Patch Candidate Profile: Knapp Seeks Orangetown Council Seat

ORANGETOWN, NY — Election season 2023 election is here and there are plenty of races with candidates eager to serve in elected office.

Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as Election Day draws near.

Chrissy Knapp is one of four people vying for two seats on the Orangetown Town Council. The others are Jerry Bottari, Brian Burns and Paul W. Valentine. Knapp, 43, has a background in finance and works now as a program manager on regulation of tax operations and technology. She graduated from the University of Connecticut. She and her family live in Nyack.

Campaign website:votechrissy.com

Patch: Why are you seeking this office?

Knapp: I have deep ties across Orangetown. My parents are from Pearl River and I have lived my entire adult life in Nyack where I have spent years volunteering for nonprofit organizations and the Village of Nyack to improve our community. Since graduating from Leadership Rockland in 2017, I have had a strong desire to use my energy and passion to serve all of Orangetown. I believe my experience as a community leader, along with my finance and program management background, make me an excellent Town Board candidate.

Patch: What are the major differences between you and the other candidate(s) seeking this post?

Knapp: What sets me apart from the other candidates is the breadth of my professional experience in finance, nonprofits and as a volunteer providing educational horticulture programs to the public. My experience ranges from managing multimillion dollar budgets, delivering large-scale regulatory programs on-time and under budget, to managing nonprofit operations. My involvement in planning and as an advisor on a number of municipal and community based projects is also valuable.

What further sets me apart from the incumbents and other sitting Town Board members is that I would be the only woman and the only member living on the eastern side of Orangetown. It is essential for all governing bodies to reflect the electorate they represent, and that includes the Orangetown Town Board. Leadership is diversity, and diversity is leadership. Having a Town Board composed of individuals from different backgrounds, perspectives and experience will help ensure that a diversity of viewpoints are factored into decision making, not simply the priorities and concerns of a few special interests. Every member of the Orangetown Town Board is a Republican. I think that’s a real weakness that voters can address when they go out and vote for me. Single party rule means there is no oversight or often even any debate on important budget and land-use decisions.

That will change when I’m elected on November 7.

Patch: What is the single most pressing issue facing your constituents and what do you intend to do about it?

Knapp: As I have knocked on doors and met with constituents in every village and hamlet across Orangetown, I keep hearing two consistent concerns. First, is a need for stronger regulation of development and stronger zoning enforcement. Development of high density housing and rapid warehouse and industrial expansion along the 303 corridor must be met with equivalent infrastructure upgrades to support it. We cannot simply add more high density housing and warehouses without well-thought-out planning and coordination with neighboring towns, the county and the state. If we build it, it has to be supported and sustainable.

Second, is the environmental impact of over-development. My opponents consistently talk about protecting and preserving Orangetown, but then they went ahead and passed a Comprehensive Master Plan in which they struck out key provisions for environmental safeguards and sustainability to guide future development.

Patch: How would you address the affordable housing issue in the community?

Knapp: Affordable housing is one of the top issues that Orangetown and Rockland County are facing. Due to the surge of people relocating to the suburbs there is a limited inventory of affordable homes and rentals. This is not a single threaded issue nor one that can be solved with a silver bullet. We need a coordinated effort at the county and town levels to identify opportunities to bring a variety of housing options and incentives to accommodate young adults, families and seniors.

Patch: How would you protect the drinking water in the community?

Knapp: In addition to paying some of the highest rates for water in NYS, we also face an environmental crisis due to dangerous contaminants in the Rockland County water supply. We need stricter municipal laws and community education to limit the use of fertilizers and pesticides by homeowners and businesses as these are key contributors to dangerous PFAS in our water supply. We need to urgently adopt policy rooted in scientific data to make sure that zoning and land use are better managed to mitigate further contamination.

Patch: What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

Knapp: Ensuring that all hamlets and villages are represented in Town Board decisions, especially when it comes to allocation of funding and delivering services. We need to revisit TOD discussions and partner with the MTA and the county to increase the commutability and transit options serving our residents. Orangetown is home to world class athletic programs, NYS champion athletes within our high schools and private club programs.

We should explore opportunities to expand our facilities to include an aquatic facility to serve our athletes, close the long-standing gap in pool facilities in the county, provide additional recreation opportunities for residents and become a potential revenue source from permitting fees and as a driver of tourism.

If we want to protect and preserve Orangetown’s future for generations to come, we must participate in top-notch strategic planning and find new opportunities to manage growth and bring in revenue to the town.

Patch: What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Knapp: As a financial services professional I have extensive experience managing budgets and performing financial analysis. As a fiscal conservative, I will use that same analytical thinking and understanding of large budget appropriations to identify opportunities to reduce discretionary spending while preserving critical services, and maintaining a tax cap.

As the immediate past president of the Nyack Park Conservancy, I have successfully raised private funds and grants to improve Nyack's parks and public spaces, I will continue to bring that same level of tenacity to identify opportunities to expand recreation, tourism and commerce. I have served on numerous committees dedicated to environmental preservation and stewardship and would advocate strongly for mitigation of existing environmental threats.

As a certified Master Gardener with Cornell Cooperative Extension, I have performed hundreds of community service hours as a volunteer working at farmers markets and camps teaching compost education, and in Rockland schools teaching and developing programs to foster agricultural literacy among students grades K-5.

Patch: What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

Knapp: "You can have it done right, or you can have it done right now, but it might not be both, choose wisely." As a program manager I often have the difficult task of evaluating deliverables and deciding on the priority based on criticality, benefit, time and, of course, money. When making an important decision I always think about this advice and contemplate whether the overall benefit is to take action and make a command decision or take the time to deliberate, evaluate and plan out the solution!

Patch: Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

Knapp: Most of the issues that a Town Board faces are nonpartisan. We all need to work together with dignity and mutual respect to effectively serve the needs and aspirations of Orangetown residents, no matter what side of the aisle we sit on.

I have long believed that public service is the backbone of a functioning society, and will bring the same level of energy, work ethic and conviction in serving the people of Orangetown that I have demonstrated over the many years that I have.