Bellone picks new youth bureau leader

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has named the Rev. Roderick Pearson, chairman of the Islip NAACP, as the new director of the county youth bureau at a salary of $70,000 a year.

Pearson, whose appointment will take effect Monday, will replace director Louis Medina, who makes $72,767 a year and has held the job since 2006.

Pearson, 50, a Bay Shore Democrat, is minister at St. Mark Remnant Ministries in Central Islip. Vanessa Baird Streeter, Bellone's spokeswoman, said Pearson has 12 years' experience running after-school programs at Marvin Avery Palmore Memorial Center of Hope in Central Islip.

The $4.3 million county youth agency has a staff of six and oversees 180 community-based youth programs serving 109,000 children, along with 32 town programs serving 48,000 youths.

The Bellone administration informed Medina, 60, that he was being laid off as youth board director. Medina, a Holbrook Democrat, will move to a $43,000 job as election forms processor at the county Board of Elections.