The TIMES of Smithtown
Volume 28, No. 10
SERVING SMITHTOWN • ST. JAMES • NESCONSET • COMMACK • HAUPPAUGE • KINGS PARK • FORT SALONGA May 7, 2015
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Town Board revisits restructure proposal BY PHIL CORSO
Remembering the Lusitania
Local resident honors ancestors lost in the historic event, 100 years ago this week
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May LIFESTYLE Magazine INSIDE
Smithtown Councilman Bob Creighton (R) is reaching out to Suffolk County as he continues to push a plan that would reform the town’s government setup. It has been nearly two months since the town board last discussed the government restructure proposal, which Creighton and Councilman Ed Wehrheim (R) advocated for at a work session in March. Officials renewed discussion Tuesday morning when Creighton said he would be asking Suffolk County Personnel Director Alan Schneider to attend an upcoming work session and offer insight on how other municipalities endured a similar reform. Under the plan, Smithtown would restructure its government services by placing a commissioner at the head of various departments, similar to operations in neighboring municipalities. For example, there would be one commissioner per department heading up areas like public safety, public works, planning and development, and human ser-
Considering commissioners Photo by Phil Corso
Smithtown Supervisor Pat Vecchio, left, hears Councilman Bob Creighton, right, pitch a government restructuring proposal that he says would streamline efficiency through appointed commissioners and hold the heads of each department more accountable. Vecchio, however, says he is not convinced it would benefit the town.
vices, overseeing all levels of the town’s government. “This is a very desirable place to live and we could improve on the way we run government,” Creighton reiterated at Tuesday morning’s work session. “I do think this would be an improvement because we would have far more accountability.” Creighton said neighboring municipalities, includ-
ing Brookhaven, already had similar makeups, differing greatly from Smithtown’s current structure of appointing councilmembers as liaisons to check in on various department heads. “We do have liaison relationships with these various departments, but liaison is liaison,” Creighton said. “Direct control is something else.” Smithtown Supervisor Pat
Vecchio (R), however, remained unimpressed by the proposal, as he was when it was discussed two months ago. While he said he was open to the prospect of Schneider coming to the board to discuss the restructuring, he did not feel it would sway him in favor of doing it. Vecchio said in March he was worried that such a reform COMMISSIONER continued on page A8
In class-action suit, Latinos allege SCPD targeted them BY ROHMA ABBAS
A contingent of 21 Latinos from Suffolk County has filed a class-action federal lawsuit suit against the Suffolk County Police Department, claiming several officers robbed them or issued them traffic citations in unfounded, race-based stops over a 10-year period. Lawyers also charge the department with failing to correct a culture of discriminatory policing that has existed for years within the police force. The case comes more than a year after Suffolk County Police Sgt. Scott Greene was arrested after a January 2014 sting operation uncovered he was taking money from a Lati-
no driver. The lawsuit, fi led in federal court on Wednesday, April 29, lists Suffolk County, its police department, Police Chief Ed Webber, Greene and others as defendants. LatinoJustice PRLDEF and the firm Shearman & Sterling LLP are litigating the case pro bono. Greene’s arrest sparked the lawsuit, according to the attorneys. LatinoJustice PRLDEF and the nonprofit organization Make the Road New York, which provides services for Latino and working class families, claimed after Greene’s arrest it learned from “dozens of victims who had been too afraid or thought it pointless, to complain about widespread police criminality,” according to a statement
File photo
The suit follows the arrest of Suffolk County Police Sgt. Scott Greene’s arrest after he allegedly took money from a Latino driver.
by LatinoJustice PRLDEF. Meanwhile, Bob Clifford, spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota, responded to the suit in a statement last week. He said that
after the DA’s office spent hundreds of hours interviewing more than 50 individuals with LatinoJustice PRLDEF and Make the Road New York, two SUIT continued on page A8