Hempstead Town plans to make appointment to complete IDA board

The Hempstead Town Board is to vote Tuesday to appoint a union electrician to the town’s Industrial Development Agency board, according to the meeting’s agenda.

The proposed appointment of Jack Majkut, 49, of Levittown, comes as the IDA is grappling with a project where the company, commercial laundry FDR Services Corp. in Hempstead Village, has been accused of inflating its employment and unfair labor practices by the union that represents some of its workers. Majkut, a Democrat, is an electrician with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 25 and was on its executive board, his resume stated. He is also being nominated to the town’s Local Development Corp. and would become the final member of the agencies.

“Having a diversity of opinions, backgrounds and experiences are critically important to ensuring our IDA board weighs aid to expanding businesses against the cost to taxpayers,” Supervisor Laura Gillen said.

The town board is also to vote Tuesday to appoint Richard Regina as its $135,000 counsel. Regina, 36, of Massapequa, was previously counsel and secretary to the zoning board of appeals and a former deputy town attorney. His 2017 salary was $97,744. His father, William Regina, works for the town board.

Regina, a Republican, has donated more than $13,000 to local GOP committees and campaigns, state campaign finance records show. Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney last year called for the town board to have its own counsel — the position has been vacant since 2012 — and claimed that Town Attorney Joe Ra only represented the interests of former Supervisor Anthony Santino.

Susie Trenkle-Pokalsky, a town board spokeswoman, said the board appreciates Ra’s assistance “but believes that it is important that they have their own independent voice.”

Ra said his client is the Town of Hempstead, and the board — like the supervisor — should have its own counsel.