Is former Suffolk Legis. Kate Browning teeing-up for a comeback?

Former Suffolk Legis. Kate Browning, who came in second in a five-way Democratic congressional primary in June, has found a landing spot, but it may be just a first step toward a bid to return to elected office.  

Browning started work last Monday as the $62,000-a-year director of code enforcement in Babylon.

Richard Schaffer, Babylon Town supervisor and also Suffolk Democratic Party chairman, confirmed Browning’s hiring. He touted the former Shirley lawmaker for cleaning up abandoned “zombie” homes and going after unregulated sober homes and other qualify of life issues in her former district — great experience, Schaffer said, for the town agency.

The patronage job is exempt from Civil Service and Browning works formally for Red Hill Professional Services, a town subcontractor. She makes $30 an hour and gets no health benefits or vacation.

In her new post, Browning will lead a staff of seven combating quality of life infractions.

“None of this stuff is foreign to me.” said Browning, a former school bus driver and union leader. “Ninety percent of it was what I was doing as a legislator.”

But Browning, 59, who was term-limited Dec. 31 after 12 years as a county lawmaker, acknowledged she is weighing the possibility of a comeback as a legislator next year against freshman Republican Rudy Sunderman, who also is Mastic fire chief.

“I’m not eliminating the possibility,” said Browning, “I’ve gotten requests from many people to run.”

Browning says she is interested in a comeback in part to help see through plans for a sewer district for the low-lying Mastic-Shirley area after waging a decadelong battle to protect local waters.

But the path back may be a political minefield.

Suffolk’s term limit law, adopted in a 1993 referendum, is open to interpretation. The measure states, “No person shall serve as a County Legislator for more than 12 consecutive years.”

George Nolan, counsel to the Suffolk legislature, says use of the term “consecutive” leaves open the possibility that Browning could seek office again after sitting out a term. “There’s nothing to stop it if the voters want it so,” Nolan said.  

But Republican Paul Sabatino, the former legislative counsel who drafted the law originally, said the intent was to make the term limits “ironclad” forever. “You can’t do more than 12 consecutive years and once you’re reached that term limit, you can’t come back,” Sabatino said.

Meanwhile, Jesse Garcia, Brookhaven Republican chairman, said Browning’s new town job shows she is “an opportunist.”

Garcia also referred to new and higher fees connected to mortgages, burglar alarms and administration of red light camera tickets that were included in county budgets approved by county lawmakers.

Garcia noted that Browning last year backed a former aide who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the legislature. Browning's "record was up for referendum and was rejected soundly in a year not good for a Republican," because of high turnout of union voters against the state Constitutional Convention, Garcia argued. Sunderman declined to comment.

Schaffer, however, says Browning is better known than Sunderman and had a reputation for working “full time and a half” as a lawmaker.

“She’s like Cher or Oprah,” he said. “All you have to do is say ‘Kate’ and everyone in the community knows her from the positive experiences they’ve had with her over the years.”