor resident Deborah N. Misir is an accomplished lawyer, government executive and law professor with almost 25 years’ experience in practice. Before entering private practice on Long Island, she served in Washington DC, as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor and Chief of Staff of OSHA, as a member of the federal management Senior Executive Service (SES). In addition, she was an ethics counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office for President George W. Bush, advising senior White House officials on various aspects of government ethics laws. Ms. Misir is a veteran and joined the JAGC program of the U.S. Marine Corps after graduation from law school. Thelma Neira is a Huntington resident who has been serving as Deputy Town Attorney since her appointment in June 2020. Prior to that she served as Acting Deputy Town Attorney from early 2018.
- Appointed Cable Todd Jamison as Director of Parks & Recreation. Mr. Jamison is a Huntington Station resident and Huntington High School football star who played professional football for the Philadelphia Eagles and Philadelphia Stars. For 35 years, Todd has served the Huntington School District as Assistant Varsity Football Coach, Assistant Varsity Basketball Coach, and Junior Varsity Softball Coach and for 16 years as Security Supervisor for the district. Jamison was previously a small business owner of a landscaping business for 13 years and Acting Executive Director of the Huntington Housing Authority for 10 years.
- Appointed William Musto as Director of General Services. East Northport resident William Musto has served as the Town's Director of Parks & Recreation for just over one year and as Deputy Director of the department for the prior three years, prior to that he served in the Town's Refuse Division for 30 years.
- Appointed Hon. W. Gerard Asher as a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, also appointing him as Chair and John Posillico as Vice Chair. Huntington resident Hon. W. Gerard Asher was elected in 2010 as a Justice of the Suffolk County Supreme Court in the Tenth Judicial District of New York, previously serving as District Court Judge since 2005. After his retirement from the bench in 2018, Judge Asher has worked in mediation and arbitration services for various organizations and has served as a New York State Alternative Dispute Resolution mediator for Supreme Court cases. Judge Asher has been self-employed in private practice since 1974, focusing on real estate, contracts, closings and litigation, with experience in corporate and municipal law. He attained the rank of Captain (USAR) in the U.S. Army, from which he was honorably discharged in 1969 after serving with the Air Defense Artillery overseas in Korea as Battery Commander of "A" Battery 6th Battalion 44th Artillery, for which we received an Army Commendation Medal for service January 1968 to December 1968. Judge Asher has a long record of public service, including serving on the Town of Huntington Veterans Advisory Board since June 2018 and previously serving on the Town Planning Board from 1986 to 2003 and as Director of the Huntington Youth Bureau from 1975 to 1981.
- Appointed Al White as a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals. Huntington Station resident and civic leader Alvin W. White has served as an alternate member of the Zoning Board of Appeals since September 2020.
- Reappointed Mara Manin Amendola, Esq. as a member of the Planning Board. Since September 2020, Ms. Amendola served as a backup administrative law judge in the Town's Bureau of Administrative Adjudication, previously serving as Vice Chair on the Town's Planning Board and as an alternate member of the Zoning Board of Appeals.
- Reappointed Paul Ehrlich and Robert Bontempi, Jr. as Chair and Vice Chair of the Planning Board.
In the photos: Town Clerk Andrew P. Raia swears in Town Attorney Deborah N. Misir (center) with Supervisor Ed Smyth (to her right) and Town Board members (l-r) Dr. Dave Bennardo, Sal Ferro, Joan Cergol and Eugene Cook.
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