About Len

Professional Career

Leonard F. Zinnanti had a long and productive career in local government, cultural institutions and public higher education. His experience includes a 28-year career in New York City government, all with the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget. In his final eight years at OMB he had risen to the position of Senior Deputy Budget Director, and his portfolio included supervising a large group of budget analysts and professional staff overseeing the City budgets of the administration of criminal justice agencies (Police, Correction, District Attorneys, Juvenile Justice, etc.), the large infrastructure agencies (Transportation, Environmental Protection), the city’s administrative agencies (Law Department, Elections, Finance, Borough Presidents, etc.), the Libraries and Cultural Institutions, and the Fire, Parks and Sanitation departments.

Following his time in government, Len worked as the Chief Administrative and Financial Officer for the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society for several years. Those duties included coordinating the business affairs of the orchestra’s historic trip to North Korea, liaising with Lincoln Center leadership in a wide range of administrative, financial and infrastructure issues (including the renovation of Lincoln Center), coordinating the major renovation of office space for the Philharmonic staff and negotiating labor contracts with the orchestra.

Len spent the latter fifteen years of his career at the City University of New York, performing three distinctive roles. He was the University Controller, which included overseeing CUNY’s $3 billion entity that included procurement policy, investment policy, accounting and spending compliance with pertinent rules and regulations, tuition collections and distributing financial aid to students. Additionally, he served two campuses as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice president, Hunter College and The City College of New York. At these colleges, he oversaw the Finance, Technology, Public Safety, and Facilities operations, among others.

More recently, he worked on operational, budget and management issues for Suffolk County, New York, working for the Deputy County Executive and the County Executive. His first assignment was to design the reform and restructuring of the County’s procurement system to make the procurement of goods and services more effective and efficient. During the COVID pandemic, in April of 2020, the County Executive assigned him to coordinate and lead the County’s COVID Fiscal Impact Task Force to perform a detailed review of the effect of the pandemic on the County’s budget and revenue collections. Among other County initiatives, he worked on reforming the management and processes of the County’s Asset Management program to manage the multitude of County facilities and space more efficiently and effectively.

Education

Professional Certificate in Higher Education Management/Harvard University
Master of Public Administration/SUNY Albany
Bachelor of Arts/Merrimack College

Professional Affiliations
Mentor for the Long Island Bio Mentor Initiative/Stony Brook University
Board Member/CUNY Graduate Center Auxiliary Enterprise Board

Village of Southampton History

Len has had his family home on Burnett Street in the Village since 1977. He has enjoyed the cultural, recreational, and aesthetic aspects of Southampton in those almost 50 years. His voluntary work in the Village government has included being Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee where he helped formulate the Village capital and operating budgets and assisted in various operational and management issues. In this volunteer work he conceived of various quality of life initiatives which have been implemented including the 311 (See Click Fix) system, among others. Notably, he served as a resource for management and finance issues to the Village Clean Water/ Sewer Task Force. He was appointed by Mayor Manger to complete Manger’s Trustee term for one year in 2023 and then was elected as a Trustee for a two-year term in 2024.