Three Port residents faced off at the annual League of Women Voter's Candidates Night for the special districts. In the police commissioners race, incumbent Robert Persons is seeking re-election for a third term; Roy Smitheimer, who held the post from '96 to '98, wants to return, and Maureen O'Rourke would like the opportunity to serve.

At the debate, the three candidates gave their backgrounds and qualifications for office and told the audience why they want to be a police commissioner.

The vote is Tuesday, Dec. 9, from noon-9 p.m. at the Polish American Hall, 5 Pulaski Place. Please be sure to vote.

A resident of Port for 45 years, Bob Persons has been a police commissioner for the past six years and is seeking a third, three-year term. He holds a bachelor's and a master's certificate from Cornell University. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy during the second World War. He is a retired forensic engineer, and also served on the Port Washington Charter Revision Committee from its inception.

His community service and activities include being a member of the Community Chest, to which he has donated his entire Police Commissioner salary of $16,000 per year, American Legion, PW Lions Club and Chamber of Commerce, among others.

Mr. Persons is a widower, with four grown children, all of whom attended Port schools.

Mr. Persons sees the election in terms of four issues.

1- He asks, is it really necessary to increase the budget 24 percent in 2004. He says "no," explaining that line items not controllable by the commissioners mandate a budget increase of only 14 percent. "The remaining increase of 10 more percent is the result of unethical manipulation of two line items on the budgets for '02, '03 and '04. He contends this was done to make his fellow commissioners, Sal Zimbardi and Jim Duncan, look good by not raising taxes when they ran for re-election.

2- He is strongly opposed to the construction of a new police headquarters, which he contends will cost from $2 million to $10 million. He stated that both Commissioners Duncan and Zimbardi are in favor of this, and claimed that one of his opponents, Roy Smitheimer, wanted this when he was in office in 1998. (A claim that Smitheimer disputed during the debate.)

3- He calls for "truth in budgeting," as opposed to, in his words, "the continuation of the manipulation of two line items on the budget (the fund balance and retirement separation fund), for the purpose of influencing the outcome of the elections. He claims that Mr. Smitheimer was guilty of attempting to do this when he was in office by bonding out, rather than paying up front, for police cars.

4- Persons does not think it's necessary to budget for "extra" payments to outside consultants such as accountants, auditors or engineers for making special studies. He believes that the district should be able to do it themselves.

He points to the following accomplishments over the past six years: the town's takeover of monitoring the parking meters, resulting in the need for only one parking enforcement officer instead of two; completely replacing "middle management" with more "hands-on" supervisors; resulting in more enthusiasm and esprit-de-corps among the personnel; and installing mobile data terminals in all the cruisers to increase efficiency and productivity.

Criticizing his opponents, Persons said that O'Rourke has never been to a police commissioner's meeting and that Smitheimer was voted out of office in 1998.

A lifelong resident of Port Washington, Roy Smitheimer is a '72 Schreiber graduate. He earned a bachelor's degree from Alfred University in community development and political science, and has post graduate credits from the MBA program at Hofstra. He is currently an economic development/management consultant.

Mr. Smitheimer held the post of police commissioner from '96-'98.

During his tenure, he says his record reflects lower taxes and fiscal responsibility. In '97 he voted to lower taxes and offered alternative budgets in '98 and '99, which would have lowered the tax burden if they were adopted.

In '96, he voted to invite the NYS Comptroller's Office to review the police district's past financial practices and make recommendations to improve the district's fiscal controls.

His work to improve police services included enhancing the 911 system, purchasing defibrillators for heart attack victims, computerizing patrol cars, initiating the bike patrol unit and increasing the investigative tools needed by PWPD's detectives to combat gang violence.

In addition to his accomplishments as commissioner, Smitheimer believes his record as a longtime advocate of quality of life initiatives and his well-documented history of community involvement strongly recommend him for the commissioner post. He is currently the executive director of the Greater Port Washington Business Improvement District, co-chair of the Keep Port Clean Task Force, president of the newly formed PW Visitors' Council, Economic Development consultant to the TONH and member of the Village of Port Washington North Bay Walk Park Steering Committee.

Among other things, he served on the PW Fire Medics for 10 years and was a founding member of Pride in Port, HarborFest, Nassau County Anti-Graffiti Task Force and PW Child Care Partnership.

He is the past president of the PW Chamber of Commerce and Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce and the past director of the Community Chest of Port Washington.

"No one in the race can match my credentials," he stated.

Smitheimer says he's running again because he's appalled at this year's budget increase of 24 percent, and the 54 percent increase in the budget since Persons took office six years ago. "The budget has gone from $8.1 million to $12.5 million in that time," he asserts. "Taxpayers just can't afford these increases and I believe I can build in efficiencies."

He criticizes the incumbent, Mr. Persons, for voting to approve the past six budgets, despite the fact that he calls himself an independent voice ... and is just now opposed to these budget.

One savings he would implement would be to put a cap on the number of police officers in the district, reducing the current number by not replacing those who retire. He cites the 1997 review of the PWPD by the NYS Division of Criminal Justice System's Office of Public Safety-Burean of Municipal Police which found that the district should not have more than 55 sworn officers. However, after FOILing the information, he learned that as of January 2003 the district had 64, which is 16 percent greater than the size recommended. "The size of our jurisdiction hasn't changed since then," he points out.

"People know my name and it's a name you can trust," says Mr. Smitheimer, who lives in Port with his wife Karen, and daughter, Arielle.

In addition to holding a bachelor's degree in accounting, Maureen O'Rourke is a graduate of New York Law School and brings to the table 16 years of legal experience including working for several NY-based firms specializing in property taxes and financials. Her experience ranges from negotiation skills, supervision of bureau personnel, analyzing appraisal reports, leases, contracts and other areas of commercial, industrial and residential properties. "These skills can be used effectively as an elected police commissioner and public servant," says O'Rourke.

In her professional capacity, in addition to being a Deputy County Attorney at the Nassau County Attorney's Office, she is an active member of the New York State Bar Association, Real Property Section, the Nassau County Bar Association, and Mentor, New York Law School. From 1999-2001, she helped battered women and their children obtain legal resident status through her affiliation with the New York City Bar Association.

At the community level, Ms. O'Rourke serves in the ministries at St. Peter's of Alcantara and she is also a member of the Long Island Chapter of the Executive Women's Golf Association. She serves as a volunteer at the Nassau County Board of Elections and helped raise funds for the American Diabetes Association.

Ms. O'Rourke believes that "it's time for a healthy change." She is only the second female in the Port Washington Police District's history to run for office in 30 years, since Port business woman Ellen Glickstein occupied the seat in 1974.

"It's time for more women to get involved in public office at the local level," she says. She is bringing attention to her wealth of professional and community experience that she believes will make a difference in the quality of life in Port Washington as a female police commissioner with many credentials.

An important reason that she's running is that at least seven members of her family are or have been involved in law enforcement. "I am familiar with the day-to-day issues that confront the members of the force. These dedicated men and women are rarely given credit for the wonderful work they do."

In terms of the duties of police commissioner, she believes that they control costs and establish policy. "The PWPD's administrative officers handle the day-to-day operation of the police force."

Some of the things O'Rourke proposes to initiate are:

- Institute budgetary procedures such as long-range forecasting of expenses, so that residents aren't hit with overwhelming tax increases.

- Strive to streamline the workflow of the department.

- Investigate cooperative municipal purchasing.

- Civilianization of certain administrative duties so that police manpower is returned to patrol duty.

- Research the availability of federal, state and foundation grants to reduce the costs to the residents of the police district.

O'Rourke is outraged over the 24 percent increase in the budget this year. "The 24 percent increase, resulted in a 33 percent increase in taxes. This never should have happened. With the reassessment of real property ongoing, the increase in police district tax imposes a substantial burden on everyone in our community, including but not limited to our seniors living on fixed incomes and to young families who are trying to establish their lives in our community."

During the question and answer period of the debate, Bob Persons was asked to further explain his claim that the budget had been manipulated for political purposes. He replied that when Sal Zimbardi ran in December 2002, $600,000 of the fund balance (or surplus for the fiscal year) was used to lessen the 2002 tax increase. Continuing, he said when Jim Duncan ran for re-election the following year, $500,000 of the fund balance was used to reduce the tax increase. This amounts to $1,300,000. He claims that his fellow commissioners should have used a much smaller amount from the fund balance because they created the false impression that taxes were not going up as much as they were "truly" going up.

Summing up, he said, in the 2003 budget workshop, with a fund balance at the end of 2003 of $255,226, they budgeted $480,000 to restore the general fund. This accounts for 4.75 percent of the 24 percent increase in the new budget.

Explaining the "manipulated" increases in the retirement separation fund, Persons says that at the end of the year 2000, the amount in this fund was $1,160,120. Officers retired in 2001, 2002 and 2003, drawing it down. To make up for this, the board put in the following amounts: In 2001, when Persons ran-$400,000; in 2002, when Zimbardi ran-$250,000 and in 2003 when Duncan ran-$100,000. Taking into account payouts to retiring officers, the retirement fund at the end of 2003 stood at $871,915, which Persons says is large enough. In spite of this, he continued, it was decided to add $650,000 to this fund for the 2004 budget, which is $550,000 more than the 2003 addition, which Persons points out is 5.44 percent of the 24 percent budget increase. The fund will end up at $1,529,915. Persons maintains that no one is planning to retire in 2004. He refers to this perceived manipulation as politically conspired.

However, Persons came under sharp criticism from Smitheimer who pointed out that Persons approved all of these budgets he is now so critical of. Said Smitheimer, "There wasn't a budget increase he didn't vote for."

When asked why he didn't oppose these budgets at the time, Persons says that he was in the "minority," and that the right ears weren't in the room during the budget workshops and hearings. Smitheimer countered that even if he was the minority, he still could have exercised his right to speak out, or vote, against the budgets.

On the issue of building a new headquarters, the candidates were asked their positions. Persons is adamantly opposed to this. O'Rourke replied that she would have to do a cost/benefit analysis, taking into account things like monies gained from the sale of the current property and possible grant money. Smitheimer said that when he was in office, he helped create the rent-free police satellite station in the Soundview Shopping Center, which is no longer in existence. He feels that rather than spend money on a new headquarters, he wants to see creative alternatives, at no or little cost to the taxpayers, to the space problems that the district has.

Another issue raised at the debate was whether or not the district would allow the Village of Manorhaven to be part of the Port Washington Police District. (This village currently uses the Nassau County Police.) After some discussion, the attorney for the Village of Manorhaven, Gerard Terry, asked the candidates for yes or no answers. Roy Smitheimer answered first and answered yes. Both Persons and O'Rourke said that it was not a simple yes or no response. Both feel that the matter needs to be studied in terms of any additional costs to the taxpayers (i.e. adding officers, staff, facilities, etc.) in addition to considering the amount of additional tax monies collected from Manorhaven. They noted that the opinion of the current residents in the PWPD would have to be taken into account.