Bio
I'm an attorney with decades of experience, including policy, legislative, and public communications experience. I'm a married mom of two teenagers, one newly launched to college, one a sophomore at Mattituck High School. My Shelter Island (and thus Greenport) roots date to 1971, while my Cutchogue roots took hold in 2011.
Experience
Attorney with part-time home-based practice 2007-present; Town Clerk-type work for the Mattituck Park District, April 2024-present; legislative work for the Voting Rights Lab 2019-2023, and for NJPIRG 2005-07; Director of the North Fork Promotion Council 2015-17; freelance journalist on foreclosure fraud, corporate compliance, and other legal issues 2010-2016.
Campaign Phone
6312760077
A Town Clerk must be organized, service-minded, and skilled at clear public communication. Strong grant and report writing abilities are also essential—strengths I bring in full.
For example, the Clerk’s office prepares Town Board agendas and notices. Under the current Clerk, meeting notices contained outdated language and work session agendas were hidden within regular agendas, issues left unaddressed for over three years until I raised them.
I will not only correct these basics but also extend office hours beyond 8–4 at no extra cost, streamline operations, secure grants, and increase government transparency.
The Town is considering redesigning its website. The site offers a lot of information, but can be hard to navigate. As keeper of the records and a major public access point, the Clerk should play a key role in thinking through the redesign. I have relevant experience, such as co-creating the Voting Rights Lab's legislation database, and publishing GoNorthFork. The current clerk does not, and may not see the Clerk's Office as integral in this process.
The Town is likely moving the Clerk's Office to the Town Hall Annex. I excel at streamlining and organizing to optimize the new space. This move is an opportunity to improve.
Also, a long time employee is nearing retirement. I have proven skills at hiring talent and developing professionals.
The office needs to open for more hours; 8a-4p does not work well for working people.
The Clerk should publish summaries of Town Board Work Sessions. The Work Sessions are where the action is, and they are hard to attend and stream.
The Town Facebook page needs to be made more useful (the Clerk is listed as contact). Similarly, webpages relating to the Clerk's office and the Town Board meetings need to be improved.
The online permit process, and every other process in the office, should be reviewed to see if there are more efficient and public-friendly ways to accomplish the tasks.
Generally, the Clerk's Office should focus far more than it currently does on making Town Government easier to access, understand, and participate in.
Adequately accessible is too low a bar. Even if records are adequately accessible, major improvements are easy. For example, the "State of the Town" report, in which every department reported on its work for the last year, can be found if you type "State of the Town" into the search bar. But if nothing on the website announces the existence of the report, people are unlikely to search for it. Simply posting information on the Clerk's page about the report's existence would be a big improvement.
More generally, the Town website has a tremendous amount of information on it, but navigating it is more challenging than it needs to be.
Without knowing how the records are protected, I cannot opine on that.
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