Should town supervisor get a four-year term? Town board once again considers it

The Riverhead Town Board is again considering increasing the town supervisor’s term to four years from its present length of two years.

The board has scheduled a public hearing on a local law that would establish a four-year term for the office beginning with the term of office commencing Jan. 1, 2020. The local law, if adopted, is subject to a mandatory referendum, which would be held Nov. 6, the date of this year’s general election.

A public hearing is scheduled for Aug. 21 at 7:20 p.m. at town hall.

The move to expand the supervisor’s term came from the supervisor herself. Like her predecessors Sean Walter and Phil Cardinale — who both sought to expand the term from two to four years — Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith believes the two-year term makes it difficult to get things done.

“I think for continuity and long-term planning, the four-year term allows for more planning and the ability to carry it out,” Jens-Smith said.

The council members by state law have a four-year term. Town elections are held every two years on odd-numbered years. With the supervisor’s seat up for grabs at each election, there is the possibility that the majority party controlling the five-member board may change with each town election — something cited in the past as a benefit of the two-year term by opponents of expanding it to four years.

A ballot question on a four-year supervisor term was put to voters in November 2016 — and it was defeated overwhelmingly, 65 percent to 35 percent.

Officials held a public hearing on a four-year term in 2009, but the idea drew so much opposition from the community that the town board did not adopt the measure and it wasn’t put to a vote. The question made it to the ballot in the general elections of 2005 and 2007 and failed both times. In 2007, voters approved a four-year term for the highway superintendent, however.