Candidate: Clerk Vincent Puleo
Residence: Nesconset
First Elected: 2022
Party Lines: Republican, Conservative
Endorsements: Suffolk AME, Italian-American PAC, Suffolk Law Enforcement Coalition
The long-served Clerk in Smithtown, Vincent Puleo, won the open seat for County Clerk in 2022. He is running for a second term.
Clerk Puleo sat down with The Messenger for this candidate spotlight interview.
Q: What is the state of the County from your position as Clerk?
A: We’re doing fine. Because of the high rate of mortgages, we’re not doing as many deeds and mortgages right now, but the income is steady since there is a large number of houses going for high prices. We give the County the most amount of money of any office, so it’s important that we continue to do our job.
Right now, I’m updating software for land use. It’s a huge project that will streamline everything we’re doing in terms of land use – mortgage deeds, court actions, etc. It will cut down the time it takes to process these filings. In 1999, when Ed Romaine (R) was Clerk, he instituted the first software program to put documents of mortgages, deeds, and other records into electronic format. The office was able to retrieve it much quicker that way. But the old software didn’t work that well and the County had to sue IBM over it. The office then put a lot of homemade software on top of a platform that never really worked.
Even though they made it work, the IT Department did a great job in continuing to support it. In 2025, I put together an RFP to have companies give us quotes for new software. We wound up with a company that is probably one of the best companies that can handle a county as big as Suffolk. Our county is bigger than seven states, so with the scale of the work we do, and by putting it in electronic format, we’ll be able to process it quicker. The new software can perform tasks much faster and it has an AI component to it. It’s 21st Century stuff.
I don’t perceive using AI to improve the office in a global sense; I just want it to speed up applications. I don’t intend on AI eliminating positions or sidestepping operations.
This company will also maintain this software and ensure it’s up-to-date. Back then, they didn’t have AI and OCR. This has all these new technologies. It’s going to be a much easier process to make sure that everything is needed in order to file these items into our system.
That frees up our IT Department to perform other support. We have 110 employees; there’s a lot of hardware, software, and a huge server room that needs to be maintained. Resources can be drained by old software. We don’t plan on eliminating any positions because there are a lot of other things we’re looking to work on.
One big project is to ensure we can store video and audio from police bodycams. We’re paying a premium price for the company to do that storage. It’s something we can do for pennies on the dollar, so I’m investigating the best way to handle that storage. Right now, everything needs to be saved in perpetuity; the New York State Legislature hasn’t addressed how much needs to be saved or for how long it needs to be saved. The problem is that with every year, the terabytes increase. It gets to be very expensive because the storage size increases every single year. The Legislature needs to hone down on exactly what needs to be stored and for how long and what can be deleted.
But at the very least, we’re looking to save the County money by hopefully getting cloud storage to mitigate the year-over-year increase in total file size. We’re looking at an intergovernmental grant, which would consist of the District Attorney, the Suffolk Police, the Sheriff’s Department, and any other law enforcement agency that has to wear bodycams, to help garner a grant that could be as much as $1 million. I’ve been in contact with the State on this. We’re in the process of estimating how many servers we will need for next year, how big the room is going to be, and what the HVAC will look like, since more servers requires more cooling. We’re also estimating how much it will cost to maintain and replace once it reaches its end-of-life. Our IT Department is doing a fabulous job in working on that.
One of my biggest achievements is ensuring customer service. I’ve been in the service industry my entire career, including 26 years in the bar and restaurant business. If you can service a customer quicker, it just makes their life easier. I came into this office with the same adage I had when I was Clerk in Smithtown: when somebody gives us a call with an issue, we try to solve that problem as quickly as possible. I talk to many architects, engineers, and attorneys about projects they’re doing in Suffolk County and I ask them to please get advice from us first. The quicker they can get their items submitted and submitted properly, the easier it is for everyone.
The deputies and staff in my office all understand where I come from and they grasp it. They’ve been doing it for years; they just do a little quicker because I’m all over them. We’ve been working with an attorney doing a condo project in Kings Park. He came to our office and our Map Clerk, Kelly, walked him through the process. What this does is, instead of him submitting it and getting it rejected, now he does what he needs, submits it, and it’s done quicker than having to go back and forth.
I’ve also been to various community organizations to inform them on what the Clerk does, but our biggest concern is senior citizens groups. There are so many ways scammers try to steal their property. By State law, we send out postcards if there has been an action on your deed, mortgage, or trust. We also have the Homeowners Watchlist (HOW). It’s on our website and you can enroll for emails in addition to the postcard. That’s more portable for some people.
Q: The 2022 cyber hack originated in the Clerk’s office before you were elected. How has the Clerk’s office implemented the remedies recommended by the County Legislature?
A: This was a Suffolk County issue, not just a Clerk’s office issue. Our IT Department, in coordination with the County’s IT, came up with a series of stopgap measures to not have this happen again. We followed the steps so the County Executive could obtain cyberinsurance. We’re in a better position now.
Q: What priorities do you have if you are re-elected?
A: We’re always looking for ways to improve. The biggest issue is storing the bodycam footage at exploding costs that are going to be incurred by every law enforcement agency. There needs to be State legislation to identify what the process needs to be, otherwise, looking forward, it just becomes unattainable. That’s what concerns me. I would be remiss if I didn’t look at how we’re able to save the County money. I work with the County Executive to make a budget that doesn’t explode and raise taxes. The budget is high enough with the way the State runs. Our budget is bigger than those of two states.
Every single day, our IT Department is looking at threats. We have various software integrated into our systems to mitigate phishing and imposters. That’s on our minds every week. This office probably spent more money than it ever had, but we saw the destruction that was incurred and the loss of some data because of the hack in 2022.
Q: Over the summer, Newsday ran a piece stating you own a strip mall that housed a massage parlor that allegedly offered illegal activities. Explain the events.
A: I’ve owned that commercial building since 2007; I’m the landlord and I have a property manager. I don’t get involved in my tenants’ day-to-day business. Everything Newsday alleged about me is false. You can’t accuse me of knowing what my tenants do. I can’t comment on whatever might have transpired there, but I went to the County, the D.A.’s office, and the Town of Smithtown to see if there were any complaints. Not one.
I went to my tenant and said that if there was any impropriety going on there, I needed to know and if so, they’d be in violation of the lease. They decided to leave.
Now, a gourmet coffee company is set to occupy that space.
Q: What is your favorite quote, motto, or work ethic?
A: If you live by your community, expand that to what you do each day. If you can go to bed saying, “I helped somebody today,” what more is there?
Q: How do you like to connect with your community and what do you do in your spare time?
A: I’ve always been involved in my community. I’m a third-generation firefighter, I’m involved in the chambers of commerce, the Veterans’ posts, Paws of War, Beacon House, Heroes for Heroes – all agencies that help Veterans and EMS and fire personnel.
Seeing as I’m not in a legislative position, the Clerk’s office is still perhaps the most important agency in local government. We maintain vital records. I have great relationships with our State legislators and to our County Legislator (18 members), I’m the 19th person if a Legislator needs help. I’m not a stranger to our partners in government.
In my spare time, I try to play golf. I enjoy my family and grandkids. My grandson is eight years old and his dad works a lot, so I get out there and play softball with him. My downtime is enjoying my grandchildren, my wife, and our three sons. That’s what it’s all about at the end of the day – family.
The Messenger thanks Clerk Puleo for his time for this interview.
Candidate: Abigail Field
Residence: Cutchogue
Occupation: Attorney
Office Sought: Suffolk County Clerk
Previous Campaigns: Southold Town Clerk (2025), Southold Trustee (2014)
Party Lines: None, write-in
Endorsements: Suffolk County Legislator Greg Doroski (D-Mattituck); Craig Herskowitz (D-Northport), candidate for Assembly; Chris Murray (D-Setauket), candidate for State Senate; Kathryn Casey Quigley, Southold Democratic Chair
The Democratic nominee to take on one-term County Clerk Vincent Puleo (R-Nesconset) withdrew from the race due to political pressures. Abigail Field, a registered Democrat, is running in that candidate’s stead as a write-in candidate. She carries no official party line.
Abigail Field sat down with The Messenger for this candidate spotlight interview.
Q: What is your professional background and how does it equip you for the County Clerkship?
A: I’m running a positive campaign because I would be good at and like this job. I am an attorney with a general practice that has handled real estate deals and some litigation. From that work, I know all about the Clerk’s duties with land records. I’m well aware that records are being badly kept and it is taking way too long to record deeds, among other issues. For four years, 2019-2023, I worked for the Voting Rights Lab as legislative counsel. There, I worked on a database that tracked all 50 states’ election laws and legislation. By 2023, I had created about a third of the content in it, both doing the analysis and packaging. Relevant to the Clerk’s office, I designed the way the content would be labeled and indexed so the public could easily find information they’re looking for. It took some serious time, thought, and understanding of the records so they’re effortless for the public to use.
I ran for Southold Town Clerk in 2025 but didn’t expect to win. The Clerk there is very well-liked, and while he’s a lovely human being, he’s not very good at the job. I would have been better. When this position on the ballot opened, I thought that I could manage that office way better than the current guy and deliver much more effective and efficient services. Not only is he bad at the job, but he does this corrupt thing of employing his party boss. From what I hear from people in the building, the party boss, Mike Torres, never shows up to work and Puleo is there half the time. That would be fully consistent with the sort of track record of patronage jobs and consistent with the threat to knock Anthony Portesy off the ballot. They could just release the data on their employee card swipes. The data can be FOIL’d, if they ever get around to responding to a FOIL. Release the data, prove me wrong, and I will apologize.
My understanding is that in a Democratic wave year, they were afraid they might lose this seat because a couple of paper candidates almost won in 2025. Who cares so much if Puleo loses? Why is that such a thing given that he’s bad at the job, given that he’s got this sleazy strip mall? Who really wants him that bad?
He also profited off of sex trafficking for six years as landlord. He’s sleazy and untrustworthy. He got busted with the sex parlor and supposedly didn’t know, even though it took Newsday one day to figure out what the place was. He’s either totally checked out, the most clueless and gullible person ever, or he was full of it and he knew. Either way, not great. In 2019, when he was Town Clerk, there was a bill to crack down on illegal sex parlors. On the day of the vote, the bill had been changed. As Town Clerk, he’s not supposed to prepare an agenda that’s inconsistent with the Town Board. I can’t prove that he made the bill, but he was so in the thick of it, it’s hard for me to believe he wasn’t aware of the power of that bill.
My race resonates because a lot of people are upset that Puleo has been forced on them and that their ballot has been manipulated. Voters are aware and angry about that. We’re getting shafted by having only his name on the ballot.
Q: What are your plans for the Clerk’s office if elected?
A: If you go to the Clerk’s website, think-through is really needed. The website isn’t any good. On every page, you see a picture of my opponent posing like he’s a slick dude hanging out, and you have to scroll past his picture to get information. There’s a whole page of forms and none are in Spanish. We have enough Spanish speakers in Suffolk that we print ballots in Spanish. The way information is bucketed on the website isn’t awful, but it could be more organized and functional.
Within my first year if I am elected, I’d like to start doing pop-up Clerk’s offices in the five eastern towns. Places like Montauk are so far out there, it would be useful. My goal, assuming we publicize this properly, would be to gauge demand. Are people trying to drop off deeds? What services are people using the most? That would make way for a permanent satellite office if it makes sense. It’s something I want to look into.
The people in Titles at the Clerk’s office tell me that something that doesn’t make sense is that they will go through the forms and upon finding a mistake, will hand it back to you to fix. Once you give it back to them, if they find a second mistake, they give it back to you. The people there tell me this is standard operating procedure that began before my opponent took office, but he hasn’t fixed it. That’s grossly inefficient. The procedure should be to read all the forms, find all the mistakes, and it’s given back to you once with notes on what’s needed. I had someone there tell me they think it’s a bureaucratic move to build up the workload and justify headcount. Whatever the story is, I don’t care. It just needs to stop.
This isn’t really rocket science. Day one, I would come in and start by interviewing everybody who works in the Titles. I would also seek a conference of people in the title industry – representation from companies of title closers, real estate attorneys, brokers, etc. to hear from that side of the end user. I would also interview people in Land Records to get a breakdown of their processes and understand the backlogs.
As word of my candidacy is spreading, real estate people have taken notice. One told me that the Suffolk County Clerk’s office is the “worst in the state.”
When my opponent took office, deeds took weeks to record. Now, they take months to record. His own website says 8 to 10 weeks, but that’s an underestimate. I know people in the trade who warn their clients of 3 to 6 months. Having deeds piling up gives us no idea if there’s any deed theft going on since they’re not being recorded. That’s a really incompetent thing.
My opponent bought an electronic deed-recording system. Great idea, there’s even grant money out there for it. This isn’t wheel-inventing. He bought a system that doesn’t work well; I don’t know if the vendor was somebody’s “friend,” but that’s more incompetence.
Q: The Clerk’s office was the source of the crippling cyber attack in 2022. How do you foster good security if elected?
A: I have a background in understanding cybersecurity issues for over 20 years, not at a super detailed level, but at the issue level. When I was a public interest advocate, one of my first pieces was working against identity theft – security breaches in particular. I ran campaigns to get what was by far, at the time, the strongest identity theft prevention legislation in the country. This was done in New JerseyI got full up to speed with the risks and how companies are supposed to handle them. I understand the risks well. I’m not suggesting I have a computer science background, but as the manager, what I would need to understand more are the issues, needs, and identifying talent to address those concerns. I’ve got all those skills.
Q: What’s your favorite quote, motto, or work ethic?
A: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” – Declaration of Independence
Q: How do you like to connect with your community and what do you do in your spare time?
A: Besides reading the news, I talk to strangers. Just making small talk with people gets you a much better sense of where people are at. I have a lot of practice in talking to people who vote differently than me. I’ve been heartbroken by the way people have rejected each other over stuff because I think that we can always find common ground and one of the easiest places to find common ground is corruption. People on every side of the aisle have had enough. The anti-corruption fervor that we have right now is one of the reasons my campaign has such resonance. Another reason my campaign has such resonance is just the sense that voting doesn’t matter when elections are rigged.
Every day, I take a 45-minute walk on this particular beach in Cutchogue to start my day. It’s really grounding. It’s a new walk every day as the tide impacts the previous day’s shoreline. In the winter, we get seals. Right now, there’s a family of bald eagles nesting nearby. It’s a lovely spot.
In my free time, I enjoy gardening. My husband was in the landscaping trade. We have lots of lovely native and ornamental plants that we’ve tended over the years.
The Messenger thanks Abigail Field for her time for this interview.
