Garden City resident Brian Paradine is currently planning to challenge incumbent Vincent Muscarella for the Eighth Legislative District seat of the Nassau County Legislature. Running on the Democratic ticket, having been nominated last month, he said in an interview with Anton Community Newspapers that he sees the upcoming fall election as an "opportunity to address the serious problems the County has been facing." He added, "What inspired me to run were the headlines over the last few months regarding the budget problems, the deficit, the property assessment issue, and the matter of patronization."

Paradine noted that while he personally sees Muscarella as, "a great guy" he believes that voting practices within the County Legislature reflect the "voting voice" of Nassau County Republican Party Leader Joseph Mondello and the wishes of Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta. He said, "They speak as a monolith. I, myself, am not afraid to speak out when I see things are not going well." With the election several months away, he believes that he can take the summer to begin to introduce himself to the constituents in the Eighth District and not only "get to know the communities," but demonstrate why he believes he's the man for the job.

"I really think I can change a lot of Republican voters' minds. I don't think people will go into the voting booths this fall and just pull a lever. Nassau County is hemorrahaging too badly at this point. The problems are not just going to go away," he commented. He continued, "Good government has nothing to do with party labels. I think honest government should have nothing to do with party politics."

While his campaign headquarters is in his own home in the Village, he feels that he can pose a serious challenge to Legislator Muscarella by addressing publicly, whenever possible, the problems he believes pose a threat to the County and its residents' well-being and discussing his qualifications. He explained, "I spent 20 years on Wall Street as an owner of a firm. The Nassau County Legislature should be run like a business. I ran Branoff and Claire as a managing partner and was able to retire early. I have spent the last eight years of my retirement working for Catholic Charities as a special projects developer."

As a special projects developer for Catholic Charities, he has created an employment network, created a coordinated volunteer lawyers program for those who cannot afford legal counsel, developed a school to career program, developed a workfare site for welfare recipients, and insituted a mentoring program to help the unemployed or underskilled with the resources they need to become more successful. He also spent 10 years in civic government as a director and vice president of the Eastern Property Owners' Association in Garden City, which, as part of the Village's Community Agreement, nominates candidates for both the School Board and the Village Board of Trustees and serves as one of four subbranches of the Village government. While on the EPOA Board, he chaired the Education Committee and served as the liaison to the Village's Recreation Commission.

He has been a member of the Democratic Committee since 1982, has worked with Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy of the Fourth Congressional District on opposing the transportation of municipal solid waste and other hazardous materials by freight train across central Nassau on the Main Line, and has been working to study ways to improve traffic in the County. The Nassau County Village's Association was unsuccessful in getting the Nassau County Legislature to include in the last budget provisions for shared sales tax for incorporated villages. Paradine says that he supports the pursuit of the shared sales tax and that with four different municipalities within the district, he understands that this is a big concern for the villages and the business districts.

He added that while the incumbents are looking to real estate transfer and increased oil taxes to address the County's economic problems, he believes in not voting for any new tax until the County "dissects the issue of its own bloated workforce." He questioned, "Why do we have 10 or 12 assistant deputy directors, 60 lawyers, hiring of outside firms, etc.?" "We need to analyze and assess every job in the County before we start imposing more taxes on the residents," he said.

"Our system of tax assessment in this County was recently determined unconstitutional in the courts. For the last three years the County has stonewalled on this. Now the County is under a court order to right this, and penalties are involved. I believe the County should be working to find ways to ease the pain. Residents of Garden City, for example, will be seriously impacted by this issue. I wouldn't put my head in the sand, rather I would do everything to compromise and not stonewall this anymore," he said. Paradine added, "It's here and the residents of the Eighth District will be among those hurt the most. We could be working to ease residents into this without ignoring it and then having them cold cocked, but that seems to be the direction we're going in because Gulotta and the Legislature choose to ignore it and hope it will go away." He concluded on the subject, "With possibly $20 million in penalties to pay, we'll all be hurting."

Paradine also criticized the current tax grievance system. "People appeal and almost 100 percent win in this convoluted and archaic system,' he observed. "If it weren't so tragic, it could actually be funny," he noted. He added, "We have in America right now the best economy in the world and Nassau County can't get itself together."

The interview concluded with Paradine expressing a desire to debate Muscarella in local forums and on local television to provide access to residents. He said, "It's really exciting to me to run. I've lived in Garden City for over 20 years and my wife and I have sent our children to the Garden City schools. Living here in this district, I too am impacted by what's going on here in the County and it's time to see some of these issues and not let them rest."