At a press conference held late last week, Democrat Joseph Lorintz, a Jericho attorney, civic leader and environmental activist, officially kicked off his campaign for the office of supervisor of the Town of Oyster Bay challenging incumbent Supervisor John Venditto.

If elected, Lorintz would like to take politics out of government. "I am not as political as the elected officials," said Lorintz, who already received his party's endorsement. "I am more civic-based and I have worked with Republicans and Democrats. I don't look at a person's party registration to determine what is right to be done."

Lorintz has been a civic leader in the Jericho community and has served as vice president and president of the Oakwood Princeton Park Civic Association for ten years. He was a founder and is president of the United Civic Associations of North Oyster Bay, a coalition of civic and homeowner associations.

Since 1996, Lorintz has been a leader in the effort to preserve the 81-acres of open space located in Jericho known as the Underhill Property and he has served as the president of the Society to Preserve Underhill, a charitable organization, since its inception. As a result of his efforts, the plan to build a 270-unit housing project on the site has been halted, first by the New York State Supreme Court and most recently in a unanimous Appellate Court decision handed down in July 2000.

"We have not had the cooperation between the town, the county and the state to make [preservation] happen," said Lorintz regarding the Underhill property. "That has been very frustrating. It has taken us, as citizens, and the charitable nature of our organization, to put it all together and to advocate for the preservation and make sure that each one of the components plays their part. I think what has been missing is the strong leadership of the town supervisor, or any leadership for that matter, to make it happen. I am doing everything I can to de-politicize Underhill. I want to remove Underhill from the political game, but I will always be a strong advocate of preserving the property."

Lorintz is looking forward to the next six months and views it as a time to meet new people, express his vision for a better Town of Oyster Bay and listen to the residents' concerns. "The philosophy now seems to be to discourage community involvement and I obviously hold a different philosophy," said Lorintz, who considers himself a strong advocate of citizen involvement. "The philosophy that exists now has to change."

If elected, Lorintz plans to change the way town meetings are run, a plan that he claims is easy to correct. "I want to give the public the opportunity to be heard first rather than be discouraged by the fact that they don't get to be heard until the end of the meeting," said Lorintz. "I think that it helps with the relationship between government and the public. Suspicion and ill-will build up when people come to town hall and don't get an opportunity to be heard until 11 p.m. or 12 in the morning, if it is a night meeting." Also, Lorintz explained that many important issues are discussed during day meetings that people with responsibilities, such as jobs, can't attend.

Through Councilwoman Bonnie Eisler's leadership, the town is in the beginning stages of creating a master plan and, according to Lorintz, strong citizen involvement would be greatly beneficial. "I find the master plan very important and I think about how we are going to implement it," said Lorintz. "I strongly believe that a citizen's advisory committee or a task force would be very helpful in terms of putting it together, doing it and making it a priority. I want to ensure that the most important voices, the people of this town, are heard in formulating the blueprint for the future of Oyster Bay."

Lorintz plans to focus on quality of life issues for residents of the Town of Oyster Bay. "People's complaints and desires are really important," said Lorintz. "Our parks need to stay clean, accessible and well-maintained. We shouldn't have an uneven delivery of services, such as snow removal, repairs and planting trees and things along those lines. I don't want to look at things and say we don't get the votes from that area so we are not going to provide the service."

At the press conference, which was held on the Underhill Property, Lorintz was joined by approximately 20 supporters including his wife Marissa and his daughters Rachel and Elana, Oyster Bay Receiver of Taxes James Stefanich and three town board candidates on the Democratic slate - Mary McCaffrey, from Bethpage, Josephine Reder, from Massapequa and David O'Brien from Woodbury. Frank Goban, who is running against incumbent legislator Edward Mangano in the 17th L.D. was also present to support Lorintz. Not present last week, but in full support of Lorintz are Oyster Bay Town Clerk Martha Offerman and Randy Sue Marber, who is running for district court judge.