Joe Scianablo, the Democratic candidate for Hempstead town supervisor, called for a state audit of the town on Thursday, Feb 19, saying it failed to file audited financial statements with the state for fiscal year 2024 on time.
“They failed to comply with requirements like filing financial statements,” Scianablo said at a press conference in Town of Hempstead Park in West Hempstead. “They failed to submit a required audit. This is not an accusation; these are facts.”
Brian Devine, a spokesman for Hempstead Town Supervisor John Ferretti, Jr., said the town had completed the financial statements and posted them online before the state deadline, but a contractor had failed to submit them to the state on time.
Devine said Munistat, an outside financial advisor for the town, is charged with filing these documents with the state each year but did not do so by the Sept. 30, 2025, deadline.
Munistat CEO Noah Nadelson acknowledged that his company received the audit before the town’s Sept. 30 deadline but failed to submit it to the state due to a procedural oversight.
“The audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 were completed, dated, and made available for public distribution on September 25, 2025,” Nadelson said in a letter to the town dated Feb. 19. “Due to a procedural oversight in the follow-up posting process, the audited financial statements were not submitted to the disclosure platform within the required period.”
Munistat said in the letter that after identifying “the omission, the filing was promptly completed” and an “event notice” was filed, bringing the Town into compliance.
“Based on this history of compliance, this isolated occurrence is not expected to have a material adverse effect on the Town’s disclosure record or its access to the municipal market,” Nadelson wrote.
Scianablo produced an announcement by Munistat dated Jan. 9, headlined MATERIAL EVENT NOTICE, giving notice that the town had failed to file its audited financial statements for the period ended December 31, 2024, in a “timely manner required.”
Scianablo, a former Marine, retired NYPD police officer, and former Queens prosecutor, sent a letter on Wednesday, Feb. 18, requesting that state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office conduct an audit that “examined “financial reporting, internal controls, and compliance with mandated disclosure requirements.”
“Recent developments have raised significant concerns regarding the Town’s fiscal oversight and transparency,” he said.
“There is most definitely a lack of transparency,” Scianablo said at his press conference. ’“We’re not standing here because of one missed filing. This is about a broader pattern of secrecy.”
Scianablo cited other concerns, including the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter’s budgeting and delays in responding to Freedom of Information Law or FOIL requests.
“Transparency is not an option. It’s a fundamental responsibility of government,” he said. “Real leadership means welcoming transparency. Real leadership means answering the tough questions, not hiding from them. Real leadership means putting the taxpayers first, putting the people first.”
Scianablo said an audit could simply confirm that things are being done as they should.
“If everything is being done properly by the town, this audit will confirm that,” Scianablo said. “However, if problems are uncovered, they must be identified and they must be fixed.”
Devine defended Ferretti’s record.
“Since taking office, Supervisor John Ferretti has made life more affordable for residents by cutting Town taxes by millions of dollars,” Devine said in a written statement. “The town did not fail to do this. We did everything we were supposed to do.”
