Brookhaven fires son of board member

The son of Brookhaven Deputy Supervisor Kathleen Walsh has been fired from his $50,000-a-year job as a laborer at the town landfill in Yaphank, town officials said.

Brian Beedenbender, Supervisor Mark Lesko's chief of staff, said William Walsh Jr., 31, of Centereach, was terminated Tuesday. He declined to disclose a reason because it is a personnel matter.

"The town investigates wrongdoing of any incident that occurs," Beedenbender said. "The town looked into it and it was no longer in the best interest of the town" for Walsh to remain employed.

The firing came the day before Kathleen Walsh's endorsement for town board by the Brookhaven Democratic committee. She is a board member seeking re-election. Town Republicans will hold their convention next month, and party leader Jesse Garcia declined to say whether Walsh, a Republican often allied with Democrat Lesko, will again get the GOP nomination.

Kathleen Walsh did not return calls for comment.

William Walsh was charged last Monday with a violation -- public appearance under the influence of narcotics or drugs. He was found passed out at 11 a.m. on a bench outside a restaurant on North Ocean Avenue in Farmingville, police said. Police declined to name the drugs Walsh Jr. was suspected of using.

Walsh has worked for Brookhaven since 1997, first in the parks department then in waste management, records show. He was promoted to auto equipment operator in 2003, but four months later was demoted to laborer. Walsh was also suspended from work in 2004 and again in 2008 and took a half-dozen leaves of absence totaling 38 months, the records show.