Clavin to challenge Gillen in November

Surrounded by dozens of supporters, Town of Hempstead Receiver of Taxes Donald Clavin on Feb. 19 announced his candidacy for Hempstead Town supervisor. “We need a supervisor that will put the priority on keeping residents in their home,” said Clavin, a Republican, outside Ancona’s Pizzeria in his hometown of Valley Stream. “We need taxpayers first.”

Clavin, receiver of taxes since 2001, criticized incumbent Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen, a Democrat from Rockville Centre, for her stance on fiscal matters. He said he was disappointed that Gillen, in her first term, voted against the town’s 2019 budget that was approved by all six council members. Gillen is the first Democratic supervisor in the town in over a century.

Last October, Gillen proposed a budget plan that would have slightly cut taxes for most residents, but the town board rejected it and introduced its own plan to cut taxes by $11 million. Clavin publicly supported the Republicans’ plan in the run-up to the vote and on Tuesday said Gillen’s no-vote went against residents’ interests. “That is not putting taxpayers first,” he said.

But Gillen told the Herald that the savings in the board’s budget was based on a system that predicts how many employees will retire, which she said in the past has proved unreliable. In 2017, she noted, the Town went over budget by $13 million — $8.5 million was due to miscalculating employees retiring. “I’m the [chief financial officer] of the town,” Gillen said. “I don’t believe in sham accounting practices. … It was really my budget with their sham thrown in.”

Clavin also said he would cut $1 million from the supervisor’s staff payroll on his first day in office. Samantha Smith, a Gillen campaign spokeswoman, said Clavin accepted more than $500,000 of patronage employees in 2017. “The shell game played with taxpayer money by people like the Receiver needs to stop,” Smith said in an email. “The Receiver of Taxes if part of the problem, not the solution.”

At the news conference, the Nassau County Republican Party announced other candidates it would run for Hempstead Town seats. Erin King-Sweeney and Bruce Blakeman are slated to run for re-election, as is Councilman Anthony D’Esposito and Dennis Dunne, Sr. Jeanine Driscoll, who could not attend the press conference, will run for receiver of taxes.

Blakeman, who represents a portion of the Five Towns and in 2017 endorsed Gillen over former Town Supervisor Anthony Santino, a Republican, said Clavin would make the town an even better place to live in. “This is a great place,” he said, “this is a great town but we can’t rest on our past laurels. Our responsibility is dictated by what we do not only for our residents now, but their children and their grandchildren.”

Kate Murray, former town supervisor, was announced as the party’s choice to run against Town Clerk Sylvia Cabana, a Democrat. Murray was clerk for two years before being appointed supervisor in 2003, a position she held until 2015 when she lost to Madeline Singas for Nassau County district attorney.

“I know what it is to be town clerk and I know what it is to be town supervisor,” Murray said, “and Don Clavin has what it takes to be a great, great supervisor.”