Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby gets $10,000 raise for job as deputy supervisor

The Hempstead Town Board gave Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby a $10,000 raise Tuesday for her second town job as deputy supervisor, bringing that salary up to $45,916, a 27.8%  increase.

Her salary as deputy supervisor has increased 58.3% from its base of $29,000 in less than a four-year span since then-Supervisor Donald X. Clavin Jr. appointed her in May 2022, according to town board resolutions. 

That salary is on top of her $82,269 salary as an elected town board member. Goosby, 87, has served on the town board since 2000 and was reelected in November.

The arrangement is unlike in Nassau's two other towns — Oyster Bay and North Hempstead — where the deputy supervisors are appointed to full-time roles and are not also elected officials.

When asked about Goosby’s raise during Tuesday’s meeting by Uniondale resident Pearl Jacobs, Town Supervisor John Ferretti deferred to Town Attorney John Maccarone, who stated Goosby was getting a $10,000 raise. The published resolution noted the new salary but not the old one.

“Nobody works harder than the deputy supervisor,” Maccarone said. Her pay increase was “based upon her years of service and the fact that she's here each and every day doing the town's bidding.”

Though she sat about 20 feet from Maccarone during the meeting and was present for the vote, Goosby said afterward she was unaware of the amount of the raise the board had approved for her. "All I know is they told me I got one,” she added. “I've been here 30 years, almost, so I need to have something; sometimes it’s still not enough."

Ferretti declined to be interviewed Tuesday but issued a statement that “Deputy Supervisor Dorothy Goosby works tirelessly each day, shouldering responsibilities well beyond her elected role as councilmember.”

The town reported to the state comptroller’s office in 2022 that Goosby worked for the town an average of 6.59 days per month, with a six-hour workday. That's according to a “Standard Work Day Resolution” adopted by the town board at the same May 24, 2022, meeting at which she was appointed. 

Ferretti’s original 2026 budget proposal included a $1,000 raise for Goosby’s deputy supervisor salary, but that was removed just before the Oct. 16 budget hearing. When asked about the raise at that hearing, Ferretti responded, “There will be no increase for the deputy supervisor position from '25 to '26,” according to a transcript.

When Jacobs asked at that hearing how many hours Goosby worked, Ferretti said she was “on call … 24/7” but did not provide her hours.

After Tuesday’s meeting, Jacobs, 67, a Uniondale resident who is the president of Nostrand Gardens Civic Association, said Goosby, the lone Democrat on an otherwise all-Republican board, should focus on representing her district rather than also work for the supervisor’s office.

Under the town code, deputy supervisor is an appointed position “to serve at the pleasure of the supervisor.”

The position holds only one responsibility, according to the code, and that is to assume the duties of the town supervisor should the position be vacant or if the supervisor is absent or unable to act. Goosby served as acting supervisor for less than an hour on Aug. 5, between Clavin's abrupt resignation and Ferretti's appointment to the supervisor post.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated Dorothy Goosby's new deputy supervisor salary and the percentage increase from its base of $29,000 in 2022.