For Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. of Sag Harbor, the last several weeks have been filled with proclamations, plaques, parties, and praise for the work he accomplished over the course of a nearly 40-year career as an elected official, including 29 in his current post in Albany.
After all, no one gets elected, and re-elected, that many times without making a measurable difference for his constituents.
But, like all lively dinner parties, popular television series, and the Mets’ playoff run this season, good things must at some point come to an end: Mr. Thiele, 71, is officially retiring from government.
“I have the same passion for it and I love it as much as the first day I did it,” he said in an interview last week at his district office in Noyac. “It wasn’t that I got tired of doing the job, but I did get tired of being away from home. Most years I would put somewhere between 45,000 and 55,000 miles on my car. I was in Albany, away from home, probably 80 or 90 nights a year.”
The pandemic played a role too, reminding him that “there are still certain things I want to do in life. I want to have more time to be able to do them.”
There will be more family time, more trips abroad, and more days in the sunshine at the Thieles’ house in North Carolina, where he has promised his wife, NancyLynn, that he will never run for office in the homeowner’s association.
Mr. Thiele has held so many official roles, both appointed and elected, with three different party affiliations, that it’s easy to lose track. In 1982, he was appointed both Southampton Town attorney and counsel to East Hampton’s planning board, and won a seat in the Suffolk County Legislature as a Republican five years later. He returned to town politics in 1991, winning a four-way race for Southampton Town supervisor on the Independence Party ticket, and in 1995 won a special election to succeed John Behan in the State Assembly. He was a Republican then, but returned to the Independence Party in 2010, until 2022, when, after state reform laws effectively eliminated smaller political parties, he registered as a Democrat.
In His Youth
The future politician was elected senior class president by his peers at Sag Harbor’s Pierson High School (Class of 1971). Mr. Thiele attributes much of his love of history and pull toward community service to his father, who, as Fred Jr. came of age in the turbulent ‘60s and ‘70s, served nine years on the Sag Harbor School Board and talked often of politics and public affairs at home. “It was the time of the Kennedys and civil rights,” he recalled. The “value of public service” was front and center.
Bobby Kennedy was running for Senate in New York when he was 11 years old. “I marched myself down to the local Democratic headquarters and got bumper stickers and put them on my bike.”
At one point, he considered a career in science instead of government. “I had a telescope and a weather station. I liked math and numbers. But in my senior year of high school, I took calculus. That’s when I said, ‘I think political science is my science.’ “
The year after he graduated from Pierson, Mr. Thiele volunteered for George McGovern’s campaign against Richard Nixon. (His candidate was crushed, but later so was Nixon, in Watergate.) And in 1975, as a junior at Southampton College, an influential professor, Donald Baker, helped him land an internship with the Assembly.
“That was when I was really hooked,” Mr. Thiele said. “Twenty years later, I got elected to the Assembly.”
A ‘Dream’ and a ‘Legend’
Mr. Thiele’s time in the County Legislature and as Southampton Town supervisor confirmed he was on the right path, but it was in the Assembly where he found he could steer policy most effectively, and he did so for close to 30 years.
“People always say, ‘You could’ve run for Congress, why did you stick with the Assembly?’ “ he said. “What I wanted to accomplish for the East End I could do there, I thought, very well. I won’t say I never looked at Congress or another higher office, but I very much loved the Assembly. . . . The lawmaking part of it — working with local governments and not-for-profit agencies and all of that — was my dream job. I was very comfortable in pursuing the issues and the things I thought were important for the community on the state level.”
Some new ideas “come from constituents, some come from circumstances and situations. Things happen in the community. Sometimes the requests come from local governments.” He offered two examples.
One was Angelica’s Law, passed in 2023 to stiffen penalties against unlicensed drivers. “A young woman in Medford, not even in this district, was killed by a driver that had their license suspended like, 40 times. It was [only] a misdemeanor,” Mr. Thiele recalled. “I ended up writing it and sponsoring it. We changed the law there.” Now, driving with five or more license suspensions is a felony-level offense.
Predating Angelica’s Law by some 25 years and widely regarded as the most effective piece of legislation he ever shepherded into existence is the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund. “This is not my obituary, thankfully, but when it comes, the C.P.F. will be in the first two paragraphs,” Mr. Thiele said. “Nantucket invented it, but we perfected it.”
Since taking effect, the fund has yielded more than $2.1 billion for the five East End towns to spend on open-space preservation, farmland preservation, historic easements, recreational space, and water-quality initiatives. Tens of thousands of acres have been protected from development.
Before the fund was established, said Jay Schneiderman, a former county legislator and town supervisor in both East Hampton and Southampton, “We didn’t have a lot of tools to compete with development interests. But suddenly there was a fund that greatly outperformed everyone’s expectations and put the town in a very strong position to acquire parcels, rather than simply change the zoning. . . . In East Hampton, we borrowed against the fund to have money upfront, and went on a massive shopping spree. It was a tremendous investment.”
Mr. Schneiderman called Mr. Thiele “a legend.”
“He took the job really seriously and crafted these policies that were not easy to implement. The C.P.F. took years to put in place, to get the coalition and consensus built around it — even the real estate and business community came to embrace the concept.”
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Not every effort Mr. Thiele championed was as successful as the C.P.F. and its later sister initiative, the Peconic Bay Region Community Housing Fund. There was the push to create Peconic County, for example. His bid to transform the Long Island Power Authority into a true public utility also failed. And, no fewer than five times, he has sponsored or co-sponsored legislation to grant state recognition to the Montauketts, a necessary precursor to the federal endorsement that would grant the tribe federal funding and protection, among other rights. The governor vetoed the first five efforts; a decision on number six is expected any day now.
Sometimes, Mr. Thiele said, it took a while to get things right. “I didn’t support marriage equality initially. I supported domestic partnerships, but it took me a while to support marriage equality,” he said, though “I was a co-sponsor of the bill that did pass ultimately. . . I wish I had gotten there sooner.”
Mr. Thiele has already had many conversations with Tommy John Schiavoni, the North Haven Democrat who was elected in November to succeed him in Albany. “He knows how to do the job in this district,” the assemblyman said. “The advice I’ve given him is, in Albany, to get things done, you’ve got to reach out. What you really need to do is go out there and make an affirmative effort to get to know your colleagues and meet the staff. . . . It’s navigating a completely new culture in Albany that he’s got to learn. You can’t be a wallflower or too aggressive — you have to find that balance.”
Throughout his tenure, Mr. Thiele was a reliable friend to school districts. “Fred Thiele is a true champion for public education,” said Debra Winter, a former Springs School superintendent. “He was instrumental in ensuring Springs School received $1.3 million for a new septic system. . . . He called weekly during Covid to check in and see how I was holding up and what Springs needed . . . I now call this gentleman my friend. It was always about the kids.”
In the coming weeks, East Hampton will dedicate its new ball fields on Stephen Hand’s Path in Mr. Thiele’s honor — fitting for a fervent fan of sports teams like the Mets and Islanders. In a proclamation issued last month, East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez praised his “bipartisanship, pragmatic approach, and ability to build consensus, earning him respect across party lines.”
His “commitment to environmental protection, fiscal responsibility, and community well-being has made a lasting impact,” she added. “His legacy of service will continue to inspire us all.”
Earlier this year, Mr. Thiele accepted an offer to become executive director of the Friends of Georgica Pond Association after leaving office, but he has since stepped away. “Unfortunately, I am currently confronting some health challenges that will require me to reduce the heavy workload that I have maintained for so many years. . . . I remain committed to helping the foundation in every way possible during this transition.”
Acknowledging the massive shifts in political discourse both locally and nationally in recent years, he offered a final piece of advice. “The one thing I’d point out for the future, whether it’s for Tommy John or other local government officials, is that no victories are permanent,” said Mr. Thiele. “You always have to be vigilant in protecting the best of the community.”
The Measure of a Man
This timeline highlights just a few of Assemblyman Fred Thiele’s many milestones and contributions to the governance of the South Fork.
1971: Graduated from Pierson High School
1972: Volunteered with presidential campaign to elect George McGovern
1975: Completes internship with New York State Assembly
1976: Graduation from Long Island University’s Southampton College
1979: Received law degree from Albany Law School; takes job as counsel to Assemblyman John Behan of Montauk
1982: Appointed Southampton Town attorney
1987: Elected to Suffolk County Legislature as a Republican
1991: Elected Southampton Town supervisor as an Independence Party member
1995: Wins special election as a Republican to succeed Mr. Behan in New York State Assembly
1996: Bid for creation of new Peconic County fails to gain enough support at state level
1998: Successfully sponsors Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund legislation to adoption
2010: Shifts registration to Independence Party
2013: Passes legislation to tighten penalties for texting while driving; secures $12.53 million to repave highway from Southampton to Montauk
2014: Secures state funding for South Fork Behavioral Health Initiative
2016: Successfully sponsors legislation to lower speed limits in East Hampton and Sag Harbor Villages
2019: Secures money to launch South Fork Commuter Connection train service
2020: Successfully sponsors bill allowing adoptees to access original birth certificates
2021: Voters in four East End townships approve Peconic Bay Region Community Housing Fund referendum, which originated with Mr. Thiele in state legislature. His bills allowing cultivation of kelp and facilitating four-year terms for East Hampton Town trustees are also signed into law
2022: Shifts party registration to Democrat. Also successfully co-sponsors legislation to expand access to liquor licenses for catering businesses
2023: Successfully co-sponsors Angelica’s Law to stiffen penalties for unlicensed driving and Birds and Bees Protection Act to safeguard pollinators. Also criticizes state university for neglecting Stony Brook Southampton college campus
2024: Successfully sponsors legislation to bring Montauk Point Shoals ecosystem under state protection; voters approve Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act, which Mr. Thiele sponsored in the Assembly. Announces retirement and endorses Tommy John Schiavoni to succeed him
