The South Shore Press caught up with Suffolk Legislator Chad Lennon, the Marine Corps Veteran who’s serving in the 6th District seat covering the northeast corner of Brookhaven Town.
SS Press: As a newly-elected legislator, what are some of your priorities in your first term?
Lennon: I ran on public safety and I've been engaged with the police department, the Sixth and Seventh precincts that split coverage of the district. I’m with them listening to the civics, meeting with other organizations and people with any concerns. I think we have a good working relationship with the police department in both precincts as well as the COPE officers. It’s fantastic that County Executive Romaine made 69 promotions in the police department. These were positions that were in our budget that were not filled. That's atrocious. We were all paying taxes for them, including myself, taxes for positions that were not being filled. We want to be proactive, so more detectives, captains, lieutenants, and sergeants are going to make our county even safer. That's why we want to recruit and train new officers to fill all the positions that we just gave promotions to. It's going to demonstrate to the officers that they have a chance to be promoted, to put the work in, and get recognized.
SS Press: You’ve indicated that human trafficking is a growing problem on Long Island. Tell us more about that.
Lennon: We have modern day slavery and this is what happens when you have the border the way it is now. The border is a national issue touching us on the local level. I'm a marine; I've been on the border. I’ve worked in the Pentagon; I've seen the reports. The cartels are now involved in trafficking. A great number of women can be pushed into strip clubs, massage parlors, underground networks. It's happening in our backyard. We have a vulnerable population of women and we need to prevent them from being victimized. It's the same with younger kids. All it takes is somebody to go out on the weekend, meet somebody, they get fed drugs and all of a sudden they're taken and they're kept on a certain level of drugs to keep them docile and they're in the sex trafficking trade. They may not even realize what's really going on around them. It’s such a big issue that we have a special human trafficking court. What I've seen is most of them have an “uncle;” some of them have the same person who is always sitting in the back of the courtroom. We’re trying to get them out of it, get them resources and support from the different organizations we have in the county.
SS Press: Is there also a special court for veterans?
Lennon: Yes. The court is a way to identify individuals who have issues and provide them the necessary support. As the only veteran in the legislature, I know I have a responsibility to our entire population of veterans in Suffolk County, which is the largest population of veterans in the state, number two in the country. I want to get 6% of all county contracts to go to veteran-owned businesses. It's already 6% with the state and 4% with the federal government. I also want to recognize September 22nd as Veteran Suicide Awareness and Remembrance Day with the large population of veterans that we have. It’s about 22 veterans on average taking their own lives. I want to make sure our community knows that we're here to support them with such great organizations and resources that are available to them.
SS Press: What are your other priorities?
Lennon: There are a lot of issues, but I would say a major concern that people have in the district is quality of life. I want to make sure that we engage with the police department when somebody calls and says, “There is graffiti over here, there's loud noises over there.” The question our office always asks is: “Have you called the police department about it?” That's the first thing, make sure that if there's an issue, report it. One thing I saw too, I have the Ring app and I've seen numerous times where individuals come up to cars and are trying to open them. That's despite having the Ring camera there and a spotlight going on in the middle of the night. It's important to report it to the police because you can do a link analysis and see where the hot pockets are that would help the police department in patrolling areas. We do have a manning issue with the police department and that's why I want to see what we can do to recruit and retain officers. I would encourage anyone interested to take the law enforcement exams-police department, sheriffs–all positions.
SS Press: What is your position on the eighth-of-a-cent sales tax proposal for wastewater treatment?
Lennon: I did not agree with the 25-75 split going mostly to IA systems. I campaigned that I would be in favor of a 50-50 split between private cesspools and sewers and that's exactly what I voted on for the home rule message that went up to the state. I'm hoping we can get that approved by the state and then get a decision by the public come November.
SS Press: What else is on your agenda?
Lennon: When we talk about the opioid epidemic, we need to educate our middle school and high school and college kids, not just about the dangers of taking drugs and getting addicted, but there's also this danger of all of a sudden you're in this human trafficking arena and it's nowhere that you ever thought you would be. There's a lot of dangers that revolve around drugs, and human trafficking is one of them. And unfortunately, there's child trafficking. I have not seen this as a major issue in the county, but it's also important for parents to understand how easy it is for a child to be taken in a split second. I think it's important that parents and guardians are educated about how easy it is and how prevalent it is throughout our country and throughout the world right now.
SS Press: What else is important to you as a legislator?
Lennon: It's communication and it works two ways: from me and to me. If I don't hear from people about issues and I don't hear from organizations about what they think is good or bad about proposed legislation, I can’t make a fully informed decision that's best for everyone. I look forward to hearing from people from organizations, call our office, email, knock on the door. I'm always willing to speak with anyone. We're here to help people, and even if it's not a county issue, we'll do everything in our power to help you and we will call the town or state or federal representative and let them know you're gonna be reaching out to them. Everything is my problem and I need to help manage these problems for everybody.