Civil Service Grants Three-Month Temporary Appointment for Hurteau To Continue as Acting Chief in Southampton Village

In response to back-and-forth disagreements last month between Southampton Village and Suffolk County Civil Service about whether Village Police Captain Suzanne Hurteau was truly eligible to be serving in the role of acting police chief — a role she has been serving in for more than a year while the village works to hire a new chief — Civil Service officials on March 7 granted a request by the village for Hurteau to remain in the role as temporary police chief for a maximum of three months.

Trustee Roy Stevenson, who has served on the village’s police chief search committee along with Trustee Robin Brown, the chair of that committee, said earlier this week that he was optimistic that the village would be able to hire a new permanent police chief before that three-month extension runs out.

Civil Service will administer the police chief test on March 25, and Stevenson said that, according to the village’s labor attorney, Vince Toomey, the test results should be out within 60 days.

“The last test they administered, it took them five months to come out with the results, but that was during COVID,” Stevenson said. “Hopefully, by now, things are back to normal, and we will get the test results [in two months]. If they aren’t, since we’d be waiting on Civil Service to provide the test results, it’s possible and likely, according to Vince Toomey, that they’d grant us an extension.”

Stevenson pointed out that the village is also interviewing candidates who are eligible for the job and do not have to take the test, although he said his preference would be to wait for the test results to come out before making a hire.

“Ideally, I’d like to have as many options as possible so we can make the best choice,” he said.