Thursday, October 1, 2026
Imagine preparing to vote in an important election. You do your homework, weigh the positions of the candidates, and are set to make your voice heard. But before you can cast your ballot, you find out that the decision has already been made behind closed doors, without your input, without a vote, and without any accountability.
That is exactly what is happening right now in the Town of Hempstead.
Supervisor Donald Clavin is stepping down early. That is his decision. But what is unacceptable, and frankly unethical, is the Town Board’s apparent plan to skip over the voters and quietly appoint his handpicked successor, Nassau County Legislator John Ferretti, to the job just months before an election. That is not leadership; it is manipulation.
The strategy is clear. Ferretti is already running for town supervisor in November. If the board appoints him now, he will get to run as an incumbent. That means the full benefits of the job — the title, taxpayer-funded mailers, public appearances and media coverage — all before he has earned a single vote. It is a political cheat code, and it is rigged against the public.
If this plan moves forward, it would not be the first time. In fact, it would mark the seventh time in the last 11 successions that a Hempstead town supervisor was chosen not by voters, but by party insiders. This is not an isolated incident; it is a pattern. And it should concern anyone who values democracy and transparency.
When people say the system is rigged, this is exactly what they’re talking about.
Let’s be clear. There is already someone in place who should step in: Senior Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, the longest-serving member of the Town Board and the current deputy supervisor. So why look outside the board to appoint a new supervisor? Because a sitting supervisor controls the town’s messaging, appears on every official mailer and gets to shape the public narrative. Giving that platform to one candidate while denying it to the other is not just unfair, it is anti-democratic.
The truth is, this kind of one-party rule is exactly what brought us the largest tax hike in recent history. While the insiders maneuver for power behind closed doors, the public is left with the bill — literally. The same group that wants to install a supervisor without your vote just passed a property tax increase on your home of over 12 percent. That is the cost of unchecked control, and it is time we said “enough.”
This town deserves better than secret deals and insider politics. The supervisor’s office belongs to the people, not the party bosses. That’s why I have proposed straightforward ethics reform to ban these kinds of appointments in the future. Under my proposal, if a supervisor steps down early, the deputy supervisor would serve as the interim replacement, and the voters, not the board, would choose a new leader in the next scheduled election or a special one.
Simple, fair, democratic. It is similar to what former supervisor, now U.S. Rep. Laura Gillen proposed, but was rejected by Clavin’s allies on the board. That’s why we need new blood.
When the same party holds power for decades, it gets comfortable and careless. It stops asking for your vote and starts making decisions in the shadows. But democracy demands more than backroom deals and power swaps. It demands accountability. It demands integrity. And most of all, it demands that we trust the voters to decide who leads them.
To every resident in the Town of Hempstead: Your vote should never be treated as a formality. It should be the only thing that matters. Let’s make sure it stays that way.
Joe Scianablo is the Democratic candidate for Town of Hempstead supervisor.
