Gooding to join Town Board Tuesday

Where’s Gordon Gooding? Islanders know he was elected to fill the fifth seat on the Town Board, albeit for only a year before he will have to run again if he wants to stake a claim on a full four-year term of his own.

But the election this year gave him a comfortable win over two opponents, Tom Cronin and Lisa Shaw. So a month after the election, why hasn’t he taken his seat at the table?

Election law clearly stipulates he is eligible to start his single-year term as soon as the results are finalized by the Suffolk County Board of Elections. And therein lies the answer to his absence from the board, so far.

Even though his win was clear on Nov. 5, the night of the election, and no one has challenged the results, it has taken a month for the results on the County website to move from “unofficial” to “final.”

It happened overnight on Monday, and that prompted his former running mate, Councilman Benjamin Dyett, to request that Mr. Gooding be allowed to take his seat at the table at Tuesday’s Town Board work session.

Although it was a work session — where votes are rarely taken— and not a regular Board meeting, a vote revealed Councilman Albert Dickson, Mr. Gooding’s other former running mate in 2023, agreed with the motion and Deputy Supervisor Meg Larsen agreed. Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams was absent from the meeting.

But another question came up. Why wasn’t Mr. Gooding at the table for the remainder of the meeting? 

Right after casting her vote, Ms. Larsen noted that despite the posting on the Suffolk County Board of Elections website, written notice that Mr. Gooding’s win was certified had not yet reached Town Clerk Amber Wilson. In addition, it was expected the swearing in of the new Town Board member would officially happen at a special meeting on Tuesday.

It should be done right, Ms. Larsen noted. And what difference did it make if the election winner wasn’t seated until next week, Ms. Larsen asked her colleagues.

Town Attorney Stephen Kiely told the Town Board members they could hold a special meeting and swear Mr. Gooding in that day.  

Mr. Gooding agreed to wait until the Dec. 10 special meeting. Plans call for him to take the oath of office administered by one of the Town Justices — either Mary-Faith Westervelt or Stanley Birnbaum — Tuesday afternoon.