Riverhead Town Board to return head planner to work — and strip him of his authority

The Riverhead Town Board is set to take action this week to return the town’s head planner to work — while simultaneously passing a code amendment that will take away his supervisory roles over the town’s building, planning and fire protection departments.

Building and Planning Administrator Jefferson Murphree, who was suspended in March pending disciplinary charges, would return to work on Nov. 22 if a resolution on the Town Board’s agenda released this week is passed Tuesday. The disciplinary proceedings against Murphree, which seek to terminate his employment, will continue, Town Attorney Erik Howard said.

At the same meeting, the Town Board is scheduled to hold a hearing and vote on an amendment to the town code that established the Department of Land Management in 2017. Murphree, as building and planning administrator, was the head of the Department of Land Management. The code amendment being considered would remove the civil service title of building and planning administrator out of the town code entirely and replace the Department of Land Management with the Department of Planning and Economic Development. 

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The new Department of Economic Development and Planning would be run by an Administrator of Economic Development and Planning, the code states. It would encompass the planning and building departments, as well as the community development department, which primarily guides planning and economic development in the town’s most blighted areas, and handles the town’s grant writing, administration and reporting. 

Murphree’s status as a civil service employee could complicate the town’s plans. 

Gerard Glass, the attorney representing Murphree in his disciplinary proceeding, said Murphree is “more than happy to come back to work,” but that any change to Murphree’s typical work activities would be referred to civil service for review.

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“Mr. Murphree enjoys protected civil service status and I would expect the town to abide by the law and continue with his job duties as he was hired,” Glass said. According to Suffolk County Civil Service, the position of town building and planning administrator is a supervisory position — and the Town Board is seeking to take away his supervisory role. 

Riverhead Town Attorney Erik Howard said that while Murphree’s position would be eliminated from town code, he is still under contract with the town to perform his function as building and planning administrator. 

“I think the disciplinary hearing is going on, I think, longer than usual or anticipated,” Howard said. “Except for the first 30 days, Mr. Murphree has continued to get paid. There’s no shortage of planning work, so the sense is he may as well be paid to do planning work.”

Howard said Murphree will not have supervision of the building and planning department. He will have projects assigned to him by the Administrator of Economic Development of Planning. Murphree’s contract will not change, Howard said. 

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Community Development Administrator Dawn Thomas, the current head of the town’s community development department and a former Riverhead town attorney, was assigned as the temporary head of the Department of Land Management after Murphree was suspended in March. In September, Thomas was temporarily assigned oversight of the comprehensive plan update and the Department of Economic Development and Planning — even though the department does not formally exist under town code until the amendment being considered this week is adopted. 

Thomas is being paid a $20,000 stipend on top of her annual salary to take on the additional responsibilities. The resolution that assigned Thomas the oversight position does not state when her responsibilities would expire. Howard said there would likely be a resolution appointing Thomas to the position of Administrator of Economic Development and Planning at the board’s meeting Tuesday. That resolution was not part of the resolution packet released to the public and discussed by the Town Board at its work session Thursday.

Murphree, who was hired in 2012, was suspended on March 22 and brought up on Civil Service Law Section 75 disciplinary charges by Supervisor Yvette Aguiar, who accuses Murphree of insubordination and incompetence. Pursuant to civil service law, Murphree was put on an unpaid suspension for 30 days, after which he has been paid his annual salary of $144.654.

Murphree’s disciplinary hearing resumed last month after proceedings were halted for months by a lawsuit filed by Murphree seeking to obtain documents previously undisclosed by the town. The lawsuit was dismissed; a court order stated Murphree did not have a right to obtain documents, a process known as discovery in court proceedings, in a civil service proceeding. Murphree argued in the lawsuit that the charges brought by Aguiar were “politically motivated” and that he was “being made a political scapegoat.”