The Riverhead Town Board will vote today to fill the board vacancy created by the election of former councilwoman Jodi Giglio to the State Assembly.
The board appears poised to appoint Kenneth Rothwell of Wading River to serve the remainder of Giglio’s term, which expires Dec. 31.
A resolution on the agenda for the board’s 2 o’clock meeting today names Rothwell to the position. Another agenda item is the swearing-in of a new board member.
The resolution appointing Rothwell was not included in the resolution packet reviewed by the town board at its public work session Thursday.
A second resolution on today’s agenda, which was put forward by Councilwoman Catherine Kent at the work session, would appoint Marylin Winter of Riverhead to fill the vacancy. See prior story: Kent to offer resolution Tuesday to fill vacant town board seat following Giglio’s resignation.
It was clear from interviews after Thursday’s work session that the appointment of Winter lacked majority support on the board.
The board has not publicly discussed individuals who might be tapped to fill the vacant seat, though the subject was on its executive session agenda for Thursday’s work session, to be taken up behind closed doors.
Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said afterward the board had a productive discussion and she was hopeful board members would reach consensus in time to fill the seat at the next regular meeting.
Rothwell’s name has been circulating among political insiders as a likely appointee ever since the Riverhead Republican Committee conducted candidate interviews on Dec. 14. The GOP screening committee interviewed 18 people, according to committee co-chairperson Victor Prusinowski.
The Wading River man is a funeral director affiliated with several area funeral homes that bear his surname, including Alexander-Rothwell Funeral Home in Wading River.
The supervisor apparently plans to take one or both of the resolutions out of the regular order of the meeting today, according to the agenda posted on the town website. An agenda item for the “new appointment to the town board” and the swearing-in of an new member appears as the sixth item of business on the agenda, while the resolutions are listed as the 13th item.
Winter said this morning she has not been asked to attend today’s meeting.
Giglio resigned her town board position Dec. 31 and the board is expected to also vote today to accept her resignation — a mere formality.
The former councilwoman is scheduled to be sworn in as a member of the assembly by Suffolk County Family Court Judge George Harkin, in a ceremony to take place at the start of today’s town board meeting at Riverhead Town Hall.
The process for choosing someone to fill Giglio’s seat has been criticized by Councilwoman Catherine Kent, the board’s lone Democrat, and by some members of the community, who have complained about the delegation of screening and interviewing prospective candidates to a political party committee — a process, they say, that lacked transparency.
Riverhead resident John McAuliff, a frequent critic of the board, emailed a letter to members late last night, after reviewing the agenda published yesterday, questioning the meaning of the two resolutions and the process followed leading up to the vote.
“Has the town board forgotten its legal and moral responsibility to exercise independent due diligence and judgment? The resolutions claim a process that does not seem to have happened,” he wrote, referring to language in each resolution that states interested persons were screened or their qualifications reviewed.
“Is the board the responsible governmental entity for the town or a rubber stamp for a political party that publicly screened candidates as though it was the real decider?” McAuliff wrote in the letter, a copy of which he sent to RiverheadLOCAL.
“It diminishes the standing and integrity of the Supervisor and the Board to proceed in this fashion,” he wrote.
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