MAY 2, 2006, FARMINGVILLE, NY –Brookhaven Supervisor Brian X. Foley calls for unanimous support for his five nominees for the town Ethics Board from the Brookhaven Town Board at tonight’s meeting.

“These distinguished and credentialed candidates will comprise the strongest Ethics Board that this municipality--or, for that matter, this region --has ever seen,” said Supervisor Foley. “Under the leadership of Sister Elizabeth A. Hill, CSJ, JD, president of St. Joseph’s College, citizens can be confident that this board will be a key part of reclaiming the good name of our town and ushering in a culture of competence. I reached across party lines to find a balanced cadre of candidates with impeccable credentials and unquestioned character.”

The Ethics Code requires that no more than two members of the board be from any one political party; two of the nominees are Republican, two are Democrats, and one has no party affiliation. The other members of the Ethics Board are former Suffolk County Police Commissioner John Gallagher; long-time educator Leonard Adler, most recently superintendent of the Middle Country Central School District; physicist Donald Garber, who worked at Brookhaven National Lab and currently operates a consulting firm; and technology expert and educator Herman A. Washington.

Sister Elizabeth has been President of St. Joseph's College since 1997. S. Elizabeth has been responsible for the building of a state-of-the-art Business and Technology Center on the Suffolk campus as well as launching a comprehensive, capital Master Plan for the Brooklyn campus. Under her leadership, enrollment on both campuses has continuously increased and a number of new programs have been added.

A magna cum laude alumna of St. Joseph's, S. Elizabeth is a native of Brooklyn. She received her M.A. in History from Columbia University and studied theology and scripture in Rome under the auspices of Gregorian University. S. Elizabeth also received her J.D. from St. John's University School of Law where she was a Thomas More Scholarship student and president of the Criminal Law Institute.

After receiving her J.D., she spent time as a staff attorney in the Catholic Migration Office in Brooklyn. Prior to being named president, S. Elizabeth served as Executive Assistant to St. Joseph's previous president from 1980 to 1997.

S. Elizabeth is on the Steering Committee of LIRACHE (Long Island Regional Advisory Council on Higher Education), Vice Chair of the Long Island Association and on the Boards of Directors of the Brookhaven Memorial Hospital, the Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting, the Independence Community Foundation, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Fort Greene Strategic Neighborhood Partnership (SNAP), the Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project and the Mary Louis Academy.

S. Elizabeth has been honored by the Boy Scouts of America's Brooklyn Council at their Women of Achievement Awards Luncheon and by the 8th Police Precinct Community and Youth Council's 23rd annual Dinner Dance for SJC's tradition of community outreach and efforts to improve the quality of life in Brooklyn. She is also the recipient of the Genesis Excellence in Education Award, was named a "Woman Sustaining the American Spirit" by State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and a "Woman of Distinction" by State Senator Caesar Trunzo.

She was named "Woman of the Year" by the Patchogue/Medford Youth Community Services organization in 2001 and she received the Town of Brookhaven's Office of Women's Services award for Outstanding Service to the Community in Education. She was also awarded the Public Service Award by the Suffolk County Commission on Martin Luther King, Jr. in 2006. In addition, the Long Island Association recognized her as an "Education Advocate" for her leadership in workforce development. She was also named one of Long Island's Top 50 Women by Long Island Business News in 2001 and 2003 and has also been named on that publication's “Who’s Who in Education" list in 2003.

The other members of the Ethics Board have similarly impressive resumes.

Mr. Gallagher served as Suffolk County Police Commissioner for seven years until his retirement in 2004. He served as an assistant deputy county executive from 1992 to 1997 and from 1974 to 1980 he was executive dean of Suffolk County Community College’s Western Campus. He left the college to become Suffolk’s chief deputy county executive and in 1986 he took the post of senior vice president at St. Francis Hospital.

G overnor George Pataki recently reappointed him to the governing council of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is a board member of the SCO Family of Services, which helps individuals with special needs throughout the New York area. He also has been active in the Red Cross, and was twice appointed to the New York State Committee of the United States Civil Rights Commission.

Upon his retirement, he received Suffolk County’s Medal of Honor, its highest award. Only 18 have been awarded in the 31-year history of the award. He resides in Miller Place and he and his wife Patricia have three grown children and seven grandchildren.

Leonard Adler, Ed. D. of Port Jefferson has a long and distinguished career in education. Dr. Adler served as Superintendent of the Middle Country Central School District from 2004 to 2006. From 1997 to 2004 he served as Administrator for Management Services for SCOPE in Smithtown. From 1993 to 1997, he served as an educational consultant to numerous Long island school districts. From 1991 to 1993, he served as interim superintendent in the Port Jefferson School District. From 1978 to 1990, he was superintendent of the Sachem Central School District. From 1976 to 1978, he was Superintendent of Schools for the Cornwall Public Schools, Cornwall, New York. He also served as an assistant superintendent of schools, a high school principal, an assistant principal, guidance counselor and teacher.

A Port Jefferson resident, he is a member of County Executive Steve Levy’s Task Force on Cutting Costs in Government and Schools, a member of the county Task Force on Child Abuse and is on the executive board of Huntington Township Youth Services.

Herman A. Washington of East Patchogue recently retired as a Professor Emeritus, Computer Information Systems Department, at LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York after completing 31 years of service. Prior to beginning his teaching career, he was employed for 10 years by IBM as a computer programmer, systems analyst, and programming systems development manager and for 3 years as vice president of an independent consulting firm working on systems development projects for the Model Cities program, for the OEO anti-poverty program, and for the New York City Human Resources Administration.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Manhattan College and a master’s degree in business administration from New York University.

He was born in Norfolk, Virginia and completed his early years of education in Washington, DC and Denver, Colorado before moving to Harlem, New York in 1947. Mr. Washington moved to Roosevelt in 1961 to buy a home and to raise a family in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County. In 1990, he moved to East Patchogue.

He has always been active in community affairs and volunteer service. In Roosevelt, he served terms as PTA president and as NAACP branch president. County Executive Eugene Nickerson appointed him to the Nassau County Drug Abuse and Addiction Commission and Governor Hugh Carey appointed him to serve as a member of the College Council of the SUNY College of Optometry.

He has served on the board of directors of several non-profit organizations including Family and Children’s Association, United Way of Long Island, Catholic Charities of Long Island, and the 100 Black Men of Long Island. He also has served as a trustee of the South Country Library and he chaired the South Country Community Hamlets Study, which resulted in the formal presentation of its conclusions and recommendations to the Brookhaven Town Board.

Awards and recognition include Long Island Newsday Every Day Hero, FCA Humanitarian of the Year, UWLI United Caring Award, 100 Black Men of LI Man of the Year and Junior League of LI Volunteer Merit Award.

He is married to Daryl E. Jordan, who is a soprano classical musician and retired music educator. The couple has six adult children: Keith, Lori, Michael, David, Tunja, and Gina. Herman and Daryl reside in East Patchogue.

Donald Garber of East Setauket was a physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory from 1967 to 1982 and did research involving the High Flux Beam Reactor, published numerous nuclear data compendia, and was involved in evaluating data production, and creating advance reactor simulation computer programs.

He founded GMLC Associates, Ltd., a consulting firm, in 1982 and operated the one-person consulting firm with clients in the United States, Canada and Scandinavia through 2004. Clients included supercomputer manufacturers, large electric utility companies and other consulting firms. Many of the projects included numerical method solutions to very complex problems. Some involved programs to learn patterns to provide rapid solutions. Some involved solving millions of equations in symbolic form to produce symbolic equation solutions.

He has been involved with the Civic Association of the Setaukets since 1988 and is currently president of the group. He is involved in various issues, including the greening of 25A. He has been a member of the Affiliated Brookhaven Civic Organizations since 1992. He also served as president Brookhaven Lab Community Advisory Council (CAC) and has been a member since 1997 of the Stony Brook University Community Advisory Council (CAC), and was appointed chairperson in 2005.