Supervisor Hopeful: 'We Need to Repair Our Town Board'

Angela Devito has worn a number of hats around Riverhead, but now she's seeking a run for the town supervisor's seat.

DeVito, who will seek the Democratic nomination in the next election, is a member of the Jamesport-South Jamesport Civic Association, has served on the Riverhead Board of Education, including a stint as president, and sits on the Riverhead Democratic Comittee.

She decided to run for a wide range of reasons, DeVito said. "I believe I have the qualifications of a lifetime of working in the public sector." She added that she knows a great deal about public sector budgets and finances.

In addition, DeVito said she is a consensus builder. "I really am very good at building coaltiions and bringing peope in on what is common ground, as opposed to being at odds with each other. We need to repair our town board -- and I can help accomplish that." 

Issues DeVito believes need a hard look include taxing downtown, which makes it hard for small businesses to take root."One comes in, another goes out, like the ebb and flow of the tide," she said.

A recent discussion about parking downtown, DeVito said, prompted the question of why parking issues were not vetted years earlier, when the board was visioning how downtown Riverhead would look one day.

Finally, Devito said discussions need to be held about the town's sewer district -- and said many of the conversations should have been had sooner than later.

"I'm not sure if it’s not having the knowledge or looking at something from a different perspective and imagining all of the outcomes," she said. "You have to think about all of those things. I don't see a lot of common sense in town government. I see a lot of bickering. We have to get past that."

And, DeVito said, candidates should not be chosen "because they're popular faces and good guys. They should have good skills."

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