By Angela Marshall
By the time an issue reaches the village's monthly board meeting, Anthony Cancellieri has already had his say.
For 14 years, Cancellieri has been the maestro of village affairs.
Working closely with good friend Mayor Eugene Murray and a sometimes divided board, the village administrator has helped shape Rockville Centre, revamping departments, cutting staff, building programs and holding the line on taxes.
A tough leader, he has antagonized some but rallied far more.
Next month Cancellieri is leaving.
Nassau County executive-elect Tom Suozzi hopes Cancellieri can do for the county what he did for Rockville Centre.
In the beginning
Cancellieri was an unknown commodity when a newly-elected Mayor Murray brought him on board in 1987. He was a last-minute entry in the long-standing guessing game surrounding the open office, which had been vacated by his predecessor almost a year before.
He was a real dark horse, said Jeff Greenfield, a member of the board that hired the village administrator. And Greenfield, who recently praised the village administrator, has no regrets about their choice.
Cancellieri had just completed two years as the assistant commissioner for administration in the New York City Department of Finance and before that served for five years as assistant commissioner and director of personnel in the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
While he had no experience running a village, Cancellieri was eager for the challenge and had impressed the board with his ideas.
Due to the previous lack in leadership, the village's staff was in confusion and prone to indecisiveness, Cancellieri said. Rockville Centre was very close to having its bond rating lowered by Moody's.
The board had some grave concerns about the integrity of the numbers, Cancellieri said during an interview with the Herald last week.
Within the first week, the Mayor asked Cancellieri to meet with the bond rating company. His mission to convince the experts that he knew how to run a successful village.
They bought into my vision, Cancellieri said. And they have been buying it ever since. Rockville Centre is one of only six municipalities to have earned Moody's AAA3 bond rating.
The administrator began holding biweekly meetings with department heads. I wanted them to feel part of a team, he said. It was important for me to provide leadership and direction.
He soon recruited Michael Schussheim a fellow New York City employee as a part of the village's finance department and later made him comptroller. Cancellieri called hiring Schussheim one of the best decisions he ever made and said he was like a brother.
Cancellieri conducted a department by department review. He trimmed fat, cutting out 20 percent of village positions, which led to protests by village workers.
He began running the village like a business. And always, he would ask himself, Is there a way to make things work better?
But it wouldn't have worked, the administrator said, if he hadn't been balanced by Mayor Murray, who focused on keeping RVC's small-town feel. One of the best things that happened to me was working with a fellow named Gene Murray, Cancellieri said.
The men were soon talking everyday, each learning what it would take to run a village. I've probably spent more time with the mayor over the past 14 years than my own family, Cancellieri said. One of the hardest things I've had to do was inform the mayor [that I was leaving].
The mayor recalled all the long nights he spent working with Cancellieri on one project or another and said he will cherish the last 14 years. Murray talked positively about the village's future but said of Cancellieri's departure, It's going to be a tremendous loss.
Cancellieri is approaching his departure in much the same way he did his arrival with department by department reviews. He doesn't want his successor to find the village in the same listless doldrums that he first encountered.
Instead, Cancellieri is holding transition meetings, creating snapshots of where each department is and leaving a road map for his successor to follow or use as a springboard for his own course of action.
The board has yet to select an interim administrator. But Murray said they will launch a nationwide search for Cancellieri's successor through all the traditional means.
Whoever the board hires, Cancellieri said, will be working with one of the best staffs around. We have an incredibly talented and hardworking staff.
Members of his staff were equally glowing in their praise. During Monday's board meeting, Schussheim recounted the many times over the years that Cancellieri came to him with an idea that the comptroller would tell him was impossible. And Cancellieri with a twinkle in his eye would say,
