Ex-Riverhead planning official will be on leave with full pay until resignation next March

Riverhead’s former top planning official will be on leave with full pay until his resignation next year, according to an agreement approved by the Town Board this week.

Building and Planning Administrator Jefferson Murphree will consecutively use all of his accrued paid vacation, personal and sick leave, and then be suspended with pay after his leave has expired, until his retirement, according to his agreement with the town. The agreement requires Murphree to file a letter of resignation effective March 6, 2025, a year and one day after the Town Board ratified the agreement.

The stipulation was approved by the Town Board on Tuesday to resolve a disciplinary action brought against Murphree last year by former Supervisor Yvette Aguiar, who accused him of incompetence, neglect of duty and insubordination. The agreement requires the town to withdraw all its charges against Murphree.

Murphree, the town’s current elected officials, and Aguiar agree not to “make or encourage any other person to make, any statement that in any way defames, disparages or criticizes” each other, according to the agreement. 

The agreement only allows the town and Murphree to make a joint statement, which Supervisor Tim Hubbard read during Tuesday’s meeting: “The parties have resolved their dispute and the charges have been withdrawn in exchange for Mr. Murphree’s agreement to retire within one year,” Hubbard said.

A copy of the agreement, dated Feb. 27 and signed by both Murphree and Hubbard, was obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request.

Murphree was served with charges and suspended without pay for 30 days on March 21. The action was approved by the Town Board the following day. 

After the expiration of the 30 days, Murphree’s pay was reinstated. His annual salary in 2023 was $137,766. However, Murphree’s suspension remained in effect until he was directed to return to work as of Nov. 22. 

Murphree’s disciplinary hearings, which were made open to the public, started in April 2023. 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.”

When Murphree returned to work, it was in a reduced role in a newly reorganized department. He no longer had supervision of the town’s building and planning departments and worked under the direction of Dawn Thomas, the administrator of economic development and planning, a new position created by the town after Murphree’s suspension. Murphree retained his Civil Service title and the salary and benefits package he had prior to the disciplinary action under his existing contract of employment.  

The disciplinary proceedings remained ongoing, though a scheduled date for the continuance of the hearing on Dec. 7 was canceled. No other dates were thereafter announced.

Murphree, of Sag Harbor, was hired by Riverhead in July 2012 to fill a then-newly created position of building and planning administrator. Prior to joining the Town of Riverhead, Murphree was the director of environmental planning at VHB, the planning firm that was working for Riverhead at that time on updating the land use plan for the Calverton Enterprise Park. Before his employment with VHB, Murphree was a planning official with the Town of Southampton for 13 years.