Candidate Profile: Derek Stein for Suffolk Legislature District 10

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Suffolk County residents will be lining up at the polls for Election Day on Nov. 7, or early voting from Oct. 28 to Nov. 5, where they will be voting for candidates vying for Suffolk County Legislature seats.

Legislative Aide Derek Stein is running as a Democrat in the 10th Legislative District.

He challenges Republican incumbent Legislator Trish Bergin, who was elected in 2021.

The 10th Legislative District is comprised of East Islip, Bay Shore, Islip, Great River, Oakdale, Bohemia, Ronkonkoma, Central Islip, Islandia, and Hauppauge.

Patch reached out to both candidates to hear where they stand on important issues affecting the community.

Here are the responses for those who participated. The answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

Name

Derek Stein

How old will you be as of Election Day?

28

Does your campaign have a website? If so, include the URL here.

https://www.dereksteinforsuffo...

What city or town do you live in?

Central Islip

What office are you seeking?

Suffolk County Legislature

If you are running in a district, you can specify the district here.

Legislative District 10

Party affiliation

Democratic & Working Families Parties

Education

Stony Brook University, Bachelor's Degree in Political Science, graduated 2017.

What is your occupation?

Legislative Aide, Suffolk County Legislature, worked for Presiding Officers DuWayne Gregory and Rob Calarco. I started there in 2018, and would be responsible for a number of administrative functions from their office. I oversaw the Legislature’s Fair Housing Task Force, the Marine Industry Revitalization Advisory Council, and Youth Anti-Bullying Task Force. I also would handle constituent services, organizing events such as school supply drives and public hearings. I was responsible for drafting reports on legislation for the majority caucus as well, having to review every single bill to come before the Legislature. During COVID I also would be responsible for managing Zoom which to allowed the public to speak in the midst of the pandemic.

I previously worked in the Town of Babylon 2021-2023 as a Community Service Aide where I oversaw the Town's Direct Support Program.

Since January 2023, I have worked back at the Legislature as an Aide for Legislator Al Krupski. I also worked as a custodian at Middle Country Central School District for a number of years prior to working at the Legislature.

Do you have a family? If so, please tell us about them.

I live with my wife Nancy Stein-Luis, we have no children. My Mom, Diana Stein worked as an accountant and served on the Central Islip School Board for a time.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

None, I have no relatives working in Suffolk County government or otherwise in politics.

Have you ever held a public office, whether appointive or elective?

I have not, and have never previously ran for office.

Now we'd like to ask a few questions about your reasons for running and your general views on politics and government. First, why are you seeking this office?

I'm running for the Suffolk County Legislature because working first hand at the Suffolk County Legislature as an Aide, I've seen the good and the bad in Suffolk County and our communities deserve to have full-time representation. People of all ages are struggling to live on Long Island, and I feel that we aren't getting back what we're putting in.

Our roads continue to be unsafe, our beaches along the Great South Bay and Lake Ronkonkoma often are closed due to bacteria, and there are plenty of new developments that are simply not affordable or make sense for their communities. To address these issues we need full-time representation that will put our hometowns first over their own interests.

My family has lived in Central Islip for four generations. I love our communities and want to one day raise my children here and for them to have the same opportunities I had enjoyed. I want to do all that I can to help improve our communities.

Please complete this statement: The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is \_\_\_, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Affordability; Suffolk County is losing so many of younger and senior residents because of the high cost of living, and critically not getting the quality of life services that we ought to receive in return.

As Legislator, I would look to address this comprehensively with Town and State governments, as we can't just build out of this problem. I'll stand against unaffordable developments that will do nothing to provide workforce housing and do not fit into their communities. I will look to prohibit the purchase of single-family homes by slumlord owned LLC's, and expand the Suffolk County Landbank to get zombie homes restored.

I will also look to limit handouts to large corporations. The Suffolk County IDA should not be giving billion-dollar corporations like Amazon tax breaks, and if these corporations were to pay their fair share, then we can lower the tax burden for the middle and working class in Suffolk County.

What needs to be done to address water quality issues on LI?

Day one I will move to place the referendum to create a single wastewater district in Suffolk County on the ballot to let voters; not 10 Legislators and their party bosses, decide if a 1/8th of a penny sales tax should be implemented to provide $4 billion for cesspool replacement and for the installation of sewer lines.

I think we need both Innovative Alternative Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems and sewers lines installed in order to protect our water and to reduce nitrogen runoff. In addition I would make sure funding is established in the budget for the Lake Keeper position that will work with Town governments to reduce the amount of storm drains picking up trash and chemicals from flowing into Lake Ronkonkoma.

I'll also fight to provide increased testing for water wells and for SCWA to install filters on pipes near the superfund site at MacArthur Airport and by industrial sites like in Hauppauge, Islandia and Central Islip that may also have PFAs contamination.

What do you think can be done to help improve our infrastructure, highways, etc?

As Legislator I want to make sure the Department of Public Works is fully staffed so that they can work on Roadway projects faster. Road safety is also a priority for me, in the 10th Legislative District over the summer we had multiple fatal accidents.

We need to improve lighting and crosswalks on dangerous roads like Carleton Avenue and Ocean Avenue to keep pedestrians safe.

In addition, I will support a project redeveloping the Rosevale Avenue-Ocean Avenue intersection in Ronkonkoma, potentially putting in a roundabout or leveling off the grade of the road to improve visibility.

How would you plan to help local business owners, who are struggling because of high rents, inflation and labor shortages?

Working in the Town of Babylon, I managed the Town's Direct Support Program, which provided over $8 million in grants for COVID relief and to combat inflation. I think this model could be used to support local businesses across Suffolk County, and I would push to allocate money from the Hotel-Motel Tax to directly support small businesses in our communities with grants that could cover rent or the hiring of new workers.

I also propose having small business trainings availing through County Departments and would work with the Department of Labor to make sure small businesses can reach people who are looking for work.

What is your stance on the current migrant situation affecting New York? And if migrants were to be directed to shelters on Long Island, how would you prepare/plan for that?

It's a Federal issue and Congress and the President should stop playing games, pass immigration reform, speed up the process, and make sure asylum seekers can get work permits as soon as possible to alleviate the labor shortages we're seeing. Asylum seekers today are ultimately no different than any other group of immigrants who have come to America seeking a better life.

So I do reject the Legislature's push earlier this year to hire an outside counsel to investigate ways to block migrants from coming to Suffolk (which by the way, still hasn't been hired). We should not treat the asylum seekers of today with the same fear that our ancestors also faced.

Especially given that we've seen that fear turn into violence on Long Island, as with Marcelo Lucero's murder in 2008. As Legislator I would coordinate with the State to make sure that if any shelters are set up in Suffolk, that they do not come at the expense of veterans or the homeless who live here as well, and provide more funding for these shelters.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

The biggest difference between me and my opponent is that my opponent is not a full-time Legislator, she works as a Corporate Realtor. In addition I think my opponent has failed to put politics aside to allow for a vote on clean water.

Ultimately the decision to implement the 1/8 of a cent sales tax would be up to the voters, not the Legislature, but giving Suffolk's one million voters the choice is in my mind much more fair than 18 Legislators simply deciding it. That choice wasn't given to voters with the implementation of red light cameras, but I think it and the wastewater district both should be.

In addition, I have not taken a cent from a developer and promise never to do so, instead of profiting off of developments put forward by either the Town of Islip or the County.

If you are challenging an incumbent, in what way has the current officeholder failed the community?

In my mind being a Legislator should be a full time job — they're paid over $100,000 a year after-all. Since January, my opponent has only introduced four resolutions before the Legislature. That is the fewest of any single Legislator by far.

On top of that, she has missed numerous votes at the Legislature and canceled the July 18 meeting of the Seniors and Human Services Committee that she chairs, for seemingly no reason despite a bill being before that Committee that would have established a CPS Review Board.

In addition, my opponent has failed to disclose her business dealings with Greenview Properties, particularly with regards to the proposed Bayview Apartments and the redevelopment at East Islip Lanes. Both of these proposed developments she had direct business ties to while voting to move forward with them while at the Town of Islip.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

I will also introduce a charter law to prohibit Legislators from receiving outside income. I believe it should always be a full-time job.

In addition I want to focus on improving our bus system by implementing a 30 minute time table instead of the current hour delay, which would make Suffolk's bus system far more reliable and would hopefully increase ridership, taking cars off the road.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

The Fair Housing Task Force is something I was really proud of, this Task Force worked to address violations that realtors had made as was reported on first by Newsday in 2019. This Task Force brought together Democrat and Republican Legislators, members of the Long Island Board of Realtors, the NAACP, the Human Rights Commission, community representatives, housing agencies and attorneys to hammer out solutions to the problems discovered in the Newsday report and then was able to push the State to implement training requirements and licensing changes while moving forward with paired testing at the County level.

I am also proud of the work done in the Town of Babylon with the Direct Support Program where we provided $8 million to small businesses, local non-profit organizations and veterans' organizations, keeping many of their doors open through the pandemic.

Also I'd add that I've already been doing a lot of the work as an Aide at the Legislature, I was responsible for reviewing every single resolution that came before the Legislature and explaining it to the Legislators (Now whether or not they read it is a whole other issue). I've also worked to make sure constituents are able to get whatever they need from the County as an aide.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

To always ask questions.

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I think the last big thing is that I promise to always keep an open door and an open mind. I won't put politics ahead of representing what the communities in LD 10 want, and if anyone wants to reach me they can do so right at 631-504-7928 or by email at [email protected].