Richard Zapolski, Islip Town planning commissioner, resigns

Islip's planning commissioner resigned this week, saying his town salary was too low to pay for his children's college educations.

Richard Zapolski, who left the private sector as a project engineer to be deputy planning commissioner under former Islip Town Supervisor Tom Croci on Jan. 30, 2012, was appointed to the commissioner spot on Nov. 7, 2013.

His salary as commissioner, aligned with others in the town on the same level at $101,000, is among the lowest paid municipal managers in Suffolk County, Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter said Tuesday.

"I have twins going to college in a year and a half, and I need to start thinking about funding that," Zapolski said in a phone interview.

Zapolski resigned on Monday, advising town officials he was headed back to the private sector. His last day in that role will be Dec. 4.

"I had someone do a study of our salaries, sampling across the board, from labor on up. We are on the low end of the scale across the board," Carpenter said. "A lot of our management people are making less than the people they're supervising."

Zapolski said he came to the town to "help shift" the planning department -- "where there were a lot of 'no's' " -- to a more business-friendly atmosphere.

"I think we made some significant advances in that and I think I'm done," Zapolski said."We really take a look at what people are trying to create and still be sensitive to the residents. That culture will continue with the staff and Angie."

Islip recently lost another high-ranking department head because of salary issues. In August, Islip's longtime tax assessor, Ronald F. Devine Jr., left to take a job as the deputy town tax assessor in Brookhaven, where he is now salaried at $112,000, an $11,000 increase over his annual Islip earnings. Carpenter said she will work with the town comptroller to see what officials can do to raise compensation in the town.

Still, in the first 24 hours since Zapolski's resignation, three or four resumes had come in for the job, Carpenter said, vying to help oversee several major projects on the horizon, including Heartland Town Square. That proposed $4 billion megadevelopment project includes 9,000 apartments and millions of square feet of office and retail space in Brentwood.

"Certainly we're going to move as quickly as we can but we want to make a right decision," Carpenter said of the upcoming vacancy."We need someone who is organized and has a good work ethic and is not afraid of a challenge."