I'm Will Ferraro, And I Want Ed Romaine's Job. Here's Why.

"Nobody is listening. Nobody cares."

That's a direct quote, one I've heard from thousands of Brookhaven residents.

Sometimes it's in reference to the condition of our town roads and drainage infrastructure, which is among the worst in New York State. There are neighborhoods that have gone 10-20 years without being repaved, with potholes that one community was planting flowers in. Neighborhood groups have sprung up to take action, but nobody in power listens or cares.

In communities around the Yaphank landfill, that quote references the denial of pain and suffering - the neighborhoods inundated with odor emissions, the people who are getting sick, who've been getting sick for years, including 33 faculty members with cancer at Frank P. Long elementary school, who have been told by Brookhaven Town, "The odor is getting better. Nobody is getting sick from the landfill, it's all just a coincidence. We have it under control."

They don't listen, they don't care.

Lately, it's been the recycling program, and the haphazard, mismanaged switch from single-stream to dual-stream recycling, of which residents weren't adequately informed. The town no longer collects glass from the curbside, and the lack of information combined with a bi-weekly pickup of limited materials has led to people giving up on recycling altogether. People want to do the right thing and participate, but the town won't listen and doesn't care.

The town of Brookhaven doesn't care that its Buildings Department is non-functioning and exists to suck revenue from the pockets of middle-class homeowners.

It doesn't care that its Animal Shelter is being operated by a lifetime political hack and his ally, who have run it into the ground at the expense of needed adoptions.

And it doesn't care that the corporate contractors and real estate companies that occupy most of the town's contracts and tax breaks, also represent more than half of the political donations made to the town's elected officials.

So when people ask me who I am and why I've stepped up to run for Brookhaven Town Supervisor this November, I respond in the opposite manner of what you're used to from classic politicians. I don't start with my life story or cheap virtue signaling. People are sick of apple pie and empty platitudes - I'm sick of it.

I won't begin with my own words, but with yours.

I'm running because the town's unofficial motto shouldn't be "Not Listening, Doesn't Care."

I am. I do. And it's time that somebody stepped up to do something about it; to lead Brookhaven into the new decade.

My name is Will Ferraro, I'm running for Brookhaven Town Supervisor, and I am asking for your vote this November 5th.

I'd like to earn that vote the old fashioned way by telling you how I would solve the critical problems facing Brookhaven.

Let's start with recycling. Market forces brought an end to single-stream recycling across the country, starting in 2017 when China stopped buying the world's garbage. While other towns and municipalities adjusted to the new reality, Brookhaven decided to ride out its single-stream contract until the company pulled out late last year. The town was late to the party, and we all paid the price when our recycling program changed overnight.

Leadership means finding solutions, not blaming factors outside of our control. My proposed solution is a 6-Point Recycling Plan that would bring back curbside glass recycling once monthly, and switch to a weekly pickup schedule for multiple streams of materials. The town would also develop an interactive recycling website and help line, and hold quarterly meetings on recycling participation. When I released my plan through an online petition earlier this year, I asked the incumbent Supervisor to implement it prior to the election, because I believe these solutions shouldn't need to wait until after November. To date, he has not responded.

At the town landfill in Yaphank, Brookhaven is facing both an environmental health crisis, and a potential fiscal crisis.

The landfill’s odor emissions have been choking residents in their own homes. People are shutting their windows and cancelling outdoor events. In fact, the landfill site has been a repeat violator of air quality rules, failing 10 of 11 inspections conducted by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. There is also the whisteblower lawsuit alleging that Covanta, the company that burns our garbage and ships it back to us to be spread at the landfill, has been sending us toxic ash. That might help to explain the cancer cluster at Frank P. Long School in Bellport, where 33 cancer cases in faculty have been reported, along with kids getting rashes and sickness.

While the school district has done everything in its power to address this crisis, the town has not kept up its end of the bargain, and ignored residents on both of these fronts, telling them that everything is fine. We don't need assurance, we need action, and my plan would involve expanded air quality and toxicology tests, and best practices guidance from an Air Quality Taskforce (AQT) that I will form.

When the landfill is fully capped in 2024, it is expected to result in a $33 million budget shortfall. I will develop and make publicly available a long-term revenue creation plan, that includes bringing green jobs to Brookhaven to service the East End's planned wind farms - 42% of those jobs are assembly jobs that can be located here - as well as using the town's IDA to fund anaerobic incinerators that can turn bio waste into bio-fuel, which we can sell.

Now let's talk about roads. Brookhaven's road infrastructure is disgraceful, and electing a new Highway Superintendent is the best way to address it. But we also can't continue to have a Town Supervisor who takes no ownership of the problem, and is content to point the finger at Dan Losquadro to say, "Talk to him." I grew up in a family of highway workers, and I understand the interplay between Supervisor and Highway Superintendent. I plan on being the most active Supervisor on road infrastructure that Brookhaven has seen in decades.

The current Supervisor has talked about bonding $150 million for road repairs, an idea that I agree with. The problem is this: a large portion of Romaine's political donations come from the town's highway contractors. We have to pay that bond back, and it shouldn't be a feeding frenzy for the donor-contractor class. Do you really trust this administration to vet a bond of that magnitude? I don't.

The Supervisor's office needs to make yearly recommendations, and end the highway's political patronage racket. The department needs more employees. If necessary, I would create a public advocacy office that would take in all road complaints and advocate/push for best-practices solutions.

You can read more about all my plans on my website, so let's talk about what our campaign is up against in November.

There's a reason why my headline references "Ed Romaine's job" as opposed to the office of Supervisor. Ed Romaine has been in elected office at the county and town level for 33 years. He was elected to the legislature in 1986, elected as county clerk in 1989 after failing to win a Congressional bid in 1988 (and again in 1992), then went back to the legislature after losing to Steve Levy for County Executive in 2003.

His elected office streak ended briefly after serving his last term in the legislature in 2011, but he jumped into the special election for Brookhaven Town Supervisor in 2012, where he has served ever since.

Romaine has been running for elected office - every conceivable elected office - since I was 3 years old. I'm now 36.

When Romaine was first elected, Top Gun was breaking box office records. While it has taken that long for a Top Gun sequel to be made, Brookhaven has been getting the same old movie for 33 years and counting.

It's not just Romaine, but all the surnames of power we've grown accustomed to. If you're not a Romaine, a Losquadro, a LaValle, a Loguercio, or Romaine's heir apparent Panico, then you don't matter in this town.

These aren't just politicians, they are institutions and for all the wrong reasons. Like all broken institutions, change must begin at the head.

Brookhaven has serious problems, and if ever there was a time to elect a new choice for Supervisor, November 5th, 2019 is it.

I'm about as different of a choice from Romaine as you could find. He wears suit pants, I wear jeans. He speaks to majors donors, I spend my time knocking thousands of working class doors. He knows better, I know how to listen.

He's a political institution, and I'm a guy from the neighborhood who worked every job in town from McDonald's to Waldbaums to Ruby Tuesday, and wound up getting jobs for the Assembly and Senate as a legislative analyst, before running major municipal bids for NYC Children's Services.

I am proud to represent my communities in Selden and nearby Terryville/Port Jeff Station, where I grew up. From running a low-cost Judo school in Selden for two years, to volunteering on my school board's legislative outreach committee and leading the Brookhaven Action Network (BAN), which fought the town politicians' 4-year term extension last fall, community involvement is part of my identity. It's an example I try to set for my two sons every day of my life.

This campaign is about sending a message to working class people across Brookhaven: not only do you have a new choice for Supervisor, but an advocate who will not back down to special interests, big contractors, or family dynasties who believe that Brookhaven is their birthright.

This November, we can elect a Supervisor who is owned by people, not by the powerful. A Supervisor who believes in solutions, not excuses.

One who embraces "We can do this, and I'll lead the way," over Romaine's mantra of "We can't do that, and it's not my fault."

I pledge to be that Supervisor, with your vote.

Will Ferraro is the Democratic and Working Families candidate for Brookhaven Town Supervisor. The election will be held on Tuesday, November 5th, 2019, with an early voting option the week prior.

For more information on Will's campaign, you can visit his website here, or follow him on Facebook here.