Ellen Birnbaum plans to “hit the ground running” next month when she is sworn in as the Nassau County legislator for the 10th legislative district. With a long history of working for the Democratic Party, long years of working in local government and many years working for the Town of North Hempstead, she is now busy getting her office set up and already planning her agenda.
First off, Birnbaum is determined to take a “good look” at the Nassau County Police Department and try to discover if the consolidation of the Sixth Precinct into the Third Precinct has negatively impacted her Great Neck constituents. She is concerned about daily reports, believes there is “a lot” of overtime hours, has questions regarding increased salaries and is quite concerned about the lack of police reporting daily incidents to local officials.
Birnbaum said that it is most important that mayors and other such officials are kept up-to-date about what is happening in their own villages and towns so that they can inform their residents. “Government should be transparent … there should be accountability,” she told the Great Neck Record.
Working on her already good relationship with the police, Birnbaum plans to not only research this issue, but will meet with police. And then she will do analyses of police work and will study statistics. “I plan to be very diligent about this,” she stated.
When it comes to actually working in the Republican-majority legislature, Birnbaum plans to forge relationships “on both sides of the aisle.” She emphasized the importance of “working together with both sides to enact change.”
And looking at the much-touted success of the outgoing 10th district legislator, Judi Bosworth (now Town of North Hempstead supervisor-elect), Birnbaum will continue all of the very successful projects that Bosworth has begun — the Middle Neck Road drainage project and so many new safety features such as the coming new traffic light at the corner of Middle Neck Road and Brokaw Lane, to name a few. Birnbaum also said that she would like to know why Nassau County seems unable to bring these long-needed safety projects to fruition in a more timely manner.
Another county project for which she has many questions is the long-awaited clean-up of the county-owned Wood Road property. Great Neck is still waiting and Birnbaum will be “on” that case.
As far as the much-discussed county budget, Birnbaum is firm that she will certainly be examining that budget. “I’ll hold the reins on bonding,” she said, firmly.
With her 17 years in town government and the last two-and-a-half years as the town’s director of inter-municipal coordination, Ellen Birnbaum is more than ready to step forward as county legislator, representing Great Neck (and small parts of North New Hyde Park). She has much experience in dealing with constituents and assured “my door will always be open.”
“I’m up to the challenge,” Ellen Birnbaum promises her future constituents.
