New Hyde Park’s clerk brings an extensive resume of government work to the role. She’s committed to using it to get work done on the local level.
“I’ve never wanted to be elected,” said Village Clerk Rebecca Sheehan. “I’ve always enjoyed being on the side of the government functioning, of actually getting things done for residents in the communities that the offices I serve are in.”
Sheehan has worked across the state’s government for over 20 years.
Prior to stepping into her role as New Hyde Park’s clerk about a year ago, Sheehan worked as a legislative council in the New York City Council and state Senate for Tony Avella, then for former state Sen. Anna Kaplan and, briefly, as chief of staff for former Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone.
“That experience helps me tremendously,” Sheehan said. “All those levels of government inform every decision that I make here at the local level. It’s nice for me to have a very broad perspective.”
“I can get quick answers and think on my feet,” Sheehan said. “One thing about these jobs in government, whether it be at the state level or here at the very local level, you have to be able to pivot, because there’s always going to be an urgent situation that you weren’t expecting. You really have to be flexible, and you have to be able to prioritize.”
She added that transitioning into the clerk role has been an “eye-opening experience,” allowing her to more deeply understand the local level she previously worked tangentially at, which she’s enjoyed.
“Clerk-treasurer is a different term for me, having been on the legislative side and political side of the government equation for many, many years,” Sheehan said. “It appealed to my sense of administrative work.”
She said that taking a more local job hasn’t meant taking a calmer one, something her adult children have teased her about.
“They say to me, mom, you’re 63 you need to, like, slow down,” she said, laughing.
But, though she’s a beach-lover at heart (she recently moved from Glen Cove to Long Beach so she could watch the sun set against the waves), she doesn’t mind the work at all.
“We like to get things done,” Sheehan said of government employees like herself. “We are chaos jockeys. That makes us good at our jobs.”
That dedication to getting things done has helped her support the village through its three ongoing construction projects (a new community center, park and renovated public works building), something she said she considers a significant accomplishment.
She’s spent dozens upon dozens of hours diligently filing out the necessary paperwork to receive grant funds and coordinate construction scheduling.
“There’s a lot of moving parts, it’s very exciting,” Sheehan said. “I feel really honored to be able to be part of that…The current administration has been working on this before I got here. I’m just trying to bring it all home.”
However, she said she’s most proud about being able to help people in their everyday lives.
“What’s most important to me is being able to help people,” Sheehan said. “I probably could have made a lot more money out of a legal career. I didn’t choose that, because what was most important to me was to feel good about what I was doing every day.”
“I wanted to really be able to have an impact on somebody’s life in a very direct way, whether that be something as simple as helping them resolve a tree that’s hanging over their driveway, to tax issues, to making sure somebody’s getting the services they need, to trying to get funding to help them build a handicap ramp to their house,” she continued. “Those are very direct impacts that you can have on somebody’s life on a daily basis. That is addicting when you are able to actually be helpful in that way.”
While none of Sheehan’s days look exactly the same – her responsibilities run the gamut from ensuring taxes are paid to running village elections to managing a plethora of paperwork – it’s responding to residents that she knows she’ll be trying to make her top priority each day she walks into village hall.
“It’s frustrating when you can’t help, but it’s the hook that gets you, because when you can, it’s a wonderful feeling,” Sheehan said. “You think, okay, today was a good day, because I helped somebody.”
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