The North Hempstead town council unanimously approved the hiring of Elmont resident Averil Smith Tuesday as its comptroller.
Smith, a certified public accountant, had previously been controller at the watch manufacturer MZ Berger Inc. and ABC Home Furnishings, and spent 11 years as an auditor and three years at the professional services firm Ernst & Young.
“My administration is committed to fiscal stability and I am confident that Averil can lead our comptroller’s office with the conservative eye necessary to keep the town on a strong financial foundation,” North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said in a statement following the Town Council meeting. “I believe her previous experience and success at a host of reputable private companies will translate well to municipal government.
Smith is expected to start after Labor Day, town officials said.
“I look forward to joining the Town of North Hempstead and working with the supervisor, town board and staff, as we continue to build on the town’s strong financial legacy,” Smith said in a statement.
Bosworth said Tuesday that the town was fortunate to have hired Smith prior to the start of its budgetary hearings.
In 2014, North Hempstead’s budget was developed with assistance from former Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman, who had been retained by the town as a financial advisor, and Deputy Supervisor Aline Khatchadourian, who was previously the town’s director of finance.
In other developments:
• The Town Council tabled a hearing on an amendment to its zoning code limiting garage and yard sales at residences to up to four instances at three days at a time each year, citing the law had not yet received clearance from the Nassau County Planning Commission.
Bosworth said the board hopes to vote on the law during the council’s Sept. 29 meeting.
• The council approved an amended site plan for a two-story, 4,320 square-foot office building on three acres at 8 Harbor Park Drive in Port Washington with various parking and curb-cut conditions, paving the way for an agreement to commence for the Roslyn School District to store its buses on the site’s 56,000 square-foot parking lot.
Because the plan has a condition suggesting no vehicles may be stored on the property, the school district needed a council resolution for exemption from the condition.
Roslyn school officials said the district plans to begin storing buses at the site as soon as next week, when classes begin.
Reach reporter Bill San Antonio by e-mail at bsanantonio@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516.307.1045 x215 or on Twitter @Bill_SanAntonio. Also follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
