News

The future of Huntington and Long Island depends on the outcome of the 2018 Elections but there is a critical reason why voting specifically on the Republican ballot line -- "Row B" -- for our candidates is more important in 2018 than any other year -- even more important than a Presidential Election Year. Read on to learn more!

Keeping Huntington Suburban -- and Honest

If you believe in the Republican "New Direction" values of keeping Huntington suburban, preserving and maintaining our roads and infrastructure, protecting our water supply and our quality of life, and most importantly, increasing government transparency and implementing meaningful ethics reforms in our town government, then Jim Leonick and Janet Smitelli need your vote on November 6th.

Jim Leonick is a self-employed business owner who possesses the community and public service experience to make the changes Huntington needs. He stands for fiscal responsibility, cutting government red tape, increasing transparency, enacting meaningful ethics reforms, preserving Huntington's suburban aesthetic, maintaining our overburdened infrastructure, protecting our water supply and improving our quality of life -- including leaving no stone unturned when it comes to fighting the LIPA lawsuit. Jim Leonick is a family man and long-time active member of our community, who has stood with residents on the right side of the issues affecting our town. Learn more about Jim: http://www.jimleonick.com.

Janet Smitelli will bring a New Direction of transparency, administrative efficiency and cost-effective operations to the Tax Office! With 30 years under her belt as a seasoned litigator with experience in real estate law, estate administration, probate proceedings, structured settlements, lien reduction and payoff, Janet Smitelli is highly qualified to negotiate the best terms on behalf of Huntington residents to keep payment processing costs down and allow taxpayers to receive the best return on our collective investment. Janet will ensure the Tax Office is transparent, responsive and accountable to all residents' needs and requests.

Both Leonick and Smitelli Have Been Endorsed by the Entire New Direction Team

Supervisor Chad Lupinacci and the Town of Huntington need you to vote for Jim Leonick and Janet Smitelli to keep moving Huntington in the New Direction residents voted for when they elected Lupinacci to be our new Town Supervisor -- the first in 24 years -- along with new Councilman Ed Smyth!

Supervisor Lupinacci, along with Councilman Smyth and Councilman Eugene Cook, voted to implement term limits in the first month of the new administration but the political crony who was undemocratically appointed by the outgoing Democrats -- after the voters had already spoken -- voted NO to enacting term limits! This is just one of the reasons why we need to put Jim Leonick on the Town Board. Jim is a man of ethics and reason and he embodies the new direction of listening to residents, keeping Huntington suburban, and protecting our quality of life. Listen to Supervisor Lupinacci endorsing Jim Leonick for this year's special Town election taking place November 6th:

Joan Cergol cashed out $45,965 taxpayer dollars when appointed to her third unelected government job in sixteen years -- and then she voted NO to enacting term limits! Cergol took that $45,965 payout -- meant to be taken by employees leaving the Town payroll -- while she still sits on the government dole.

On the Town website, the Community Development Agency's 2017 Financials with Independent Auditor's Reports, which reports on the financial status of the CDA as of December 31, 2017, references "an increase to accrued liabilities related to accrued sick and vacation time to be paid to the former director" on numbered page 4. That pretty much sums it up. On numbered page 6 (2017 column, “Accrued liabilities: $45,965”) it shows the $45,965 amount of the payout Cergol took of unused sick and vacation time, even though this practice is meant for people leaving Town employment, not people staying on the Town payroll, as she did as an appointed, unelected member of the Town Board.

As a 16-year unelected bureaucrat, Town employment has been very lucrative for Cergol, aside from her premature cashing in on $45,965 in unused sick and vacation time. According to Newsday.com, Cergol's yearly pay on the government dole averaged at $121,914 for the past 7 years, totalling $851,328, all the while the agency she was responsible for incurred $1 million dollars of debt to Huntington's taxpayers under her management of questionable business practices. Public salary information for Cergol's years of Town employment from 2002-2010 was not published on Newsday, which only maintains records as far back as 2011.

But there's more!

Joan Cergol is an unelected career bureaucrat who left the Town of Huntington Community Development Agency (CDA) $1 million dollars in debt to the taxpayers of Huntington when she resigned last year. The outgoing Democrat Town Board, led by former 24-year Supervisor Frank Petrone, appointed Cergol as an unelected Democrat member of the Town Board at their final meeting of 2017, in total defiance of Huntington's voters, who rejected the Democrats' policies when they voted for Chad Lupinacci, Ed Smyth and a New Direction!

Cergol's mismanagement of the CDA (in the appointed, unelected position she held from January 2013 through the final Town Board meeting of 2017) is evidenced by a review of the independent auditor's reports for 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, -- mysteriously the financials for her first year at the CDA (2013) are missing from the CDA reports but if you look to the 2012 Financials (for the time period ending December 31, 2012, just days before Cergol was appointed to the CDA by former Supervisor Frank Petrone and the Democrat-majority Town Board), you can see: every year the CDA was under Cergol's management, the agency went deeper and deeper into debt on the taxpayer dime.

The Huntington Young Republicans club held their Third Annual ‘Our Town, Our Vets’ Food Drive on Saturday, July 14 throughout the Township of Huntington. With the help of over a dozen volunteers, the organization spent the day soliciting food donations at four local supermarkets: the Wild by Nature of Huntington Village, the Best Market of East Northport, the Best Market of Huntington Station, and the King Kullen of Huntington Station.