The Greater New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce held a breakfast meeting last week for the sole purpose of having its members meet both Nassau County Executive candidates, but only the Republican candidate businessman Bruce Bent, attended. Chamber President Peter Caputo announced that Democrat candidate Mayor of Glen Cove Thomas Souzzi had just called to tell him that he could not attend and without further comment he introduced candidate Bruce Bent.

Bent introduced himself as a "fellow who has lived up the road about three miles for the last 64 years." He explained that he grew up in Great Neck and then moved to the Village of Plandome.

He said he was a businessman, not a politician and he said, "to be blunt I never spent a heck of a lot of time looking at the local situation. I got up in the morning, kissed cheeks and did the reverse when I returned home. When NIPA came about I said to myself maybe we have a problem. So I started looking and found that indeed Nassau County was in ridiculous financial shape."

Then he said, "Let me jump back. What's my claim to fame? If you know what a money market fund is then I'm the guy who invented it. I'm the CEO and chairman of the Reserve Fund and we are a $13 million company."

He continued, "I put a call into the woman in my firm who runs our municipal bond area and asked her what she thought of Nassau County bonds and she said it's garbage, we shouldn't invest in it. As a lifelong resident I was offended, but she was right."

He said that he did more research and put his staff to work on it and eventually found that indeed Nassau County did have huge financial problems. He was, he said, perplexed as to why since it's one of the richest counties in the state. But he said, "I came to the conclusion that it's because of career politicians who lacked the political will to move the County of Nassau forward."

He went on, "So, I said to myself, okay the county's problems are lack of management and I have a reasonable record over the last 30 years. Further, it should not be run by politicians and I'm not a politician and I'm very interested in Nassau County since it's been very good to me."

Bent said he started out in Great Neck picking up empty bottles on construction sites; then went on to work in a very large Great Neck department store. He said he was even able to put cuffs on pants, although one time, while using the pinking machine he cut the legs off the pants, but he said, "you live and learn."

He went from there to a grocery store while in high school; then spent the next six years in the Marine Corps, the Great Neck post office and attending St. John's University.

Very poignantly he said, "On this journey I had people all the time helping me, because I tend to walk on the more imaginative side and those people kept me on the straight and narrow. In any event, when I was in the post office they had a temporary employment scholarship plan and you only worked when someone was out of the office and I needed to work so those people who worked with me would purposely take a day off so I could work. These are the people I owe, they are all gone now, but nevertheless the concept is there. "

Getting back to why he is running he said, "I figured we have a county with a terrible financial situation, we have a county with a bad political situation and I have the proven skills to do something about it and since, as I have said before, I'm not a politician I decided to run for Nassau County Executive. I said I would only be in office for one term and for only $1 a year, "added Bent.

Since his declaration as a candidate and after his endorsement by first the Conservative Party and then the Republican Party, Bent said he made it his business to survey every department in the county and found out that some of the departments were operating in this day and age without the benefit of computers.

He went down the line of the other departments in the county and said they all need to be revamped and tightened, which he said he is qualified to do.

One of the questions asked by a member of the quite large audience for an 8 a.m. meeting, was if elected could he be persuaded to serve more than one term and he said yes since he perceives the job as taking longer than one term.

He said there is a grave problem in the county of assessment. For instance he said, he lives in the oldest house in Plandome and yet pays less taxes than a friend who lives in a condo off Shelter Rock Road. He said that inequity has to be addressed.

He mentioned the police department and said that several years ago there was a provision to "civilian-ize" the police force. For example someone who gives a DWI test which is not a technical test and just requires someone to breathe into a tube could be administered by a civilian. Currently those tests are being administered by officers making $140,000 a year. He added, "This person is getting more than the head of the FBI."

Bent added, "The bottom line is what I want to do is bring objectivity into the county. I have been running businesses my entire life and have been pretty successful. Some say that since I don't have any governmental experience I can't contribute to the benefit of the county. However, when I first went into the mutual fund business 30 years ago I analyzed the organization and three years later totally revamped the operation and now 30 years later it runs the way I originally designed it."

He concluded by saying, "That's it, plain and simple, run the county as a business. I'm not interested in being a career politician, I don't owe anyone anything, I didn' t come through the ranks, I have never had anything to do with the organization and to further emphasize that fact just look at the red signs all over the county. The top of the sign is Dillon, the next name is Parola, next is Murphy and then way down in the weeds you have Bent. I am definitely independent."