Legislator Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick) represents Nassau County Legislative District 19, which includes Bellmore, North Bellmore, Merrick and parts of Freeport, North Merrick and Wantagh. He is serving his fifth term. 

Legislator Denenberg is the chairperson of the Planning, Development and the Environment and Public Works Committees and vice chairperson of the Government Services and Operations and Labor Committees. He also serves on the Health and Social Services, Judiciary, Economic and Community Development and Rules Committees.

Denenberg is the environmental leader in the legislature.  He has been instrumental in Nassau’s open space protection and open space funding, creation of the Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee (OSPAC), emission controls on power plants, engine idling, low sulfur diesel requirements, encroachment, solar panel tax credits, park and preserve protection and guidelines, green building purchasing requirements, stricter environmental standards for underground fuel storage tanks, and four-year capital plan requirements.

Denenberg authored the voter referendum which secured a $50 million environmental bond approved by voters in 2004, and a $100 million environmental bond program approved by voters in 2006. The $50 and $100 million bond programs are saving Nassau’s open spaces, protecting and preserving Nassau’s water resources and improving Nassau’s parks and preserves. In short, the bonds protect precious resources for future generations.

Denenberg also sponsored laws promoting good sportsmanship on county fields and facilities, banning the sale of BB guns and other weapons to minors and an apprenticeship program for contractors bidding on county contracts. 

Denenberg sponsored a law prohibiting the sale of many invasive, non-native aquatic plant species. This law protects Nassau's ponds and preserves from invasion and destruction by non-indigenous species that could literally suffocate indigenous plants and wildlife in the ponds and preserves and which could only be removed by costly and time consuming projects. 

Denenberg is protecting our children from sex offenders. He sponsored legislation establishing residency restrictions prohibiting all registered sex offenders from residing within 1,000 feet from the entrances of a school, or 500 feet from the perimeter of a county, town, village or city-run public park which contains a playground. Denenberg secured funding for Parents for Megan’s Law to establish a helpline to provide citizens with sex offender information, as well as recent legislation allowing law enforcement officials to track the computer activity of registered sex offenders. 

Denenberg also recently sponsored legislation prohibiting the sale of products containing the often abused cough suppressant chemical DXM, and was instrumental in the passage of what is called a social host law, which makes adult party hosts and/or homeowners criminally responsible for underage guests found to be drinking alcohol in the home.

For the fifth straight year, the legislature approved a “no tax increase” budget for Nassau County taxpayers and added belt-tightening measures for county departments while funding programs that benefit the county’s neediest residents.

The legislator also sponsored a “living wage” law that increased wages for workers contracted by the county to $9.50 in 2007.  Increases will follow in 2008 to $10.50 an hour and rise up to $12.50 an hour in 2010.  Supporters of the law included many labor groups representing home health care workers and the Long Island Progressive Coalition.

The legislator was a sponsor of a bill providing a partial tax exemption for qualified first-time home buyers in Nassau County.  The bill provides an exemption for first-time home buyers for the first five years of home ownership.

Legislator Denenberg is the only legislator to maintain a district office, doing so at his own expense. He also hosts bimonthly public meetings (more 250 to date) on any and all issues of interest.  Legislator Denenberg goes to each railroad station in his district at least once a month to promote his meetings and visits each home in his district at least once each term.

Legislator Denenberg is actively involved in many community organizations.  He is on the boards of the Bellmore-Merrick and Seaford/Wantagh Wellness Councils, SPLASH (Stop Polluting and Littering and Save Our Harbors) the Merrick Kiwanis Club.  He is a member of the Bellmore Kiwanis Club and Lion’s Club, the Freeport Rotary Club and Tuna Club and the Sons of Italy. He belongs to the Freeport and Seaford Historical Societies and the Wantagh Preservation Society.  He is a member of the Central Merrick, Central Bellmore, Great Living on the Water, Merrick Park, Merrick Gables, Merrick Estates, North Merrick, North Bellmore, Old Lindenmere, Seaford, Smith Pond, and Wantagh Seaford Homeowner’s and/or Civic Associations.  A past president of Congregation Ohav Sholom in Merrick, Denenberg is a trustee of the Conference of Jewish Organizations of Nassau County.  He is a PAL travel soccer coach, and is actively involved in the PAL and various little leagues.

Legislator Denenberg has a degree in chemical engineering from Cooper Union, a law degree from Brooklyn Law School, and is a partner in the New York law firm Davidoff, Malito and Hutcher. He specializes in intellectual property and environmental law.  He and his wife, Cara, have three children: Amanda, 18, who is a freshman at SUNY Binghamton, and Danielle, 15, and Aron, 14, both of whom attend the Bellmore-Merrick schools.