Pre Primary Interview With Incumbent Patrick R. Vecchio

Supervisor Patrick Vecchio is being challanged by Councilman Robert Creighton for the Republican line for Town Supervisor in November. Below is the result of an interview I had with Mr. Vecchio a week ago. Pat

By Pat Biancaniello

In a world where people change jobs almost as frequently as they change cars, it is almost inconceivable to Patrick Vecchio at Kings Park St. Patrick’s Day Paradethink of being in the same position for thirty-six years. And yet after 36 years of being Smithtown Supervisor, Patrick Vecchio is seeking an additional four years. So my first question to long time Smithtown Supervisor Patrick Vecchio was, why do you want to do this again? Without hesitation he responded, “because it has been my life and I love what I do, helping people and attempting to improve our quality of life.” He then added, “I think it (quality of life) is the main issue in this campaign.”

Using quality of life as a measurement I asked him to give some examples of how he has improved the quality of life for Smithtown residents.  Once again, his response was immediate.  “From an environmental point of view, garbage used to be collected by private carters who contracted with citizens, service was haphazard. Today, collections are stabilized, residents do not deal with carters directly, carting is by contract and collections are overseen by the town with strict enforcement by the town.”  Mandating natural gas garbage trucks is another example Vecchio gave. He pointed out how the mandate has reduced carbon emissions in our local environment. He explained how the most recent natural gas contract, unanimously supported by the Town Board, is less costly saving residents a half-million dollars per year for seven years. Additionally, he mentioned a wind turbine, solar panels and LED lights all beneficial to the local environment and helping with the bottom line by eliminating costs borne by taxpayers.

He wasn’t through yet. He brought up the 22 parks, 3 beaches and train station parking that Smithtown makes available to town residents at no additional cost.  While some towns charge their residents for parking Smithtown does not and issues approximately 45,000 town stickers to residents. 

The most controversial issue in this campaign season is land use.  Stating that government protects the quality of life of residents by opposing intrusive development in residential areas, Vecchio gave three examples: “1-  Uplands (Kings Park), which he called a pseudo assisted living complex.  “In reality it is a four story apartment complex with only 28 beds set aside for assisted living and the remaining high price condominiums in the $800,000 range and apartments in $200,000 range. All this proposed in a 50 acre sensitive land area and I think if that were to happen it would surely disturb the quality of life for the people. 2. The winery (Whisper Vineyard On Edgewood in St. James), can you conceive of the weddings and bar mitzvas and parties in a tent in a residential neighborhood with all of the noise pollution. Government must oppose wrongheaded land uses. 3.  The proposed Whisper Assisted Living development (on 25a). I am not opposed to assisted living facilities, but they ought to be in areas that abut or are near areas of commercial use.  I think that government should be ensuring quality of life by opposing wrong minded land uses.”

I asked about Smithtown’s downtown area, isn’t that a quality of life issue? According to Vecchio, Yes. BUT, without sewers there is little that can be done. He claims Smithtown’s 6%  vacancy rate has been consistent over 25 years and feels that there is little that the town can do to increase occupancy rates. Taxes are still being paid on the vacant properties and there is a proposal for a CVS on Main Street in Smithtown. Explaining how restaurants have replaced the mom and pop operations he points to the speed at which Luso vacated its premises (Luso moved to the west end of Main Street Smithtown) and a new restaurant moved into the Luso site as an example of a functioning downtown. On this point Supervisor Vecchio is adamant -“Government can not be held responsible for everything. Fixing roads, that we must do. But finding tenants for vacant stores is not government’s responsibility.”

What about the claim that Smithtown is the land of “no” and that it takes too long to get things done. Calling it a political statement Vecchio denies that it is true.  He points to the fact that in the downtown area there are other levels of government that must sign off on projects, and what is blamed on the town is often a delay by other agencies that have jurisdiction.  

Another issue that impacts on the quality of life “taxes”. The budget is Vecchio’s passion. He wants to know every detail about the budget and couldn’t imagine delegating that responsibility to the town’s comptroller. ” I suspect that many town’s will do that, say to their comptroller do the budget. I would not be happy with that. I would have to have hands on to know what the budget contains and why it contains it.”said Vecchio.

Empire Center for Public Policy, Inc. just released a report “What They Make”  which has a breakdown of County and Municipal Payrolls in New York by average salary (2012-2013) by employer. According to data in the report Smithtown ranks second only to Huntington in Suffolk County for employee compensation. Are Smithtown’s employees overpaid?

Supervisor Vecchio: “I think not, all of us in Public office like to think that we did it all. If you don’t have a good employee force and a contented employee force than I think the quality of life will just deteriorate. And as you well know the Supervisor negotiates contracts and has to be fair to employee and taxpayer. And so I’ve always tried to get a balance. I think the employees are very happy and their happiness reflects in the quality of life. If the parks employees aren’t happy they will not do their job and the parks will suffer and impact on our quality of life.”

Patrick Vecchio is in a contest for the Republican line in the November general election. If he defeats Robert Creighton he will be on the November ballot. Should Robert Creighton win Patrick Vecchio’s term will end on December 31, 2013.

Tuesday, September 10th is the date of the Republican Primary. Get out and vote!

Comments

[Michael]

Good interview. How about equal time for the opponent? Or, a statement that he declined.