Dino Amoroso said he became the Democratic candidate for Hempstead town clerk because he “answered the phone at the wrong time.”
The resident, a former Brooklyn prosecutor and CEO of Nassau County’s off-track betting corporation, did not expect to run for the office.
But now that the Lynbrook resdent has accepted county Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs’ offer for his candidacy, he said, he is aiming to bring Hempstead’s dealings “out of the shadows” by opening the town government.
“If I could provide a snapshot into what goes on behind closed doors, I would consider it a modest victory,” Amoroso said in a sit-down interview with Blank Slate Media.
Amoroso’s primary as clerk would be to make the town’s government more accessible and transparent for residents, he said.
In his experience, current town officials have failed to be forthcoming and transparent with documents to which citizens are entitled to have access.
When Amoroso has asked officials for information such as salaries of town employees during public meetings, he said, their default response is to say, “FOIL me.”
“What are you hiding, for Pete’s sake?” Amoroso said. “That’s our money, that’s our government.”
None of Hempstead’s public records are currently available online, which Amoroso said he wants to change.
While he does not know exactly how he would make documents accessible digitally, he said, he knows there are easy and inexpensive ways to do it.
Amoroso also said he would work to keep the town’s public meeting times consistent so more residents can attend.
Creating transparency and accountability, Amoroso said, would allow him to bring some balance to Hempstead’s predominantly Republican town government.
The clerk’s position is the second-most important in the town, he said, because the charter allows the clerk to participate in budget talks and other important discussions.
But the office has not been used as such for a long time because a Democrat has not occupied the seat for 108 years, Amoroso said.
“I want to be the camel sticking my nose in the tent,” he said. “This is good government. Any time you have one-party rule, it’s not good.”
Allowing the public to see “the facts as they are” on public records could lead to a political turnaround in Hempstead, which has about 20,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, Amoroso said.
Part of the reason he said he decided to enter the clerk’s race is the fact that he became “so annoyed” with how Nassau County Republicans were misleading voters by vilifying Democrats as fiscally irresponsible.
In reality, Amoroso said, Republicans have mismanaged finances.
“How we get tagged as being the tax-and-spend liberals is beyond my comprehension,” he said.
In the interview, Amoroso criticized Hempstead’s Republican Town Supervisor Kate Murray for using part of the town’s reserve fund for regular operating costs in the past two years.
This is one instance, he said, of “the town following the example of the county,” which has a “structural imbalance” in how it handles its finances.
“Your bond rating’s going to go down, the interest rate’s going to go up, and who’s paying for it?” he said. “We are.”
Amoroso said his experience as Brooklyn’s first assistant district attorney, which required him to manage a staff of 1,200 to 1,300 people and a budget of $80 million, qualifies him to run a town clerk’s office with a staff of about 50 and a budget of about $7 million.
The most recent available payroll data show the clerk’s office has a staff of 140 full-time and part-time employees in 2013.
The data also show Nasrin Ahmad, the current Hempstead clerk and Amoroso’s Republican opponent, had a salary of $98,234.27 that year.
Amoroso is at a financial disadvantage in the race, with $16,035.34 in his war chest compared to Ahmad’s $24,577.05, according to Oct. 2 campaign finance filings.
While voter registration numbers are in his party’s favor, Amoroso said turnout numbers among Democrats have been low in recent elections.
His path to victory, Amoroso said, is to get them to come to the polls.
“We can do better,” he said.
