Huntington appoints a director who was rejected a month ago

A candidate rejected in January to lead the Town of Huntington's new panel to hear some code violation cases was hired this month after a second vote. 

A vote reversal cast by town board member Gene Cook allowed the Feb. 11 appointment of Commack attorney Joshua C. Price as director of the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication. Cook was among three board members who last month voted against Price, his former business partner, to the five-year term.

The bureau, established last November, will hear all code and ordinance violations related to conditions that constitute a threat or danger to public health, safety or welfare. It won’t hear cases involving building code violations. The panel was created to hear summonses at Town Hall instead of district court.

“Josh is perfectly qualified,” Cook said after the Feb. 11 Town Board meeting. Town board members Mark Cuthbertson and Joan Cergol, both Democrats, maintained their no votes. 

Republican Supervisor Chad Lupinacci nominated Price, his former chief of staff and a former Town Board candidate, to the $60,000-a-year part-time position. 

Cook, an Independence Party member who usually caucuses with Republicans, said he voted against Price’s appointment last month because all board members did not receive Price’s resume in advance. 

At the January meeting, Cook supported a resolution sponsored by Cergol to require resumes of prospective public officeholders, including town directors, deputy directors, town assessor, town attorney and the adjudication bureau chief, to be presented no less than three weeks before their appointment is to be voted on.

Cuthbertson and Cergol maintained that Price was the only candidate considered, did not have the right background for the position and was a partisan pick.

“In our new code violation bureau, the town will be police, prosecutor, judge and jury,” Cuthbertson said. “His experience as a loyal soldier in the Republican Party taints this new bureau and feeds people’s cynical view of local government.”

Lupinacci defended his selection, adding the position was advertised.

"I'm proud to have appointed Josh Price," Lupinacci said. "He's been an attorney for over 20 years, representing a variety of clients in complex civil litigations and he has a niche practice representing property owners and code enforcement proceedings in New York."