Town of North Hempstead Supervisor candidate Dina De Giorgio (R-Port Washington) has unveiled a plan to reform the town’s much-maligned building department.
Both De Giorgio, a town councilwoman, and competing candidate Legislator Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck) have described poor service and long delays at the building department – problems De Giorgio said would be addressed by her plan, which was drawn up after consultation with department officials.
“The building department is not issuing permits fast enough and the process is too complicated for the public to navigate,” De Giorgio said. “I met with the building commissioner and their senior staff a few times, and I asked what would be necessary, what they need to issues permits faster.”
De Giorgio’s plan, released after Bosworth put out her reform proposal in August, calls for the hiring of more building department examiners to speed permits, the establishment of pre-screening meetings for permit seekers to meet with examiners before projects begin, digitization of permit applications, an independent quality control team and the fast-tracking of small projects.
The Port Washington Republican criticized Bosworth and Democratic town clerk candidate Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) for not consulting with department officials before designing their plan, which included the creation of an online system to provide residents with specific information about their homes, expanded department hours, the creation of an “applicant advocate” position in the town to help guide residents through the bureaucratic process and a similar fast-tracking scheme.
“Neither one of them talked to anybody in the building departments,” De Giorgio said.
Bosworth pushed back on De Giorgio’s critique in an interview, saying she had based her plan on conversations with hundreds of residents about their experiences dealing with the building department.
“It would be inappropriate for me to be meeting with the commissioners of the different departments as a political candidate,” Bosworth said. “It’s not based on what the building commissioners have said, it’s based on what the public wants.”
Bosworth also said that while increased staff could help alleviate delays, the addition of personnel should proceed incrementally to ensure that new employees have a positive impact on service. De Giorgio’s plan calls for the new positions to be funded by eliminating “no-show, no-work jobs in other town departments.”
When asked about her plans for the current leadership of the department, De Giorgio said she would likely not fire officials, but would consider reorganizing the leadership of several town departments.
“I would retain the current commissioner and the senior staff,” De Giorgio said. “I would make tremendous staffing changes if I came in, and I might utilize them in a different capacity.”
De Giorgio also said she was confident that building department Commissioner Kevin Cronin had rooted out corruption within the department, which was rocked by a kickback scandal in 2007.
“My sense is that the current building commissioner has eliminated the criminality that was going on in the department,” De Giorgio said.
A spokesperson for the Town of North Hempstead said Cronin could not comment for this article as it would be inappropriate for a commissioner to comment on candidate platforms during a political campaign.
