Mark Lesko statement on planned resignation

Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko announced Wednesday that he will resign next month to lead Accelerate Long Island, a nonprofit initiative whose goal is to help create start-up technology companies with Long Island research institutions.

Here is Lesko's full statement:  

Since April of 2009, I have had the honor and privilege to serve the 486,000 residents of the Town of Brookhaven as supervisor and it has been an incredibly rewarding and inspiring experience. I am proud of what my Brookhaven team has accomplished in over three years, including freezing property taxes, reducing spending by over 26 percent and appointing a new bipartisan management team, and I am especially proud to be leaving the Town of Brookhaven with stable finances.

In 2010, I helped to develop a strategy called Accelerate Long Island to commercialize technology at Long Island's research institutions and create start-up companies and high-tech jobs.

This strategy turned into a partnership between Long Island's premiere research institutions, including Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Hofstra University, North Shore LI-J Health System and Stony Brook University, in addition to the Long Island Association, Canrock Ventures, Computer Associates, Ernst & Young, Farrell Fritz and the Rauch Foundation.

In September 2012 I will resign as Brookhaven Town supervisor to become the executive director of Accelerate Long Island, a not-for-profit organization, to implement the strategy to create an innovation-based economy on Long Island. It is my hope that Accelerate Long Island will have a profound economic impact on the entire region for years to come. I thank the Accelerate Long Island board members for their confidence in me and look forward to this great opportunity.

My success in Brookhaven would not have been possible without my hard working and talented staff, especially my deputy supervisor and Councilwoman Kathleen Walsh, and my chief of staff, Brian Beedenbender.

I also want to thank the other members of the town board and town elected officials  --  Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld, Jane Bonner, Connie Kepert, Tim Mazzei, Dan Panico, Patricia Eddington, Lou Marcoccia, and John Rouse  --  for working with me to make Brookhaven a better place for its residents.

I look forward to the next chapter of my career in public service,and I will continue to work to develop an innovation-based economy on Long Island.