Islip Council Incumbents: Sandy Recovery, Partnerships are Focal Points

As Election Day arrives Tuesday town residents will head to the polls to elect lawmakers and vote on propositions.

In Islip Town there are two council races. 

Incumbent Republicans Steve Flotteron (a councilperson for eight years) and Trish Bergin Weichbrodt (a councilperson for four years) are being challenged by Democrats George Hafele and Astrid Fidelia.

Patch asked each candidate to answer five questions relating to why their running and what they hope to accomplish if elected.

What is the primary issue you’ll tackle if re-elected? 

We will continue to work hard to recover from super storm Sandy and harden our infrastructure. 

What one reason should voters re-elect you? 

Steve and I work as a great team. He is a night person who does a great job covering our community meetings. I am a former investigative reporter who loves to dig into issues. Steve brings home the issues from his night meetings and I get to work on them. I present solutions to him and we bring a joint answer to the community. 

Would you support freezing town elected officials’ salaries for two years? If not, why not? 

Steve and I have not taken a raise since we have been in office.  We also drastically cut the salaries of all of our commissioners when we gained control of the town. 

Selling land, streamlining services can only do so much to close a budget gap. When it comes to budget reduction what else can be done? 

Steve and I continue to look for ways to save money and we will continue to identify new ways to enter into public/ private partnerships to save our residents money.