Quinn Karpeh: ‘This will always be home’
Quinn Karpeh will leave his assessor’s post in April for a financial services job.
“This will always be home,” assessor Quinn Karpeh said referring to Shelter Island.
But it was learned Wednesday he will be leaving the state to accept a job in finance he describes as “in the exchange traded fund industry.”
Investopedia describes Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) as marketable securities that fluctuate in price on any given day and provide a higher daily liquidity and lower fees than mutual fund shares.
While an ETF owns the underlying assets of stocks, bonds, gold, currency and other financial products, its shareholders don’t directly own those assets, but get a portion of profits.
“It was a tough decision because this is home,” Mr. Karpeh said about the decision to leave Shelter Island and the assessor’s office. But it was not money that attracted him to the opportunity, he said.
“It’s something that fits my interests and skill sets,” he said, without naming the fund he’ll be joining.
“It was never my original intention” to leave the job to which he had been elected in 2015, Mr. Karpeh said.
His parents still split their time between the Island and New York City and his two younger sisters spend holidays and most vacation times here, Mr. Karpeh said, promising to visit regularly.
Word of his pending departure in April came from Supervisor Jim Dougherty in a press release Wednesday.
“In his relatively short time in this important position, he has served the town well,” Mr. Dougherty said.
The Town Board is “actively discussing next steps in filling Quinn’s shoes, in consultation with BJ Ianfolla and Pat Castoldi,” Mr. Dougherty said.
When Mr. Karpeh was elected as an assessor in November 2015, the same year that assessor Al Hammond announced his retirement as an assessor after 15 years, the three-member team of Mr. Karpeh, Ms. Ianfolla and Ms. Castoldi took shared responsibilities for the initial year.
In a reorganization announced during the budgeting season last fall, Ms. Ianfolla announced that Mr. Karpeh would be taking over the full-time role in the assessors office while she and Ms. Castoldi would be cutting back their hours.
Mr. Karpeh and Ms. Ianfolla were both on the ballot for assessor and both were cross-endorsed by Republicans and Democrats in November 2015.
From the time Mr. Karpeh stepped onto the stage as an elected official, there has been speculation that someday he might seek the supervisor’s job.
He has also been a member of the Green Options Advisory Committee and recently became a member of the Shelter Island Library Board of Directors in January for a three-year term.
