Westbury Village splits clerk/treasurer role into separate jobs

Officials in Westbury Village are preparing for the retirement of the village's longtime clerk/treasurer by splitting the role between the incumbent and his successor to help ease the transition.   

Robert Juliano, 61, of Port Jefferson, started Tuesday and will be the village clerk. Ted Blach, 61, who has been the village clerk and treasurer since 2008, will serve as treasurer. He has worked for the village since 2003.

“We wanted to have a period of transition … so nothing fell through the cracks,” Mayor Peter Cavallaro said Tuesday. “With all the projects going on, we just wanted to have them side by side for a few months.”

Officials have been juggling several long-term projects since the village received a $10 million state grant for downtown revitalization in 2016. The Westbury Arts building and the village’s Recreation and Community Center complex upgrade are expected to break ground in a couple of weeks, the mayor said.

“With everything going on, we couldn’t replace [Blach] with someone who didn’t have a substantial amount of experience,” Cavallaro said. “There’s no part of the job [Juliano] doesn’t know or has not done.”

Juliano, the grandson of former Westbury Mayor Dominic Piscitelli, grew up in Westbury and is familiar with the village, which Cavallaro said was “sort of gravy.”

Cavallaro said Blach’s annual salary of $157,325 will remain unchanged, and that Juliano will be paid $132,000 a year.

Juliano was the clerk-administrator for Port Jefferson Village until 2019, when officials there voted 5-0 against reappointing him after a tenure of 18 years.

Port Jefferson officials at the time said Juliano’s dismissal was part of a staff restructuring. His departure was classified as a retirement so he could retain benefits, such as accrued pay for unused vacation and sick time.

“The board at that time felt they wanted to make a change,” Juliano said, adding that it was “time to move on.”

It is unclear whether the role split will continue when Blach retires this year. Cavallaro said that the board’s preference is to consolidate the roles into one, but that that will be decided at a later time.

“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” Cavallaro said.