Former North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman said if elected in November he would address inefficiencies in the town’s building department. 

Kaiman, of Great Neck, is the Democrat challenger running against Republican Jennifer DeSena for town supervisor. Kaiman currently serves as the Suffolk County deputy executive and previously held roles as the head of the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, a state oversight board that controls Nassau County’s finances, and served as an adviser to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo on the Superstorm Sandy recovery effort.

From 2003 to 2014, Kaiman was the North Hempstead supervisor. 

“We will implement a plan that fixes the Building Department,” Kaiman said in an interview with Blank Slate Media. “Everyone who knows me knows that I know how to go govern and to fix what’s broken.”

Kaiman said part of the answer to streamlining operations in the department includes hiring more inspectors as well as plan examiners and investing in more technology to increase efficiency.

“We need to put in guardrails so you know when you submit an application that within a matter of days it’s going to be reviewed,” Kaiman said. 

Kaiman was very critical of DeSena’s handling of the department, which Nassau County Comptroller Elaine Philips has been auditing since August 2022 at DeSena’s request. Building Department operations have been a constant talking point in multiple town elections.

“When you have a supervisor who is really just an appendage of the political party and her job is to just feed them and take from them…she’s taking their political apparatus and she feeds them whatever,” Kaiman said of DeSena’s decision to call for an audit. ”It has nothing to do with governing because she’s clearly failing at that and there’s just nothing happening.”

On housing, Kaiman said he disagreed with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal ahead of this year’s state budget to prioritize state-mandated zoning over local control. 

Hochul’s proposed New York Housing Compact in January called for building 800,000 new homes over the next decade to address the state’s housing shortage.

Kaiman agreed that Long Island should be open to more appropriate housing developments, which is only possible when the proposals themselves don’t create too much density, overburden school systems or jeopardize the environment, among other things. Kaiman said communities in the town have to decide on the character of the neighborhoods they want to operate within and determine what housing opportunities are appropriate based on that. 

On lowering crime, Kaiman said the supervisor’s role can provide a platform for having a dialogue between communities and first responders to help them navigate the challenges in their neighborhoods. 

“We’re at the ground level, we’re the frontline so the town supervisor is able to engage with the county, village police and mayors in a way that makes sure we’re addressing needs.”

Kaiman also defended his track record during his first stint as supervisor, which has been constantly attacked in political mailers and advertisements, many paid for by the New York State Republican Committee. The mailers target Kaiman’s tax record, salary as supervisor and work as the head of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority. 

Kaiman said the “sheer volume” of mailers against him was surprising and pointed out that the Republican Party is spending $1 million to $2 million to bring down his name. 

“If you tell a lie enough times, the Republicans have learned that people start to believe it. That’s their strategy right now,” Kaiman said. “I have confidence that the good people of North Hempstead will see through those lies and look at my history and stick with me.”

Kaiman said claims that he raised taxes by 44% during his tenure as supervisor are “made up” and that over 10 years taxes in total went up between approximately $40-$45 for the average household in the town. Of the nine budgets that he voted on in the town, five of them had no tax increase and one of them produced a tax decrease, he said.

The four budgets he voted on in which taxes went up were marked by “nominal increases” ranging from increases of $6, $7.50, $15 and $16 on average for North Hempstead households, he added.

Kaiman said the first year he was in office the Town Board did an analysis that changed salaries throughout town hall, leading the supervisor’s salary to go from $100,000 to the $133,000 that remains today. During the rest of his tenure, Kaiman said he did not increase his salary. 

North Hempstead’s supervisor salary is the lowest of the three towns in Nassau County, according to SeeThroughNY. 

Mailers against Kaiman also allege he approved a $31 million tax hike as chairman of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority in 2014 for a 3.4% tax increase at the time. 

Kaiman said NIFA’s role was to “do the math” and make sure the budget, submitted in 2014 by Republican County Executive Edward Mangano, added up and it was not their responsibility to increase or decrease taxes.

“We take their budget, we do the math and we determine whether or not the expenditure side equals the revenue side,” Kaiman said of his time at NIFA. “And if it does, we certify it. If it doesn’t, we reject it and tell them they need to come back.”

Last month, DeSena submitted a $163.9 million tentative budget that includes a 10% tax cut. Kaiman said it’s appropriate to give taxpayers something back from the town’s reserves that he called “significant” but cautioned that town services such as project independence and code enforcement can be cut if the reserves are depleted.

“This administration is just wiping out the reserves over a series of years so that they can have the political messaging that they are just cutting taxes,” Kaiman said. “It should be something that can be covered next year or in the years after so you’re not going to be stuck and it should be invested in ways that reduce the cost of government.”

DeSena in a statement to Blank Slate Media said all the facts cited in the campaign literature are sourced from publicly available records and that his record is in “stark contrast” to hers of cutting taxes and restoring integrity to town hall.

“Jon Kaiman can keep denying the truth, but it does not change the fact that taxes soared $20 million (44%) during his tenure as Supervisor,” DeSena said. “He also can’t refute the criminal convictions that occurred in North Hempstead under his watch. Even Nassau’s D.A. termed his Building Department cronies, ‘a systemic ring of greed and corruption.’”

Kaiman said North Hempstead should vote for him on Election Day based on his track record.

“It’s really important that people believe that local government can be trusted,” Kaiman said. 

Kaiman added he hopes the town can disregard the “disinformation and lies” spread by DeSena and his opponents.

“That that’s who she is and that’s who they are,” Kaiman said.

Blank Slate Media’s interview with Jon Kaiman can be found on YouTube.