Flower Hill Mayor Election Candidates: Meet Brian Herrington

PORT WASHINGTON, NY — Village elections are planned this month featuring a pair of mayoral duels in Manorhaven and Flower Hill.

In Flower Hill, Mayor Brian Herrington seeks election against challenger Kate Hirsch. Herrington is running on the Flower Hill Party. He stepped into office in April following the death of Mayor Robert McNamara. Randall Rosenbaum, the deputy mayor, and trustee Gary Lewandowski, are running on Herrington's ticket.

Hirsch is running under the Liberty Party. Her ticket includes Diane Turner, Jay Silverman and Jeffery Greilsheimer.

Voting will begin Sept. 15 at Flower Hill Village Hall from noon to 9 p.m.

Patch has reached out to both mayoral candidates to fill out our 2020 candidate questionnaire. Here are their responses, lightly edited for clarity.

See also:

• Flower Hill Mayor Election Candidates: Meet Kate Hirsch
  
• Mail-In Voting In New York: Deadlines, How To Get A Ballot
• New Yorkers Can Now Apply Online For Absentee Ballot

Brian Herrington

Age as of Election Day (Nov. 3): 41

Town of residence: Flower Hill

Position Sought: Town Office (Mayor)

Party Affiliation: Flower Hill Party

Family: Maria Herrington-wife and owner of Just The Write Touch; Kailyn, 7 who loves horseback riding Michael, 12 who loves baseball.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? No

Education

Hofstra University School of Law, Juris Doctor; SUNY Plattsburgh, Bachelor of Arts in political science and Latin American studies; minor in history.

Occupation:

For the past 10 years I have worked at The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, I am currently the director of government affairs for their subsidiary The Hawthorne Gardening Company. I am an attorney and have over 15 years of private and public sector experience in government and public affairs. I have also worked in the New York State Attorney General’s Office and before that I worked for the Suffolk County Executive's Office where I helped to streamline county government. These experiences taught me important skills in managing municipal budgets and eliminating bureaucracy. I also own a small boutique real estate firm called Herrington Homes.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office: Mayor, Trustee-Deputy Mayor

Campaign website: www.Herrington4Mayor.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

I want to remain being your Flower Hill mayor because I believe in giving back to the community and I enjoy helping people. I want our families to be able to grow up and retire in a great community where they can safely walk in the street and be a part of a larger community fabric. I want to keep village finances in check so our residents continue to get high quality affordable services. By serving the village it allows me the opportunity to work with our residents to keep our village the best in New York.

The single most pressing issue facing our nation/state/community is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

We are lucky to live in a great community and our village does not have the financial issues we see at the state and federal level due to proper fiscal management. I think the most pressing issue right now is the fragility of our electric grid that was exposed in the recent tropical storm. We cannot have homes without power for days on end every time there is bad weather. All of the local mayors and I recently met and we are developing a plan to engage PSEG to improve storm response and address these reoccurring issues. In addition, I want to have a third-party consultant evaluate our grid and make recommendations for improvements so we know what the solutions are for reliability and can fight to ensure PSEG and LIPA are installing the necessary technological improvements to prevent outages and provide proper storm response. I will also put together a citizen committee to help us identify areas experiencing frequent outages so PSEG and LIPA can fix them, as well as investigate local supply alternatives that could create energy independence.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

First, I think it is my private and public sector experience managing budgets and people, not lawsuits. I have served on the Board of Trustees for five years and had the opportunity to learn under two great mayors: Elaine Phillips and Bob McNamara. As deputy mayor, I was in a position to help manage the staff and learn the skills a mayor needs.

In addition, I have valuable experience working for a successful private company like Scotts Miracle-Gro and public sector experience in state and local government where I managed budgets and people. I have long standing relationships with village, town, county, state and federal officials that have been helpful especially in the recent storm recovery efforts. Finally, it is my temperament as a calm and collaborative leader. I believe the voters have seen this during the pandemic, storm recovery, and throughout this campaign.

Lastly, it is my team from the Flower Hill Party who are dedicated and have a wealth of experience. Deputy Mayor Randall Rosenbaum and Trustee Gary Lewandowski who are up for election are great partners and have been there every step of the way to protect our village.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

I believe my opponent’s campaign of disinformation and improper conduct toward the staff of the Village of Flower Hill has been a disservice to the community. Most recently she accused me of a politically motivated investigation. However, as an attorney she knows we are legally and financially obligated under state and federal law to investigate employee claims of harassment. That independent investigation confirmed through witness interviews and a recording of the actual event that she acted improperly, making comments demeaning of religious beliefs while also ridiculing and demeaning a staff member. In my opinion this conduct disqualifies someone from being an elected official.

Throughout my opponent’s campaign, Kate Hirsch and some of her supporters have made up lies that my team and I would not work in the community’s best interest. At one point she accused me of stealing money from the village. I want every resident to know all of these accusations are untrue and I encourage them to talk to other residents who have worked with me and anyone who knows me. This campaign should have been a debate about ideas, and I think The Liberty Party’s campaign to malign myself and the Flower Hill Party’s team of volunteers has not benefited the community.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform

Holding the Line on Taxes

• Adding a village resident to participate in the Budget Preparation Committee.
• Creating a Synergies Committee to identify opportunities to work with other local governments and public utilities to lower costs and increase coordination of public works project planning.
• Creating a Modernization Committee to focus on technological improvements to improve village services.

Opposing Cellular Antennae Proliferation

• Continuing to fight Extenet’s current federal lawsuit against the village.
• Updating our laws as new technology emerges to prevent future effects.
• Working with neighboring communities on a regional master antenna plan to reduce the impact on our village.

Preventing Reckless Driving

• We have started a traffic safety study of the most high-traffic roads in the village to measure impact and establish mitigation measures.
• We are looking to implement traffic calming measures, such as removable speed reduction devices.
• Continuing to push state Department of Transportation to address safety issues associated with Port Washington Boulevard.

Protecting the Environment

• We have started a sustainability committee and will be examining making the village a certified NYS Climate Smart Community.
• Incentive the use of advanced septic systems to reduce the nitrogen flow poisoning our waterways by suspending the village’s septic permit fees for their installation.
• Requiring the purchase of electric vehicles for all non-emergency equipment.

Improving the Community

• Created a Parks & Events Committee to improve our village’s great park and develop community events
• Working with the 6th Precinct and Nassau County to continue addressing quality of life issues and prevent crime.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Coordinating Tropical Storm Isaias response and leading the fight for power restoration against PSEG’s failure to respond;

Leading our community’s response to COVID-19 and the ensuing financial crisis and recovery:

• Responsibly managed the financial crisis allowing us to keep taxes flat this year;
• Swiftly implemented new safety protocols for village facilities to protect public and staff;
• Improved village communications to share information and guidance;
• Worked with local restaurants on emergency laws to institute businesses reopening plans;
• Established the Village Volunteer Corps;

Created new resident committees to increase citizen participation and long-term engagement plans on high priority issues.

Instituted annual village road quality scoring program and long-term paving management plan.

Began village wide traffic safety study that will result in recommendations for ways to reduce spend, including the potential to install speed calming devices (i.e. speed tables).

Implemented new resident communications program to improve announcements including;

• Monthly mayor’s message recapping Board of Trustees meeting
• Monthly pre-meeting notification of Board of Trustees meetings
• Improved email-based messaging via Constant Contact platform
• Moved board agendas and meeting notes to the front page of the village website to improve access to information
• Began overhaul of village website

Implementing online payments for village permit fees and court fines.

Improved resident quality of life by creating Saturday quiet hours restricting noisy commercial landscaping.

The best advice ever shared with me was: Work hard and stay humble.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I am an honest and caring person who has been grateful for the opportunity to serve our residents. Running the village takes a great team and the Flower Hill Party has that dedicated team. I need everyone to vote for Gary Lewandowski, Randall Rosenbaum and Bob McNamara. Even though Bob passed away, state law requires that his name stay on the ballot, I have committed to appointing Claire Dorfman in his place so resident’s will know who they will have representing them if Bob and I win.

If the residents vote “Row A” on Sept. 15 for my Flower Hill Party team, they will get a team dedicated to the betterment of the village with a track record for responsible management.