DeVito decides she wants another shot at supervisor; Northville Beach civic leader wants to run for council

Two civic association presidents have decided to toss their hats in the ring for local office this year.

Jamesport-South Jamesport Civic president Angela DeVito, who ran on the Democratic line for town supervisor in 2013, has decided to give it another go this year and Northville Beach Civic Association president Neil Krupnick is seeking the Democratic nod for councilman.

DeVito had said she would not run again this year, but changed her mind, she said this afternoon.

“There’s so much work to be done. I’ve been watching our town government closely and it’s very frustrating to see the dysfunction,” DeVito said. “It’s time for a change. The people of Riverhead deserve better.”

Krupnick was approached by the Riverhead Democratic Committee’s screening committee chairman, John Stefans, who said he reached out to him to ask him to screen for a council seat because he’s done a great job organizing opposition to the United Riverhead Terminal special permit application. After twice facing a packed town hall meeting room and listening to more than six hours of testimony in opposition to the terminal’s plan to store gasoline at the Northville site, board members — who had been generally supportive of the proposal — seem to have reversed course.

“My wife and I care about this town very deeply,” Krupnick said in a phone interview this afternoon. “I want to be able to do eveyhing I can to help make it better.”

Krupnick, owner of a television and film production company, said getting involved with the URT fight was eye-opening. “But I’m not doing this to sent a message about the terminal,” he said. “It helped me see the way things work around here. It seems like we always take one step forward and then two steps back.”

He and his wife have moved to Riverhead in 2008. “I think sometimes an outsider’s perspective can be helpful,” he said. “We bought here because we fell in love with the area. We don’t want to regret it.”

“We know this town has the bones for success,” Krupnick said. “We’ve unfortunately seen other places do it better and sometimes with not as much going for them.”

Also screening with the Democrats for supervisor are Anthony Coates of Riverhead, Gregory Fischer of Calverton and Glenn Friedman of South Jamesport.

Coates sought the Republican nomination for council in 2013 with the support of incumbent Supervisor Sean Walter, for whom Coates formerly worked as a paid political adviser.

Fischer has in the past run for council, supervisor, assessor, state senator and school district trustee. Fischer has also indicated interest in running for council or assessor this year, Stefans said.

Both Coates and Fischer are self-employed consultants.

Friedman is a retired sales and marketing executive for Clipper Magazine, where he worked for 16 years prior to retirement. Stefans said on March 12 Friedman was going to screen for a council seat, but said today he was mistaken about that; Friedman wants to run for supervisor, Stefans said.

The addition of Krupnick brings to six the number of people seeking one of the two council spots on the Democratic ticket: Greg Fischer, Tim Hubbard, Laura Jens-Smith and Denise Lucas.

Hubbard, an Aquebogue resident, is a recently retired Riverhead Town Police detective. He said he is running because he’s not happy with how things are being done in town hall.

“The way the town board behaves — I think the people deserve better,” he said. “It seems their interests are not with the people of the town.”

Laura Jens-Smith of Laurel, a nurse by training, works as a project coordinator for the North Fork Alliance, a Greenport-based organization dedicated to substance abuse prevention among youth. Smith has been a member of the Mattituck-Cutchogue Board of Education for the past four years; her Laurel neighborhood lies within the Mattituck-Cutchogue school district though it is located in the Town of Riverhead. She said today she’d like to run because “the town could use some improvement” and she’d like to be part of the process to bring about change.

Riverhead Move the Animal Shelter founder Denise Lucas said she was inspired to run after dealing with the town board in her pursuit of a new animal shelter for the town. She said she saw too many decisions made for the wrong reasons or just not made at all.

“We need a fresh start in Riverhead,” Lucas said in a recent phone interview.

Lucas, who lives in Riverhead, works as a parts salesperson for Otis Ford in Quogue. In addition to raising money toward the goal of building a new animal shelter, she has raised funds to furnish two new dog parks in the town.