Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman said his second term in office has been challenging but he is proud of what has been accomplished in the town over the past four years.

"We're doing extraordinary things in the Town of North Hempstead. We are in great financial shape so we can continue doing these types of things and the people are getting a great bang for their buck. For that, I'm very proud," said Kaiman, who served as a District Court Judge before being elected supervisor.

One of the things Kaiman is proud of is instituting a 311 call number whereby residents call 311 if they need a town service enabling the town to respond better to constituent needs. He said the 311call system enables every call to be documented and sent to the appropriate department.

"It's a tool that allows us to reorganize municipal services and government response to constituent needs," he said, adding that he is striving to link all town departments to the 311 system.

Town of North Hempstead was recently in the news after five building department personnel who worked for the town during Kaiman's tenure were indicted by the Nassau County District Attorney's Office. The supervisor said dealing with the issue has presented a challenge. "This was the hand I was dealt," Kaiman said.

Kaiman said that after finding problems in the building department, an internal investigation was launched and the findings were turned over to the Nassau County's District Attorney's Office. He believes the findings of the internal investigation were a major contribution to the Nassau DA's investigation.

"We're glad we were able to create a new structure for the building department and then find out where things were going wrong. It took turns that I didn't expect," he said. "Did I expect the allegations that went to the [former] building commissioner to come out the way they did? Absolutely not."

However, he said, for Kaiman, there is a sense of relief that the Nassau DA's office concluded its investigation and now the town could get on with the process of improving the building department.

Kaiman hired former Republican Town Councilman James O'Connor to head the building department. He acknowledged that there are overwhelming delays in the department but that's because there were layers of review added and the town building department is sticking with the code. If the applications aren't adherent to the code, the applicant must go before the town's board of zoning and appeals. According to Kaiman, the town hired five architects on a part-time basis to review plans.

While the town has been in the news of late for its building department, Kaiman hopes to continue to work on important projects such as keeping the town clean and maintaining the town's infrastructure, offering programs and services to residents and focusing on the town's finances.

Kaiman said the town has had balanced budgets every year he has been in office, the fund balance is maintained and at a level that is considered appropriate by the rating agencies, and the town received its highest bond rating in its history at AA2. "Fiscally, we're in the best shape we've ever been in our history," he said.

John Carway of Mineola knows that he is not a politician. Although he has worked in government, he has never held an elected office. He does believe, however, that it doesn't take a politician to fix the Town of North Hempstead. He believes honesty and trust should be put back in town hall and that's why when the opportunity presented itself to run for supervisor, Carway decided to make the most of it.

Having just retired from being the director of the Nassau County Probation Department, where he concluded a career in law enforcement that spanned over 40 years, Carway learned of the transfer in ownership of nine Nassau County parks and 12 county roads to the Town of North Hempstead. Carway saw the county alleviating its burden to maintain those parks and roads and placing them on the town's shoulders. This is when he decided to run for town supervisor since he believes such a transfer of land should have gone out for a public referendum.

Carway faces an uphill battle as the town has had a Democratic town supervisor for many years, but he feels that there is a culture of corruption that exists in the town as illustrated by the recent indictments of four former building department personnel and one current building inspector.

Carway, who currently serves on the Village of Mineola's Board of Zoning and Appeals, promises to fix the building department and to get moving on making decisions concerning homeowners' applications to make renovations or alterations to their homes. "What I find unconscionable is to put everything on hold," he said. "The one common thread is there is an atmosphere of fear and frustration."

Despite his opponent's claim that the problems in the building department were identified and are being addressed, Carway promises to reform the building department by prohibiting all outside employment of building department employees and removing the review of all files from the plan examination process and, on a short term basis, turn over that function to a task force consisting of professional contract employees not currently on the town payroll.

Carway also questioned his opponent's ethics after a published report indicated that the current supervisor accepted campaign contributions from companies that do business with the town. Carway along with other candidates for town council unveiled a plan that would identify individuals and vendors that the town's elected officials cannot solicit for campaign contributions. "We need to end these 'pay to play' practices once and for all," he said.

Carway is also critical of his opponent's initiative to implement the 311 system to handle constituent questions and problems. He questions whether the town needs such a system.

Carway maintains he isn't trying to bolster his resume by becoming supervisor but bring honest and transparent government to the Town of North Hempstead.

As the director of probation for the county, Carway was in charge of a department with a $26 million budget and feels his experience as an administrator prepared him for the supervisor's position.