Brookhaven Town Council Member, 2nd District

<p>Jane E. Bonner,&nbsp;Michael S. Goodman</p>

News 12 Staff

Oct 27, 2017, 8:54 PM

Updated 2,541 days ago

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Brookhaven Town Council Member, 2nd District

Bonner, 53, of Rocky Point, is running on the Conservative, Republican, Independence and Reform party lines. Bonner graduated from Northport High School. She received an associate degree in business from the former Katharine Gibbs School. She was elected to the town council in 2007 and is running for her sixth term. Before being elected, she spent four years as a legislative aide to then-county Legis. Dan Losquadro, now the Brookhaven Town highway superintendent. Bonner is past president of the Rocky Point Civic Association. She is married, with two children.

Bonner said she has supported important land-use initiatives such as the town’s Route 25 corridor study, new zoning that supports downtowns, policies that prevent commercial sprawl, and overlay districts to preserve golf courses. She supported another overlay district for a sod farm to allow development of a solar array at the site. She said she opposes development of a solar farm on 800 wooded acres in Shoreham owned by National Grid. Bonner said she wants to keep her North Shore district “as rural as possible.” She said she also has helped to crack down on abandoned, “zombie” homes, preserve properties, create ethics reforms, and implement an anti-nepotism law. She said she supported fiscally conservative budgeting practices that have resulted in the town’s AAA bond rating. She also supports environmental preservation. “People are always surprised by my environmental stances because I’m a Conservative,” Bonner said. “The root word of ‘conservative’ is ‘conserve.’ ” She said Brookhaven is the only Long Island town where board meetings always are held at night, and all meetings are live-streamed on the town website or can be viewed on a public-access cable channel. “I would say that in my time in office, we’ve become more open and transparent and we’re doing more every day,” Bonner said.

Goodman, 27, of Coram, is running on the Democratic, Working Families and Women’s Equality lines. He is making his first run for public office. Goodman is a software engineer who works for a Hauppauge company and also runs his own small business helping people with technology issues. Goodman received a bachelor’s degree in English in 2012 from St. Joseph’s College. He is a member of the Coram Civic Association. Goodman is single.

Goodman said technology could be used to improve government efficiency and transparency in Brookhaven. “Complicated processes can be made more simple” by technological improvements, he said, adding “the tech infrastructure of the town is very outdated,” and Brookhaven should be more “tech savvy.” He said businesses are turned off by red tape. He said town council meetings are held too early in the evening. Goodman said the town’s quality of life generally is “fine,” and Brookhaven’s single-stream recycling program is “cool.” But he said many residents complain that it’s difficult to get permits. He said residents tell him the town is not responsive to their needs, such as filling potholes. “They don’t feel like the town is listening to them,” Goodman said. He proposes posting ongoing projects online so people know when issues in their neighborhoods will be addressed. “The roads are terrible, they’re really bad,” he said. Some roads have not been repaired for 25 years, and some streetlights don’t work, he said. “If we pay a lot of taxes, things should work,” he said.