In order to fill the vacancy left when town Republican Councilman Joe Cannella stepped down from the Harrison Town Council, the board appointed Joseph Stout as its newest member at the Jan. 28 council meeting.
Stout, a Democrat, who was born and raised in Harrison, was eager to take the position.
“I like to give back to my community, so I took this opportunity when it came up, after [the other town board members] spoke to me about it,” said Stout, the only Democrat on a majority Republican board.
Mayor Ron Belmont, a Republican who announced the appointment, said that Stout was selected by the town board because he was the strongest candidate for the position due to his wealth of experiences in public service, and that party affiliation was not a concern.
Stout, 59, has had a professional career spanning more than 35 years throughout Westchester County, working various positions within parks and recreation departments. He began his career in Harrison as a part-time employee in the town Recreation Department and eventually became the superintendent of recreation there.
Since then, Stout has worked in Hastings-on-Hudson, Newcastle, Chappaqua and Millwood in addition to Harrison in parks department positions, and eventually served as commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation until he retired in 2010.
He said one of the things he enjoyed most about overseeing public parks is that he got to interact with the people he served “on a personal level.”
“To me, parks and recreation facilities and programs are transformative in people’s lives,” Stout said. “When you go to a park, you’ll see kids in strollers all the way up to senior citizens walking or sitting on park benches and everyone else in between. It doesn’t matter what ethnicity, race, or gender you are, the parks are open to everybody. That’s a special thing to be involved in.”
Currently, Stout is also the executive director of the Friends of Westchester County Parks, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the county’s parks system. He is also a Harrison volunteer fireman and had previously served on the town Planning Board for the past 18 months.
“I think when many people think of ‘government,’ for the most part they think of their local town or village government because that’s what hits closest to home,” he said. “It’s where decisions are made on projects, on where you can park your car, and when garbage gets picked up, so it really has an impact on day-to-day life, and our job is to make life better here.”
Stout mentioned that there were some projects that came before the Planning Board during his time there that he looks forward to discussing further, particularly the redevelopment of the downtown section of Harrison, where he currently resides. However, he said that he “didn’t come in with an agenda.”
“I’m still trying to learn what the real issues are, and I’m learning more about how the town actually operates,” he said.
Town Councilman Stephen Malifitano, a Republican, said that Stout will make “a terrific board member” and cited Stout’s strong, personal ties to the community in Harrison and a long career in public service as indicators that he will thrive in this position.
Although he’s only been a town councilman for a few weeks, Stout is confident in his ability to serve the people of Harrison.
“I think [the residents] can count on me to be open-minded, prepared, to be fair, and to judge issues based on their merit and I’m looking forward to doing that for however long I’m in office,” he said.
Due to the appointment, Stout would have to run this November in a special election in order to fill out the remainder of Cannella’s council term, which expires at the end of 2017. If Stout decides to run in that special election and wins, he would then be up for election to his first four-year term on the town board in November 2017.
