North Hempstead Town Council Members voted along party lines Tuesday night to hire a new building department deputy commissioner, with Democrats objecting to the hiring process.
The board voted 4-3 to hire Stephen Haramis as the building department’s deputy commissioner, with only Republicans voting his hiring at $130,000 a year
Efforts to reach the building department and Haramis for comment were unavailing. A town representative told Schneps Media Long Island there is no direct way to call the department.
Democrat Town Council Member Robert Troiano asked if the open job position was posted to attract applicants.
After a moment of silence, North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said she believed the position was exempt and, therefore, not required to be posted but was not certain.
Robert Weitzner, North Hempstead Finances & Human Resources commission, confirmed the job position was not posted.
“We want the best employees, especially a building department that has been so maligned by you in two straight decades,” Troiano said to DeSena. “One would think that you would want the very best available to the Town of North Hempstead. A way of ensuring that is to post positions widely so that everybody who has an interest and the capability knows and has the opportunity to apply.”
The board has hired a deputy commissioner before without posting the job opening, most recently in February when board Republicans advanced a vote to hire two deputy comptrollers and a Department of Public Works commissioner and deputy commissioner.
The Democrats also voted against these hires due to the hiring process.
Town Council Member Mariann Dalimonte asked who interviewed Haramis, but nobody answered.
The Town of North Hempstead’s Building Department has been criticized for many years for poor service, including long delays in issuing permits and was a focus of DeSena’s first election campaign.
“I know that everybody up here wants our building department to work well and be very accessible and accountable to our residents,” DeSena said. “And I believe that this is what we are doing with this hire.”
In July 2022, DeSena asked the Nassau County Comptroller’s Office to conduct an audit of the town’s building department.
Findings in the audit released in February include “significant problems” with the department’s online permit portal that underutilized software features, a lack of standardized procedures and operational oversight leading to operational inefficiencies, a lack of communication and transparency with permit applicants, and a lack of standardization for permit expedition procedures.
DeSena said in June that she planned to announce specific changes in the building department this summer. No announcement has been made yet.
“We’re in September and there’s been no changes in the building department,” Dalimonte said, referring to the town’s inaction.
DeSena accused Troiano of opposing change in the building department.
Troiano said the town has a policy that recommendations for deputies had to come from the commissioner of that department.
He said the policy was not followed and the building department’s choice for the job of someone within the building department was not followed.
“I’m wondering what happened to the administration’s policy; it’s a policy question, not a personnel question,… and is it really a good idea that the person coming in to be the deputy building commissioner not be recommended by the building commissioner?” Troiano asked.
DeSena did not respond to the questions.
Dalimonte said she called several individuals from the village Haramis had previously worked and said he did not get “raving reviews.”
Republican Town Council Member Dennis Walsh said Dalimonte’s comments were “hearsay.”
According to Haramis’ LinkedIn page, he most recently worked for the Village of Sands Point and previously worked at the villages of Hewlett Harbor and Great Neck.
The Village of Sands Point declined to comment on Haramis’ prior employment, stating they can not comment on prior employees.
The board went into an executive session to discuss the hiring. The three town Democrats voted against entering the executive session.
Troiano said the executive session was not necessary because council members weren’t not discussing issues with Haramis but the process used to hire him. He said the issue should be discussed in public.
“What is not appropriate is to shelter the process and protect it by privacy of going into executive session,” Troiano said.
At times, individuals in the executive session could be heard raising their voices in the room behind the dais, but no words were discernable.