Robert DiCarlo / Ed Hennessy Repub Primary Candidates
September 9, 2005 @ 12:00 am EDT
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Members and friends
This mornings meeting was a a somewhat different format. We had two speakers
The two speakers were the primary candidates for Brookhaven Town Supervisor, Ed Hennessy and Robert DiCarlo. The format was an opening statement of 15 minutes each. After the opening speech, each had an opportunity to address one question to each other and then the audience had a go at it. We allotted extra time than usual for that meeting
Hennessy has the experience of 12 years in town government and is an articulate spokesman for his own campaign. DiCarlo has no record in the town, but has a record of successful elected politics in another jurisdiction, as a stste senstor in Brooklyn. Robert DiCarlo is also an excellent presenter and on those points there is a lot of equality.
Ed Hennessey was first to speak and based a lot of his address to the need for transparency in government and the need to reform Brookhaven politics. “Corruption in Brookhaven is deep,” said Hennessy, and that he would work to make the processes of government more fair. He stated that a system of accountability has been formulated by him and his advisors and he went on to explain. Under Section 75, a provision for removing people from the public payroll would be used to discard dead wood in Brookhaven town would be used aggressively.
Robert DiCarlo began by reviewing his successes in previous politics including better laws governing domestic violence. Under a DiCarlo sponsored law it is now possible for a policeman at the scene of a domestic violence call to decide if an arrest is warranted. Previously the abused spouse would have to demand the arrest, and that often did not happen.
DiCarlo also made it easier to make drug arrests near school yard sales of drugs.
Mr. DiCarlo recounted a distasteful experience with the Town when he was advocating on behalf of the related family business DiCarlo Food Service. DFS was applying for a railroad siding for their facility on Ocean Avenue. The application would allow the company to use far fewer trucks on the road, but the Town gave them a rough time because of a complaint that came from four neighbors that moved in after the DiCarlo facility was built. (Editors note; LIMBA has been an advocate of more rail freight.)
DiCarlo answered the question of “how do you reform Brookhaven?” he borrowed a phrase from another politician “Blow it up.” Dismantle the dysfunctional entity and rebuild it was the essence of his remarks. He said that means running against the Republican Party, a party according to DiCarlo has ran away from what it should be standing for.
The Q&A was interesting as well. Questions on the support of Broadwater were introduced and both candidates were open to letting the discussion of Broadwater proceed, and that Hennessy was more or less on board.
Our hot topic at LIMBA is the Homeland Security Ferry Link from Shoreham to New Haven. We asked both of them if they would also support that effort. With reasonable reservations both said that the ferry link was a good idea. After the close of the meeting the candidates stayed for at least a half hour more to answer questions with people on a one on one basis. Personally I was pleased that we were able to extract straight answers from both candidates.
Please join us next week when Her Healy from United Technologies will discuss a proposed 10 Megawatt Fuel cell powerplant for Long Island. More on that next week. Meanwhile, have a nice weekend.
Ernie Fazio