59.0°,
Mostly Cloudy Sanitation election is uncontested
Roberts extends 20-year tenure to 2026
LeRoy Roberts won a five-year term as a commissioner of Sanitation District No. 2 in Baldwin on July 19, with 96 votes, after serving since originally elected in 2001. Previously, he had won terms with 120 votes, 148 votes and 159 votes.
The Herald met with Roberts on Election Day, when he appeared energetic and friendly.
In addition to Baldwin, Sanitation District No. 2 encompasses Roosevelt, South Hempstead and parts of Uniondale, Rockville Centre and Freeport, totaling 55,000 residents and businesses and 16,800 trash-collection stops to. Over the past five years, voter turnout in commissioner elections has been less than 1 percent of the population.
Nonetheless, Roberts said, residents “get involved when there’s a major problem. When they wanted to close us, the people came out — they don’t want to lose our service.”
Roberts was referring to a December 2012 referendum that was held to dissolve the sanitation district. Laura Mallay, executive director of Residents for Efficient Special Districts and a leader of the dissolution drive, said that residents’ tax bills would be lower if the Town of Hempstead, rather than a special
district, provided garbage collection instead.
Many supporters of the district said dissolving it would have led to job cuts and hurt service. The referendum to jettison Sanitation District No. 2 failed by 3-to-1 margin, with 4,597 voters opposed versus 1,682 in favor of the measure.
Roberts also said contested elections have greater turnout. In 2012, when John Cools ran against John Mayor, 819 people turned out to vote; in 2013, when Dennis Meekins, James Major and Ralph Roseran ran, 784 people voted; and in 2014, more than 1,500 votes were cast across four candidates in the race.
When asked why no one has run thus far against him, Roberts joked, “Because I’m too good-looking.” But then he regained a more serious demeanor and said, “Why? Because [residents] think you’re doing a good job...This is my town. I coach football here. I coach lacrosse here. I’m involved in the town.”
Contested elections, he noted, are “more of a challenge. You’re on the phone, and nobody gives you money.”
On June 3, the New York State Senate passed bill S.1102A that would require candidates for commissioners of sanitation districts to file statements of campaign expenditure and contributions, as there are now no reporting requirements for these elections. The bill has yet to be signed into law.
In 2007, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli published a research paper on special districts in which he highlighted how the only “structural checks” against lack of transparency and internal controls in Nassau are the elections, which often suffer from low participation. He also concluded that special districts were more expensive than services provided by local governments.
“Anybody can crunch the numbers,” Roberts said in response. “Our budget is comparable to a lot of budgets, and the tax levy we keep down every year. No private outfit could provide the service we provide here.”
Roberts spoke of Sanitation District No. 2’s response to Superstorm Sandy and other major storms, as well as its anti-graffiti program. “If I see graffiti, I just go up and paint it,” Roberts said. “We are the governing body in this town.”
Roberts said there could someday soon be solar panels atop the district’s headquarters. Hempstead Town is providing pre-owned solar panels at no cost, but the building’s roof would need fortifying before they could be installed, according to the district’s engineer.
“We found out the roof can’t [hold solar panels], and this is going to be expensive,” Roberts said.
“We have to decide how much are we going to save putting these up. If the roof is going to cost $200,000, when are we going to get it back? Is it worth it to expend the taxpayers’ money?”
Roberts concluded with what he deems his greatest priorities as a sanitation commissioner in a district with a current operating budget of $ 12 million budget and a $10.2 million tax levy: “Our big job is that we don’t try to kill the taxpayers and we don’t try to kill our men—it’s a big responsibility because it’s a lot of money.”
