Daily PointThursday meeting may lead to ouster, sources say
Controversy is swirling around the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency — and a shake-up in the agency’s leadership may come soon, sources tell The Point.
Fireworks may fly as soon as the agency’s Thursday meeting, the sources confirm.
That could lead to the ouster of county IDA Executive Director Kelly Murphy, who has been with the IDA in different roles since 2015, but has recently had disagreements and hostilities with others at the agency, including other board members and Deputy Director Joseph Rastello.
“I just don’t think she’s going to be around that much longer,” one political insider told The Point. “It might be an explosive board meeting. It’s a big clock that’s ticking and ready to go off.”
Other sources, however, noted that it’s possible that Murphy’s departure may not come this week, as the IDA may wait until definitive succession plans are in place. The IDA’s executive director is appointed by the board but does not have a defined term.
If Murphy is indeed forced out of the agency, there’s talk that the IDA board may eventually replace her with current Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter.Â
 All of this comes against a political backdrop, as there’s been an ongoing effort to remake the IDA board. The Suffolk County Legislature earlier this month approved two new IDA members — Christopher Nuzzi and George Schwertl, both Republicans who’ve also had Conservative Party support and have business experience — to join the board, replacing Democrats Brian Beedenbender and Sondra Cochran. Sources told The Point that the legislature also expects to soon choose a replacement for outgoing IDA board member Josh Slaughter, who is running for the Assembly.
Behind the chaos is, in part, debate over what the IDA’s mission and goals should be, including the question of whether the county IDA should be approving tax breaks and other incentives for multifamily housing, and what the impact of such multifamily housing is on public schools. A report shared with the board last year found that multifamily housing is generating “modest” gains in student population and has a “net positive fiscal impact.” Developers have long said that the only way they can secure financing, especially for projects with truly affordable housing, is with some tax benefits. But some elected officials and area residents have objected to such tax incentive packages. Remaking the IDA, sources say, could give Suffolk Republicans and Conservatives more of a role in determining what’s approved — and what’s not.
Others, however, said they think Murphy hasn’t done enough to bring new companies and economic development to the county — and that new leadership could lead the IDA to focus on job creation and other efforts.
“The idea for IDAs is to attract new businesses, grow existing businesses and in turn create new jobs and opportunities, to create more private investment into our communities,” said a Suffolk GOP source. “I believe the way the legislature and the [county] executive have moved forward, that it reflects that type of mentality and approach … It’s a great addition of skill sets that are coming to the IDA. And the IDA will make its decisions on staffing there.”
That source noted that Murphy has not made the effort to meet with the Suffolk Legislature since Republicans took control in 2022.
Murphy did not return calls for comment.
Even if Murphy’s departure isn’t imminent, officials are already thinking ahead — and Carpenter is among those being discussed, sources confirmed.
“If she is interested in a position with the IDA, she certainly has the ability, temperament and experience to lead that agency,” the county GOP source said, adding that Carpenter has also expressed interest in the chief executive position at the Long Island Association. “I would advocate for her at the LIA, and if she expressed interest at the IDA, I’d advocate for her there too.”
Said Carpenter: “I’m very honored to have these votes of confidence, as they reflect the successes I’ve had both at the town and Suffolk County, and I will continue to work hard every day for the public I serve.”
— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com
Pencil PointHit and miss 
Credit: Creators.com / Michael P. Ramirez
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Final PointDick Amper, a heavyweight in Long Island environmentalism and politics 
Dick Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, in 2018. Credit: Barry Sloan
Without Dick Amper, the entirety of Long Island might have been developed, the way Suffolk County Legis. Steve Englebright sees it.
Englebright said Amper, the executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, who died Monday at 81, kept Long Island from becoming coast-to-coast urban development by calling out people who didn’t hold the same conviction to protect clean water.
His legacy includes spearheading the Long Island Pine Barrens Act, which preserved 106,000 acres of land atop Long Island’s sole source water aquifer. That happened largely due to Amper’s bellicose attacks on politicians, real estate developers and even fellow environmentalists who stood in the way.
In the early 1980s, environmentalism was largely considered a fringe movement and needed a megaphone. In Amper, Long Island’s environmental movement got a bullhorn and a bulldozer — not for clearing land but for clearing opposition to land preservation.
Amper bragged that it once took six cops and the county GOP leader to get him out of a meeting with construction unions. He called politicians “rats” and “exasperated the hell out of them.” Another leader said Amper “vilifies people” who disagree with him. And in 2018, he called for the resignation of the Central Pine Barrens Commission chairman.
And yet, Amper displayed the political acumen of a Washington insider. He could pack a town hall with supporters and infuriated developers who had to spend millions on lawsuits and environmental studies. But when they buckled, he would invite them to the society’s annual gala to be feted as a hero of the cause, Englebright said.
Take former Suffolk GOP power broker Edwin “Buzz” Schwenk, who died in 2009. Schwenk was a “hard-nosed developer,” Englebright said, who was viewed with “deep suspicion” by environmentalists. In stepped Amper.
“As it turns out, Buzz had a sense of caring about the land, and Dick detected that in him,” Englebright said. “He had Buzz Schwenk … basically working on preserving the pine barrens inside a year.”
Michael LoGrande, a former Republican Suffolk County executive and Islip Town supervisor, wrote in a 1990 letter to The New York Times that Amper was a P.T. Barnum-type con artist angling for a political career of his own. When LoGrande died in 2018, Amper told Newsday LoGrande was “one of the most important players ever in saving the pine barrens to protect water quality.”
Amper graduated from Great Neck South High School in 1963, and when he and his wife moved to Lake Panamoka in the pine barrens, they successfully defeated a housing development in the early 1970s, spurring a career in environmentalism. He later thwarted an attempt by developers to establish a village in Northampton in the pine barrens in the early 1980s, Englebright said.
Because Amper advocated for clean water, he had outsized influence, longtime Republican strategist Michael Dawidziak told The Point. “Nobody is opposed to clean drinking water, and that gave him political clout,” Dawidziak said.
Amper had a publicist’s ability to clarify difficult subjects succinctly. “Nobody voted to raise their taxes in order to lower them,” Amper was quoted as saying in a 1996 New York Times story about Suffolk’s plan to use money designated for the pine barrens to plug a budget deficit. He repeated slogans like “We mean business about the environment” and “It’s the drinking water, stupid.”
“He was fearless,” Englebright said.
— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com
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