Pontieri Boots Deputy Mayor

At the first Patchogue Village Board meeting since a controversial went out to residents accusing Mayor Paul Pontieri of unethical behavior, the mayor stripped one of the letter's authors of his position as deputy mayor.

Pontieri said before Monday night's board meeting that he made the decision to replace former Dep. Mayor Stephen McGiff shortly after McGiff’s first letter to the community.

“It’s the deputy mayor’s responsibility to act as mayor when I’m not available and I have to have confidence that the person that is in that position will act consistent with what my vision for the village is,” Pontieri said of McGiff. “And we didn’t have a shared vision, it was obviously split and in different directions.”

Trustee Jack Krieger was sworn in as deputy mayor at the start of Monday meeting, replacing McGiff, who along with trustee Gerard Crean, sent a letter to village residents at the end of the July accusing the mayor of, among several other things, money laundering. Pontieri has any wrongdoing.

McGiff said that he found out about the loss of his title last Friday in a letter sent to him by the mayor.

"Paul sees my actions as being disloyal," he said before Monday's meeting. "My oath is not to the man but the New York State constitution."

McGiff said that other then the loss of the title and ability to act as mayor in Pontieri's absence, he is still the commissioner of Building and Housing. There is also no difference in salary.

The deputy mayor serves at the pleasure of the mayor and can be replaced without a board vote. McGiff clapped along with the other trustees as Village Clerk Patricia Seal swore in Krieger.