Kim Kaiman leaving post at North Hempstead agency

Noah Manskar
Kim Kaiman poses with her 2016 New York Emmy Award.

Kim Kaiman is leaving her post as the executive director of the Town of North Hempstead’s Business and Tourism Development Corp., a town spokeswoman said.

Wednesday is Kaiman’s last day at the head of the quasi-governmental economic development agency, the spokeswoman, Carole Trottere, said in an email.

Kaiman is leaving to take a new job elsewhere, but Trottere could not say where.

Roy Smitheimer, the corporation’s deputy director, will take on Kaiman’s duties immediately following her departure, Trottere said. Smitheimer is also a past president of the Port Washington Chamber of Commerce.

Neither Kaiman nor Smitheimer returned requests for comment on Wednesday.

Kaiman was hired to lead the corporation in 2014. Her husband, Jon Kaiman, resigned in September 2013, when he was appointed to positions under Gov. Andrew Cuomo after 10 years as the Democratic town supervisor.

She worked on the town’s payroll under the title of deputy commissioner of finance until February, when her position was moved into the corporation. She was paid about $79,400 in 2015, according to payroll records published by Newsday.

In her town role, Kaiman has overseen the corporation’s grant program to beautify and revitalize business districts throughout North Hempstead.

The agency also administers permits for film and television shoots in the town’s unincorporated areas and sponsors other programs to support local business growth.

Kaiman graduated from the City University of New York Law School in 1998 and got a bachelor’s degree from LIU Post in 1991, according to her public LinkedIn profile.

Before starting with the development corporation, Kaiman previously worked as North Hempstead’s director of legislative affairs from 2000 to 2003 under then-Town Supervisor May Newburger, her husband’s predecessor.

Kim Kaiman won a local Emmy Award for her role in Time Warner Cable’s “We Are One” advertising campaign to build awareness about the diversity of the Hispanic-American community.

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