MARCH 2018 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 17
Laura Gillen: Making peace in a bipartisan world
By TIMOTHY BOLGER
After unseating Republican
Anthony Santino in a GOP
stronghold, newly elected
Democratic Hempstead Town
Supervisor Laura Gillen was
swept into office with a mandate
to clean up town hall. The leader
of America’s most populous town
shared why she removed her name
from signs, her plans to make
government more responsive to
the people, and how she is working
with the Republican majority town
board. Here are excerpts from our
conversation.
Long Island Press: How does it
feel to be the first Democrat
to win the Hempstead
supervisor’s seat in
more than a century?
Laura Gillen: One hundred and
12 years. It feels great. Not a lot of
people thought I was going to win
the race, but I always believed it
was winnable. I’m just excited for
the opportunity to bring change to
the Town of Hempstead.
LIP: What is your vision for the
town?
LG: I want to get us on secure
fiscal footing. I think that’s really
important, so we can continue
to provide great services to the
residents.
I want to see what I can do to
find efficiencies to save taxpayer
dollars. I want to make us a
greener town. Not only is it good
for environment, it’s good for the
residents and it’s good for costs
associated with energy. If there’s
any taint of corruption, I want
to clean that up. I want to really
make a government that’s more
accessible. More town government
information online so people
can really see how their taxpayer
dollars are being spent.
LIP: Why did you remove your
name from all town signs?
LG: The public doesn’t really have
an appetite for this shameless selfpromotion
that has characterized
the Town of Hempstead forever.
The amount of mail that we
received about nonsense. The
cost associated with these
relentless mailers. Even at the 911
memorial, residents who wanted
the name of a loved one on a
piece of paper got a piece of paper
with the supervisor’s name on it.
LIP: Before being sworn in, you
were barred from seeing your
predecessor’s office and your
clerk’s office was cleared of
furniture. Have there been any
more such oddities?
LG: The door was unlocked
when I arrived on January 2nd,
so that was helpful. Of course,
we had the issue with the
clerk’s furniture, but that
has been resolved.
To my knowledge
no furniture has
gone missing as
of late.
LIP: Ethics
was your
main issue
on the
campaign,
but now
that you’re
on the job,
have you
uncovered any other issues that
require more immediate attention?
LG: We saw that while
municipalities across the state
were racing to refinance their debt
before the Trump tax plan took
effect, the Town of Hempstead did
nothing. We lost the opportunity to
refinance a lot of our debt. Roughly
in the area of $2.5 million we lost
because we can no longer refinance
this debt because of changes in the
tax law. That was disappointing,
but there’s going to be greater
oversight. I put up a resolution
that gives our comptroller the
ability to refinance the debt when
it’s able to be refinanced if the
market indicates that it’s a prudent
decision.
LIP: Are you concerned the
Islanders’ new arena slated to
open in Elmont will hurt event
attendance at Nassau Coliseum and
other destinations in The Hub?
LG: Theoretically, that could be
trouble for the coliseum. I think
it’s great that we’re going to do
something exciting in Belmont. I’m
very happy that we’re going to keep
the Islanders here. As the arena in
Belmont gets developed, we’ll find a
way to make the best use of The Hub
so it’s still a vibrant economic area.
LIP: Did crossing party lines to
make Republican Councilman
Bruce Blakeman deputy supervisor
ruffle feathers?
LG: It was received very well by the
public. I also ran a campaign that
said I want to work in a bipartisan
way. My husband is a registered
Republican, so I’m used to living
in a bipartisan world. I think the
public liked that. They want to see
elected leaders work together. I
have a Republican majority board
and I’ve been making efforts to
reach across the aisle and work
with them in a collegial way to do
what’s best for the taxpayers.
Town of Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen
unseated her Republican predecessor by
2,200 votes.
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