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OSSINING, N.Y. Stephen Dewey is a collections lawyer and he feels he can apply his experience in being a zealous advocate for clients to representing the people of Ossining as a town councilman in the upcoming November election.
"I practice every day being an advocate for my clients and that makes me well suited for town councilman," Dewey said.
Dewey also has nine years of experience working as a driver and manager for UPS, and he feels he can apply his experience in an efficiency environment to town government.
"I just see a lot of wasteful spending and a lot of decisions made without people's input," Dewey said.
Dewey is running for town council on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines along with running mate Kim Izzarelli. His opponents running on the Democratic and Working Family lines are Geoffrey Harter, a current town councilman, and Eric Blaha.
In 2010, Dewey, a village of Ossining resident, ran for village trustee but he and running mate Mike Aurora lost by a margin of almost 2 to 1 to Democrats Janis Castaldi and Marlene Cheatham.
Dewey said if he is elected this time, he would like to "bring back some ethics and fiscal responsibility" to the town board.
Dewey feels that the town's police building is wasting Town of Ossining taxpayers' money because the county police currently occupying the space pay no rent.
"Either sell it, or if the taxpayers are paying for it, use it," Dewey said.
Dewey would also like to see more town jobs given to people from Ossining, and he questioned why two town clerks were recently hired from outside of the town.
"Why didn't we hire someone from Ossining?" he said. "A lot of bids always go to people from outside the area. We've got garden people, construction workers here."
Aside from running his own law practice, Dewey is also a licensed pilot. He flew and worked as a flight engineer for the New York Air National Guard, and took advantage of a GI Bill to help him pay tuition for Pace University's law school.
"Becoming a lawyer was an opportunity to have my own business," Dewey said. "I figured if I'm going to work that hard, it might as well be for me."
Dewey has a 26-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son who went to schools in Pound Ridge, where Dewey used to live.
In Ossining, Dewey is the chair of the local Republican committee.
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