At an event last year, Nassau County Legislator Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) introduced Town of North Hempstead Clerk Leslie Gross as the best to have done the job in the town’s history.
But now that the two are facing off for the position in the Nov. 5 election, with Gross endorsed by the Republican party after being passed over for the Democratic nomination, Wink clarified the statement on Wednesday at a meet-the-candidates forum at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset.
“Yes, I agreed to introduce Leslie Gross at an event, and I may have said she was the best clerk the town has ever had, but I will be a better clerk and that’s what’s important,” said Wink, who prior to his election to represent the 11th district in the Nassau County Legislature was a town councilman. “And at the end of the day, you all know where I stand, what I’ve accomplished, what I’ve been able to do, and I know that going forward, where I stand will remain constant, the way it’s always been.”
Wink and Gross were the third set of candidates to share their platforms with guests in attendance, opening the discussion with a statement and moving on to a series of audience questions before concluding with another statement.
The event, sponsored by the Port Washington chapter of the League of Women Voters, also featured Democrat Lee Seeman and Republican Jeff Benjamin, running for the 5th district position on the Town Council; Democrat Delia DeRiggi-Whitton and Republican John DiMascio, running for the redrawn 11th District in the Nassau County Legislature; and Democrat Judi Bosworth and Republican Dina De Giorgio, running for town supervisor in place of the recently-departed Jon Kaiman.
In the question-and-answer portion of their turn in the event, Gross was asked about her decision to run for re-election even though she did not receive support from her party.
Gross said she was still a Democrat but was running as part of what she called a “bipartisan union” with Republican councilmembers De Giorgio and Angelo Ferrara, whose seats are each up for election this year.
Wink said he was not involved in conversations with Democratic party officials about the nomination and accused Gross of aligning herself with the Tax Revolt party – which he accused as being synonymous with the Tea Party – though Gross said the decision to accept the Republican nod had little to do with her political ideology.
“I was welcomed by people because I serve all the people and all the public regardless of their political affiliation, so when I had the opportunity to serve all people by joining other individuals running and working for the town of North Hempstead, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Gross said.
Wink said his “history of speaking truth to power, to policymakers on both sides of the aisle” has contributed to his success as a councilman and legislator and would benefit him in serving North Hempstead residents as town clerk.
Wink said he’d improve the clerk’s office by expanding the town’s dog licensing program, implement an office for residents to apply for passports and focus on improving relations between the different town departments and make town hall operate more efficiently.
“Otherwise, you get people coming in not knowing what they’re looking for and leaving without the information they deserve,” he said.
Gross touted her multiple clerk certifications and training and said that as town clerk, she’s been fiscally responsible and helped make the office operate more efficiently by holding evening office hours and making certain documents available online.
“I firmly believe that as a steward of your tax dollars, there’s no reason to have unnecessary overhead,” Gross said.
Gross criticized Wink for his indecisiveness in announcing his run for clerk after he reportedly considered a campaign for Nassau County comptroller, Town of North Hempstead supervisor and re-election to his legislator’s seat.
But Wink said Gross’ new party forced him to look for a new job, as the legislature’s Republican majority’s redistricting of the county map split his 11th district – covering Roslyn’s incorporated and unincorporated areas as well as Garden City Park, Flower Hill, Plandome Heights, Port Washington, Baxter Estates, Sands Point and Glenwood Landing – into four new ones.
The new 11th district, which is being contested by DeRiggi-Whitton and DiMascio, includes Glen Cove and Sea Cliff, Roslyn Harbor, part of the Village of Roslyn, the Village of Flower Hill, Sands Point, Manorhaven and Baxter Estates.
“Those of you who live in Roslyn, you will not know who your legislator is because they have literally drawn and quartered the Roslyn community,” Wink said. “They did the same thing in the Five Towns, all of which for a desperate attempt to hold onto power.”
De Giorgio and Bosworth squared off for more than an hour, as the councilwoman decried the operations of the town under Kaiman as serving the Democratic party more than the people and the legislator said she would lead a responsive, transparent and fiscally-responsible government.
One of the primary issues discussed in De Giorgio and Bosworth’s debate was the need for an improved building department, which has been criticized for its lack of convenience and often contentious relationship between department officials and applicants.
De Giorgio outlined her plan for changing the department, which would give applicants the opportunity to meet with building department officials in advance of hearings in order to check the status of applications, as well as revamping department protocol such as scanning documents immediately so they are not lost and need to be filed more than once.
“The problem with the building department is not a customer-service issue, but an operations and process issue, and unless you change the way the building department operates and the way it processes applications, you cannot fix the building department,” De Giorgio said.
Bosworth said her plans did not differ significantly from De Giorgio’s, but addressed her opponent’s criticisms that she hasn’t met with building department officials by saying her role as county legislator does not give her standing with town departments and that it would be inappropriate to meet with each department.
The biggest change Bosworth said was necessary within the building department is the culture between department officials and applicants, to make the application process simpler to navigate and does not alienate anyone from bringing homes or businesses into the town.
“We don’t want to hear that people aren’t buying houses in North Hempstead because they don’t want to have to deal with the renovations, or that builders aren’t building developments because they don’t want to have to deal with some of the issues that are purported to be happening with the building department,” Bosworth said
Bosworth also defended her vote in favor of former County Executive Tom Suozzi’s home-energy tax, whose repeal has been championed in current County Executive Edward Mangano’s campaign for re-election, saying it was a much-needed source of revenue within the county’s budget.
De Giorgio disputed Bosworth’s justification for the vote and criticized her voting history in the Legislature as one that supports tax increases.
“I think if you’re faced with the prospect of falling revenue, the answer is to reduce your expenses, not raise taxes,” she said.
Late in the question-and-answer portion of their debate, Town Councilwoman Anna Kaplan asked De Giorgio why she voted against the town’s acquisition of the Great Neck Arts Center but still attended the opening ceremonies for the Gold Coast Film Festival.
De Giorgio said opposed the town’s acquisition of the Great Neck Arts Center because she did not feel it was a financially responsible to support a cash-strapped “charity” when the center itself would also require maintenance and that she would have preferred for the town’s arts programs to be run out of the “Yes We Can” Community Center in Westbury. She said she attended the opening of the Gold Coast Film Festival, which is run by the Great Neck Arts Center, because it was her job as a town councilwoman to attend public events.
De Giorgio also addressed criticism that she is difficult to work with.
“You should not mistake my questioning and my challenging and my researching for being partisan,” De Giorgio said. “It’s my job to represent my constituents and in order to do my job, I need to ask questions and I need to get facts. That’s how I operate.”
Bosworth argued that North Hempstead needs the Great Neck Arts Center, not just as a charity but because arts and culture is a source of revitalization for the town, and would have “left a hole right in the middle of Great Neck on Main Street.”
In their turn in the forum, DeRiggi-Whitton and DiMascio were asked about Nassau County’s spending practices and how to repair the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant.
DiMascio said he does not think Nassau County borrows too much, but said the county should borrow wisely and primarily in situations where it can be reimbursed by the federal government.
DiMascio added that the county can only borrow so much money, and that even though taxes are currently high, he wouldn’t be opposed to raising taxes if necessary.
DeRiggi-Whitton said the county’s borrowing practices are more dangerous than raising taxes because it forces future generations of Nassau County residents to pay off the bonds.
DeRiggi-Whitton said that as a member of the county’s finance committee, she has been able to cut budgets by reviewing them line-by-line and negotiating for less bonding than initially requested.
“While I’m there, I will fight to make sure that every dollar that we spend is spent right,” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “Sometimes you really do have to be the one to stand up against something that you feel is wrong, and I’ve done it and I’ll continue to do it.”
DeRiggi-Whitton and DiMascio both said an issue of primary concern for the Legislature moving forward was the handling of the renovation to the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant, which has gone unrepaired after being heavily damaged during Superstorm Sandy and displacing many residents.
DeRiggi-Whitton said that if $400 million set aside for renovations in 2009 had been done at the time, the damage from Sandy would have been minimal.
She said the county’s department of public works has wavered on how much of the money had been used and how much more it needed to complete the repairs, but said she is wary of borrowing another $700 million to do the work that the county department of public works now says is needed.
DiMascio said the county should move ahead with the repairs, saying 95 percent of the project’s funding would be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Legislature, he said, should help the people and businesses most affected by the damage instead of quarrelling over costs.
“We can’t go back and say it should have been done in 2009,” DiMascio said. “Something has to be done because there are people there who can’t live in their homes, there are fishermen who can’t sell their fish, there are restaurants that can’t sell their food.”
If re-elected for a fifth term, Seeman said she’d continue to develop Project Independence, which provides services to allow senior citizens to continue living on their own, as well as improving the town’s 311 call system and building department.
“Make no mistake about it,” Seeman said. “It is hard work and I work full time, and I love it and I make a difference.”
Seeman was particularly proud of the budget submitted by Kaiman, before he was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to head the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority and oversee Long Island’s Sandy recovery efforts.
Benjamin, a consumer protection lawyer from Great Neck, said he’d help to improve the communication between residents and the town’s various departments and work to fight tax increases, cut wasteful spending and get North Hempstead’s debt under control.
“The town council position is a local government position, it’s not congress, it’s not governor, it is something very close to the electorate and we need to improve communication,” Benjamin said.
The Town Council’s 5th District includes North New Hyde Park, Garden City Park, Floral Park and the villages of Saddle Rock, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, Russell Gardens, University Gardens, Lake Success and other unincorporated areas.
