The Herald recently interviewed Mayor Robert Kennedy of the Village of Freeport about the village’s weekly quality-of-life open house meetings, which the mayor has been conducting since he was first elected in response to a lack of communication between residents and village officials in the past. The meetings take place every Tuesday from 12p.m. to 4:30p.m., and our meant for any Freeport resident, tenants, and businesses to bring any sort of issue related to the village directly to the mayor.
Interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Herald: What do the village’s Quality-of-Life meetings entail, and what’s been the history of the program?
(If there’s a problem with the police) I call the police chief in. If I have a problem with the attorney’s office. I call the attorneys in. If I have a problem with the auditor, or taxes, I call the auditor and resolve the issue right then and there, with the resident.
If it’s a court issue. I usually call the attorneys in to discuss with what options they have, although I do not run the courts and have no jurisdiction over it, at least direct them the right way.
Two good examples from that day: we received a ticket (from a resident) no parking here until corner. I called the chief in and we reviewed it.
We got a picture in the car blocking part of the sign, and they were issued a ticket, but since they put the wrong address down, we were able to void out that ticket for improperly being written.
The resident was pretty happy. He got stuck with another one he had to pay.
But these are the kinds of things that we take care of in Quality-of-Life whether it’s putting up stop signs… I had a lady, come in one in one day and said they never enforce the stop signs over here on Ray Street and South Long Beach. And I said, “well, you know, let me see.”
She said, “I don’t want to talk to you, you never listen anyway, none of you mayors do. She walked out.
So I called the department. I said, please listen to me, do me a favor: put an unmarked car down there on Long Beach and Ray Street and watch, watch for people on the stop sign.
Three hours later, I got a call from the police officers. He calls me my on phone and says, I got some lady. I pulled her over for other stop signs. She said she was in your office two hours ago complaining, she didn’t want the ticket. I said, that’s the lady that walked out and wouldn’t listen to me – write her up.
That’s what we do every day: police officer is accused of something, we discuss it right away with the chief of police.
If it’s something DPW related, like a pothole that needs to be filled we follow up with DPW right away and follow up on it, resolving the problems, making a list and seeing that the problems, issues are corrected without getting lost in the cracks, as we do every Tuesday from 12 to 4:30.
Q: What year did you start?
Mayor Robert Kennedy: 2013.
Q: How well attended are these meetings?
Mayor Robert Kennedy: This coming Tuesday is our 610th Quality of Life meeting. We’ve probably had in total, I’m guessing, probably about 3000 visitors. Between three and six people probably a week.
Q: What are the most common issue from residents that you hear?
Mayor Robert Kennedy: Maybe potholes, possibly parking tickets, open permits, where people started to work but didn’t finish it. We also get a lot of complaints from apartment dwellers that have insufficient heat or window grease or something like that who’s not getting cooperation through the management or the owners. And the building department will follow up on that because certain codes are required.
Q: What are you able to do for people with parking ticket problems?
Mayor Robert Kennedy: I have, again, no jurisdiction over the court, so a lot of time I’ll direct them to speak to somebody in the courts and provide whatever documentation they have, or I will sometimes review it from here and see if the ticket was written properly or improperly. But I bring the chief in for that, who will help determine if, in fact, tickets were issued, issued properly or not.
Q: And about the potholes?
Mayor Robert Kennedy: I write the letter to DPW, and then I follow up to make sure the potholes were done. I had some lady recently just call that she wanted no parking from here to corner, about six intersections by the house, because the parking from students and schools were blocking her driveway, blocking the corner that you couldn’t see around when she was turning.
(We put six no parking signs) down by Lessing and Grand Avenue.
Q: How is it that you, being so busy, are able to make the time on Tuesdays week-after-week.
Mayor Robert Kennedy: I just allot that afternoon that I’m in that office, but it doesn’t prevent me from doing other work during that time. If somebody’s not here… people are bringing in, you know, issues and problems and other departments, and we’re resolving all the issues all day long. So if I work a little late or commit a little bit early, that’s what we do, but every Tuesday, we afford those residents and businesses time to commit and discuss it.
Q: How have you made people aware that these meetings are even something that takes place?
Mayor Robert Kennedy: Every board meeting, I conclude with, ‘ladies and gentlemen, if you have issues, we have resolutions. Every Tuesday, from 12 to 4:30, you’re invited to the mayor office, either with an appointment or just to walk in if you have issues, we have resolutions. Come in: quality-of-life meetings open to all of our resident and businesses every Tuesday.’ I say it at every board meeting, and I say it at every meeting to let people know.
Quality of Life meeting take place every Tuesday from 12p.m. to 4:30p.m. Walk-ins and appointments are both welcome. 46 N. Ocean Ave., Freeport. For more details, call (516) 377-2252 or contact the mayor by email at mayor@freeportny.gov.
