Manhasset resident David Chiang was appointed county treasurer by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman last week.

Chiang, 52, a Republican, ran an unsuccessful campaign to represent the Town of North Hempstead’s 4th District in 2019, losing to current Councilwoman Veronica Lurvey. Before his appointment and campaign for town councilman, Chiang served as a research analyst and a Wall Street investment banker for almost 20 years before becoming a stay-at-home father.

Before his work on Wall Street, Chiang worked at a Manhattan sweatshop at 9 years old, then worked another three jobs to put himself through NYU’s Stern School of Business. Chiang has also been president of the Chinese-American Association of North Hempstead.

Chiang succeeded Beaumont Jefferson, who now serves as deputy county comptroller, as treasurer.

Blakeman lauded Chiang for his experience working in the financial sector and said his appointment will be invaluable to help better serve Nassau residents.

“David is a distinguished member of the community with a strong financial background stemming from his many years working on Wall Street,” Blakeman said in a statement. “I look forward to working with him to better provide the services his office offers, and make sure every resident gets the help they need.”

Blakeman also appointed Justice Stephen Bucaria to lead the county’s Assessment Review Commission, an area in county government that Blakeman strongly criticized during his campaign against his predecessor, Laura Curran.

Bucaria, a Republican who has served on the Supreme Court for more than two decades, succeeds Jeremy May as the chair of the commission. May filled the spot previously held by Robin Laveman, whom Curran appointed as county assessor following the retirement of David Moog.

Blakeman, during his swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 3, spoke about changing the county’s property tax system that he and other Republican officials have criticized. Blakeman said he will do whatever is necessary to “fix” the system and prioritize taxpayers’ wallets.

“My predecessor took a flawed assessment system and made it worse by increasing the assessment values of 65 percent of the county taxpayers with an unfair, secretive and inequitable reassessment,” Blakeman said. “My administration will investigate, along with our new county comptroller, what went wrong and then we will fix it.”

Last week, Laveman told Newsday that Curran froze the county’s residential property values for the 2023-23 tax year before leaving office in December.

​​Laveman also told Newsday that Blakeman’s administration was analyzing the “reassessment and laws associated with its implementation to create a more fair, accurate and equitable system.”

Efforts to reach Curran, Laveman and Blakeman for further comment were unavailing.

Curran called for the reassessment of approximately 400,000 homes in 2018, for the 2020-21 tax year, after the county’s assessment roll had been frozen since 2011. During that period, thousands of residents filed grievances on the value of their homes, winning reduced assessments and shifting the tax burden onto others who did not challenge their assessments.