Democratic Town of Oyster Bay candidate David O'Brien wants to see the Town of Oyster Bay restored to the town that it once was, and, in his opinion, should and can be. If elected this November, he plans to lead the town in this direction.

O'Brien was born and raised in Syosset and now resides in Woodbury with his wife and son. Something that prompted O'Brien to run for office is his belief that the Town of Oyster Bay is no longer the town that he grew up in. "It came to the point that they were building on every square inch of land in the town, there was clearly no environmental plan and places like Cerro Wire and the Liberty Site were just totally being ignored by the Town Board," said O'Brien. "It is frustrating to me."

Twenty-eight year old O'Brien didn't expect to run at this stage in life as some felt he was too young, but he did not want to sit by any longer and watch the problems in the town get worse. "I am absolutely ready and I can make a difference," said O'Brien.

Having grown up in Syosset, O'Brien was very familiar with the Syosset, Jericho and Woodbury areas and originally O'Brien and his wife, who is from Hicksville, owned a house in Wantagh familiarizing himself with the Massapequa area. O'Brien worked very closely with the Massapequa Democratic club and got to know some of the issues there.

To enhance his involvement in the community, O'Brien holds a position as a board member of Summer Camp Opportunities Provides an Edge (SCOPE) where he raised over $49,000 to give children a chance to escape their urban surroundings and experience the benefits of camp. In addition, O'Brien is a member of American Camping Association's safety task force and the co-founder of a Christmas Fund where last year, he raised $30,000 for underprivileged children to receive gifts during the holidays.

If elected, O'Brien, who currently serves as the chief of operations for the Timber Lake Group, which is a conglomerate of Children's Summer Camps, has set three goals for himself. The first is to deal with the fiscal problems in the town, which is a big concern for O'Brien, who claims that the town's finances mirror that of Nassau County.

O'Brien has a letter from the State Comptroller's Office admonishing the town of Oyster Bay for poor budgeting practices. "Last year in the Supervisor's budget, they budgeted for $3.6 million in real property rental as well as the cell tower deal," explained O'Brien. "The cell tower deal was never signed and when it is in your budget, and the revenue does not come in, you run a short fall. It is simple math... I bet it is in the Supervisor's budget again this year and if that deal is not signed, he went from a $3.6 to a $7.2 million deficit, and that is what we know about. The State comptroller is saying that we can't do this - we can't budget for revenues when there is no contract signed. That is the information that we can actually ascertain and everything else is a guessing game with the town of Oyster Bay because they do not open up their books."

The second item on his agenda is to focus on open space and over-development. "We need to preserve our open space and we need to ensure that we are not overdeveloping the town of Oyster Bay as we have been the last five years," said O'Brien.

The third and final goal for O'Brien is to make a real effort to improve local downtowns, areas O'Brien describes as 'falling apart.' This was a topic brought up at a recent Syosset Chamber of Commerce meeting at which local politicians, including O'Brien, had the opportunity to voice their opinions and express their ideas. "People spoke about what the town is doing and whom they are working with," said O'Brien. "The problem is that the people and the storeowners in Syosset had no input in what the town is doing. I directly oversee 260 staff and I know this very well as I have learned from experience - if you hand anything top down, it is going to explode - it is not going to work. You need to get the input from the community." O'Brien suggested opening a storefront in Syosset, or in any area looking to revitalize their downtown, allowing people access to their government, storeowners and civic associations and providing a forum for input.

In an attempt to remedy the fiscal situation in the town, O'Brien looked into some town spending. "When our parks are in the worst condition that they have ever been, when our roads are in horrible condition wherever you live, except for Massapequa, when you have all of these issues and we are going out and buying fully loaded Ford Explorers for the top-level Republican employees instead of taking that $300,000 and putting it into a park - it is an abuse and it is wrong," he said

O'Brien is looking at the economy in a realistic way and anticipating that Federal and State aid is going to be diminished if not cut almost entirely due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "What are we going to be doing to make up for that?" he asked. "This Supervisor increased spending by five percent this year even given what happened at the trade center. That is unbelievable. His budget was submitted after the trade center. He knew full well what he was doing. The last three years he raised taxes."

The events of Sept. 11 affected O'Brien personally as he lost many friends in the World Trade Center. He says the tragedy put this campaign and what it means into perspective for him. "As important as it is for me to run in this election because I want to improve the Town of Oyster Bay, a town that I love very much, it put what is important and not so important in perspective," he said. "It has affected my campaign as you don't want to bang on doors and send literature out to people who like me, lost family and friends and you want to respect people's privacy. I don't think it affected just the committee to elect David O'Brien, it affected everybody."

Energetic, young and absolutely committed to doing the job is how O'Brien describes himself. "I have no political interests," he said. "I don't need the job - I am in private business and, in fact, this probably will hurt my business, but I am doing this because I have a real love for the Town of Oyster Bay. I want to see it restored to the place that it should be and can be and every single one of the people that is on that board and those who are running all have business ties directly related to the Town of Oyster Bay and that is unacceptable. I have no ties."

O'Brien believes the same faces have been on the town board for too long. "It is the same old faces, the same old machine and the same old culture day in and day out," said O'Brien. "All that has gotten us is in the same place it has gotten us in Nassau County - deficits, environmental problems and left with faltering downtowns. I don't think the problems in the Town of Oyster Bay are insurmountable, I just think we need people who are committed to doing the job. I am committed to doing just that."