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Tom Croci- Islip Town Supervisor

May 11, 2012 @ 12:00 am EDT


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The new supervisor of Islip, Tom Croci was our speaker this morning. Every changing of the guard has surprises that appear after the transition. Islip was no exception. But Tom went into this election knowing that hard decisions would have to be made.

 

The problem with cutting costs is that there is usually a good rationale for creating a service or a department. Therefore cutting something out of the budget means hurting good programs. Mr. Croci has taken the stance that in many cases you can strip a program of some if the administration costs and still retain the program by consolidating departments. That is what he has done in some cases.

 

Revenues on the other hand can be enhanced, not by raising taxes, but by marketing useful services that bring revenues to business such as the Free Trade Zone. The utilization has risen to 80% from 14% in a few short months.

 

Creating awareness that there is urgency in solving problems is useful in getting things to change, according to Croci. Doing so with a team approach where people feel that they are part of a big picture helps create the right attitudes. Whether they are appointed or unionized public service workers, adept leadership will get you where you need to go. Croci told us that so far the unions are cooperative, and seem to understand the urgency as well everybody else.

 

Another area that can be made to be more of a municipal contributor is the airport. “This will not be another JFK or LaGuardia but the level of service we had in the past should be maintained.” We have one major airline, Southwest, and while that has been a good service the planes have been packed and other airlines could come in and take on direct routes that Southwest is not interested in serving.