Floral Park’s village clerk has deep hometown roots. That’s what makes him love the job.
“This gives me an opportunity to give back to my neighbors,” said Village Clerk Joseph O’Grady. “It’s rewarding to see how much is involved in continuing to keep Floral Park the community that we’ve all known to grow and love.”
When asked about his background for the job, O’Grady said that he’s lived in the village his whole life. It’s where he grew up attending Chaminade High School, met his wife, bought his home and watched his children grow up and have children of their own.
He believes working in village government is a way to help keep Floral Park the beautiful, homey place full of community spirit he’s always known it to be.
“I thought I could bring my skills to the village and add to the quality of life in Floral Park,” O’Grady said. “It’s an opportunity to hopefully make things better in the village.”
A four-decade veteran and former chief of the Floral Park Fire Department, O’Grady is no stranger to doing everything he can to support the village, including running into burning buildings.
“It’s a great opportunity to serve your neighbor,” O’Grady said, adding that he has helped the department open a Floral Park chapter of the Nassau County Firefighters Operation Wounded Warrior organization.
The group, which he chaired for roughly 20 years, supports wounded veterans by providing them with medical supplies and other necessities for their recovery.
“We collect gifts for our wounded veterans and we hand deliver these to the various military bases at Christmastime,” he said. “We talk with the physical therapists of different soldiers to see what they recommend, so that we just don’t buy meaningless gifts. We bring them something that their doctors want them to have that will help with their therapy.”
Prior to working as village clerk, he was a senior manager for FedEx for 34 years. He started work at 3:20 a.m. to manage morning aircraft deliveries, then moved to handling trucking operations and paperwork.
“It was hectic. It was fast-paced. It was very demanding,” O’Grady said. “I enjoyed the work and serving our clients.”
When considering retiring from FedEx a few years back, he saw an opening in the Floral Park Public Works Department for a deputy superintendent in 2020 and jumped on it.
“It was an opportunity that presented itself to me at a point in my life where I could retire from FedEx and begin a second career,” O’Grady said of the public works job. “I was able to work on code enforcement and quality-of-life issues out in the field.”
He said one of his most significant accomplishments in that role was a road reconstruction of Floral Boulevard and Hindsdale Avenue.
When the clerk position opened up in 2024, O’Grady saw it as a natural next step. He has found a very different, but equally rewarding, job.
“I saw it as an opportunity for advancement,” O’Grady said. “It’s a different side of the spectrum. I’m not out in the street watching a project or reviewing how they’re trimming the trees. I’m behind a desk, filling out benefits paperwork and human resources paperwork, talking with our insurance brokers about the different policies we have, making sure they’re renewed on time, and they cover all of the items of the village that need to be properly insured.”
As clerk, he’s streamlined a number of village processes and helped the village obtain multiple grants, including one for a new fire truck and another for firefighting equipment. He also supports the board in meeting preparation and assists residents with any issues that may come up.
“Pretty much daily we service the residents at the front counter of village hall,” O’Grady said. “They come in, they ask questions. Some people come in with complaints. Some people come in because they need to renew a dog license or get a parking permit.”
No matter what it is, O’Grady said he’s always committed to helping to the best of his ability. He said that’s his goal for anything that comes across his desk
“I hope to complete any projects that I’m assigned,” O’Grady said when asked what he plans to do with his remaining years in village government. “I wish to develop an effective and efficient staff that will serve our residents to the best of their ability.”
To reach O’Grady, residents can call the village hall at 516-326-6300.
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