VILLAGE OF HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.—When Wayne J. Hall Sr. became mayor in 2005, the village of Hempstead, situated in the town of Hempstead on Long Island, had a $6.5 million deficit, village bonds rated barely above “junk” status, and a 12-year rise in violent crime.
In an unusual move, he did not attack his four-term predecessor, James Garner (1989–2005). Instead, he took what some locals welcomed as a “buck stops here” philosophy of leadership.
“Not attacking my predecessor left both some Republicans and Democrats scratching their heads,” Hall said. “But I fully understood that the people of Hempstead did not elect me to blame the problems we faced on someone else, but rather to develop policies to solve them.”
Hall, 69, a Democrat and the son of Jamaican immigrants, said he maintained respect for Garner, a Republican, and the fact Garner was the first African American to serve as mayor in any municipality in Long Island.
“His election in 1989 served as an important milestone for the entire black community,” Hall said.
Hall faced off against Garner in 2009 and 2013 mayoral elections, and Hall won both times.
“The campaign for both of us was based solely on the issues and was never reduced to personal attacks. Which is why we were able later to become friends.”
Hall has presided over a steady drop in crime and turned the deficit into an over $9 million surplus.
To fight crime, Hall had police expand community policing and upgrade data systems to help them focus on high-crime areas. He cracked down on restaurants and liquor stores selling booze past the regulated 4 a.m. closing time, a move that was considered controversial at the time.
“While most followed the regulations regarding 4 a.m. closing times, some did not.
“So,” Hall continued, “we enforced the regulations and shut those establishments down.”
Hall took heat from some for shutting down tax-paying businesses where visitors came to spend money.
“To me, it was a matter of common sense,” Hall said. “The bars, by not adhering to state and village regulations, were inviting trouble, resulting in street fights, public urination, loud noise past the early morning, and causing damage to both public and private property, so I used the legal system to, so to say, invite them to leave the village.”
He also took a common sense approach to solving the debt crisis.
“You cannot spend money you do not have,” he said. “So we initiated a stringent streamlining process by which discretionary spending was cut wherever possible.”
The village also got deficit-spending legislation that gave it borrowing power to pay off much of the debt.
Those common sense approaches have translated into a 14 percent drop in violent crime in 2015 and the $9 million budget surplus. The village’s bonds recently gained an AA-rating from credit evaluating agency Standard and Poor’s.
