Third party vies to lead the Freeport

After Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy and village Trustee Carmen Piñeyro recently announced their candidacies for mayor, lifelong Freeporter Thelma Lambert Watkins decided to throw her hat in the ring, saying she hopes to steer the community in a more family-orientated direction. 

Leading the We The People Party, Lambert Watkins is joined by nurse Juana Prado and educator Tiffany Pendola, both vying for trustee positions, and attorney Michele Baptiste, who is running for village justice.  

Lambert Watkins said the all-female team is a first for village politics, and if elected, the We The People Party candidates would bring greater inclusion to Village Hall and the wider community.

“My team is what the village needs,” Lambert Watkins said. “Freeport is made up of people from all different backgrounds, and we need to reflect that if we really want to improve our village for everyone.” 

Lambert Watkins has worked for the New York City Housing Authority for 28 years. As a manager, she oversees a community in the city of over 4,500 residents, maintaining a staff of more than 70 employees and a budget of about $4 million. 

“From my career to my work in the community, I’m used to leading others,” she said. “Now I want to lead on a grander scale. What better place than my own hometown?” 

Lambert Watkins, the child of Jamaican immigrants, grew up in Freeport and, she said, her Freeport High School Red Devil pride never went away after she graduated in 1988. She has stayed in close contact with the schools through her son, 29, and daughter, 16, and her involvement with the Parent Teacher Association. Lambert Watkins has served in leadership roles in the PTA for about a decade, and she currently serves as the Freeport PTA Council president, overseeing the school district’s eight PTAs.

She has also been president of the Nassau County Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, a teacher of religious education at the Our Holy Redeemer Church in Freeport and a trustee of Eager to Serve Inc., a local non-profit that serves the village and neighboring communities. 

Lambert Watkins said she decided to run after seeing a need to improve areas of Freeport that seemed long-neglected. 

Members of the We The People Party say they believe the current administration has not done enough for residents in the northern half of Freeport, a position also held by Piñeyro’s Alliance For Freeport party. Lambert Watkins said her team would focus on ensuring that people in all areas of Freeport are taken care of, including homeowners who are still repairing damage sustained during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.    

The We The People Party consists of members from different backgrounds, but are united in their love for Freeport, Lambert Watkins said. 

Prado, a nurse in Mt. Sinai South Nassau’s Dialysis Unit, began her career in hemodialysis more than two decades ago, moving to Freeport to work at the Freeport Dialysis Unit, known then as Gambro Healthcare.

Prado began teaching young professionals the fundamentals of hemodialysis and renal disease and looked to expand her leadership work in the community. She served in the Community Development Agency from 2009 to 2013 under then Mayor Andrew Hardwick. Prado said she hopes to return to Village Hall and resume her work and help the village overcome the pandemic. 

Pendola, the former principal at the Caroline G. Atkinson Intermediate School, has more than 15 years of experience in education. Although her tenure at the Atkinson School was short-lived, Pendola has served as a teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal and principal for the New York City Department of Education. 

She said she plans to use her education experience to support youth development projects within the village to nurture the next generation of Freeporters. Pendola said her core belief is “in order to create a culture engrossed around quality education, we must nurture the excitement of knowledge, build the character of man and come together as a community.”

Baptiste, who maintains a general law practice in Garden City, moved to Freeport in 2002. Baptiste has a long career as an attorney, working at labor and employment law firms in Nassau and Suffolk counties, where she conducted sexual harassment investigations, appeared before the New York State Division of Human Rights, represented clients at Education Law hearings, labor arbitration hearings, interest arbitration hearings and labor negotiations.

She also worked as an administrative law judge for the New York City Department of Finance and served on the Nassau County Human Rights Commission. 

Baptiste specializes in diversity and inclusion, which she said is necessary when overseeing a community as diverse as Freeport. 

Baptiste said that while she was free to run independently for village justice, she agreed with Lambert Watkins’s vision for Freeport and signed up with the party. 

“I’ve always wanted to become a judge, and while I could run by myself, I spoke with Thelma and thought this would be a good opportunity,” Baptiste said. “She’d be a great mayor, and this would be a step to increasing women’s representation in the village.”  

The village election will take place March 16.