Joe Scianablo, after upset victory in Hempstead Town supervisor race, outlines his plan

Joe Scianablo, the second Democrat to be elected Hempstead Town supervisor in more than 100 years, stood with the first in front of Town Hall on Wednesday after he scored an upset victory over the incumbent Republican.

“We look forward to working with all parties because no level of government succeeds alone,” Scianablo said at a news conference with Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre). He said his administration will work with Democrats, Republicans and independents “to ensure every single resident here in the Town of Hempstead has the services and government they deserve.”

Scianablo defeated John Ferretti in a rematch of the 2025 election, receiving about 10,000 more votes than Ferretti did out of about 290,000 ballots cast, according to unofficial results.

Last year, it was Ferretti who won by about a 10,000-vote margin — but amid a much lower turnout of about 170,000 voters, according to official results.

At the news conference and in an interview Wednesday, Scianablo laid out an agenda that focuses on government transparency, community outreach and fiscal responsibility.

“We’re going to continue to go into the communities and have town halls,” he said. "We have to meet the residents where they are, both mentally and physically."

Top on his to-do list, he said, is auditing the town's finances and operations, and publishing the findings to ensure the town is "spending the taxpayers' money responsibly."

He'll be taking over Ferretti's 2027 budget, which relies on property sales and spending down reserves. Scianablo took aim at what he sees as opaque budgeting practices that included tens of millions of dollars of miscellaneous revenue that town officials later explained included land sales and use of budget reserves. 

The town needs to be "transparent about these land sales and the current partnership that the town has with the purchaser of these lands," Scianablo said. 

He also said the town will change how it handles mailings to residents, long a source of resident ire. "There is a lot of wasteful spending through those mailings," Scianablo said. 

He said his administration will resume creating multiyear capital budgets that detail planned infrastructure projects, an initiative that Gillen began but wasn't continued under her successors. 

Ferretti did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Nassau County Republican Committee Chairman Joseph Cairo said in a statement Wednesday that "Supervisor John Ferretti ... worked hard to serve the residents of Hempstead Town and provide meaningful tax relief." 

Like Gillen, who served as town supervisor from 2018-19, Scianablo faces a town board composed of five Republicans and one Democrat. 

Gillen told Newsday that Scianablo "has a real opportunity to right the fiscal ship … and get ethics reform enacted here."

A challenge she faced — and that he will face, she said — is getting rid of patronage positions, because doing so requires town board approval. "This is bastion of patronage," Gillen said. 

Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, said Scianablo will need to perform magic to "pull political rabbits out of the hat with Republicans." 

“As Laura Gillen found out when she was the Democratic supervisor, you can’t get anything done unless you have a majority or near majority on the town council," Levy said in an interview. 

State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said Scianablo, a combat veteran, was up to the task. 

"The Marines, they know how to win, and I think he knows how to win, and he’ll do just fine if it’s going to be a tough battle there," Jacobs said.