Slip-up over signatures foils Saddle Rock incumbents

Longtime Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy has been reelected several times since his appointment to lead the village in 2011. 

But in January, as Levy collected signatures to run for reelection, he and two other witnesses committed a fatal error that left his slate's petitions vulnerable to a successful challenge. The trio did not sign their names where indicated on six of eight signature pages, despite printing their names on the forms, according to copies of the petitions.

Newsday obtained the signature pages for the five-member Saddle Rock Village Party under the state's Freedom of Information Law. The Nassau County Board of Elections invalidated the entire slate's petition over the signature issue.

Levy did not sign on four of the pages' signature lines. Afshin Tavakoly, a trustee running for reelection, made the same error on another page. Sari Levy, another village resident who collected petitions for the slate, also did not sign, the records show.

In addition to Dan Levy and Tavakoly, the slate included trustees Hal Chadow and Alex Kishinevsky, as well as Village Justice Julia Gavriel. 

The lack of a witness signature disqualifies an "entire page," the board said in a statement. "The witness statement must be completed in full." 

To qualify for the ballot, a candidate must collect signatures from 5% of enrolled voters. This year's threshold was 39. The slate failed to qualify after 60 of 80 signatures were thrown out.

"The statement of witness requires a printed name in the first blank of the text block, and then requires a signature at the bottom of the statement," Kathleen McGrath, a state Board of Elections spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Bracing for new leadership

Levy declined to comment. Sari Levy, who listed the same address as the mayor on the signature page, according to the board, could not be reached for comment. Tavakoly also could not be reached Tuesday. On Friday, Tavakoly told Newsday that he thinks the required paperwork "has to get more sophisticated" and contain clearer instructions.

"To me, it was a little bit confusing," he said. "The problem was that we didn't see [that] the line is there."

Gavriel and Kishinevsky printed and signed their names on the other two pages. Neither responded to a request for comment on Tuesday. 

Barring a successful write-in effort, village hall is likely to be virtually transformed in the coming weeks. 

Robert Kraus, a village trustee for the past 18 months, is running against Kambiz Akhavan for the open mayor's seat.

Kraus, running on the Together for a Better Saddle Rock line, is aligned with Martine Alter and Vivian Kollenscher, who are running for trustee on the Concerned Residents of Saddle Rock line, and Sigalit Sanilevich, who is running for trustee unopposed on The Tree Keeper line.

Akhavan, and trustee candidates Joshua Rabanipour and Kousha Askari, are running on the Friendly Neighbors Party line.

'Bad on its face'

Levy has said it was his choice not to run for reelection.

"As we approached this election cycle, it became clear to me that my candidacy risked becoming a distraction from the broader priorities and future of the Village," Levy wrote in a letter to village residents. 

John Ciampoli, a Mineola-based attorney specializing in election law, was involved in a high-profile village election case last year in Centre Island. Ciampoli represented Andrew Woodstock, whose petition was denied. A Nassau judge denied his challenge, arguing it was filed too late.

If the witness statement is not signed, the petition is "bad on its face," said Ciampoli, a former Nassau County attorney under Republican County Executive Ed Mangano.

Attorney Gary Donoyan represents Kraus, Kollenscher, Sanilevich, Alter, and Alter's husband, David, who objected to the petitions. Donoyan said in an interview that "citizens ought to have assurance that [petitions] have been witnessed properly."

"The law provides no opportunity to correct this sort of error," Donoyan said. 

Newsday's Joseph Ostapiuk contributed to this story.

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.