Islip board votes to appoint new town assessor Tuesday night

Islip on Tuesday named its first female town assessor, who will take over the position Saturday.

Anne M. Danziger, 50, of Bohemia, replaces Ronald F. Devine, Islip Town officials said. He held the position 27 years and took a job in neighboring Brookhaven Town.

Danziger, whose salary has been $82,000 per year as a senior assistant town attorney in the Islip town attorney's office, will get a bump to $101,000, Islip Town officials said.

Devine, 58, of Bayport, will make $112,000 per year in Brookhaven, an $11,000 jump from his salary in Islip, officials have said.

Danziger, who earned her law degree at Pace University School of Law in White Plains and a bachelor of science degree in biology from upstate Union College, was appointed by the Islip Town Board to finish the remainder of Devine's six-year term, which ends Sept. 30, 2019, she said.

She has worked in the Islip town attorney's office since September 2001, according to her resume.

The Brookhaven Town Board last month voted to appoint Devine as its deputy town tax assessor, where Devine is in line to succeed Brookhaven's assessor, James Ryan.

Devine resigned his Islip post the next day and attributed his move to "a career advancement," where he'll be working in a larger town. He is set to start his new position Monday.

Three Islip Town Board members -- Supervisor Angie Carpenter and Councilmen John C. Cochrane Jr. and Steven J. Flotteron -- voted to approve Danziger's appointment at Tuesday night's Town Board meeting.

Councilman Anthony S. Senft Jr. made a motion to table the appointment, calling for "transparency" and saying he needed more time to vet all the candidates who submitted resumes for the position. Councilwoman Trish Bergin Weichbrodt seconded Senft's motion, but the motion died when the pair failed to get a third vote.

Carpenter then motioned to approve the resolution, which passed with three votes.

Senft declined to comment after the meeting.

Bergin Weichbrodt said the decision to appoint Danziger wasn't discussed with the board members and that she was given Danziger's resume at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

"I don't know how I do my job in an informed manner if there is no transparency among the board and all the applicants' resumes are not being brought forward to all the board members," Bergin Weichbrodt said after the meeting.

Carpenter said after the meeting that the position was advertised on the town's website and seven applicants submitted resumes. She said Senft sent her an email about the open position in early August but she never heard from him about it again.

"It's really funny, you know, as engaged as the town board members want to be, they certainly are welcome to be so," Carpenter said. "I'm not going to go chasing them down. No one really expressed much of an interest . . . it's the summertime, they weren't really around much."