Former councilman James Wooten has returned to Riverhead Town Hall.
Wooten fills a part-time post as an assistant in Supervisor Yvette Aguiar’s office, the supervisor announced at the town board work session today.
Aguiar said Wooten’s part-time job will focus on senior citizen services, including handling a new “senior hotline” being established to provide seniors with assistance during the pandemic crisis.
Wooten began working in his new job yesterday, Aguiar said.
The supervisor praised the former councilman as someone who “cares enormously for our town, our community and the seniors that are residents.”
Wooten, a retired Riverhead Town police officer, served three four-year terms on the town board, beginning in January 2008 and ending last December. He was precluded by the town’s term limits law, adopted in 2016, from seeking election to a fourth term. The law caps service by council members and supervisors at 12 consecutive years.
Councilman Tim Hubbard said after the meeting that the supervisor reached out to board members to ask for ratification of her decision to hire Wooten. There is a part-time position in her office that has been vacant for several months, he said.
Hubbard said he had not heard any details about Wooten’s responsibilities other than what Aguiar said at the meeting, which was the first he heard about a position focusing on senior citizens, he said. He said the supervisor said Wooten would be working no more than 10 hours per week. He didn’t have any information about compensation.
Aguiar said in an interview after the meeting that Wooten would be supplementing services provided by the town’s senior citizens program, which runs the Meals on Wheels program as well as a grocery delivery service.
The supervisor said her office has a $10,000 per year salary line for a position that has been vacant since the beginning of the COVID crisis. She said Wooten will be paid an hourly rate but did not provide specifics.
The new hotline will be up and running beginning Dec. 8. Seniors can call (631)727-3200 ext. 653, on Tuesdays and Thursdays between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Messages may be left at all other times and all calls will be returned within one business day.
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