Republican candidate Lois Weinstein, seeking to win incumbent Judy Jacobs' seat in the Nassau County Legislature, is confident that her extensive background in county law and local outreach makes her a qualified and capable candidate for the 16th Legislative District. A resident of Woodbury, Weinstein is emphasizing such issues as preserving open land, curbing overdevelopment and amending fiscal problems.

Weinstein has worked with the county on a variety of levels, particularly in the field of domestic violence law. As a Nassau County Deputy Attorney, she has been assigned to the Child Abuse Coordination and Treatment Team and is chairwoman of the county's Task Force Against Family Violence.

By serving in this capacity, Weinstein has established connections all across the county that she believes will enable her to provide constituents with the services they need. "I think I bring to the Legislature a lot of skills and experience and perspective that nobody else on the Legislature has and I want to share that with them," said Weinstein.

"Working together with...all the different arms of the county gives you a great ability to assist the residents of Nassau County as a legislator," she continued. "And I want to continue to do for the people in the county what I've been given the privilege of doing, which is providing services and...representing the citizens," she continued.

As a county attorney, and an advisor to Governor George Pataki's Task Force on Rape and Sexual Abuse, Weinstein has had experience in writing and interpreting law - a valuable skill that she wants to take with her from Nassau's judicial branch to the legislative branch.

For example, Weinstein helped amend the county's domestic violence law, adding a clause which created uniform orders of protection for victims of family violence and a registry where those documents are kept on file. That way, explained Weinstein, when police officers arrive at a scene of domestic violence, they "don't necessarily have to rely on the [victimized] woman to produce the document. They can check into their registry and find it."

"I have a great understanding of the law," said Weinstein. "[I've] created it, [I've] written it, I know how to work with it. I think that's important for a legislator."

Weinstein's latest role with the county is as executive director of the Nassau County Family Resource Center, an informational and referral center that assists families in need.

Weinstein said that the work she has done at the center has allowed her to see, firsthand, many problems that the county must address.

"We see working mothers needing child care assistance...We see people in need of mental health care. We see people in need of matrimonial care, programs to assist their children through their divorces and their custody proceedings. We see people in need of housing .We see people in need of food stamps...People who can't pay their bills, people who need getting college scholarships, loans. People walk in with every kind of problem imaginable and we gather the service-providers together to assist them."

Starting with virtually no capital, Weinstein built the center from scratch in an abandoned hallway, and had to get the most she could from very limited resources. "I had no budget," explained Weinstein. In order to to cut costs, "[we] recycled furniture and recycled equipment." To this day, "We double duty our staff. We have people from different departments working, answering our phones, serving as liaisons."

Weinstein, believes that, by drawing upon her experience budgeting the resource center, she can help trim wasteful expenditures in the county's budget - a source of much controversy - without diminishing the valuable services which the government provides.

Though the Republicans of the current Legislature, led by Joseph Mondello, have publicly chastised Thomas Gulotta's 2000 budget and the $330 million debt stemming from his previous budgets, Weinstein would neither embrace nor condemn the county executive's latest fiscal plan. She did say, however, that it is time to "take a good hard look at our budget and the way it's been handled over the last seven or eight years, and restore stability and fiscal responsibility and structure to the budget."

"It may require the unpleasant pill of a tax increase at some point," Weinstein admitted, "but before that, I would take a look at cutting back as much as possible."

She continued, "We need a budget where the funds are clearly defined, where the money cannot be exchanged between funds." Weinstein is also advocating for more public scrutiny of the budget as well as the recruitment of financial experts from the private sector who would voluntarily assist the county during its budget process.

"I think that's got to be the future of the county - partnering with the private sector," explained Weinstein. "We've got to look to the private sector to assist us with providing much of the services that the government is currently providing, without turning it totally over to the private sector."

Weinstein said that she would like to see private sector involvement in the development of Nassau County's Hub plan, as well as the purchasing of the Underhill property in Jericho for the purpose of preservation.

Weinstein believes the preservation of the Underhill property, designated a Special Groundwater Protection Area, is especially important because there is such little open space left in Nassau.

"I think we have to begin to plan for the future in an organized fashion," Weinstein stated. "This county has for the last 50 years been haphazardly developing. And now is the time to take a long, hard look around and start protecting our environment, our aquifers, our park lands, grasslands, our Greenbelt areas and our clean air."

Weinstein said that any future development within the county should take place "only where the infrastructure that's already in existence will permit further development."

A former elementary-school teacher, Weinstein believes that educational issues continue to be important throughout the county, particularly the matter of school safety. She currently serves on the Nassau County Police Department's School Safety Conference, which is developing new policies and protocols to deal with the rise in school violence.

Weinstein is also a member of the Nassau County Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts, an advisory board member of the Nassau County District Court Children's Center, and a member of the Hunter's Run Homeowners Association.

She is married to husband Kenneth and is the mother of three children.