With Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman’s announcement that he would seek a district judgeship rather than re-election, two North Shore elected officials, Legislator Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck) and Town of North Hempstead Councilwoman Dina De Giorgio (R-Port Washington), are competing for the town’s top executive post.
Both Bosworth and De Giorgio say they are ready for the challenges of being town supervisor after years of public service. But while they share some policy prescriptions, there are also areas of disagreement, including about the town’s recent agreement to purchase the cash-strapped Great Neck Arts Center’s Middle Neck Road headquarters.
Bosworth, who touted 15 years of experience as a school board trustee in Great Neck and six years representing the county’s 10th Legislative District, said one of her chief goals would be to make local government more accessible to residents.
“I have a long history of public service. My entire adult life has been devoted to public service,” Bosworth said.
And De Giorgio said her campaign is targeted at improving town government.
The Port Washington councilwoman has been a critic of Kaiman’s administration, most recently sparring with his office over plans by the Long Island Rail Road to break ground on a track expansion in Port Washington.
“I decided to run because I think that I have experience on the town board,” De Giorgio said. “I spent the last two years seeing how the town operates, and I think there are certain areas where there is room for improvement.”
Among those improvements would be changes to the building department, De Giorgio said – a stance Bosworth also took in an interview with Blank Slate Media.
“I get constant complaints from constituents about how unprofessional and unhelpful the building staff are,” De Giorgio said. “Those changes have to come from top down.”
“North Hempstead residents need a building department that works more efficiently for them, that is more timely and responsive,” Bosworth said, citing long waits for permits.
De Giorgio and Bosworth both endorsed televising town meetings – an initiative that De Giorgio said she had already pushed for during her time in office.
But the two candidates differed sharply in their assessments of the town’s agreement to purchase the Great Neck Arts Center’s headquarters and expand its operations throughout North Hempstead.
De Giorgio was the only member of the town council to vote against the $850,000 measure, while Bosworth praised the deal as a sign of the town’s commitment to cultural programming.
“I think the Great Neck Arts Center was an excellent initiative on the part of the town,” Bosworth said. “This is a newly developing partnership, and it really reminds us how uniquely positioned our town is in terns of arts and culture.”
Kaiman negotiated the purchase with the arts center after years of dwindling municipal contracts left the non-profit’s financial future in doubt.
De Giorgio described the deal as an “inappropriate” use of town funds to bail out a private group, and said the move would not benefit all the town’s residents.
“It’s a building owned by a private not-for-profit company. We don’t need the Great Neck Arts Center,” De Giorgio said. “We can’t even take care of the properties we already have.”
“You can only give some much help. If a private company or a not-for-profit can’t make it on their own, they need to rethink their business plan,” De Giorgio added.
Bosworth said she viewed the purchase as a positive move for the town, noting that with the center’s upcoming rebrand as the Gold Coast Arts Center would come expanded programs throughout North Hempstead.
“This is not just for Great Neck residents,” Bosworth said. They will offer programs that hopefully residents throughout the town can take advantage of.”
Both candidates cited initiatives that they said demonstrated their work for their constituents.
Bosworth discussed her efforts to speed the environmental remediation of Udalls Pond and her opposition to some Industrial Development Agency tax incentives that would have diverted money from the Herricks School District.
De Giorgio touted the creation of Portal 2 Port, a Web site to provide information to her Port Washington constituents, and her collaboration with Kaiman to reopen Port Washington’s Alvin Petrus Park.
But they offered different assessments of the town’s financial performance during Kaiman’s term.
Bosworth, citing strong bond ratings, said the town’s finances were “healthy and positive,” while De Giorgio said the town had incurred too much short-term debt and described Kaiman’s administration as a “political machine.”
Bosworth said she hopes to win support based on her record and a consensus-building style of leadership
“It will be a positive campaign based on what I’ve done and what I hope to do,” Bosworth said. “I think that experience really counts when you’re dealing with taxpayer money.”
De Giorgio, who described Bosworth as “more of the same” and a tax-and-spend candidate, said she would try to constrain the size of town government.
“I think that there’s a clear difference between Judi Bosworth and I, and the difference is in our record,” De Giorgio said.
