Election 2015: Meet Your Riverhead Town Candidates
Town Assessor, full-time, two open seats
Candidates:
Mason Haas
Hamlet: Jamesport
Occupation: Assessor
Party lines: Republican, Conservative, Independence, Reform
About him: Mr. Haas, 60, was appointed to the role of assessor in 2007 and won re-election four years later. The Amityville native moved to Westhampton Beach, where he attended school before enrolling in Suffolk County Community College. He eventually settled in Jamesport to raise a family with his wife. The couple ran a title company for 27 years before Mr. Haas took his current job. He has been an active volunteer with the Jamesport Fire Department, Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps and Heidi’s Helping Angels.
His pitch: A former Republican chairman, Mr. Haas was forced to choose between his job and his party seat this year after the Town Board passed legislation preventing elected officials from serving in political leadership roles. He opted for re-election. Mr. Haas said that because the town was using an outside company to deal with grievances, changes he helped implement have, over time, saved taxpayers $2.4 million in outside counsel fees and in fighting grievances.
In his words: “I look forward, with support of the voters, to continue serving as their assessor, implementing additional savings and streamlining of the office with the level of professionalism that the residents of Riverhead expect and deserve.”
Gregory-John Fischer
Hamlet: Calverton
Occupation: Business strategy consultant, investor, inventor
Party lines: Democrat, Independence
About him: Mr. Fischer, 58, has three degrees in business and over 30 years’ experience in the business consulting industry. He has run for public office on a variety of levels, from state comptroller to state senator to town supervisor to school board. In 2012, he won a race for a Suffolk County Democratic Committee seat. His campaign has largely been self-funded, he said, making him a “non-beholden and non-conflicted candidate.”
His pitch: Mr. Fischer has proposed a “tax amnesty” plan he says would fill part of the town’s budget gap and help avoid future tax increases. He would also like to enact blighting/vacancy surcharges to prevent abandoned homes from compromising surrounding property values. While many view the assessor’s position as ministerial, Mr. Fischer sees the office as a springboard to “improve safety, proliferate long-run tax reform, spur jobs and stimulate our local economy.”
In his words: “Voters want visionary new assessors who will do all the work necessary. That new-style assessor would be Greg Fischer.”
Paul Leszczynski
Hamlet: Aquebogue
Occupation: Assessor
Party lines: Republican, Conservative, Reform
About him: Mr. Leszczynski, 69, has lived in Riverhead since he was four years old and, upon high school graduation, served in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret. After his service, he owned a real estate title business for 15 years then left that industry for a decade to work as a funeral director. He won a special election for the assessor position in 1998 and has been re-elected four times since. He and his wife live in Aquebogue.
His pitch: Mr. Leszczynski points to his background in the title industry, thorough knowledge of the exemptions the town administers and the sense of teamwork he’s established over the years with fellow assessors Mason Haas and Laverne Tennenberg as reasons he deserves to remain in office. In addition, he lobbied the state to come up with a Cold War veterans exemption that would be added to the school portion of a property tax bill.
In his words: “This job takes somebody who knows the area and has a background in real estate.”
