ONLINE EDITION FRIDAY NOVEMBER 02, 2001

News

Republican John Venditto, the 59th supervisor of the Town of Oyster Bay, took office on Jan. 1, 1998, and brings nearly two decades of experience in public service to the supervisor's office. He served as town attorney from 1991 to December 1997 and as a town councilman from 1981 to 1991. He is running for re-election to this third term as supervisor of the Town of Oyster Bay.

"When I became the supervisor, I was surrounded by a responsible town board and I put together a hardworking staff and I have a workforce that is second to none," said Venditto. "I feel very strongly that during my first two terms in office, we together, the board, my staff and employees, have done a lot of good things in the Town of Oyster Bay and I am running on that record."

Nassau County's fiscal crisis is a debate between candidates at election time and the need for a solution is evident. "If Nassau County did the things that we did here in the Town of Oyster Bay, they would not have had their problems," said Venditto. "I refuse to allow the problems that visited Nassau County come to the Town of Oyster Bay. We have an A-1 bond rating. The investors, the people who are willing to invest literally millions of dollars in this town are very comfortable with the Town of Oyster Bay to the point where they put their money where their mouth is."

The 2002 budget was just recently completed in the Town of Oyster Bay and, according to Venditto, there is no tax increase for 2002. "When I became the supervisor, this town was facing a looming $30 million deficit," said Venditto, who classifies himself as a fiscal conservative. "I said at the time I needed three years to correct the situation and the budget that I just introduced and adopted is the culmination of all of that hard work. We had a looming $30 million deficit, that was averted and now the economic outlook of the town is bright. This is an incredible statistic - when all is said and done, on the average, the amount of town taxes that are going to be paid in 2002 are approximately $37 less than they were in 1989. That is incredible and demonstrates that we are getting more for less in the Town of Oyster Bay."

Venditto explained that at the beginning of the 1990's, the Town of Oyster Bay had a $40 million surplus and over the next eight or nine years, instead of returning the surplus to the residents, the town board cut the tax rate and reduced the amount of taxes that residents were paying and used the surplus to make up the difference each year. Venditto viewed this move as a mistake. "Eventually you run out of surplus," he said. "Now with no surplus left, the tax rate was cut and the town was not getting the same amount of revenue anymore."

When Venditto became the supervisor, he had to make a decision to either increase revenue or cut expenses and he decided on a combination of the two. "I asked for three years to correct the problem and in the course of three years through a combination of cutting expenses, we restored some of the tax rate, roughly 15 percent of it through increases, and made up the rest in cutting expenses so now we have everything back in sync again. Despite where we were three short years ago, we now have a hold-the-line budget, which I hope will be the foundation for the future economic growth of this town and the return to once again accruing a healthy surplus. The town was on life support when I first took over and we now have it breathing on its own again."

Something that Venditto plans to continue if re-elected is to watch out for the generation of seniors in the town. "The people who built this town are finding it difficult to maintain the homes they lived in," said Venditto. "In the last four years, in response to that growing need to do something, we have just about tripled the amount of affordable senior citizen housing. In turn, as our seniors move into the more affordable units, the younger people can now move into the homes that they vacate and the cycle can continue."

The Town of Oyster Bay houses all of the open space in Nassau County and that generally makes land development a hot election topic. "This town is 348 years old and the word has always been build," said Venditto. "One of the things that I made very clear from the start is that there are always things to be built, but the accent is now on a different syllable; while it was once the time to build, in my view it is now the time to protect and preserve the things that were built for us rather than build, build, build."

Venditto describes the application for a nearly 1,000,000 square foot regional mall on the Cerro Wire property, as something that had the potential to forever alter the personality of the Town of Oyster Bay. "From day one, it was a quality of life issue," he said. "All of the members of the town board and I had a steady hand on the wheel and we allowed every point of view to be expressed and we did the right thing by all of the residents of this town. It would have forever altered the quality of life in the town."

Viewing the zoning record, according to Venditto, stands to show the town's record when dealing with open space. "We have largely said no to any type of development that would impact open space," said Venditto, who said that the matters that the town does approve are generally when a landowner comes in with an eyesore and the town gives permission to refurbish and rebuild it.

The town recently completed the process of recodification. "We took a zoning that was created in 1953 and we brought it into the new millennium," said Venditto. "It is done and now exists. We created this umbrella concept known now as Vision 2020, which is our way of taking control over the future development of this town. We have begun this process on a town-wide basis and we are working individually in the Hamlet of Oyster Bay, Hicksville, Glen Head Landing and we are about to embark on it in Syosset."

Vision 2020, according to Venditto, is a concept where the town conducts community meetings with professional planners who hear what is on the minds of the residents, what they see and what they would like to see. The planners work with the residents to make a master plan for the Town of Oyster Bay. "This is a plan, not a magic pill or a cure-all," said Venditto. "This is a very valuable tool to help guide and shape future development. It lays out very general concepts based on empirical data so the town can create a general statement of where we want to go in this town."

Removing adult entertainment in the Town of Oyster Bay is something that Venditto is very proud of. "There have been 19 efforts to open those establishments in this town and not one of them has succeeded," said Venditto. "The adult entertainment industry still does not exist in the Town of Oyster Bay."

Venditto is running for re-election on his past record and accomplishments. "We always have been and always will be a community with one family homes with an appropriate measure of businesses to serve those homes followed by our schools, libraries, parks and beaches," said Venditto. "That is what I am committed to protecting. If anyone can find a better place to live and to raise a family, I would like to know about it because I have lived here for 52 years and as far as I am concerned, the Town of Oyster Bay is simply the best."