Southampton Town Council Candidate Michael Iasilli Pledges To Work Across Party Lines

Southampton Town Board candidate Michael Iasilli is a youthful resident of Noyac who lives in a family home with his wife and goldendoodle.

The candidate, a legislative aide for departing County Legislator Bridget Fleming, said the beach bungalow was purchased by his grandparents in the 1960s, and he’s clear on what a blessing that is.

“People are getting priced out, out here,” said Iasilli, who has made affordable housing among one of his top-line issues and draws upon his experience working with Fleming as big selling point as he angles for a spot on the board.

“Working for Fleming helped to guide my viewpoints,” said Iasilli, noting that one of them, the county’s 72H program for tax-defaulted properties, represents a prime opportunity for the town to access foreclosed properties before they go to auction. Fleming worked on legislation that would reform that process but “she didn’t get it over the hump,” Iasilli said.

He’s also running, he said, to enhance representation in town hamlets via a proposed council district plan that would replace the current at-large system, where board members are assigned to the various hamlets in town. That hasn’t delivered results for those people — the town’s population center, Hampton Bays, being a glaring example — and the goal would be to have elected representatives emerge from the hamlets, similar to Brookhaven’s system of councilmatic districts.

Iasilli has also called for the creation of a town task force to address the traffic crisis in Southampton — especially in light of an upcoming and highly anticipated traffic study from Suffolk County that was put out for bid earlier this fall and is focused on a grueling stretch of County Road 39.

“I would like to see the town have a greater say in the plan that goes forward,” said Iasilli, and his proposed task force would provide just that mechanism.

Iasilli attended St. Joseph’s University and said he was an active student in various clubs, student government, and in pursuit of “helping people in need.” He started the school’s English Club and recalled how that spurred his interest in serving the public.

“We started getting books that we wanted to donate to local libraries, nursing homes, to poor kids,” he said. “When we started doing that, that’s when I realized that I wanted to serve.”

He also has family members with learning disabilities and a relative with Down’s Syndrome, Iasilli said, which also spurred his pursuit into the world of politics and policymaking. As he worked with other family members to get their loved ones proper services, he recognized that there was “a gap between families and services,” that spurred him, he said, to find ways to bridge that gap. His activism on that front led to a posting on the Brookhaven Town Disability Task Force.

Iasilli pledged to work across party lines if elected. “Partisanship should fall by the wayside,” said the Democrat.

“I made it a part of my mission to have conversations with people who perhaps wouldn’t have conversations with me. I’m proud to say that I have people who might support [Donald] Trump who are supporting me,” he said, noting that working-class issues cut across all ideological stripes. “It’s critical to have those conversations.”