Flynn, Sinagra vying for 5-year clerk term BY SETH MANDEL Staff Writer A10-year veteran of the Middlesex County Clerk’s post will be challenged in the Nov. 8 election by a candidate whose past public service includes nine years on his local governing body. Incumbent Democrat Elaine Flynn, seeking a third five-year term, will face Republican Joe Sinagra, a Helmetta resident and former borough councilman. Flynn, a former science and math teacher in Old Bridge, where she has lived since 1964, said she has always enjoyed politics as a hobby, and saw the county clerk position as a way to get more involved. “It was always fun to do, to work for causes, and things like that,” Flynn said. “It always added a little extra to your life.” Flynn is running alongside freeholders David B. Crabiel and Camille Fernicola. The ticket is challenged by Republicans Andrew Tidd and Jay Boxwell Jr. Sinagra, responding to a statement made in the newspaper last week by County Counsel Thomas Kelso, said the Republican slate is not “bogus,” nor is it without public support, as Kelso claimed. Kelso was responding to an ethics complaint filed by the Republicans regarding monetary contributions to the Democrats’ campaign. “By definition, the word ‘bogus’ means fake, deceitful, not genuine, fraudulent or having a misleading appearance,” Sinagra wrote to the Sentinel. “That statement is unfounded and slanderous, and unless he’s running as a candidate, I don’t see why he made that statement.” Sinagra, a facilities manager in Princeton, served as council president in Helmetta for seven of his nine years on that agency. He said the clerk’s office seems to be satisfied with the status quo, and its progress has become relatively stagnant. “I like being involved politically with the public. I’m not happy with the way things have been going, and hopefully I can make a change,” Sinagra said. Flynn said the office has made great technological advancements in her 10 years. When she first became clerk, almost none of the information in the office was computerized. Since then, she said, all mortgages and deeds and other county documents dating back to 1950 have been added to a computer database. She said the county has various “searchers” — people who visit the clerk’s office to track the values of properties in the process of being sold — who can now do most of their work from the comfort of their own homes via the county’s Web site. “The searchers use it to kind of do their preliminary work at home, and then come here and get anything final that they may need,” Flynn said. “But we have so many things on the Web site and online that make it so much easier to search for information on things that have to be stored and ready for the public to see.” Flynn said she would like to continue that progress, as well as run more programs geared toward the county’s senior population. Sinagra said that upon visits to the clerk’s office, he has been asked to identify himself and what he wants, and at freeholders’ meetings has been asked his party affiliation. “It shouldn’t matter,” Sinagra said. “If you walk into that office as a citizen of Middlesex County and ask for something, it doesn’t matter what town you’re from and who you are. If you’re there as a citizen, it shouldn’t matter what party you’re with.” Flynn said that the clerk’s office helps anybody and everybody, regardless of hometown or party affiliation. “One thing I do like about this job is that we do a service in this department,” Flynn said. “We do not make laws, we take the statutes that are constitutional and we abide by them for everybody. Anybody who needs our services gets them.” Flynn said she also enjoys the excitement of the various elections throughout the year, from school board tallies to June primaries and the November elections. “And luckily, I’ve been so active in my own party that I have been a delegate to the national conventions four times already,” she said. Sinagra said that if elected, he would move to eliminate voter fraud, such as cases where residents vote more than once, possibly by requiring residents to have a special voter identification card. The elections are too frequent and too important, he said, to allow fraud to occur. “Maybe the cards could have a magnetic strip on the back to show that a person voted,” Sinagra said. “And once that vote is cast, it doesn’t matter, they can’t go back a second time, or go to another town and vote again.” Sinagra said he would also make himself more available to the public if he is successful in November. He said the office hours are not always convenient for county residents who work all day. He would like to have night hours and possibly weekend hours; the clerk’s office closes at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and 4:15 p.m. the other weekdays. “And I don’t believe that’s enough time for the average person during the week to take care of any business they have to do in the county,” Sinagra said. “So I would either like to extend those hours to 8 p.m., possibly twice a week, or look into opening until maybe 1 p.m. on a Saturday.” Flynn said she loves the job, and hopes she can serve another five years. She said she appreciates the atmosphere of the office, which she described as one of fairness with little animosity. “I don’t think too many people get hurt or upset with the county clerk, because they know we follow rules,” Flynn said. “If we have a question, county counsel gives us the bottom line, what the law says. That’s how I operate. Completely by those books.”