GOP-led Hempstead Town Board OKs 56 personnel moves two months before Democrat takes top post

The Republican-led Hempstead Town Board approved personnel actions at its meeting Thursday that will increase salary costs for 56 people, less than two months before Democratic Supervisor-elect Joe Scianablo takes office.

The personnel moves include 24 raises, 11 title changes, eight part-time employees moving to full time, six appointments from the civil service list, five new hires and two other  appointments.

The town board regularly approves similar personnel actions at its meetings, but typically they involve about a dozen people.

Outgoing Republican Town Supervisor John Ferretti presided over the meeting at which several speakers suggested he and the board were sabotaging Ferretti's successor. 

"You will be judged by what happens in this transition to new leadership," Garden City resident Lynn Krug said. 

Ferretti said suggestions that he was trying to "impede the next administration" were untrue and that the personnel resolution was within the 2027 budget.

"We are committed to a new transition and we are committed to making sure that the government continues to function properly," Ferretti said. "Although the election is over, government goes on; there are of course personnel changes, just like [at] every meeting, that we had to make today."

Scianablo, a Democrat, won election Nov. 3 in an upset of Ferretti and will take office in January. He will be only the second Democrat to hold the top post in town, a Republican stronghold, in more than 100 years. The current six-member board comprises five Republicans and one Democrat who serves as Ferretti's deputy supervisor.

At the end of 2024, the town stopped publishing detailed information about salary changes, promotions and new hires, instead revealing only the amount of money that the personnel actions would change department budgets. The town resumed publishing detailed information in January. 

The financial cost of the personnel moves approved Thursday wasn't immediately clear, though in a statement to Newsday just before the meeting, Scianablo cited "nearly a million dollars in salary increases." 

“The workers are the backbone of the Town and deserve fair pay and recognition. But proposing nearly a million dollars in salary increases just before a change in administration raises serious questions about timing and transparency," Scianablo said in a statement. "Taxpayers deserve a clear explanation of how the decisions for raises, promotions, and new hires were made, and why they are being advanced right now." 

Town spokesman Brian Devine said in an email: "Personnel actions including promotions, transfers, title changes, and leaves, occur at virtually every single board meeting. All actions the board takes are provided for in the budget. Beyond this, the Town does not comment on personnel actions."

The town board also approved an amendment to the collective bargaining agreement that credits town workers with two hours of comp time for every hour of overtime earned in 2027 that is taken as comp time. 

 "Why have you opened up the CSEA bargaining agreement?" resident Dan Oppenheimer asked,  referring to the Civil Service Employees Association union. 

Town attorney John Maccarone said "this is nothing new" and that it saves the town money.

In January, the town board approved a similar measure but for a shorter period — from Jan. 20 through May 12. 

When Oppenheimer asked about the fiscal impact of the amendment, Ferretti cut him off. 

"This is not a budget hearing," Ferretti said. "I've given you a latitude on your questions, but this item is about a cost-saving measure."

In the final month of 2017, the last year a Democrat was elected Hempstead Town supervisor — Laura Gillen, who is now a congresswoman — the Republican-majority board approved 192 personnel moves.