Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has realigned several executives in his administration, all of whom serve on the COVID-19 Recovery Task Force.
Lisa Black will serve as chief deputy county executive. Black, who recently served as Deputy County executive and functioned in the role of Chief of Staff, brings over 20 years of experience in state and local government to the job. In that position, she was charged with overseeing the operations, managing special projects, and advocating on behalf of Suffolk County’s state and federal legislative agenda. Prior to that role, she served as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Senior Advisor for Transportation and Infrastructure for the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.
Amy Keyes will serve as chief of staff. In her previous role as Assistant Deputy County executive for Intergovernmental Affairs, Keyes played a leading and expanded role with intergovernmental affairs at the state and federal levels. Prior to that she served as Director of Intergovernmental Relations. Keyes also worked as Chief of Staff to Suffolk County Legislator Rob Calarco.
Vanessa Baird-Streeter will serve as deputy county executive for Community Recovery. Baird-Streeter most recently served as Assistant Deputy County executive for Suffolk County for Special Projects. In this role, she is responsible for Community Based Intervention initiatives, Language Access, Census 2020, Human Services and Smart Start Suffolk, an early education pilot program focused on children 0-5 years of age, their families and community. Previously she served as executive director of communications for the Long Island Power Authority and director of communications for the Town of Babylon. She is involved in a number of volunteer activities within her community including as director of the Venettes Cultural Workshop for the past 27 years.
Dennis Cohen will serve as Suffolk County attorney. Since 2013, Cohen has served as chief deputy Suffolk County executive. In this role, he was responsible for managing day-to-day operations of a county government with a $3.1 billion budget and approximately 9,100 full-time employees. He was responsible for negotiating collective bargaining agreements with four law enforcement unions, the corrections officers union and the largest civilian union resulting in a new salary scale for new employees that achieved savings for the county. He previously served as county attorney.
Nicole Amendola will serve as director of intergovernmental affairs. Since 2018, Nicole has served as an intergovernmental relations liaison for Suffolk County executive Bellone, helping to interface with the County Legislature and covering a number of the legislative committees on behalf of the executive’s office. Among various other responsibilities, Nicole oversaw the County executive’s state agenda helping to advocate for the administration’s state budget and legislative session priorities.
Jason D. Smagin will serve as acting commissioner of the Suffolk County Parks Department. Jason recently served as Director of Real Estate for Suffolk County where he represented Suffolk County in all stages of real estate transactions, administered the County’s New York State General Municipal transfer program and affordable housing grants funds, and worked with developers of qualified projects for the acquisition of land for workforce housing or for infrastructure improvements.
Steve Randazzo will serve as assistant deputy county executive. Randazzo recently served as deputy director for performance management. He also helped to lead the design, implementation and oversight of Suffolk 311. He was also appointed Chair of the Suffolk County Deferred Compensation Board. Prior to his tenure with the county, Randazzo worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers, LLC where he focused on policy analysis, performance and project management, quantitative analysis, and cybersecurity.
Olga El Sehamy will serve as will serve as Director of Human Services. She recently served as Deputy Director of The Youth Bureau on a part-time basis opposite Director Roderick Pearson, who also serves part-time. She also served as a member of the county’s Community Based Intervention Working Group where she will work with the team, effectively leveraging county resources and creating public-private partnerships to strengthen communities and reduce costs for taxpayers. She recently served as executive director of Adelante of Suffolk County, Inc., a nonprofit organization.
Darnell Tyson was appointed chief deputy commissioner of Suffolk County Department of Public Works. Tyson recently served as acting commissioner of Suffolk County Department of Public Works in which he spearheaded public works projects, blueprints for capital projects, hiring and transition plans, among other tasks. He helped design and implement the TransLoc Rider real-time bus tracking application and the Suffolk FastFare mobile fare payment application in efforts to improve the local bus system and build ridership.
Phil Berdolt will serve as deputy commissioner of the Department of Public Works. Berdolt has served in a number of high-level positions within the administration as well as in local government. Recently, Berdolt served as commissioner of Suffolk County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Conservation in which he managed operations and maintenance for all County Parks. Before his tenure in County government, Berdolt was the commissioner of Department of Public Works for the Town of Babylon.