Hempstead Town Council Member, 1st District

<p>Alfred J. Cittadino,&nbsp;Carl DeHaney Jr.,&nbsp;Dorothy L. Goosby</p>

News 12 Staff

Oct 29, 2017, 6:32 PM

Updated 2,541 days ago

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Hempstead Town Council Member, 1st District

Cittadino, 64, of Baldwin, is running on the Republican and Conservative lines. He was born in Far Rockaway and lived in Cedarhurst and Rockville Centre before he moved to Baldwin about 30 years ago. He served in the Marines from 1970 to 1975 as a lance corporal in Japan. He worked as a stagehand for Broadway shows and at the Metropolitan Opera from 1978 until retiring last year. Cittadino is married and has two children. As of early October, his name had not been listed on campaign literature and he was not featured in videos with the remainder of the Hempstead Town Republican ticket. He has not raised any money either, according to state campaign finance filings.

Cittadino said he believes there should “absolutely” be term limits for elected town officials. “But once people get the job, they don’t want to let it go,” he said. Cittadino said he didn’t have any specific proposals as part of his campaign. “You don’t really know any job until you’re actually in there doing it,” he said. If elected, he said his priority would be to work with residents and save them money. “I would be in there every day fighting for the people.” He said when he’s called the town to complain about his neighbors’ trees growing over a fence, “they don’t get back to you.” He said now that he’s retired, he could devote time to public service.

DeHaney, 50, of Roosevelt, is running in a Democratic primary. He is a community service representative for the Nassau County Human Services department, in the office of the physically challenged. He is part of a team of independent Democrats who are challenging party nominees, arguing for more diversity and community representation within the Nassau County Democratic Party structure. DeHaney serves as a commissioner in Hempstead Sanitary District No. 2 in Baldwin, elected in 2014. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Adelphi University in management and communication and received a master’s degree in public administration from Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus. He is married and has two children.

DeHaney said working for the county in human services and drug programs for the past 14 years has given him an opportunity to see how many services communities of color “don’t get and should get.” He said he wanted to partner with a team to make Nassau County government more accessible to its residents. The county clerk is the official record keeper, he said. “If you want to do any kind of research for what our communities need, it has to start with good information.” He said most people, particularly in minority communities, have no idea what the clerk’s office does and what records it keeps. While not criticizing the current Republican county clerk, DeHaney said other clerk offices in the state and nation are more efficient and provide more ways to access their information.

Goosby, 79, of Hempstead, is running on the Democratic, Working Families and Women’s Equality lines. She has a bachelor’s degree in food, nutrition and institutional management from Florida A&M University and an MBA from Adelphi University. She is also a registered dietitian and a former nursing home administrator. She has lived in Hempstead Village since she was 28, and she is president of the Association of Towns of the State of New York. She is a former vice president of the Hempstead school board and has served on the town board since being elected to it in 1999. Goosby was also the lead plaintiff in an anti-discrimination lawsuit that forced Hempstead Town to elect its town board members by district. She is widowed and has two children.

Goosby said her focus as a member of the town board is to make sure the residents in her district “have the same benefits of all the other residents throughout the town and the county.” She said her constituents don’t use some of the town’s services, such as pump-out boats, so “why should we pay for something” that only a portion of the residents use. She said she is concerned about youth employment in the First District. Goosby said it is important to her that residents are involved in their town government. “I am with the people, I know the people and I know what their needs are,” she said. “I brought a difference to a town that other people could not bring. ... I just want to see government work for the people.”