Press Center

Political Hopefuls Are Heard

Press of Manorville and Moriches
9/13/07
By Bryan Finlayson

Democratic and Republican candidates for town and county seats addressed a number of community issues at a “meet the candidates night” sponsored by the Montauk Highway Merchants Association at the Mastic firehouse Wednesday night. Standing before an audience of about 200 residents, candidates for Brookhaven Town supervisor, the 6th District Town Council seat and the 3rd District seat in the Suffolk County Legislature fielded prepared questions at the two-hour event ranging from neighborhood revitalization to alleviating traffic concerns.

Working Families Party member and incumbent Suffolk County Legislator Kate Browning did not attend because of the unexpected death of her brother. “I am leaving for Ireland to mourn the loss of someone very special,” Ms. Browning said in a prepared statement.
Before touching on issues such as crime, over-development and why she sees a need for an eighth police precinct in the Mastic-Shirley area, Betty Manzella, the Republican Party candidate for the 3rd District seat, said she regretted Ms. Browning’s absence. “My heart goes out to her,” Ms. Manzella said.

A dark horse candidate running for the Independence Party endorsement for the 6th District town council seat, Joe May, also did not speak at the event. Mr. May, who is waging a primary battle for the endorsement against Democrat Edward J. Hennessey on September 18, was not invited by event organizers to speak at the event.
John Sicignano, president of the Mastic Park Civic Association, said that not letting Mr. May speak at the event gave Mr. Hennessey an unfair advantage in the upcoming primary.

“Allowing only people who are picked by the party bosses is wrong. That stinks. We should be outraged. I’m here to hear all the candidates. Why can’t I hear all of them?” Mr. Sicignano asked organizers.

During the event, Mr. May stood off to the side of the audience. When it came time for Mr. Hennessey to speak, Mr. May protested that he should be heard as well. “Why can’t I be here?” Mr. May interrupted.

Mr. Hennessey said he was willing to have Mr. May speak, but that the decision was up to Fred Wesemann, president of the Montauk Highway Merchants Association and the organizer of the event.

“He is a bona fide candidate. He asked me the question, and it is my opinion that he should be speaking tonight,” Mr. Hennessey said.
Mr. Wesemann said Mr. May was not invited because he is not yet on the November ballot. “If he gets elected or wins the primary, he will be invited back to the October meet the candidates night,” Mr. Wesemann said.

Mr. May remained confident that he would go on to win the primary and be a challenger in the November election.
“This was a bad night for me,” Mr. May said. “But I’m out there going from door to door, and they can’t stop me.”
Reform was high on Democratic Town Supervisor Brian X. Foley’s talking points. He said that there has been more reform in the past two and a half years than in the past 40 years of Republican town administrations.

The town no longer participates in nobid multimillion-dollar contracts, which has saved the town $6 million this past year, he noted. He also said that more building code violations are being issued by Code Enforcement Officers than in previous years.
“I can say, by any objective yardstick, that we have delivered on that promise,” Mr. Foley said. “It shows that we are taking them to task. It means that [code violators] are cleaning up their act or we are taking them to District Court.”

Mr. Foley’s Republican challenger, Robert DiCarlo, balked at Mr. Foley’s claim that the administration is doing more to clean up the town. He said that not one illegal home has been closed in the past two years during Mr. Foley’s administration. “To not close down one illegal house over two years is wrong,” Mr. DiCarlo said, noting that there is also a problem of over-saturation of convicted sex offenders living in the Mastic-Shirley area that the town is not addressing.

“That supervisor should stand up on a chair and say, ‘We’re not going to take it anymore,’” Mr. DiCarlo said.

Not one of the recommendations of a 2006 community revitalization plan for Mastic Beach—which was approved by the town and calls for a police substation on Neighborhood Road and beatification of the William Floyd Parkway and Neighborhood Road intersection—has been followed, said Keith Romaine, the Republican candidate for the 6th District Town Council seat and son of Suffolk County Legislator Edward P. Romaine.

The town lacks funding for revitalization, he said. Mr. Romaine said were he elected, he would hire a full-time grant writer and grant researcher in order to bring more federal grant money to the town for revitalization projects.

Top on his list is Neighborhood Road, he said. “The first thing we need to do is clean the street, and then we can build,” Mr. Romaine said.

Barbara Scalafani, president of the Pattersquash Creek Civic Association, said the Mastic Beach area, particularly Neighborhood Road, needs the promised revitalization.

“Keith Romaine talks the good talk—he hears our words that no one is listening to us,” Ms. Scalafani said.