Suffolk County Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Carter Hired as Next Southampton Village Administrator

The Southampton Village Board of Trustees has selected Suffolk County Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Carter as Southampton’s new village administrator.

Carter will replace Charlene Kagel-Betts, who has served as both administrator and treasurer since 2020. She announced her retirement at a work session in late September. Her last day is November 1, but she will continue on in a part-time capacity to help both Carter and Deputy Treasurer Julie Krudop transition into their new roles. Krudop will serve as treasurer.

The board unanimously approved Carter’s hiring at its work session on Tuesday night. He will be paid an annual salary of $165,000 with “other terms and conditions of his employment to be determined and subject to approval by the Board of Trustees,” according to the resolution approving his hire.

Carter is a familiar name for anyone who has paid even a small bit of attention to the village over the last year.

In December 2022, the Board of Trustees voted, 4-1, to hire Carter as the new village police chief, with then-Mayor Jesse Warren casting the dissenting vote. But less than a month after the meeting held at the Southampton Cultural Center to announce his hiring — which was provisional, because he had not yet taken the chief’s exam, which was set for March 2023 — Carter withdrew from the position, saying that, after consulting with his family, he came to the conclusion that it simply “was not the right time” for him to take the job.

The four trustees at that time — which included current Mayor Bill Manger Jr., who defeated Warren in his bid for reelection — then released a scathing letter laying the blame for Carter’s withdrawal at Warren’s feet.

Several months later, the chief job was filled by Suzanne Hurteau, a 26-year member of the police force and a Southampton High School graduate who was promoted to captain at the same meeting that Carter’s hiring was announced. Hurteau passed the civil service exam for chief in the spring, paving the way for her promotion, and she became the permanent chief after serving as acting chief since September 2021, when former Chief Thomas Cummings retired.

Carter was in attendance for Manger’s swearing-in as mayor and Hurteau’s swearing-in as chief of police at a ceremony held at Southampton Village Hall in July.

Manger said that Carter wasn’t on the radar as a potential candidate to replace Kagel-Betts until “sometime in the fall.” Asked if he was initially surprised that Carter had applied for the position, Manger said yes.

“I think it was Vince Toomey who said, ‘I think Anthony Carter might be interested in this,’” the mayor said, referring to Southampton Village’s labor attorney.

On Monday, Carter said he could not recall who informed him that the job was available and when. “I found out from somebody in the village, but I don’t remember who,” he said. “It wasn’t that long ago.”

Manger said that Carter’s years of experience with both the New York City Police Department and the Suffolk County Police Department, and particularly his role as deputy police commissioner for Suffolk County, made him a strong candidate, as the job posting listed “prior experience in police department supervision or oversight” as a requirement for the job.

“The Southampton Village Police Department is the largest component of our budget,” Manger said. “We wanted to make sure that whoever is the administrator is well-versed in overseeing what is the largest component of our budget. There are a lot of municipalities that don’t have their own police department, and we wanted someone who had that familiarity. As deputy commissioner, he was assisting in putting together a $100 million budget for the Suffolk County Police Department.”

Carter explained why he chose to apply for the job, and why he believed it would be a good fit for him.

“In addition to my 30 years of law enforcement experience, I have a strong skill set that I’ve developed over the years administratively, running overtime budgets in the NYPD, dealing with union contracts and other administrative roles in terms of policy development and implementation and assessing risk,” he said.

Both Manger and Carter insisted that Carter would not have administrative authority over Hurteau or her department, and pushed back strongly against the idea that some might view his hiring as potentially undermining Hurteau’s authority.

“The law is quite clear,” Manger said. “The mayor is the de facto police commissioner, and the police chief is the police chief. The administrator helps run the municipality on a day-to-day basis. There could be budgetary questions that arise where the administrator would have to be consulted, but there’s great autonomy on the part of the police chief.

“From time to time, there would be instances where the chief would consult with the mayor on certain things, but normally the chief would not need to check in with the village administrator.

“The administrator doesn’t set policy for the police department,” Manger added. “That’s up to the chief.”

The requirement for the village administrator to have prior experience in police department supervision or oversight seems to be new, considering the current administrator, Kagel-Betts, does not have that direct experience, although Manger pointed out that she came to Southampton Village with prior experience handling a police department budget in her former job as chief auditor for the Town of East Hampton.

On Wednesday, Kagel-Betts pointed out that she never applied for her current job but rather was “aggressively recruited” by former Mayor Jesse Warren for the administrator and treasurer jobs, because he was aware of her experience and accomplishments.

“In East Hampton Town, in addition to my fiscal responsibility, I also had oversight of HR and to that point had much interaction with Chief [Ed] Ecker and Chief [Michael] Sarlo in terms of staffing, budget, recruiting and retirement,” she said.

Carter insisted he would not be stepping on Hurteau’s toes in his new role, and he praised her for “working tirelessly” for the department, and said it was “an honor” to be there to support her when she was sworn in over the summer.

“We have a chief of police. That’s not my job,” he said. “My job is to be an administrator for the village.

“We do understand that some people may have questions,” he continued. “But everybody should know that the chief and I are in lockstep.”