East Hampton Welcomes New Town Manager

Earlier in the day Town Council Chairwoman Sue Weintraub was wondering what it was she would say when introducing East Hampton’s new Town Manager Mike Maniscalco at the council meeting on Tuesday night.

It was a billboard that proved to be a sign in more ways than one.

It read: Dream. Achieve. Succeed.

“That’s really what I know, Mr. Maniscalco, you’re going to help this town do,” Weintraub said.

Weintraub went on to say that Maniscalco had a lot of challenges before him but a lot of opportunities, too.

Maniscalco, the of the town council in May, appears ready to tackle both.

East Hampton’s first permanent town manager in 22 months was met with a round of applause, with many standing, a sign the town has embraced his arrival and is ready to move on.

Maniscalco, whose first day on the job was Monday, began by saying how very proud and excited he was to be here, then pointed out three women in attendance who are very important in his life, his wife Sabohat, grandmother Beverly and mom, Donna.

“This doesn’t happen without their help,” he said.

There will be another very important female in Maniscalco’s life in October with the birth of his first child. Tuesday night, though, was about his newest family, the residents and employees of East Hampton.

“I am dedicated to creating an efficient and effective government through our town hall offices, through each department head and through each staff individual that we have in the town,” Maniscalco said. “To make sure that we’re responsive and to make sure that we’re open and there to respond to whatever anybody comes through the door with. I am very dedicated to making sure that we have a respectful workplace for all town employees. That they all feel their work is valued, that their input is valued and that it’s not just thrown off to the side.”

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Maniscalco, who will earn $115,000, had as the executive director of the Lincoln and Logan County Development Partnership (LLCDP) in Illinois. LLCDP is a nonprofit organization charged with leading economic development with several communities with a combined population of 30,000.

Though this is his first opportunity to run a municipality, Maniscalco, 30, wasn’t at all naïve about the differences of opinion that are bound to arise.

“To the council I’ll say I’m sure we’re going to disagree at some point, and even the town I’ll say we’re going to disagree at certain points, and that’s OK,” the Trumbull native said. “I think it’s a probably a good thing we have those discussions. The one thing that I will ask is that we always remember we all have the best interests of East Hampton at heart and we continue to make sure that’s there and we bring that forward.”

Maniscalco thanked the council and Finance Director Jeff Jylkka, who had been the most recent to fill the role of acting Town Manager.

“Jeff’s been great with the transition process,” he said.

Jylkka was the fourth acting or interim town manager East Hampton had since the resignation of Jeffrey O'Keefe in September 2010. Bob Drewry, John Weichsel and Anne McKinney were the others.

O'Keefe resigned during the controversy surrounding his attempted ouster of Police Chief Matt Reimondo and elimination of the police chief position altogether. The Chief was reinstated following a referendum in November 2010 by a vote of 3,701 to 1,617.

Before the council continued with the agenda, Vice Chairman Glenn Suprono had something to share, taking those in attendance back to January, when the town hosted a forum to discuss the skills, experience and qualities it would like to see in its next town manager.

“At the end of this little forum we had probably about at least 100 line items of what they wanted in a town manager,” Suprono said. “At the end of that I made a statement, ‘With all these line items that you people are saying, this guy should wear a red cape.’ Well, that got published. One of the 30 people that came to us to apply for this position, who was totally awesome, brought me a present. I brought that with me tonight and I hereby present to you this awesome present.”

With that, Suprono took out a red cape with the Superman logo on it and gave it to Maniscalco.

“If it’s OK I’ll keep it in my desk drawer and pull it out only in emergencies,” Maniscalco said.

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