Huntington – Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci appointed Councilman Ed Smyth as Deputy Supervisor of the Town of Huntington on March 8.
Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci stated, “I am proud of what Councilman Smyth and I have accomplished together in three short years and we will continue to provide cost-effective, accountable government services to residents and businesses by listening to the needs of our community, taking a creative approach to problem-solving and continuing conservative budgeting practices.”
Councilman Ed Smyth, said, “I am honored to be appointed Deputy Supervisor. Although largely a ceremonial position, I will assist the Supervisor to re-open Town Hall and provide improved services to our residents.”
Elected to the Town Board together in November 2017, Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci and Councilman Ed Smyth delivered on their promises to enact term limits for all Town elected officials, increase government transparency, and improve communication between the Town and residents. Lupinacci and Smyth passed various ethics reforms, including strengthening financial disclosure requirements for Town officials and employees, enhancing the independence of the Board of Ethics, and enacting revisions to personnel policies and procedures.
The Lupinacci administration improved efficiencies across all Town departments, streamlined government operations, expanded online services and cut red tape – even with a year-long global pandemic in its third year. Under their fiscal stewardship and with Councilman Smyth’s support on the Town Board, the Town has earned a yearly renewal of its AAA bond rating, which has decreased the Town’s borrowing costs and saved Huntington taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year, all while staying under the Tax Cap. With bipartisan support, they resolved the decade-long LIPA litigation that threatened to bankrupt the Town’s taxpayers.
In 2019, Supervisor Lupinacci and Councilman Smyth proposed code changes aimed to stop the overdevelopment of apartment buildings in our downtown areas. After a lengthy public input period, sweeping measures were enacted in 2020 regulating the size and scale of new development, addressing parking congestion, promoting the local economy, and ensuring neighborhood aesthetics are preserved. They also established new requirements for Planning Board site plan review to avoid overburdening our roads, sewer systems and stormwater infrastructure.
Since January 2018, Supervisor Lupinacci and Councilman Smyth have overseen many measures passed to protect our quality of life and preserve the suburban charm of our Town. They passed measures addressing noise pollution, public safety hazards, zoning violations and other neighborhood nuisances. On the Town Board, Lupinacci and Smyth established the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication, the first court system of its kind on Long Island, to resolve code violations more efficiently and cost-effectively while restoring privacy rights. Together, they passed measures to prohibit the commercial use of gas-powered leaf blowers on residential property on Sundays and Holidays; Smyth has recently proposed an expansion of this policy, which if passed would include Saturdays as well. Lupinacci recently proposed a measure exercising the Town’s authority over the installation of cell phone towers and equipment to ensure proposed locations are suitable and safe.
Lupinacci and Smyth have taken many steps to protect and expand open space, preserve farmland and protect our drinking water. They invested millions of dollars in long-overdue maintenance and upgrades to the Town’s Sewage Treatment Plant. Our waterfront facilities, waterways and shorelines are safer than ever before due to in-house renovations and creative problem-solving that has taken the cost burden off the taxpayer. Councilman Smyth has also recently proposed reforms that would ensure that funds designated for the preservation of open space are not misused.
On the Town Board, Lupinacci and Smyth have adopted open-minded policies and initiatives to enable local economic growth and, more recently, recovery from the economic burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic. They expanded commercial property use types to help fill vacant space in commercially-zoned areas. They established new, fee-free processes and procedures to assist small businesses keep their doors open while complying with State-imposed COVID-19 restrictions.
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