Here are the candidates for the 16th district of the Suffolk County Legislature:
WILLIAM M. GROH, REPUBLICAN
BACKGROUND: Groh, 41, of North Babylon also is running on the Conservative Party line. A lawyer who specializes in labor and employment law, Groh is making his first run for elected office. A community activist, Groh is vice president of the Parkdale Civic Association, which represents 700 homeowners in North Babylon. He is a graduate of St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue and Hofstra Law School.
ISSUES: Groh said he favors a $2 cap on the gasoline tax, a rollback of the sales tax on home energy fuels and wants to extend the sales tax exemption on clothing costing less than $110, to make it year-round. He also said he wants to bar sex offenders from living within a quarter-mile of public libraries, and to block sewer hookups for the truck-train transfer station on the Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center property. He also opposes expansion of Huntington’s ice skating complex in Dix Hills.
STEVE STERN, DEMOCRAT
BACKGROUND: Stern, 38, of Dix Hills is also running on the Independence and Working Families lines. A lawyer who specializes in elder law and estate planning, Stern is running for a second term on the legislature, where he is chairman of the veterans and seniors committee. Stern served on County Executive Steve Levy’s senior citizen advisory committee. He is a graduate Tulane University and Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan.
ISSUES: Stern said he has helped Levy hold the line on property taxes and pushed to protect open space like the 20-acre Emerald Estates in Greenlawn. He said he also backed a measure keep sex offenders away from schools and day care centers and pushed to get legislation to ban vaccines for children and pregnant women that contain mercury, and to require towns to give zoning notices to nearby residents beyond town borders. He said he also pressed to create dog runs at county parks.