North Hempstead Supervisor Jennifer DeSena plans to nominate rejected town comptroller candidate again 

North Hempstead Supervisor Jennifer DeSena plans to nominate a previously-rejected comptroller candidate for the same job at a town meeting Tuesday at a time when the municipality has gone more than 15 months without an official in that position permanently.

Beside Paul Wood, North Hempstead's finance director and acting comptroller, the town comptroller's office also has no other managers following the February resignation of the last deputy comptroller.

DeSena said she's again backing John Morris, 64, of Smithtown, to fill the top slot in the department — three months after the Democratic majority on the town board voted down his appointment. 

She told Newsday that Morris is capable and qualified to run the department, where only five Civil Service employees remain at a time when officials have done five rounds of interviews in a search for the best candidate for comptroller.

“It’s shocking to realize that a town with nearly a $170 million budget has been operating without a formally appointed comptroller for more than a year, and now it has no management level employees in the department,” said DeSena, a Democrat who caucuses with Republicans.

The supervisor said the predicament puts the town at risk financially and could affect its AAA rating from Wall Street bond rating agency Moody's Investors Service, a rating reaffirmed earlier this month.

Councilwoman Veronica Lurvey, a Democrat, told Newsday on Monday that she thought it was clear when the board voted Morris' appointment down in December that he wasn't the right person for the job.

 “By playing games with the process, the supervisor is making it harder to find somebody," added Lurvey. 

She said the Democrats on council and DeSena are close to agreeing on a candidate and DeSena is hurting the process by putting Morris' name forward.

Democratic board members rejected Morris after citing a 2012 Newsday article that highlighted a power struggle in Smithtown between the town's supervisor and council members that led to Morris' departure after he served as comptroller there from July 2010 to December 2011.

Morris told Newsday on Monday that he lost the position in Smithtown for political reasons, but is "not a political person" and hopes to get the North Hempstead job based on his qualifications.

Morris worked for North Hempstead previously, serving as finance director from 1998 to 2001, and also worked in the past as Mastic Beach's treasurer.

He is now a senior managing principal at NRE Capital Partners, a nationwide real estate investment firm.

The comptroller position pays $160,000 and became vacant after the departure of Tania Orenstein in January 2022, the same month the chief deputy comptroller also resigned.

Wood, the acting comptroller, told Newsday that the lack of a full-time comptroller has put a strain on him. He said he is doing not only his job, but that of an acting comptroller, a chief deputy comptroller and a deputy comptroller.

“I’m essentially trying to cover three people’s jobs, plus the one I was hired to do and it’s very daunting to say the least,” he added.