Siela Bynoe deserves another term in the 2nd L.D.

Republican Harold Germaine is challenging Nassau County Legislator Siela Bynoe in the 2nd Legislative District. Though the young challenger shows promise in his first bid for office, the Herald endorses Bynoe, in part because of her strong record of advocating for bipartisan police reform and her efforts to reduce wasteful government spending.

Germaine, who has experience as an auxiliary police officer, wants to bridge the gap between constituents and the police. Though it is a noble and necessary goal, the specifics of his plan are unclear aside from promoting more communication.

Bynoe wrote a letter to County Executive Laura Curran in the wake of the George Floyd murder about the need for Nassau County police officers to wear body cameras. Her attention helped make body cameras a reality for the 13th-largest police department in the country, with support from the Nassau Police Benevolent Association, whose executive board unanimously approved of the legislation.

Germaine said he would work to stop the property-tax reassessment, citing the roughly 65 percent of Nassau homeowners who saw their taxes increase last year, according to county data. Germaine said that his neighbors had been hit especially hard by tax raises, and that he would encourage Curran to make the algorithm used in the reassessment public in the interest of greater transparency.

Bynoe was part of the effort to create an independent Office of the Inspector General to oversee county procurement to safeguard taxpayer dollars. Additionally, she shepherded legislation requiring vendors to provide updated background information in writing as a condition of approving contracts with the county. This came after county Inspector General Jodi Franzese found that the county had lost $700,000 because of vendor fraud in 2019.

Vote for Bynoe next Tuesday.