Tommy John Schiavoni was sworn in as the new assemblyman for the First District of New York on Friday night in Sag Harbor, with his wife, acting Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Andrea Harum Schiavoni, administering the oath of office.
The ceremony at The Church in Sag Harbor was attended by community members, friends and family, and current and retired elected officials, including Sag Harbor Mayor Thomas Gardella and all the village trustees, as well as former Representative Tim Bishop, Mr. Schiavoni’s predecessor, Fred W. Thiele Jr., and members of the Tribal Council of the Shinnecock Nation.
In a short speech after taking the oath, Mr. Schiavoni took time to highlight the large coalition of people that helped get him to this moment. He thanked the numerous committees throughout the district that helped with the campaign — from Southold and parts of Brookhaven all the way out to Montauk — as well as the people on the ground who knocked on doors and wrote mailers.
“This is what it takes to run a race for the New York State Assembly and get into this seat,” he said, also acknowledging representatives of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office and members of the teachers and nurses union who were in attendance.
He announced that John Leonard of Hampton Bays has been nominated as the Democratic candidate for his now-vacant seat on the Southampton Town Board. That special election will take place on March 18.
Preceding the oath of office ceremony, April Gornik, a co-founder of The Church, read a letter sent by New York Senator and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who extended his congratulations to Mr. Schiavoni and his family.
“From his humble and blue-collar beginnings to his over three decades spent teaching and his many years as a town councilman,” Mr. Schumer wrote in the letter, “Tommy John’s experience has prepared him for the moment, and I look forward to working with him for many years to come.”
Mr. Thiele also gave some brief remarks ahead of the swearing in, noting that only three people, Perry B. Duryea Jr., John Behan, and himself, have represented the first assembly district since 1969. “It is that kind of continuity that is a legacy that Tommy John inherits here today,” he said, offering some parting advice.
“You don’t need to be Perry Duryea, you don’t need to be John Behan, you don’t need to be me,” Mr. Thiele said, “you need to be Tommy John Schiavoni.”
During Mr. Schiavoni’s remarks he spoke about some areas that will be a primary focus for him, including environmental conservation and housing, which he noted is a “critical issue.”
“I believe that in this community, we can do it in a way that does not change our community,” he said, “and I want to call on our local governments in town and village to make these hard decisions sometimes for housing for our young people.”
He also mentioned working to secure $750,000 for the Peconic Estuary Partnership, to help “turn the Peconic Bays around.” After his remarks, when asked about how to build more housing while taking environmental concerns into account, he indicated that he’s looking for more “out of the box solutions.”
“We’re not going to build our way out of this,” he said, citing work done on Howard Street and Suffolk Street in Sag Harbor to repurpose existing structures rather than build new ones as better models. “As far as maintaining apartment complexes some of the initiatives that we’re going to do is like literally save what we have.”
