Ken Colón For Islip Town Supervisor: Patch Candidate Profile

TOWN OF ISLIP, NY — Suffolk County residents will be lining up at the polls on Election Day on Nov. 7, or early voting from Oct. 28 to Nov. 5, to vote for their chosen candidates.

Democrat Ken Colón is challenging Angie Carpenter, who has served as Town of Islip Supervisor for eight years.

Patch reached out to all candidates to hear where they stand on important issues affecting the community.

The tech entrepreneur and community leader told Patch why he should be elected for this position. The answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

Name

Ken Colón

How old will you be as of Election Day?

27

Does your campaign have a website? If so, include the URL here.

https://kenforislip.com

What city or town do you live in?

Brentwood

What office are you seeking?

Islip Town Supervisor

Party affiliation.

Democratic

Education.

Executive Master’s in Public Health, Yale University; Master's in Public Administration, Syracuse University; Bachelors, Neuroscience and Behavior, University of Notre Dame

What is your occupation?

I got my professional start in the business world, starting my first company during my undergraduate — a multi-award winning platform for student suicide prevention — and holding other senior roles in small and medium-sized tech companies.

I then took my tech and business knowledge into the realm of government and policy, working as a consultant in Washington, publishing economic analysis of federal health policy at Yale, and helping shape opioid overdose prevention policy for Montgomery County in upstate NY.

Most recently, I managed data for suicide prevention initiatives at the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, focusing on identifying trends in youth suicides and potential interventions — a role I left to dedicate myself to this race full-time.

Do you have a family? If so, please tell us about them.

My beautiful wife, Maria Mosley-Colón, is a resident physician specializing in emergency medicine. She is my world, and has been an immense source of support to me throughout this campaign. We hope, in the coming years, to raise a family of our own right here in Islip.

I'm lucky enough to also be supported by my father, Ken Colón Sr, a retired NYPD narcotics detective and 9/11 first-responder, as well as my mother, Karla Maldonado-Colón, a former nurse. My parents, my wife, and my siblings mean everything to me.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No.

Have you ever held a public office, whether appointive or elective?

n/a

Now we'd like to ask a few questions about your reasons for running and your general views on politics and government. First, why are you seeking this office?

Brentwood and the Town of Islip have been home ever since I was four years old, when my parents moved out to Long Island from Queens. For more than two decades, I have watched as my home has suffered.

From rampant overdevelopment and tax increases pricing out our residents, to countless deaths from the opioid and fentanyl crisis, to outdated and crumbling infrastructure, Supervisor Carpenter has abandoned our communities.

I'm running to those end years of abandon and neglect – across every corner of Islip.

Please complete this statement: The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is \_\_\_, and this is what I intend to do about it.

A neglectful town hall. Currently, Islip residents have no meaningful representation. Small business owners are forced to face layers of pointless bureaucracy to acquire permits. Apartment building after apartment building is approved while community input is ignored and our infrastructure falls into disrepair.

Those struggling with addiction were abandoned when the Town of Islip shuttered its Department of Health and Human Services. Town hall has made it clear the only people she cares about are developers and her wealthy donors.

What needs to be done to address water quality issues on LI?

I would start by advocating for the Suffolk County Legislature to place the Clean Water Referendum on next year's ballot, which they failed to do this year. This would give Suffolk County access to millions of dollars in state and federal funds for clean water initiatives. In addition, addressing overdevelopment is critical for water quality – when we develop without having the necessary infrastructure, we risk overwhelming our septic systems and cesspools, and toxins leach into our water supply.

Furthermore, the Town of Islip needs to step up and do its fair share to clean up Lake Ronkonkoma; that includes working with Suffolk County and the Towns of Brookhaven and Smithtown on the new Lake Keeper initiative.

Finally, we need to take swift and decisive action to clean up the Superfund site at MacArthur airport, linked to dangerous levels of PFAS – a group of chemicals known to cause cancer. The NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation recently held the Town of Islip liable for the cleanup at MacArthur, so it is up to us to ensure that all residents have access to clean, safe water to drink, cook, and bathe.

What do you think can be done to help improve our infrastructure, highways, etc?

Currently, Town of Islip departments are run by political patronage hires. When I'm elected, we are establishing a competitive, transparent hiring process to bring in qualified supervisors to oversee our departments – particularly our Department of Public Works.

Furthermore, under my administration, any no-show, political patronage job that adds nothing but bloat to our budget will be cut entirely. Instead, we will use this funding to establish a Town of Islip Public Jobs Program – a program where residents in the town looking for work can receive good-paying, union jobs, doing year-round infrastructure maintenance.

This means doing things like repairing our roads, better maintaining our sidewalks, building more sidewalks where they don’t exist, and retrofitting our town assets to make them more energy efficient.

Lastly, I commit to working tirelessly with the state and federal government to bring home critical infrastructure dollars and invest in Islip's roads.

How would you plan to help local business owners, who are struggling because of high rents, inflation and labor shortages?

Under Supervisor Carpenter, the Town of Islip has withheld millions of dollars of funding intended for small businesses. Neighboring towns have provided grants of up to $50,000 for small businesses - the Town of Islip has capped grants at $5,000.

Small businesses are the lifeblood of Islip, and they need our support as they weather difficult economic conditions. In addition, town hall is steeped in bureaucracy, creating long and unnecessary processes to obtain business permits.

I will streamline this process and make it easier for those in Islip to get the permits they need to create industry in Islip.

What is your stance on the current migrant situation affecting New York? And migrants were to be directed to shelters on Long Island, how would you prepare/plan for that?

The federal immigration system is broken, and our leaders in Washington have failed us. We need comprehensive immigration reform. The discussion over this topic has highlighted a critical issue – our infrastructure is crumbling, teetering on the verge of collapse.

I would work diligently to improve our infrastructure, so that it is not at risk of total implosion. In addition, I would demand Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams keep an open line of communication with the Town of Islip, and treat us as partners – not pawns.

Both county executive candidates have made clear that they do not support Suffolk County becoming a sanctuary county, and I commit myself to working with either executive, be it Ed Romaine or Dave Calone, to ensure that our residents are taken care of first.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

My opponent is a career politician beholden to corporate developers. I’m a product of this community, and I’m ready to fight to protect it. And unlike my opponent, I can’t be bought.

I have not taken a single cent from corporate developers, nor do I plan to. To do so, I believe, would be an egregious conflict of interest, given the Supervisor has say over whether a developer receives an IDA grant, or is approved for a zone change.

My opponent likes to highlight her extensive experience in public office, but I question what that “experience” has gotten us. Our infrastructure is in disrepair. Our residents are being priced out. Our young people are losing their lives to an opioid epidemic running rampant. Islip is at a breaking point – it’s time to act.

If you are challenging an incumbent, in what way has the current officeholder failed the community?

At this point in the campaign, we’ve knocked well over 15,000 doors across every hamlet in Islip. If there is one thing that unites the diverse hamlets of our town, it’s a shared sense of neglect and abandonment.

Residents in Sayville, for example, are enraged that a development at Island Hills Golf Club is being forced on them. In Oakdale, residents are incensed they were lied to over the status of a PLP for the Dowling Mansion for months, a PLP that was only finally enacted on Oct. 17 – just three weeks before the election.

In West Islip, residents are devastated that their homes have been damaged by construction around Good Samaritan Hospital. In my hometown of Brentwood, we see elevated rates of joblessness, addiction, homelessness, and crime.

The list goes on and on. The current office holder has failed to meet the needs of residents time and time again. Islip’s residents deserve better.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

I place particular focus on addiction and mental health, as these are areas I have deep personal experience with.

When I was a teenager, I intentionally overdosed on prescription pills. This personal experience drove me to make suicide prevention and overdose prevention my life’s work.

In 2013, the Town of Islip defunded and abolished our Department of Health & Human Services.

Fast-forward to 2023, and Islip spends only 0.14 percent of its municipal budget on health. That’s roughly 83-cents per Islip resident.

We see the effects of that under-investment.

Town of Islip has three of the top six hamlets for overdose deaths, Suffolk County-wide. Between 2019 and 2021, the Town of Islip saw 194 overdose deaths.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Our neighbors in Babylon and Brookhaven have well-funded HHS Departments. Millions of dollars in state and federal grants are available – we just have to go after it. Some things don’t even require funding. New York State makes fentanyl testing kits available for free; we should be bulk ordering these kits and distributing them as far and wide as possible.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I’ve started and run businesses – my first when I was only 19. I’ve worked on policy at the federal, state, and county levels. I graduated from the top-ranked graduate program in public administration in the nation on a full-ride. I am confident I can handle this job, no question.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

As my mother always tells me: never forget where you came from.

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

If given the honor to serve you as your next Islip Town Supervisor, I promise to always fight for you as if you were my own family. I will always put your needs first; Islip’s residents deserve nothing less.