Incoming supervisor names key staff members for appointment in 2018

Supervisor-elect Laura Jens-Smith has named the key staff members in the supervisor’s office.

Daniella Brown of Laurel will be appointed deputy supervisor, Jens-Smith said in an interview Tuesday.

Brown, who was Jens-Smith’s campaign treasurer, is a manager at Modern Yachts in Hampton Bays. She has a degree from York College in Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Westhampton High School.

“She has a lot of experience with personnel, budget management and client services,” the incoming supervisor said.

Jens-Smith said she has asked Deputy Supervisor Jill Lewis to stay on for the month of January to assist in the transition. Lewis has agreed to do so, she said.

John Marafino of Center Moriches is Jens-Smith’s pick for chief of staff. Marafino is currently an intergovernmental affairs assistant in the Suffolk County executive’s office. He’s been in that post for five years, Jens-Smith said. He previously held positions with the N.Y. State Democratic Committee and the Suffolk County Democratic Committee. Marafino is holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stony Brook University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2010 and a master’s degree in public policy in 2011.

Jens-Smith has asked Patrick Derenze of Jamesport to be her legislative secretary. Derenze, a 2013 graduate of McGann-Mercy High School earned a bachelor’s degree in politics at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire.

The appointments must be made by a vote of the town board, which will take them up in January. The town board traditionally agrees to the supervisor’s choices for his or her own staff.

On Tuesday night, the board terminated the employment, effective Dec. 31, of the current chief of staff, Larry Levy, and legislative secretary, Carol Sclafani.

Also on Tuesday night, the board approved a professional services contract to hire Levy to handle meeting videos for the town at a fee of $200 per meeting. The contract also authorizes other related services by Levy at the rate of $60 per hour. Levy designed and implemented the new video streaming and recording system the town now uses for providing video of town board, planning board and zoning board of appeals meetings. The videos are posted on the town’s website and broadcast on Cablevision Channel 22.

Sclafani has been Supervisor Sean Walter’s secretary since he took office in January 2010. Levy joined the supervisor’s staff in 2015 after Walter’s first chief of staff, Tara McLaughlin, left for a position with the Town of Brookhaven.

Walter voted against both terminations at Tuesday’s meeting. His was the lone no vote. Walter said he asked the incoming supervisor not to ask him to vote to fire his staff. He said he thought the termination votes should have been taken by the new board in January. Terminating the positions as of Dec. 31, however, saves the town the cost of paying out an additional year of accrued vacation, sick and leave time, which accrue to the benefit of town employees on Jan. 1.

Jens-Smith, who defeated Walter in last month’s election, takes office on New Year’s Day, along with Councilwoman-elect Catherine Kent, who fills the seat left vacant by the retirement of the board’s longest serving member, John Dunleavy. Dunleavy, who served 12 years on the board, was term-limited under a new law adopted by the board last year.