Village elections bring some changes

The village boards in Southampton, Westhampton and Sagaponack will each have newcomers after Friday's elections.

In Southampton, real estate broker Nancy McGann, who was first elected in 2005, was re-elected with 445 votes. William Hattrick, a stockbroker who served as mayor from 1985 to 1989, joins McGann on the board. He received 545 votes. Incumbent Paul Robinson, a retired county employee who rents homes in the village, was not re-elected after receiving only 376 votes.

Hattrick said one of the reasons he ran was to to break up "one-party rule."

In the village, candidates do not run under traditional party banners, such as Democratic or Republican. McGann was on the Citizens With Integrity Party, while Hattrick ran on the newly formed Patriot Party.

In Westhampton Beach, an incumbent and a newcomer won seats.

The incumbent, Hank Tucker got 242 votes and the newcomer, Patricia DiBenedetto, 257 votes.

Dean Speir, with 204 votes, lost his second chance to get onto the Westhampton Beach village board. He'd lost a close race for the post four years ago, coming up just six votes short.

DiBenedetto was a member of the village planning board for five years who was making her first run for elected office. Both of them ran on the same party line, while Speir -- the only candidate endorsed by Mayor Conrad Teller -- ran alone.

Tucker had opposed Teller over the question of how to discipline two village police officers. The pair were accused of lying to a Suffolk County Police internal affairs investigator looking into how a gun was removed from a village police officer's locker at the police station and was later found in the officer's car.

In Sagaponack, incumbent Joy Sieger won with 76 votes and write-in challenger William Barbour won with 68 votes. Incumbent Patrick J. Guarino lost with 27 votes.

With Matthew Chayes