Bellone to name transition team leaders

Suffolk County Executive-elect Steve Bellone on Thursday will name Babylon Town Board member Antonio Martinez and attorney Regina Calcaterra to lead his transition effort, party sources said Wednesday.

Bellone has scheduled an 11:30 a.m. news conference in the lobby of the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge to announce the transition's co-directors. He also is expected to detail plans for a community forum on the economy in Melville on Monday, and another on diversity issues on Tuesday in Brentwood -- part of an effort to determine public opinion on a variety of issues.

The transition leaders will help vet potential appointees. The transition will set up a website -- suffolkcountyworksforyou.com -- to take resumes and gather policy ideas.

Calcaterra, 45, who was raised in Centereach, is managing partner of the Manhattan law firm Barrack, Rodos and Bacine, where she has worked for public pension funds in cases involving corporate fraud, including a successful effort to recoup $6 billion from WorldCom for the state retirement fund. Last year, she sought to run against state Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), but a court knocked her off the ballot because she had not lived in the district for the required five years.

Martinez, 42, of Wheatley Heights, was born in El Salvador and has been a town board member since 2008. Before his election, he was an organizer for the Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters.