Don Clavin is hoping to use the experience he has gained as Hempstead Town receiver of taxes to serve Nassau County as comptroller. He says he wants to unseat current comptroller Howard Weitzman in this November's race because "Nassau County needs an independent taxpayer watchdog, not a 'yes man' to the county's administration."

Clavin of Garden City said he manages more than $2 billion a year as receiver of taxes and has saved Hempstead Town taxpayers thousands of dollars because of implemented changes like the redesigned tax bill. He notes some of his greatest accomplishments as receiver of taxes have included enhancing services, providing taxpayers with more information while watching the bottom dollar, expanding hours and redesigning the tax bill to make it more user friendly. "People have contacted me saying that they have a better understanding of their tax bills than they have in the past," he said.

Clavin believes he is more than qualified to oversee the county's finances and hopes to bring that kind of mindset to the comptroller's office. "It's not enough to just hold the line on taxes anymore," Clavin said. "We have to get proactive and find ways to save money to reduce taxes."

His first priority if elected: provide an independent oversight to numerous issues, including what he described as payroll scandals he said have plagued the current administration. "The comptroller's job is to monitor payroll. All the scandals that have broken were revealed by media or myself, in fact ... Frankly, as a candidate, I'm already doing his job," Clavin said.

Addressing what needs to be done first, Clavin said he has a dual priority - audit the entire payroll of all county departments and audit the assessment department to figure out why "Nassau County continues to give out hundreds of millions of dollars" in refunds. "Obviously people are being over-assessed," he said. "Howard Weitzman promised on Nov. 8, 2004 that he was going to perform a follow-up audit of the county assessment office. It's a year later and he's never done his follow-up audit."

Clavin, who is running on the Republican, Independent and Conservative Party lines, is actively involved in Garden City Kiwanis, the Nassau County Bar Association, is a member of the Knights of Columbus, Masons and Irish Americans in Government. He believes his campaign has been about issues and solutions. "Nassau County needs a taxpayer watchdog, not broken promises from a politician," he said. "As Nassau's next comptroller, I will put people ahead of politics."

Noting the "stunning progress" made in the last four years, Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman is seeking re-election because he believes there is still more work to do. "We can't grow complacent," he said. "Working with Tom Suozzi, Nassau's bond rating has been upgraded a remarkable 10 times," Weitzman added. "Deficits have become surpluses. Budgets have been honestly balanced. I am running to build on Nassau's gains - so we don't regress back to the era of fiscal irresponsibility and mismanagement."

Weitzman is proud of what his staff has accomplished, adding that when he first took office, Nassau was on the "brink of bankruptcy." He now boasts Nassau County's fiscal health is "strong" and only getting stronger. "My independent audits of county agencies have yielded tens of millions of dollars in savings for Nassau taxpayers. County government, once wasteful and bloated, is more effective and efficient than ever before," Weitzman continued.

As Nassau's fiscal watchdog, Weitzman said exposing the waste and mismanagement in county government, which leads to higher taxes, is his biggest challenge. "Often that means taking on powerful interest groups," he noted. Weitzman takes his role very seriously and said that as long as he's county comptroller, he will continue to expose costly mismanagement in all its forms.

"I am Nassau's first elected CPA comptroller, and I am proud that I've been able to use my experience in accounting to protect taxpayers," he said. "I've been aggressive with my audits, and I'll continue to be aggressive in my second term."

If elected to a second term, Weitzman said he would continue to be a "steadfast protector" of Nassau taxpayers, using his CPA skills to audit county agencies and expose waste wherever it may exist. "We have stabilized the tax rate over the last four years, and I will continue to fight against unnecessarily high taxes," he vowed. "The families of our county deserve to have confidence in Nassau government, and I will never stop working to realize that goal."

Running on the Democratic and Working Families party lines, Weitzman is married with three adult children. He has lived in Great Neck for 28 years. He is presently on the boards of the United Community Fund and the American Jewish Community of Long Island. He also serves as a trustee at Temple Israel.