For many politicians, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is a judgeship. To achieve that goal while under 40 is unusual but Jon Kaiman, Democratic candidate for Town of North Hempstead supervisor had that good fortune. Nonetheless, he resigned from the bench of the District Court because he knew that he wanted a different role in government. "I have a philosophy about how things should be run," he said in an interview with editors from Anton Newspapers, "and I wanted to get in the game. You're very restricted as a judge," he said. "It's fascinating, but not for me." Now he has a chance to become a major player in the political game as the Democratic candidate for the seat that is being vacated by May Newburger. Ms. Newburger, who chose not to run for a sixth term, has voiced enthusiastic support for Kaiman as her successor. "I feel very confident thinking of Jon in this office."

Kaiman recently received the endorsement of Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman and County Commissioner of Parks Doreen Banks, both North Hempstead residents, as well as Democratic North Hempstead leader Joe Galante and the rest of the Democratic North Hempstead town ticket. Kaiman expressed himself as pleased with the show of support. "May was well known," he said. "Now we don't need infighting. We need continuity with the past."

Kaiman expressed himself as fully in accord with Newburger's environmental record. He was chairman of her committee on the Environmental Legacy Fund (ELF), which was endorsed by the voters last year. He also speaks enthusiastically about Newburger's record on the economy. "When May Newburger took office," he said, "the Town of North Hempstead was in dire financial straits, now the supervisor can focus on quality of life issues." Before he was named to the District Court, Kaiman was North Hempstead Commissioner of Public Safety so quality of life issues are something he knows about first hand. Among those issues he specifically mentioned code enforcement, parking problems and the perennial illegal housing situation. "The year before I became Commissioner of Public Safety," he said, "there were four cases of illegal housing brought in North Hempstead. My first year there were 40." He thinks more parking tickets should be issued and that tickets should be issued for illegal boating practices on Manhasset Bay. He wants to make sure that merchants are responsible for cleaning up litter in front of their stores. "We have had some success but we should have more."

The Democratic candidate is proud of his record as Public Safety commissioner. "For 30 years the town ignored locations such as Sheets Creek in Manorhaven because of overlapping jurisdiction of county, town and village" he said. Kaiman decided the work had to be done. He organized a committee and was responsible for removing 200 tons of debris from that small body of water.

Some Republican candidates for town office have said that North Hempstead has been unable to deal with senior citizen issues among other things. Kaiman disputed this. "Look at the success of our 'Funday, Monday' program at Bar Beach for seniors. Look at the transportation we provide so those seniors who don't drive can do their shopping."

Republican candidates are calling attention to North Hempstead's debt but Kaiman responded that "debt doesn't happen overnight. The Republicans bought the Morewood property (in Port Washington) planning to build a 990-ton incinerator and the cost of that property, with refinancing, eventually was $70 million. Today we have no more landfill and have built a state-of-the-art golf facility that will help pay down the debt." Kaiman acknowledged that North Hempstead lost a lawsuit which cost it to incur further debt, but he pointed to the fact that the major financial rating agencies, although aware of the so-called 'Sumitomo judgment" have given North Hempstead several increases in its bond status.

Asked about his position on affordable housing, Mr. Kaiman said that North Hempstead's response would have to be "community based." He added that many people confuse affordable housing with low-income housing. He also discussed "mixed-use housing," a concept that would permit apartments to be built over stores on community main streets. "Mixed use came up in New Cassel," he said, " where the residents wanted it as part of an urban renewal project." He said the town has no plans to introduce it elsewhere unless residents want it. "My vision will evolve, based on the community's vision. I'll bring in experts to give us advice."

Looking back on his time as Commissioner of Public Safety, Kaiman said, "We were pro-active. That's my style."

A graduate of Hofstra University and Hofstra Law School, Jon is a resident of Great Neck. He and his wife, Kim, have two sons, aged 7 and 3.

It is expected that he and his Republican opponent, Frank Moroney of Carle Place, will engage in several debates before the November election.

Frank Moroney, the Republican candidate for Supervisor of the Town of North Hempstead, visited Anton Newspapers to discuss with editors the issues he feels are important to the town. Moroney, a former town councilman, is hoping to use a cooperative approach to make the town more cost effective and improve services.

Moroney believes that all of the issues facing the town fall into four broad categories - quality of life issues, economic issues, environmental issues and inter-governmental cooperation.

With the numerous villages that exist in the Town of North Hempstead, Moroney hopes to cooperate with the other municipalities so that town government would not be irrelevant to the residents of incorporated areas.

"Anything we do related to any issue we have to face has to be done on an inter-governmental cooperative basis. It requires us to find ways to economize and use each other's services on a contractual basis," he said.

One issue in which Moroney believes the town and the villages can work together is one that he has focused on during his campaign - illegal housing. As part of a six-point plan to fight illegal housing, Moroney suggested that the Town of North Hempstead would establish an inter-municipal code enforcement clearinghouse and database to coordinate the effort of the town and villages to combat illegal housing.

Moroney also believes the building commissioner should not be the planning commissioner, something he calls a conflict of interest in the town.

Moroney believes town government and village government should be finding ways to be relevant to each other. "The villages really give us a model. Their government is generically based upon a nonpartisan model," he said. "That's the sort of cooperative effort we have to bring into North Hempstead."

Other issues which Moroney is concerned with include open space and water usage as he suggested having a North Hempstead aquifer committee comprised of all aspects of the town to address the issue of high water usage.

The Republican candidate pointed out that seven of 13 water districts exceed the state proposed DEC caps and the ones that don't exceed the caps are all upwards of 95 percent or better on the caps. "It is being pressed to the limit and that is just North Hempstead. We don't have a North Hempstead aquifer. We have a Long Island aquifer that we share with Suffolk County. We have a regional issue that has to be done on a cooperative basis," Moroney said.

Moroney said the county's financial crisis has taken its toll on the town and its infrastructure. "The first thing we stopped doing is paving our roads. We have to find ways to get back to paving our road system," he said. "Every block I walk on, everybody says 'look at my streets.' That has to stop."

He also suggested finding a way to bring back the STOP (Stop Throwing Out Pollutants) program so that pollutants don't find their way into the garbage stream.

The Carle Place resident is concerned with quality of life issues and making sure that services are not depleted because of the town's financial situation.

According to Moroney, $0.52 cents of every tax dollar is spent on debt service. "That leaves only 48 cents left on the dollar to take care of everything else and that includes not having toilet paper in the parks. That's unconscionable. It's unconscionable to go to Bar Beach and not have hand towels for people to dry their hands after they wash them," he said.

For uncollected taxes, Moroney suggested possibly seeking a tax amnesty for people who haven't paid their taxes to pay their taxes without penalty. "That would create an influx of cash," he said.

Moroney believes that it will take creative thinking to help the town's government be effective in days of tough economic times. For example, he suggested finding ways of making the collection of garbage more economicaly by perhaps getting into the recycling market and do more recycling.

In the case of parks, he suggested having corporate sponsorship and private owners to help defray the costs of maintaining the parks. "We can then take that money that goes to the parks and put it toward other things whether the priority is getting rid of illegal housing or the priority is paving roads, we can do that," he said.

Moroney hopes to make town government relevant to the people of the town, whether they live in incorporated or unincorporated areas. "Town government has become irrelevant to people or antagonistic on the other end of the spectrum. They feel alienated and separated and I understand that. But, the job of the supervisor is to be the supervisor for the entire town whether people live in villages or don't live in villages," he said.

Frank Moroney will face Democrat candidate Jon Kaiman in the November 4 election.