Outgoing Shelter Island Town Attorney Robert DeStefano said he did not...

Outgoing Shelter Island Town Attorney Robert DeStefano said he did not know why the town board opted to replace him. "It wasn't really my choice to leave," he told Newsday. "They wanted to go in a different direction." Credit: Randee Daddona

Stephen Kiely, a Mattituck lawyer who previously served as an assistant town attorney in Southold, has been hired as the new Shelter Island Town attorney.

The town board voted 5-0 during its Jan. 28 meeting to hire Kiely and pay him $140,000 for the position, almost $55,000 more than the salary of his predecessor, Robert DeStefano. The board also agreed to retain DeStefano at least through Feb. 28 while Kiely transitions into the role.

DeStefano, who was appointed in 2018 and lives on Shelter Island, was paid a base salary of $83,640 in 2021, according to Newsday payroll records.

Town Supervisor Gerry Siller spoke during the meeting and said the board "decided to make a change" with its legal representation and selected Kiely after an "exhaustive search."

"Bob DeStefano has served as town attorney for the past four years and has done everything requested of him by the town board, and for that we are forever grateful," Siller said. "Bob guided the town through a number of legal issues, and his recommendations have always had the best interests of the Shelter Island community in mind."

DeStefano, 52, said Wednesday that he did not know why the town board opted to make the change.

"It wasn’t really my choice to leave," he told Newsday. "They wanted to go in a different direction."

Neither Siller nor Kiely, 46, could be reached for comment.

The town has had to raise salaries in the past to attract talent following turnover. In 2019, Shelter Island offered its new highway superintendent Brian Sherman $15,000 more than the $90,000 Jay Card was budgeted to earn that year after Card resigned, citing the town’s relatively low pay.

Kiely’s salary is more in line with that of town attorneys in neighboring towns like Southampton and East Hampton, where the 2021 base salaries were about $146,000 and $131,000, respectively. Kiely, who unsuccessfully ran for state Supreme Court judge in 2018, also served as a prosecutor in Greenport Village and the village of West Hampton Dunes.

DeStefano, a former chairman of the town’s Republican committee who managed the election campaign of previous Town Supervisor Gary Gerth, was appointed to the post when Gerth took office in 2018. Siller, a Democrat, defeated Gerth and took office in 2020.

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