The TIMES of Smithtown
Volume 28, No. 5
Serving Smithtown • St. JameS • neSconSet • commack • hauppauge • kingS park • Fort Salonga April 2, 2015
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Former legislative aide to succeed husband By phil corSo
Roller skating comes to Port Jeff also: ‘go ape’ winners, ‘a Chorus Line’ in Northport, Disney Week at SCPa
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Jorgensen goes to court District attorney directs highway super to appear Page a11
In a special election held just nine months before the term is over, Leslie Kennedy (R) was elected Tuesday to succeed her husband, Suffolk County Comptroller John M. Kennedy Jr. (R), in the county Legislature’s 12th District. Leslie Kennedy, a 58-yearold resident of Nesconset, bested Democrat Deborah Monaco of Smithtown in Tuesday’s special election with 993 total votes from Republicans, Conservatives and Independents versus Monaco’s 149 from strictly Democrats, according to the county Board of Election’s unofficial vote totals. She previously served as an administrative aide under her husband when he held a seat in the Legislature. The current comptroller was elected to his seat in November, leaving the Legislature spot vacant at the beginning of this year. Both Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) and the entire Suffolk County Republican Committee had pegged Leslie Kennedy as their choice to succeed her husband, calling her a hard-working and popular figure in her community. “The Democrats tried to
Kennedy in, Kennedy out leslie kennedy with her husband, John m. kennedy Jr., who serves as Suffolk county comptroller
make Leslie Kennedy an issue in the [November] county comptroller race, where John Kennedy scored a substantial victory on one line, the Republican line,” Suffolk GOP Chair John Jay LaValle said. “The move backfired terribly and cemented Leslie Kennedy’s reputation as a constituent favorite. Her record of service is unassailable and she will continue a powerful legacy of protecting our tax dollars and serving the people of the 12th District.”
Monaco, 55, had not been actively campaigning for the seat, according to Suffolk County Democratic Chairman Richard Schaffer, who said her name was on the ballot in order to provide voters with options come March 31. She previously served as secretary of the Suffolk Democratic Committee as well as the county’s Board of Elections. Kennedy Jr. beat Democrat Jim Gaughran, chairman of the Suffolk County Water
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Authority, with 53 percent of the vote to 47 percent. After his election, a jubilant Kennedy vowed to “open up the books,” in Suffolk County, while Gaughran said he had “no regrets about this race.” The 12th Legislative District is a largely Republicandominated region of the North Shore and includes Smithtown, Nesconset, Hauppauge, the Village of the Branch, Lake Grove and parts of Commack, Islandia and Ronkonkoma.
State’s budget comes with new ed. regulations By erika karp
Just a few hours before the New York State Legislature approved the state’s 201516 budget, which includes a number of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s education reform initiatives, school districts across the North Shore finally got to know how much aid they’ll receive next year. The state aid runs showed districts getting more than they expected, since many budgeted around a 1.7 percent increase. Earlier this year, Cuomo (D) announced state aid would only increase by $377 million — a 1.7 percent increase from this year — if his state education reforms didn’t pass the Legislature. The Smithtown School District was doled a roughly 5 percent increase in total aid for the 2015-2016 academic years.
And while not all of the initiatives passed, a few did, so the aid increased by about $1.4 billion statewide. “This is a plan that keeps spending under 2 percent, reforms New York’s education bureaucracy, implements the nation’s strongest and most comprehensive disclosure laws for public officials and makes the largest investment in the upstate economy in a generation,” Cuomo said in a statement. But not all were convinced the education initiatives would reform public schools. The Education Transformation Act of 2015 amends the teacher evaluation system, changes the time to gain tenure from three to four years and creates two designations for failing schools. The hot-button item, though, was the teacher evaluation system. BUDgeT continued on page a12
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Smithtown Schools Superintendent James grossane discusses budgetary figures.