Another high-level N. Hempstead staffer departing from town

Carole Trottere, communications director for the Town of North Hempstead, will retire near the end of the month from her job as the town’s chief spokeswoman.

Trottere, 63, of East Setauket, started in the town in 2014. Her last day is Dec. 27.

“I’ve been doing public relations since the late 1990s. . . . I just want a quiet life,” Trottere said of her upcoming retirement. “I really enjoyed working with so many people in the town. I’m going to miss the people here.”

While the town searches for her replacement, Trottere, whose annual salary is $120,573, said she has agreed to serve as a consultant, though a contract has yet to be finalized.

“I was not accepting Carole’s retirement until she agreed to stay on as a consultant,” Supervisor Judi Bosworth said Friday in a statement. “Carole has done such an amazing job as director of communications. All of our Town residents have benefited from her unique ability to communicate what is happening in our Town.”

Trottere’s announcement makes her the most recent town official to leave a high-level position, one month after the resignation of Robert Lange, who had been executive director of the town’s Solid Waste Management Authority.

Since December 2018, more than one-third of North Hempstead’s department heads and senior staff have left their jobs, including the highway superintendent, who quit in July, four months after taking the position.

The positions for public works commissioner and highway superintendent remain vacant. Both departments are being led by acting chiefs.

Since Aline Khatchadourian left in January, the job of deputy town supervisor was never filled. Town Attorney Elizabeth Botwin was replaced by Leonard Kapsalis, and Arnyce Foster-Hernandez took over the town’s Department of Parks and Recreation after Jill Weber’s retirement.

Bosworth, who declined to comment Friday on the unusually high turnover, said in October that the town has a “great staff” and that turnover in government is common.

“People move on to other opportunities and challenges and others chose to retire,” Bosworth said in a statement then. “We’ve had a little of both here. . . . It’s part of life and of running a government with 419 full-time employees.”

A job posting on the town website described the communications director position as one that “will create, implement and direct the communications strategy” for 220,000 residents, nine elected officials and a dozen town departments.

With Trottere’s departure, the town has one remaining spokeswoman, Rebecca Cheng.