This is my fifth year as a trustee in the Village of Flower Hill and will be my last, as I am not running for re-election. During those years, Trustee meetings were interesting, gratifying and for the most part quite enjoyable.
Seven people, all duly elected by our residents, unpaid civil servants volunteering, working together to make our village better. That certainly isn’t the case anymore. Kate Hirsch, a candidate for mayor, chooses to make every meeting, every action this board takes, contentious.
I can’t count the number of suggestions made by fellow trustees over the course of the time I’ve spent on this board. All given freely to make this village a better place to live. Kate holds her suggestions and uses them as campaign promises, implying she is the only one who cares about what goes on in our Village.
At the beginning of her campaign, Kate petitioned the Nassau County Board of Elections to decertify the Flower Hill Party’s nomination petitions. It was quickly dismissed by the bipartisan Board of Elections. She requested countless documents and countless hours of our staff’s time trying to substantiate vague conspiracy theories. The staff had to stop their regular village business of serving you to accommodate her.
Kate sued the village, then offered to withdraw her suit and stop campaigning if we fired several people, terminated pending investigations and paid her legal expenses. I can’t give you any opinion on the legality of what she suggested, but I certainly think it was unethical. She eventually dropped the suit. The reports by multiple Village employees of Kate’s harassment required that the Village hire legal counsel. This resulted in a recommendation that she be admonished, complete anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training, and review and comply with the Village’s non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy. Her response in a letter to residents was to minimize the event and blame the board for wasting money to investigate. To be clear, it was her actions that cost the Village residents thousands of dollars in legal fees no matter how she chooses to spin it.
I know Kate wants to be the mayor and I support the free election process, but you have to earn that position, something she has yet to accomplish.
Her entire campaign is about looking for something negative the present board has or hasn’t accomplished. The same board that she voted with over 99 percent of the time before she started campaigning. Running a Village is about collaboration not condemnation.
Kate’s running mates, to the best of my knowledge have never attended a Board of Trustees meeting, a minimum prerequisite for any candidate. Their names don’t even appear on her campaign signs. I watched as Brian, Gary, and Randall worked with our residents and staff during the pandemic, the power outage and storm recovery but where were they?
Look, I get it. The Village of Flower Hill is in great shape, a very desirable place to live. Our mayor, Brian Herrington, and the Budget Committee created a budget that during the worst of times allowed us to keep taxes level and services consistent. Kate’s only chance to be mayor is to make what is something obviously good into something bad. In my opinion what she is doing runs counter to the definition of public service.
Brian Herrington, and the entire Flower Hill Party line deserve, your vote, and I could not be more certain that Kate Hirsch and the Liberty Party does not.
Jay Beber
Flower Hill
