Supervisor Spotlight – Clarkstown’s George Hoehmann

It may surprise Clarkstown residents to learn of the variety of roles that their Town Supervisor held before entering politics. As the former Executive Director at Rockland Independent Living (now known as BRIDGES), the former director of Services at Abbott House (a not for profit focused on providing foster care), and a previous member of the Priesthood, Hoehmann has much experience to draw on when governing Clarkstown  “I learned more about politics in the priesthood and seminary than in politics itself”, joked Hoehmann. Though his titles and responsibilities have changed over the years, the Supervisor believes that his tenure in office is “just another way of service”. 

Service has been the common denominator of Hoehmann’s career and his experience helping his community has been beneficial to his work as Town Supervisor. He is able to utilize skills from every previous job, notably in money management and communication. “On the not-for-profit side… you have to really squeeze every dollar… You have to prioritize and say ‘What’s going to work?’. Then, not just what’s going to work but how do we make it better?” stated Hoehmann. Colin Schmitt, Clarkstown’s Finance Director, shared that Hoehmann has maintained a historic high bond rating for Clarkstown and passed minimal tax increases during his time in office. “In ten years, we’ll have had a total tax increase, on the town level, of just 10%:, and we’ve invested close to $80 million in infrastructure “ stated Hoehmann. 

When Hoehmann began his first term in office,he oversaw an almost total overhaul of the existing system from the prior Supervisor. Although at the time it was controversial, Hoehmann mentioned that during this overhaul he brought in an outside entity to review the police department and restructured Clarkstown’s approach to funding law enforcement. The Supervisor’s team works consistently to prioritize economic development and also managed to establish an Economic Development team. This team has been able to attract new business to the area – including the highly requested Chick-fil-A.

A particular point of pride for Hoehmann is his work to increase his accessibility to his constituents. Nine times a year on Mondays at 6:00 p.m., the Supervisor sits down and does a live Tele-Town Hall meeting with any residents who want to join. Residents can join through their phone or by watching Facebook live, and after a fifteen minute update focused on the town, can field questions directly to the Supervisor. Hoehmann also runs an interview program, and according to his Communications Director Erika Moschetti he is now up to 86 interviews with veterans, town officials, government officials, and not-for-profits. 

As the Supervisor of Clarkstown, Hoehmann has the unique responsibility of guiding Rockland’s economic engine.  Hoehmann states that “…the blessing and the curse of Clarkstown is that we have 60% of the commercial ratables of those of Rockland County”. With a rapidly changing commercial landscape and an increase in people working from home, it can be difficult to keep up with expensive infrastructure changes. This leads to a necessity for creativity with these challenges, as well as working with outside developers to create a plan for what to do with these unused spaces. Hoehmann has made parks a focus of his tenure, whether that is updating parks or instituting new ones. He has also taken steps to secure federal funding to upgrade parts of Clarkstown including the downtown area around Nanuet Train Station. Hoehmann is confident that road, sidewalk, and pedestrian safety and streetscape enhancements to the area funded by federal money can encourage economic development and inject new cash and interest into local business. 

For the future of Clarkstown, Hoehmann wants to invest more into green projects and renewables. So far, they have placed solar panels on the town hall’s roof and installed EV chargers at the town hall and at parks. Hoehmann noted how the town “had the first and largest solar field on a municipally owned landfill in all of New York State”, and that they hope to expand it in the future.