Former judge picked to head parks dept.

Former Nassau County Family Court Judge Carnell Foskey has been picked to be the county’s new commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Museums.

Pending the county legislature’s approval, the 54-year-old Republican, who lost his bid for re-election to family court last year, will replace Commissioner Jose Lopez, who will stay on as deputy commissioner.

“Nassau’s parks are historic and known nationwide. Restoring their former glory is a focus of my administration, and with Carnell Foskey in place as commissioner I am confident we will be taking a tremendous step in that direction,” said Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano in a statement.

This will be yet another first for Foskey, who spent the majority of his career going up the ranks in Nassau’s court system: in 1991, when the Lakeview resident won a district court judgeship, he had the distinction of being the youngest person elected to the position. Similarly, when Foskey was appointed supervising judge of the family court in January 2005, he became the first African-American to be named to the position, according to the New York State Unified Court System website.

In November, Foskey lost his run for the position of supervising judge to Democrat Robin Kent, 56 to 44 percent.

Prior to serving in Nassau County’s court system, Foskey worked for the Town of Hempstead in several capacities. He was first employed as the Interim Commissioner of Planning and Economic Development and later served as the executive assistant to the town’s presiding supervisor.

In 1988, Foskey ran for political office as a member of the State Assembly and lost to Earlene Hooper. He earned a Doctorate of Jurispridence from California Western School of Law, a Master’s degree in tax law from Boston University and a Bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Comments about this story? LLandor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205.