Civic group seeks 4-year term for North Hempstead Town supervisor

A New Hyde Park civic association has petitioned the North Hempstead Town Board to double the supervisor's term to four years, an extension in office that a growing list of local municipalities has adopted.

“Every two years, the supervisor has to run,” said Bill Cutrone, president of the Lakeville Estates Civic Association, which filed the petition Jan. 30. “For one year, you are elected. A year later, you have to start thinking about running again.”

Proponents of the petition said extending the term would allow the supervisor to have more time to accomplish goals and tackle long-term projects.

“Four-year terms allow the Supervisor to initiate more difficult projects that would require a longer time for completion, and see the project through to its completion,” stated the petition that the association sent to Councilwoman Lee Seeman.

The association’s members are also proposing a maximum three-term limit so that no supervisor can remain in office longer than 12 years. North Hempstead has no term limits for its supervisor and six council members, the latter of whom serve four-year terms.

If the term length gets doubled, North Hempstead would become the first town in Nassau County — the others are Hempstead and Oyster Bay — to keep its supervisor in office for four years.

Six of the 10 towns in Suffolk County already have four-year terms, including Brookhaven, whose voters approved the longer term in 2018. Riverhead Town adopted the term extension in December, and its town residents will vote on the issue in a referendum in November.

“We are considering it as well because it was brought up to us,” North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth said Thursday. “I’m not opposed to it. To me, this is something that the residents should have a say in.”

The town board can adopt a local law to extend the town supervisor’s term of office, but it won’t become effective until voters approve it in a mandatory referendum, municipal attorneys said.

Bosworth, who won a fourth term in November, said whether the proposal becomes law bears little impact on her job because she believes that the “best campaign is to just do a good job.”

“I don’t have really an opinion about [the proposal] one way or another,” she said. “It would not have a significant impact on the day-to-day business of the government.”

If the proposal advances, town spokesman Gordon Tepper said North Hempstead officials would coordinate with the Nassau County Board of Elections to get it on the ballot. If approved, a four-year term would not take effect in the coming election cycle.