Wooten Takes Preliminary Steps to Find Animal Shelter Head Replacement

Almost six months after animal shelter head Lou Coronesi started taking shots for saying a dog he had , Councilman Jim Wooten said on Wednesday he is "calling for a list" of qualified individuals to head the Youngs Avenue facility.

"In order to transfer a union employee, we have to get a list from the civil service union," said Wooten. "They mail us a list of people in the township who would qualify to re-fill the position – in this case of animal control officer 1, a position we would also have to re-establish after we abolished it."

Neither Supervisor Sean Walter nor Riverhead Civil Service Employee Association President Matt Hattorf could confirm whether Coronesi has expressed a desire to transfer, though Wooten said Coronesi is open to the possibility.

Wooten, the town board's liaison to the animal advisory committee, said as part of an effort to "create a better environment at the facility," he would like to see Coronesi transferred.

"He has brought on bad relationships with volunteers and staffing over there," Wooten said.

Hattorf came to Coronesi's defense on Wednesday, blaming animal shelter volunteers who he has said in the past "have nothing better to do" than to focus on Coronesi. 

"It would be a damn shame if he was transferred," Hattorf said. "All the guy does is his job. Because a few people (with RSVP) don't happen to like the guy, they make his life miserable."

RSVP is a group of animal advocates, many of whom volunteer at the shelter, have had contentious relationships with Coronesi and have been calling for his removal. Animal advocates have singled out Coronesi's past run-in with the law, particularly since it involved animals, going so far as to. However, the district attorney has declined to comment.

, which would have overseen Coronesi, but that effort fell by the wayside. He said he had hoped for a resolution at Wednesday's board meeting to make the required changes – namely, swapping Coronesi with former animal control officer Sean McCabe, who was transferred to the sewer district after his former position was abolished at the end of 2010.

Supervisor Walter said on Wednesday he was unsure if McCabe even wanted a transfer back to the shelter.

"There's opportunity for advancement in the sewer department that the shelter doesn't have," Walter said. "Sean has said he's happy. Michael Rieche, sewer department head, said Sean has asked to go to a certain school so why would he even want to go back?

"For the moment though, we can't do anything, because there's not a vacancy," he said.

Walter said that an ACO I would not adequately fill Coronesi's ACO II position since it must be supervised. Qualifications for ACO II, according to the Suffolk County Civil Service website, include either three years of paid experience caring for animals, or one year of permanent competitive status as an ACO I.