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Friday, January 21, 2022
Vol. 7, No. 3
Port WashingtonTimes GUIDE TO HOME & DESIGN
PORT POLICE OFFICER SUOZZI TOUTS DIES IN CRASH $5.2M WAR CHEST
PAGES 21-28
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HOOP DREAMS
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DeSena says no progress with Dems Partisan split remains following contentious meeting BY R OB E RT PELAEZ North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said no progress has been made in keeping partisan politics out of the town since a highly contentious public meeting this month. DeSena, who spoke at the Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations last Wednesday night, said a shift that moved board members from a shared room into “wings” separated by political parties remains in effect.
She said, to her understanding, the Town Board had occupied the shared room for more than 50 years before the switch. The newly elected supervisor also said she visited Town Hall on Dec. 30, before her inauguration, and saw the offices being shifted around and asked for it to be stopped. DeSena, a registered Democrat who ran on the Republican line in November, said her request was denied. Having elected officials hear from their constituents, she said, may be the most ef-
fective way to end the examples of partisan politics she outlined. “We can’t afford to let this turn into Washington,” DeSena said. “I don’t know how we’re going to make progress, but I really think that the town council members have to hear from their constituents that they want to get back to work.” Various town residents expressed that sentiment during the Town Board’s meeting on Jan. 6. Former state Sen. Jack Martins, a Republican, said Continued on Page 35
DeSena, board Dems dispute funding source Offer different accounts on money for transferring appointee PHOTO COURTESY OF PORT WASHINGTON ATHLETICS TWITTER
The Schreiber High School Vikings varsity basketball team returned to action following the winter break.
BY B R A N D ON DUFFY The Town of North Hempstead supervisor’s office says a personnel resolution passed at the first Town Board meeting in 2022 transferred $93,407 worth of payroll from the Yes We Can Center in Westbury to the Department of Services for
the Aging, which the office says is the amount needed to cover a political appointee’s transfer from the clerk’s office. The resolution, passed by the Town Board on a party-line 4-3 vote with Democrats in the majority, moved nine Democratic political appointees from the office of the supervisor and town clerk to noncompetitive
and union jobs, totaling about $800,000 worth of transfers. The specific transfer involves an employee who has been transferred from deputy town clerk to secretary to the commissioner of the Department of Services for the Aging, the supervisor’s office says. Brian Devine, a spokesman Continued on Page 34
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