Anthony Coates, political consultant to Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter, has an announcement to make.
Coates, 52, announced this week that he would be hosting a dinner party at 6 p.m. next Thursday at the to annnounce "his political plans for 2013."
Speculation has been rampant about who will pursue the seat left empty by Suffolk County Legislator the election for Brookhaven Town Supervisor. But it unclear where Coates, who switched from Democrat to Republican, plans to throw his hat into the proverbial ring.
In March, the Riverhead town board tabled a bill that would have hired Coates after it failed to receive enough support.
Walter had hoped to appoint Anthony Coates as legislative secretary - a $65,000-a-year job that would come with benefits - to market and lobby the town's property at Enterprise Park at Calverton. Coates has generally been paid a fee of $1,000 per month since August of 2010 from the supervisor's campaign fund.
Councilman John Dunleavy supported the supervisor in granting Coates the job, but colleagues Jim Wooten, Jodi Giglio, and George Gabrielsen didn't favor the resolution. A couple of them spoke out not so much against the political connection between the two, but the position itself.
Coates, is a member of the board of directors of the Riverhead Business Improvement District and the former publisher of the Record News Group.
In addition, Coates served as an aide to the presiding officer of the Suffolk County
Legislature, was executive assistant to the chairman of the Bank of Los Angeles, and was a portfolio manager and investment officer with Morgan Stanley, Smith Barney and Fleet Investment.
Coates has also been a lobbyist for public interest issues in Albany and
Washington D.C. and has offered commentary on public policy and issues of the day to numerous media outlets.
He has two daughters, Courtney, 20, and Jane, 13, is a gardener at the
Riverhead Community Garden and a volunteer for numerous causes.
