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Town Bd meeting Jan 7, 2014Bazinga - That sums up Tuesday’s Town Board meeting. As expected, Town Attorney John Zollo was not reappointed and was instead replaced by Matthew Jakubowski who currently serves as Smithtown’s Deputy Town Attorney. Fred Calandrino, currently serving in the Town Attorney’s Office, will move into the Deputy Town Attorney’s position. That leaves one vacancy in the office. According to Supervisor Patrick Vecchio the position will be filled. Although he does not have a specific candidate in mind, he did suggest that as soon as the word gets out that a vacancy exists, resumes will start to appear.
Zollo served as Town Attorney since 2012 when he was appointed in a three - two vote with Wehrheim, Creighton and Malloy voting for him and Vecchio and McCarthy voting “No”. At the time of his appointment, Vecchio stated publicly that he was uncomfortable with Zollo’s appointment for many reasons, not the least of which was his relationship with many businesses doing business before the Town.
In a discussion after the board meeting on Tuesday, Zollo said that before taking office in 2012 he apprised all the board members of his (business) relationship with four businesses with issues before the Town including Carlson, Santilli, Bavarian Inn and Reliable Tree. He also stated that throughout his tenure he recused himself from Town dealings with the above mentioned businesses.
Zollo looked somewhat surprised when the vote was taken. When asked, he stated that he was hoping that he would have received support from Councilwoman Nowick. He said that he had spoken with her and she never indicated how she would vote. The roll call for the Town Attorney vote and several others revealed a new majority with Councilwoman Nowick voting along with McCarthy and Vecchio on all votes she cast. That left Wehrheim and Creighton, the lone men out, voting against the appointment of Jakubowski and Calandrino.
Ditto on the appointment of Conrad A. Chayes, Sr. to the Planning Board and the appointment of James Ehrhardt as Chairperson to the Planning Board. The majority supported the appointments replacing John Gee former Chairperson and long term Planning Board member.
Political retribution? Some may say so. Both Gee and Zollo supported Creighton in his bid for supervisor. Zollo served as Creighton’s treasurer. According to Vecchio, “No, I do not believe in retribution.” In a meeting in his office after the board meeting, Tuesday Vecchio expressed his position, saying that he had concerns with Zollo’s appointment two years ago and voted “no”, but was outvoted. He emphasized the many issues before the Town that require the Town Attorney and Supervisor to work together. Clearly he was not comfortable with Zollo.
Zollo thanked the Board for giving him the opportunity to serve. He asked for time to clear out his office. He also expressed support for Matt Jakubowsky and Fred Calandrino, reminding people that it was he who hired them during his first stint as Town Attorney 1992- 2002. “We did a lot of good work over the past two years.” Zollo also acknowledged that there have been a lot of challenges. Zoning, land use issues and code enforcement controversies were routine over the past two years.
Councilmen Wherheim and Creighton both supporters of Zollo praised his work. According to Wherheim “Zollo reorganized the Town Attorney office sending less work to outside attorneys and thereby saving taxpayers over $250,000. Both Creighton and Wehrheim expressed the sentiment that Zollo did a good job and that this was a political decision.
B-A-Z-I-N-G-A!