Sea Cliff, NY – February 17, 2017 “I am offering people in Sea Cliff a choice,” said village resident Deb McDermott, who with the help of her supporters, collected more than 250 signatures, well over the 75 that is required, to become the third candidate to meet last week’s petition filing deadline to be on the ballot for the two spots up for grabs on the Village Board of Trustees in next month’s election. Running with the endorsement of the Sea Cliff Open Government Party, Ms. McDermott, explained that she will be “an independent voice” for the community. It will be the Village’s first competitive election in several years.
A Sea Cliffian for 12 years, Ms. McDermott explains that the skills she honed during her 14 years at IBM working as an executive speech writer, collaboration strategist, writer, and editor, as well as leading the integration of communications teams of companies acquired by IBM and managing the communication of internal quarterly financial reports to internal audience, would be a valuable asset to village government.
“I have a different background, experience and community ties from the other candidates,” she explains, “My expertise in communications would serve the community by helping to bring more openness to our government, supporting people’s need to be well informed and fostering productive dialogue between the community and the Board.”
Ms. McDermott is not new to advocating for the community through government and helping the residents to become better informed about important issues.
Since 2012, she has been a member of the North Shore Board of Education’s Legislative Action Community (LAC), currently serving as the group’s Chair, after having served for two years as Secretary.
Through LAC, she has advocated for North Shore Schools on complex legislative issues that affect educational policy and funding of the schools.
Ms. McDermott highlights her work helping to build the relationships between government leaders and their constituents. In the fall of 2015, she helped put together “North Shore’s Legislative Night” which brought together all of the North Shore area’s local representatives at the county and state levels to share information about issues that matter most to the residents of the school district.
Ms. McDermott also played an important role in forging a coalition with Garden City and Manhasset School Districts’ Legislative Action Committees, to share resources and strengthen influence on issues the three districts have in common. Collectively, the group (known as “SuperLAC”) has hosted a small group discussion with all the state lawmakers representing areas of the three districts, as well as a meeting with the State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia and Regent Roger Tilles who represents Nassau County on the board that oversees public education in New York State.
Ms. McDermott's community involvement goes back long before her work with LAC.
She was active at Sea Cliff School, where she designed and created the Sea Cliff School PCA’s website when her first child was in kindergarten, and served on the District and School Nutrition Committees.
Additionally, when she first moved to Sea Cliff, she volunteered to compile the Calendar section of the Sea Cliff Village Bulletin, and in collaboration with a retired teacher and fellow mother to young children, she started a Family Mindfulness Group at St. Luke’s Church.
Graduating with honors with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Wellesley College where she was an editor of the school paper and captain of the Swimming and Diving Team, Ms. McDermott earned NCAA All-American and Academic All-American recognition, and in 2014 was inducted into Wellesley’s inaugural class of the Athletics Hall of Fame.
“Sea Cliff stands out as a special place where real community thrives - we walk our kids to school, we gather with friends and neighbors on our sports fields, in our parks and in our homes,” says Ms. McDermott, “Families remain here for generations, passing down their love of our precious village. It is because of my love of this community and my heartfelt desire to contribute to the good of the Village, that I am offering my skills, experience, insight and perspective, as a candidate for Sea Cliff Village Trustee.”
Deb and her husband Dan have two children - Aquinnah, who is 9 and a fourth grader, and Cooper who is seven and a second grader - both at Sea Cliff School.
In addition to Ms. Dermott, incumbent trustees Dina Epstein, who was first elected in 2015, and Jeffrey Vitale who was appointed to the Board by Mayor Ed Lieberman this past December, are along with Mr. Lieberman running together as a slate on the Sea Cliff Civic Progress Party line. Resident Joe Krupinsky, who announced his candidacy for Village trustee in a press release in late December, has stated that he will be running as a “write-in” candidate.
Voting will take place at the Sea Cliff Children’s Library on Tuesday March 21 from noon until 9 pm.