Gillen Calls On Santino To Resign Immediately

Hempstead Town Supervisor-Elect Laura Gillen, the first Democrat to win the top seat in the town in more than a century, is calling on current Supervisor Anthony Santino to step down immediately, saying that he's abusing his position in a last-ditch effort to secure raises and jobs for town employees who are loyal to him.

Tuesday is Santino's last Town Board meeting, and the agenda is packed with transfers and raises for nearly 200 town employees. In one instance, a man who is currently a labor crew chief in the Department of Parks and Recreation would be appointed as a groundskeeper, with no change in his $86,5000 salary.

Gillen held a press conference on the steps of Town Hall Monday morning to protest Santino's proposed actions and call on him to immediately step down as supervisor. She said that the transfers and raises will cost the taxpayers nearly $4 million, and undermine the peaceful transfer of power between the administrations.

"Since the beginning of our transition, Mr. Santino has made no attempt leave the stage gracefully," Gillen said. "Instead, his final days have been marked by epically corrupt insider deals that got him famously dumped. His actions completely undermine one of the most basic and fundamental cornerstones of American democracy — a peaceful transfer of power. Mr. Santino is betraying his solemn oath to serve and protect the people of Hempstead and displays deep-rooted hatred for the government and the people he represents by fleecing us on the way out. Therefore, I’m calling on Santino to immediately relinquish his post and step aside."

But according to the town, the positions are being vacated from the Supervisor's office so that Gillen can hire her own team when she comes into office.

"The town's personnel calendar includes a number of important proposed employee actions," Director of Communications Mike Deery said in a statement. "Positions in the Supervisor's Office are being vacated so that the incoming supervisor can hire employees of her choosing, some long-tenured staffers with decades of institutional knowledge are being retained to ensure the smooth operation of our government, and recent retirements have created a number of vacancies that need to be filled in order to sustain the proper functioning of our township. In addition, the settlement of a lawsuit that predates the current supervisor's tenure requires the promotion of certain part-time workers to full-time status."

According to Gillen, the deal that Santino negotiated with the employee's union would include a no-layoff clause to protect them.

Santino's propositions have received blow-back from fellow Republican Town Board members as well. Erin King Sweeney, who has been an opponent of Santino and his policies and tactics, criticized the outgoing Supervisor on Facebook.

"Not only is this sham resolution unethical, it will put town finances and bond rating at risk by stating that employees must be retained even in the face of fiscal and budgetary shortfalls," she wrote. "To be clear, I stand with hardworking town employees — not Santino hacks that he wants to be part of the deep state and advance his dream of making a comeback from the political garbage heap. I will do everything I can to expose and defeat this arrogant ploy."

The Town Board meeting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Town Hall, located at 1 Washington St. in Hempstead.

Photo: Laura Gillen's Office