Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) said his progress as Town of North Hempstead clerk since 2014 is the platform for his campaign for a second term.
Wink is challenged by volunteer firefighter David Redmond (R-Mineola) for the position.
Wink, a former town councilman and Nassau County legislator, said he and Supervisor Judi Bosworth run a coordinated campaign along with the Democratic candidates for Town Board, pooling campaign resources and coordinating their neighborhood rounds.
“We’ve been pretty organized about that, and it was years of trial and error. It was years of candidates who wouldn’t speak to each other,” Wink said in an interview with Blank Slate Media. “Now, we’re at the point where everyone works well together. A dollar well spent for everybody is worth more than $1.”
During his time as clerk, Wink established the town’s passport services, allowing residents to get birth certificates, passport photos and passports in the clerk’s office instead of the usual three stops.
The services have brought in approximately $10,000 in revenue in the program’s first six months, Wink said.
When Wink took office, the council members were given stacks of papers for each meeting despite the town’s NovusAGENDA software which Wink said had been sitting dormant for about a year.
“We were in the photocopy business more than anything else when it came to managing the Town Board,” Wink said. “By implementing NovusAGENDA, by getting the bugs out, we no longer photocopy any documents. Everything is online and accessible sooner than when it was all paper. By Friday afternoon, people can go online and see what the calendar’s going to be for the following Tuesday.”
Before the software, Wink said only council members and residents who requested the information via fax received the packet days in advance.
Wink said as the town’s record management officer, he has also been pushing all departments to digitize records for ease of access, especially in the Building Department. He has also made sure his 19 staffers are cross-trained in many of his office’s functions, including issuing hunting licenses, underground tank storage permits, assembly permits and parade permits.
A member of the New York State Town Clerks Association and president of the Nassau Suffolk Town Clerks Association, Wink said his experience in the past four years proves his worth in the position.
“Experience has its own reward in that there’s no learning curve for me. I know the job. I know what needs to be done,” Wink said. “I know the direction I think we need to go in both locally and throughout the state to better benefit our taxpayers, to make things more efficient and to make things more effective — and I’m doing it right now. That has benefits that go far beyond the election results.”
