Change on Tap for Brookhaven's 6th Council District

With long-time Councilman Daniel Panico running for town supervisor, there will be a change in representation for Brookhaven’s 6th District, with voters having the choice between attorney and planning board member Karen Dunne Kesnig and Kerry Spooner, the founder of Sound Justice Initiative.

Supported by Panico to succeed him, Dunne has served on the Eastport-South Manor School Board for 22 years and has been the president of the Manorville Chamber of Commerce since 2005. Running on the Republican and Conservative lines, she’s been in private practice for 38 years specializing in estate matters. Spooner, a Democrat also running on the Working Families line, has 20 years of experience teaching in higher education and has worked in various positions with Suffolk County, according to her on-line bio. She did not respond to requests for additional information about her campaign.

“It's been a really interesting experience being part of the planning board,” Dunne said. “I've learned a lot about the Town of Brookhaven and the good and the bad regarding development issues and the red tape people have to go through, some of which I think is ridiculous, but some of which is certainly needed.” She put town planning into two categories: preserving open space in the eastern part of the district and revitalizing properties in the west.

As a member of the board of education, Dunne admitted that she wasn’t liked by everyone saying, “but that didn't really matter to me. What mattered to me was the kids and the taxpayers and trying to do what was best for whoever's out there and that would be the same way I would look at this.”

If elected, Dunne would not only follow in the footsteps of Panico, but also Keith Romaine, the son of the current Brookhaven supervisor, Edward Romaine, who passed away suddenly in 2010. “I've worked with Dan since he and Keith came door to door way back when soliciting my oldest daughter to be a Young Republican,” the Manorville resident remembered. I got to know them through the years. I believe Dan knows that I'm an independent thinker, that I can think on my feet,” Dunne said, adding “I’m not about being warm and fuzzy, which is probably not a nice thing to say about yourself, but it's a strength and a weakness. I really don't care about offending people; I’m more about what the issues are and making the tough choices. Once I set my mind to something I have always succeeded in anything I've ever done, whether it was running for student council during law school or college or the school board.”

Karen Dunne Kesnig File Photo

In a candid interview with the South Shore Press Editorial Board, Dunne said she never aspired to serve on the town board, “but the more I learned about it, and as time's gone on, I'm really excited at the possibility.” According to the candidate, “I've never been particularly political. I've always been a registered Republican, I still very much am, but that's not how I make my decisions. My decisions are based on what I think is right based on the facts and the information that I have before me.”

In addition to development and land preservation, a key issue Dunne said the town has to grapple with is the closure of the town landfill. “I've certainly been trying over the past month or so to educate myself a lot more about it and I know it's probably one of, if not the most important issues, that we'll be dealing with in terms of both what are we going to do about it and how we're going to make up the revenue that we no longer get when the landfill is no longer there. It's going to take all six of us, plus our supervisor, to make those decisions,” she said.

Kerry Spooner File Photo

Selected by the GOP over other hopefuls from the Mastic-Shirley Area, which makes up the bulk of the 6th District population-wise, Dunne noted, “In the few months since I've been a candidate I have spent a lot of time going to events and different things in the Tri-Hamlet area–the Mastic Beach Property Owners Association, the firehouse, the different community groups–and it seems there are a lot more issues that need to be addressed in that area than anywhere else,” Dunne said, pointing out that she’s met with the Pattersquash Civic Association where Seventh Precinct officers discuss public safety issues each month. “There's some really tough stuff that people in those communities have to deal with that obviously I want to learn a lot more about to help them.”

As the founder of the Sound Justice non-profit, Dr. Spooner helps provide post-secondary education services to justice-involved people, including teaching college-oriented liberal arts courses in Suffolk County jails, the online information states. She “works to equip people with the soft skills required to improve individual and family economic and social upward mobility,” a campaign flier states. Previously, Spooner worked for Suffolk County Department of Labor, Licensing & Consumer Affairs in the Suffolk Works Employment Program where she worked to decrease unemployment.

“We need a town board that is accountable to ALL of Brookhaven,” Spooner’s literature says. “Too many people are left out of, and discouraged from participating in, town board discussions and its decision-making process. We need those communities traditionally excluded and everyday working people who struggle financially to support themselves and their families at the table. Our town deserves effective economic public policy that restores and sustains our environment here in Brookhaven.”