Steve Bellone deputy leaves for Cuomo job, sources say

Another deputy in the administration of Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone is leaving, according to county sources.

Lisa Santeromo, who moved into a $163,072 a year deputy county executive position last May, is taking a job as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s director of Long Island operations, the sources said.

Santeromo did not return calls seeking comment, and Cuomo and Bellone representatives declined to comment.

Santeromo’s impending departure comes only three months after another top Bellone aide, Jon Schneider, left to take a job as Long Island University’s director of public and media relations. Jon Kaiman, former North Hempstead supervisor and Cuomo’s former storm czar, took Schneider’s place.

“Lisa Santeromo has been a trusted adviser to me and has served this administration with the utmost integrity,” Bellone said. “I look forward to continuing to work with her in her capacity in the Cuomo administration.”

Sources say Thomas Vaughan has already returned to the county executive’s office, where he once worked as a county executive assistant. In the past year, he moved to the parks department, and months later transferred to the public works department as a deputy commissioner, making $120,588 a year.