By:John C. O'Connell
Francis X. Becker, the Republican incumbent county legislator for the Sixth District, representing the villages of Valley Stream, Lynbrook and East Rockaway, faces a challenge from Democrat Dale Camhi of East Rockaway, who seeks her first elective office and from the Green Party's Paul Martin.
Becker seeks his fourth two-year term, having been elected to Nassau's first legislature in 1996.
The state of county finances is the major issue facing all the candidates for county office this year, as it was two years ago. In the short term, Becker doesn't see any immediate or easy solutions.
It doesn't look good for the budget in the next four-year, five-year plan. ... It's really like a hundred to two hundred million dollar hole. The key is that the Legislature will have to continue to work with NIFA to try to find ways to find economies in government, efficiencies in government, try to reduce spending and of course there's going to be some tax increases. There's no one, quick panacea that's going to solve this problem. It's just going to need time, a lot of time, a lot of years. ... The problem is systemic and it's going to take a long time to solve.
What is done with personnel costs will have a huge impact on the county's future fiscal health, Becker said.
Everybody agrees that the biggest problem for Nassau County is the labor contracts. If we don't somehow get those under control, if we don't somehow get a breather from the constant increases, there's no catching up, there's nothing you can do.
We have the control board which is looming. Each day I wonder how we somehow avoid not having it. Only because the control board could come in and
freeze salaries. What we need is two or three years with no salary increases so that we can catch up. And then have some tax increases along the way. Then you could catch up.
Becker said he has accomplished things he's proud of during his tenure.
He cites his involvement in Project Downtown in Lynbrook, and his efforts to rally state officials to get additional money so that they could do more. He helped obtain the soccer field in Lynbrook. We're working on another piece of property, just south of that for whatever recreational purpose the village wants to use it for.
He also cites the help he said he's been in Valley Stream with Project Downtown. Ask Mayor Cahill how responsive I've been whenever they have a concern or a need. I'm there immediately helping them.
In East Rockaway, I've been working with them on Project Downtown, though theirs is in the planning stage. I jump in and straighten out things when I am needed.
He said he works very closely with all the mayors and others in cutting through the bureaucracies of county government to get things done.
He also spoke of his work with Valley Stream's School District 24 in helping make safer the area near the Carbonaro Elementary School on Mill Road and Hungry Harbor Drive.
Becker has also helped local fire departments obtain what was necessary to utilize a location in Woodmere Park as a training facility, he said. I cut the red tape for this to happen. Legis. Toback worked with me on this, we worked together on it.
Becker is sometimes exasperated with the looming financial mess that interferes with the delivery of needed services. You know this black cloud of the fiscal problems, it just never seems to go away to a point where you can say we can move on. It's going to be there at least another four years. It maybe will go away faster if you have a control board ... Sometimes I wish maybe it should happen. Not that I want to see people not get raises, but this is the only way that I think the county can take the breath to catch up.
Dale Camhi
A resident of East Rockaway for the last 21 years, Democrat Dale Camhi criticizes the current unnecessary personal services contracts, service cutbacks, and the condition of the parks. She said that county workers have low morale. She would, she said, review every agency and eliminate duplicative services, civilianize the police jobs where possible and update the county's technology.
Camhi is chair of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's Jonathan Marc Goodstein Fund, past president of Women's American ORT's Long Island chapter and a member of its Board of Directors. With a Masters in Special Education, she has worked as an educator for 16 years and now performs educational and vocational evaluations for the Sewanhaka Central High School District.
She said that the leadership skills that [she] has developed along with the ability to motivate, mobilize and diplomatically deal with diverse groups of people and make independent decisions
