Hempstead town approves new staff, fires 2 prior aides

Hempstead Town Board members, during Laura Gillen’s first meeting as supervisor, voted Tuesday night to hire top staff for her new administration.

The board voted unanimously to hire Gillen’s choices, including her chief of staff, two deputy town clerks, town counsel and executive assistants and secretaries.

Gillen’s team is led by former Long Beach Public Works Commissioner Jim LaCarrubba, who becomes her $175,000 chief of staff. Other hires included former NIFA director Adam Haber, to be paid $130,000, and Nassau County Chief Sanitary Engineer and former Tom Suozzi aide Joseph Davenport, paid $167,000, both as executive assistants.

Town board members also voted 5-1 — with Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby abstaining and Councilman Anthony D’Esposito dissenting — to terminate the employment of two aides of former Supervisor Anthony Santino’s inner circle.

Matt Coleman, Santino’s town senior policy adviser and his campaign spokesman, and Theresa Gaffney, Santino’s executive assistant and the deputy mayor of East Rockaway, were denied transfers during a unanimous town board vote last month that would have placed them as community research assistants in other town departments. The board approved 192 other personnel moves during that meeting, which was Santino’s last as supervisor.

Board members also voted 6-1 to transfer former town clerk Nasrin Ahmad from the Department of Occupational Resources to Parks and Recreation. Ahmad, after her defeat in the polls in November, was hired as the Occupational Resources’ $129,500 deputy commissioner last month. Following complaints by that department’s commissioner, who said in memos the cash-strapped department could not afford to take on new staff members, she was transferred to parks as a deputy commissioner with the same salary. The job was not publicly posted and the town board approved the transfer Tuesday night.

Several residents opposed the move, calling it “a jobs program for friends and family in the Town of Hempstead.”

Town Attorney Joe Ra said Ahmad was filling a vacant position from an early retirement, and her duties will include focusing on personnel issues.

Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney said she supported Ahmad.

“I think Nasrin has a fine record of public service, this is not a political decision,” King Sweeney said. “We’re going to disagree on things and that’s fine, but there’s a healthy debate going on.”

Gillen disagreed and said Ahmad was among the 192 people moved to protect her job by Santino’s administration.

“I’m very optimistic that we can work together on the town board,” Gillen said. “Sometimes we’re going to agree, sometimes we’re not going to agree. This might be one of those times.”

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.com,stefanie.dazio@newsday.comJohnAsbury,

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.