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a little bit about the race, why you are running and why you are going to win. Adam Haber: The race is very interesting because in 2001 Souzzi was the insurgent against Tom DiNapoli and didn’t have the party support but was politically active as the mayor of Glen Cove. I am coming from a much different perceptive; I am on the Roslyn School Board which I helped and I got involved politically to see how I can help my community. I saw how a committed person can add value, especially with the business background. So I am running as an outsider, and the interesting thing is that I go door to door; I spend a couple of hours every day making phone calls; I go to meet and greets and speak to civic associations. There is a hunger for change. People have tried the incumbents and the party politics since I have lived here since 1993. And whether it’s been Democrat or Republican, it hasn’t worked well. We are slowly sliding into insolvency. So I think I am in the right place at the right time. I get great feedback so I like my opportunity, and I like my chances. Michael Fragin: There is difficulty getting on the ballot if you are not endorsed by the county organization. How did you get on the ballot? Adam Haber: It’s an interesting process in Nassau County because there is a whole industry of attorneys who make it their lives’ work to knock people off the ballot and they make sure that every single signature you have is either perfect or you are done. The rule of thumb is 4:1. I need about 2,000 signatures that are good signatures from our district Democrats to get on the ballot. So I have to collect about 8,000. And such things like if they have on the ballot – what county they live in, and people usually want to put their village down and say Lawrence instead of the Town of Hempstead, and that knocks you off. So we have a topnotch attorney teaching all the people who are doing the canvassing for my campaign, telling them exactly how to get a correct signature. And you have to be in the same room with the person; you have to visually see every signature. Michael Fragin: So you are proceeding cautiously and judiciously, I guess I would say. Adam Haber: I am cautiously aggressive. I am cautiously making sure that we will do everything correctly, but we are aggressively seeking the 8,000 signatures we need. Michael Fragin: Let’s talk for a second about the race, you are going from school board to county executive, and there might be some offices in between, if you like. What made you decide and
say, “I want to run for county executive?” Adam Haber: Well, there is no training grounds. It’s not like baseball, you go from A ball to AA to AAA in major leagues. I mean, Bloomberg skipped from 0 to 100. He had tremendous experience as a leader in the business world. I have experience in finance, and I worked downtown for about 20 years. I have experience in commercial real estate. I am a representative from the Pacific Northwest in New York for four-five years. I do a lot of venture capital startup incubator investing which we desperately need in Nassau County, and I actually own two restaurants. So my background is wide and deep financially, and my background also was on the school board. I also created a website called Nassausuggestionbox.com to try and get people more involved and put their thoughts online and have people vote for more transparency. I am very involved in a host of charities. So my background is very wide and deep. A politician is somebody who is active in the community. I haven’t been elected to a table office but that’s not the problem. So the problem is getting elected to the big office to make the change we need because you really can’t affect change unless you are in charge. The reason why I am running is because I love it here. I want my kids to be able to live here. We don’t attract business; businesses leave; we don’t build anything. In the 20 years I have been here, we have seen a slow, steady decline more like Detroit as supposed to a booming metropolis like Manhattan right next door to us.
well, but Simon Property isn’t a Long Island-based company. Michael Fragin: There is a Tesla store in Roosevelt Field. I think that’s pretty cool that they have a car dealership inside the mall. Adam Haber: Tesla is manufacturing electric cars in California; why can’t we lobby hard to get something like that here in Long Island? We have the space. And that would be my job to go out and be a booster for the county. Since 2000, we have lost over 30,000 manufacturing jobs; we have lost over 30,000 construction jobs, over 50,000 high paying finance jobs, and we replaced them with jobs at Roosevelt Field, retail jobs. That’s not a way to build an economy that’s based on sales tax growth.
Michael Fragin: Usually, my guests don’t put me on the spot like that, so thank you for turning the tables like that… Adam Haber: That’s the point, and that’s why I am running.
Michael Fragin: What are your plans for the Nassau Coliseum site? What would you like to see there in that hub area? Adam Haber: Well, there has been a long failed attempt to have that built with the Lighthouse Project under Suozzi and now with the referendum, it all gets done by Mangano, which was a huge mistake. I mean you could have done that with private financing, very creative financing. And that’s how they built Jay Peak in Northern Vermont and several other projects in and around New York Metro. There is no reason why you couldn’t use that kind of financing that’s available from the government. DIP financing bonds, future tax revenue from these projects, you could have used stuff like that. Name the place, I mean Citi Field gets 20 million bucks a year. We could have built that without having a referendum. But what would I want there? You need a few things. You need a place to do business; you need a convention center. I mean the fact that we don’t have a place to have a car show or flower show or toy show, and it’s in the basement of Coliseum, it’s embarrassing. Long Island has almost three million people, we are larger than most cities, yet we don’t have a convention center. Another thing is I would love a professional sports franchise, but it’s not happening. You have to have the ability to expand if you are going to attract a pro team. You also have to do something for affordable housing so our kids can come back and live here. We have half the affordable housing stock of any county in New York Metro. 19% of our housing stock is rental, and there is no place for my kids to come back here, recent college grads, people who are starting out to live.
Michael Fragin: Well, I have seen expansion of Roosevelt Field, does that count? Adam Haber: That’s going pretty
Michael Fragin: But suburban counties like Nassau always have the challenge because it’s not a single government that controls everything, like
Michael Fragin: So you are taking the idea that Nassau County is a county in decline? Adam Haber: Nassau County is a county that’s slowly eroding, yes. I wouldn’t say steep decline, but if you ask 100 people, people would say we are not doing well. I ask you the same question. Can you name one thing, Michael, in the last 10 years in Nassau County that has been an amazing? Something built, some company coming here, something great that has happened? Can you come up with anything that’s been great here over the last 10 years?
you have in a city. You have many, many different governments and many layers. So how do you deal with that? I think one of the challenges that the county has had is that they have to deal with the towns; they have to deal with the villages; the villages have to deal with the towns and counties and districts and the like. Your now-opponent a couple years ago, when he was in there, one of the things he wanted to take on was to get rid of some of these layers. Is that something that you feel strongly about? Adam Haber: Well, I actually think that services that school boards could do like bussing or servicing cesspool or purchasing, there is ways you can do a lot of the back-office stuff a lot cheaper. But I think if you want to combine school boards,that’s going to come from the communities. $80,000 a year each district spends on servicing the cesspools. It’s no pun intended, a dirty job, but that’s 4 million bucks. You can have central authority hire three or four people full time to do it for 25%-30% of the cost. If you do things efficiently, you can keep qualified staff, it’s a win-win. Michael Fragin: Most of the audience out there is sending their kids to private schools. Tell us a little bit what you think the paradigm should be. Adam Haber: My wife’s identical twin sister is Orthodox, and she sends her kids to private school in Atlanta. The state mandates that there has to be public schooling, there is no dispute about that. But we were just discussing services; why can’t the parochial schools be involved in some of these purchasings, the volume discounts and certain things that we do together? There is huge savings in volume, and that’s one of the things that is overlooked and not even discussed. The paying for teachers health insurance, a host of things, why can’t we do it and increase our numbers to do it cheaper, and that’s something that I think needs to be looked into. Michael Fragin: Adam, where can people follow if they want to follow your campaign? Adam Haber: HaberForNassau. com, also on Twitter, but I am running a very well-funded, strong campaign, with great feedback, and I plan on working for you. Michael Fragin: Okay, well, thank you very much for joining us here, and hopefully we get some updates as the summer progresses. This is Spin Class, we’re talking politics. See you next week.
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