Op Ed - Town Council Job Has No Impact On National Or Foreign Policy

To the residents of Smithtown; I am applying for the job of Town Councilman, which is selected through the vote on November 3, 2015.

From the Smithtownny.gov website:“Together with the Supervisor, the Town Council enacts ordinances, adopts a budget, manages personnel matters, oversees town-wide planning and zoning, establishes recreation areas, and participates in town meetings. Elected to four-year terms by voters from the entire town, each of the four council members serves as a liaison to various departments under the townʼs jurisdiction.”

The position of Town Council is considered a part time position. It has no impact on national policy or foreign matters. It cannot overrule the Supreme Court or the President of the United States. The decisions made by the Town Council impact the way your town looks, operates, interacts with other local communities and it paves the way for future generations.

My qualifications are as follows: For the past 25 years I have been in the environmental remediation field. I’ve cleaned chemical and petroleum impacted sites, from single-family homes to projects as large as ocean going oil tanker spills. I’ve reclaimed wetlands, tested air quality, performed soils and water evaluations and I have prepared documents on site assessments. I am knowledgeable about our unique sub surface conditions, our groundwater and drinking water situations. For the past 7 years I have owned my own environmental consulting business. Prior to the environmental industry I spent a number of years in the logistics and transportation fields. Through that, I became familiar with the way freight moves onto and off Long Island. I am very aware of the changing demographics of Long Island industry.

Part of being a business owner is creating and implementing budgets, and managing personnel. As a business owner I cannot simply raise prices when I need additional revenue. I need to be creative and think “outside of the box”.

As a Smithtown resident I am disappointed every time I see one of my favorite local retail stores close. As a resident of Long Island I am concerned about the quality of our drinking water and our surrounding wetlands and beaches. As a father I am disappointed that my four adult children cannot find affordable housing, the type of jobs for which they were educated and the type of community they desire.

I encourage you to simply go on line to follow all the prospective candidates careers. A very simple “Like” on everyone’s Facebook account will likely give you more information than any palm cards or mailers. I encourage you to learn about the candidates to make an informed choice.

Finally, none of this does any good if everyone stays home on Election Day. Of the roughly 82,000 registered voters in Smithtown (which doesn’t include the nearly 18,000 that are not even registered), roughlt 18,000 vote every year. That leaves approximately 64,000 people each year that stay at home. Of the 18,000 people that vote each year, 12,000 vote religiously for one party and the remaining 6,000 for the other. As a result we get the same thing year after year. The reality is that with so few people voting, your vote does mean much more than you could possibly think. Please do the research this year. Then, after you have made your intelligent choice, please go to the voting booths on November 3. Don’t let chilly temperatures, or a rainy day or working overtime factor into allowing the town to move on without you having participated.

The residents of Smithtown are vibrant, hard-working individuals. They deserve a Smithtown that reflects this. This year can be the start of bringing Smithtown into the 21st century. 

Larry Vetter

Democratic candidate for Smithtown Town Council

Comments

[Edward P. Gary]

On the subject of affordable housing: Unfortunately, the only way you will make housing affordable again here on Long Island is to tackle school taxes. No amount of high density housing will fix this, especially considering that the rental rates on these units never appear to be starting at $1,800/month. The only way high density housing will solve sky high cost of living will be when the market is over-saturated and neighborhoods run down after being turned into Queens East.

While I agree that affordable housing is an issue and you did not mention it in your editorial, I never seem to hear any real ideas for a solution. All I ever hear is "BUILD BUILD BUILD".

How about bringing industry and jobs back to Long Island? Packing more people in with nothing but low-wage service jobs is not the answer. At least if there are jobs that pay a relative fair living wage, more folks will be able to afford to live here. This is just scratching the surface of a very complex issue.