When Jennifer DeSena, in her installation address as North Hempstead supervisor, repeated the same idea five times in the 10-minute speech during which she came off just short of accusing the Democratic administration of corruption while pledging to exorcise politics from Town Hall, I suspected her framing was due to her extreme ignorance of how town government functions – not just North Hempstead but any government.

“For too long,” she said. “North Hempstead Town Hall has been riddled with politics, discord and staff in-fighting. Politics have been placed ahead of our taxpayers and town services have suffered as a result, there’s no denying it. As of today, partisan power party politics will no longer have a place in Town Hall.”

There was nothing in that speech that spoke to an agenda – revitalization of downtowns, mitigating climate change, keeping the town safe from COVID, how she might spend the millions of federal dollars available from Biden’s historic Infrastructure Law. The impression I had then was “she doesn’t have a clue. She’s in over her head.”

My suspicion was confirmed after listening to DeSena’s appearance at the Blank Slate Town Hall March 17. The predominant theme: “I will listen.” Not lead. Listen.

DeSena had no actual idea or plan during the campaign beyond some slogans and she has no actual ideas now. I expect she will be riding the momentum of her predecessors – visionaries and bold leaders like May Newburger, Jon Kaiman, and Judi Bosworth – before the reality of her lack of experience, vision and competence becomes clear.

During the town hall, she constantly griped about officials being moved out from her command and control. Valid argument. But from where I sit in the cheap seats, after her inaugural assault on Democrats while professing to want to end politics and partisanship (which, as was noted, hadn’t existed before), it’s as if they were showing her what actual partisanship looks like.

DeSena’s one professed priority during the campaign – to “reform” the town Building Department -is the local government equivalent of a beauty pageant contestant pledging to work for world peace. But when Publisher Steve Blank asked her for one actual reform she might make to the Building Department, she replied, “We are evaluating things and some ideas. We didn’t get into this problem overnight and we won’t get out of it overnight. When I propose some reform, it’s going to be substantial. We don’t want to just put a Band-Aid on this.”

And so, we finally have her Big Idea to Reform the Building Department: to amend the town code that since 2007 has allowed the Town Board to override the Building commissioner’s decision on expedited permits.

“This town code provision grants an unheard-of level of power and sway over the future of an application to Town Council members and is done in no other town on Long Island,” the press release said, noting the council rejected the commissioner’s rulings 50 times over the past five years.

If her motives were genuine, she would have made an argument for how this would improve the operations, cited instances where the Town Board overruled the Building Department inappropriately. Nor is there an explanation of why the town code was amended in 2007 to begin with: to be a check-and-balance against corruption in the Building Department. (That was the year Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, a Democrat, arrested town Building Commissioner David Wasserman and several others. (See: 4 arrested in DA probe of N. Hempstead building dept., Oct 15, 2007, https://longisland.news12.com/4-arrested-in-da-probe-of-n-hempstead-building-dept-34767601)?

And why do we have a Building Department and permit process to begin with? Is it to make sure a developer or contractor doesn’t shave costs and boost profits by using shoddy materials or violate what town residents have said are important regulations to maintain their health, safety and quality of life?

If anything, DeSena’s proposal seems motivated solely to slap back at the town Council’s Democratic majority for undermining her authority as the town’s chief executive officer. Instead of de-politicizing Town Hall, as she promised, she has fomented partisanship that had not existed before.

DeSena, a registered Democrat who said she was recruited to run as a Republican to challenge Wayne Wink but would have happily run as a Democrat (“It didn’t matter if Democrats had asked me to run… I really wanted the job. For the people.”) – has embraced the Republican strategy of simply attacking anything that a Democrat proposes without offering any alternative.

She joined Republicans in condemning Gov. Hochul for even suggesting Accessory Housing to address affordable housing. How did DeSena respond to a question about affordable housing? “We should take a look around the town at which areas are conducive for transit- oriented development, mult-iuse. If we don’t, then we have a situation like Hochul: one size fits all, we have housing crisis, so everyone is forced to have accessory apartments in their home [and the days of a] single family home is over.”

Really, is that what Hochul proposed, that homeowners be forced to have accessory apartments? My understanding is that homeowners – like seniors who want the additional income or nearby companionship – could make accessory housing available and unless it posed health or safety issue, a village couldn’t refuse the homeowner’s request. Blank correctly questioned how many homeowners would actually go that route.

Her response to Blank’s followup? “I was an eco major in college – supply-demand – we can find midpoint, that’s what the market would bear. We would lose the control…everyone would have a right to build. In a community near a college, you might have people who rent to 20 college students.” Really? Couldn’t the Accessory Housing rules require the main building be owner-occupied and limit how many renters to say a couple?

Pressed by Blank, “Nassau is very segregated…Is there a need for more housing, more affordable housing?” DeSena replied, “These are questions the market will give answer to.” Actually, affordable housing is not up to the “market” because if it were, there wouldn’t be an affordable housing problem, would there?

Her most frequent replies to questions were “Would look at” “Something I will definitely listen, look at” “Listen to store owners.”

Asked about her other major initiatives or priorities, she said, “I really want to look out for the employees…I keep on listening to employees and make sure they feel their strengths are recognized, they have what they need.”

Not exactly a politically savvy response especially from a newly minted political hack.