Siela Bynoe to become first Black state senator to represent Long Island in 247-year history

Siela Bynoe grew up riding her bike on Post Avenue in Westbury to Frank’s Pizza and Tear and Gershon’s five-and-dime shop, never thinking that representing the neighborhood would be in her future.

The longtime Nassau County legislator sat in Nana’s Ice Cream and Coffee House on a cold afternoon in early December recalling her days running down the block in her neighborhood to buy candy after school. She rattled off her favorite Caribbean-themed spots on the Island: Jamaican Flavors in North Baldwin, the Blue Mermaid in Uniondale.

Bynoe, 57, has parlayed that lived experience by representing those neighborhoods, including Westbury, for 10 years as a Nassau County legislator. Next month, she enters a new chapter in her political career, representing the neighborhoods in Albany where she'll be sworn in as a state senator for the 6th District. The district mostly overlaps with her old job, with both covering Hempstead, Uniondale, and New Cassel. Bynoe succeeds Kevin Thomas, who declined to run for another term. 

"I've poured my whole life into public service ... This is the work that I love to do and I do it from the heart," Bynoe told Newsday. "I live every day intentionally to try and make somebody else's burden that much lighter."

Bynoe's rise to Albany also makes history: she will be the first Black New York state senator to represent Long Island since the chamber's founding in 1777. The distinction is notable for a district where nearly 60% of residents are Black or Hispanic. 

During her first few months in office, Bynoe, a Democrat, plans to help first-time home buyers purchase property on Long Island as her family once did, develop affordable housing and help secure access to healthcare, she said.

That begins by stabilizing the long-beleaguered Nassau University Medical Center and pushing it to comply with state demands, she said. NUMC should consolidate its campuses and convert its vacant lots into assisted living sites, rehabilitation centers and veteran and behavioral health institutions, Bynoe said.

Bynoe had no plans to enter public life. As a young girl with dreams of becoming a banker, one of Bynoe’s favorite activities was lending Monopoly money to her siblings. The experience came in handy after she graduated from Westbury High School and fulfilled that dream at the European American Bank in Uniondale.

She earned an associate degree from Nassau Community College, later working to pay her way through Hofstra University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at 35. Bynoe also has a master’s degree in public administration from Long Island University.

As a credit officer, Bynoe reviewed people’s applications for home advantage loans, student loans, car loans and credit cards through the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires lenders to meet the credit needs of low-income customers.

“I was meeting families who were trying to get a portion of the American dream,” she said.

The experience was reminiscent of her own family’s experience working to secure a comfortable life. Her father emigrated from Suriname, the smallest country in South America, and mother from Saint Kitts and Nevis and Anguilla in the Caribbean. As her parents each worked two jobs to support three children, they moved from Crown Heights to Queens Village, and eventually to Long Island when Bynoe was 5.

After getting laid off from the bank, Bynoe joined a nonprofit to help first-time homebuyers get down payment assistance grants. She became assistant director of the North Hempstead Housing Authority, where she was appointed commissioner by the town council several years later.

But shortly after she joined the Housing Authority in 2003, Bynoe was diagnosed with breast cancer — an experience she says has shaped her approach to public service. After learning she did not have a genetic pre-disposition to cancer, Bynoe was moved to tackle local water contamination concerns linked to such diseases.

In 2010, Bynoe was elected to the Westbury school district's board of education and finally the Nassau County Legislature, where she has served since 2014.

With county legislators allowed to work outside government while serving in public office, Bynoe worked as the executive director for Huntington Housing Authority during her first seven years in the chamber.

“Sleep is overrated,” she told Newsday. 

Bynoe's relentless nature was raised in several interviews about her. Jay Jacobs, the Democratic Party chair for the state and Nassau County, described Bynoe as someone who fights hard for the needs of her community.

“I am confident that she will bring a voice of moderation to the State Senate along with a laser focus on improving the lives of the people in her district and the entire state,” he wrote in a statement. “The Nassau Legislature’s loss is the State Senate’s gain.”

Colleagues say Bynoe has a unique ability to build relationships across the aisle. She describes this as “pulling out politics from good governance.”

“When she’s considering an issue or a policy, she doesn’t do that on a partisan basis. She’s doing it from every perspective that she can think of,” said North Hempstead Councilman Robert Troiano, who preceded Bynoe as the District 2 legislator. “She’s looking at the rock from the top, from the sides, and then she’ll lift the rock up to look underneath and see what’s there.”

“It’s hard to argue with what she presents,” Troiano said.

State Senator Jack Martins (R-Mineola), who has worked with Bynoe for about 15 years, said as a legislator she "didn't get caught up in the partisan noise."

"We may not necessarily see the world the same way ... but there's respect mutually. That's a great starting point," Martins said.

On Bynoe's last meeting inside the legislative chambers on Dec. 16, Nassau County Republican-majority legislature Presiding Officer Howard Kopel (R-Lawrence) acknowledged Bynoe's decade of service to Nassau residents.

“She’s going to do as ferocious and fine a job fighting for her constituents [in Albany] as she’s done here,” he said.

“I’m at a loss for words,” Bynoe said.

“That never happens!” Kopel laughed.