Democrat Joan Cergol won't seek reelection to seat on Huntington Town Board

Huntington Town Board member Joan Cergol said she will not seek reelection this fall for a second full term.

Cergol, 61, is the only woman and Democrat on the five-member board.

“I have adored the work I’ve done and the people I have done it for, for all these years,” Cergol said. “But I’ve come to a place now where I’m ready to apply the combined private sector-public sector knowledge base into new arenas, and I thought 2024 would be as good a time as any to start moving on that path.”

Cergol was appointed to the board in December 2017 to fill a seat vacated by Susan Berland, who was elected to the Suffolk County Legislature. She then ran in 2018 for the final year of Berland’s four-year term. In 2019, Cergol ran for a full four-year term.

Cergol began working for Huntington in 2002 when then-Town Supervisor Frank Petrone hired her to work in his office, where she remained for 11 years and served as an economic development specialist and in constituent services. In 2013 she was appointed director of Huntington’s community development agency, where she worked until being appointed to the town board.

Mark Cuthbertson, chairman of the Huntington Town Democratic Committee who served on the town board with Cergol from 2017 through 2021, told Newsday Cergol will be missed.

“She’s a tremendous public official and the party would have loved for her to run for re-election, but I certainly understand her personal choice to move on,” Cuthbertson said.

Cuthbertson said the committee will begin screening candidates next week for the committee’s slate for the 2023 election in the fall, including receiver of taxes and now two town board seats.

Cergol said she is humbled by her reputation as an accessible and effective public official. She thanked her colleagues and said she was especially grateful to the town’s “hardworking” staff.

“So many people that work without fanfare in the building and help us do our jobs to make us look good,” she said.

Cergol said she has not decided what she will do next.