Voters in villages around Long Island go to the polls June 19 to pick mayors and trustees. Thirteen villages have contested races.

News

Voters in villages around Long Island go to the polls Tuesday to pick mayors and trustees. Thirteen village have contested races.
In Muttontown, two candidates are running to replace the current mayor, who is not seeking re-election, and seven people are seeking the three open trustee seats. The challengers say the current board has an “adversarial” relationship with residents, but the incumbents cite their experience and keeping tax increases to a minimum.
Bellport’s three candidates running for two seats on the village board have cited financial responsibility and community improvements as the top issues in their campaigns.
Two Hewlett Harbor trustees are seeking to defend their two-year seats against one challenger in the village’s first contested race in more than a decade.
Three candidates are seeking two trustee seats in the East Hampton Village election. The candidates have identified improving infrastructure, revitalizing the commercial district, historic renovations and water quality as top issues for the four-year terms.
In Great Neck, two incumbents and one challenger are running for two at-large trustee seats with transparency and downtown revitalization highlighted as key issues.
The Quogue election pits two incumbent board of trustees members against a challenger for two open seats. 
The race for two village board of trustees seats in Huntington Bay offers a pair of incumbents who tout their records on taxes against a challenger calling for fresh perspective on local issues.
Three candidates are running for two Atlantic Beach trustee seats, saying speeding, infrastructure and the environment are community concerns.
Port Jefferson’s financial future has become a main issue shaping that election with two incumbents and a political newcomer running for two trustee seats. 
Poquott Mayor Dee Parrish faces an election challenge from Trustee John Richardson, who says he has been unfairly targeted for code violations because he has criticized Parrish. They are among six candidates seeking three seats on the village board in the June 19 election, including two open trustee seats.
Candidates in contested mayoral and trustee races in Lawrence say they are concerned about potential development at a decommissioned sewage plant in the village and the neighboring Woodmere golf club. 
Two sitting trustees — Deputy Mayor Joe Russo III and Robert De Natale — are facing off in Bayville to succeed Mayor Paul Rupp, who is stepping down after one term.
A Brightwaters village trustee is challenging the incumbent mayor in that village’s election.
To read about each of the contested races, go to newsday.com/villageelections.

Long Island

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LI village voters to choose new mayors, trustees Tuesday

Village voters to go to polls for mayors, trustees

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Three candidates are running for two Atlantic Beach trustee seats for the June 19 election in which candidates say speeding, infrastructure and the environment are community concerns.
Incumbents Edward A. Sullivan, 52, and Linda L. Baessler, 67, are running on the Atlantic Beach Integrity party line and challenger Kevin Kelley, 69, is running on the Protect AB party line. The top two vote-getters are elected to two-year unpaid seats. The election is on June 19.
Sullivan, who has also served as deputy mayor for the past six years, was appointed to his trustee seat in 2008. He has lived in the village since 1995 and is currently vice president of computer technology at Goldman Sachs. He was on the village zoning board for about five years.
He said he wants to continue the current administration’s work on road repairs, beach replenishment and community engagement and events, as well as keep taxes low.
“We want to continue to improve the infrastructure of the village with more road and drainage projects,” he said.
Baessler was appointed to her trustee seat in 2009. She has lived in Atlantic Beach since 1975 and is a retired Island Park physical education and health teacher.
She also said she hopes to further address speeding drivers on Park Street. She also wants to continue improving the village’s roads and add more community events for residents after good feedback on programs such as the fall festival and beach cleanup. 
“We’ve gotten a lot of positives from village residents that we’re doing this kind of stuff so the community can get together,” she said.
Kelley came to Atlantic Beach in the summers as an adolescent and moved there full time more than three years ago. He is a journalist who writes about the United Nations, U.S. State Department and U.S. foreign policy for the Nation Media Group in Kenya.
He said he has quality of life and environmental concerns about the village and wants the board to adopt a fee for plastic bags to decrease plastics pollution in the ocean. He said he also wants to increase transparency, encourage more resident participation in municipal government and add more sidewalks along Park Street, as well as address speeding on the roadway.
“It’s extremely dangerous,” he said.

Nassau

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 Atlantic Beach trustee candidates focus on roads, environment

Atlantic Beach candidates focus on roads, environment

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While voters decide whether two cycles of seesawing politics in Bayville come to an end when the June 19 election results are tallied, it’s certain that the majority of the village’s board will be newly elected. 
Two sitting trustees — Deputy Mayor Joe Russo III and Robert De Natale — are facing off June 19 to succeed Mayor Paul Rupp, who is stepping down after one term.
The death of trustee Michele Principe in December and trustee Timothy Charon’s decision not to seek reelection mean Bayville’s six-member board of trustees has four open slots and no incumbents running for reelection. 
Opposition to a proposed cross-Sound tunnel is a top issue among the candidates. But the Bayville Revitalization Party with Russo and the Taxpayers Part, which put forward De Natale, are divided over multifamily housing in the village. 
A change to the town code in 2015 allowed ground-floor apartments in commercial buildings, but a year later a state judge overturned it. The village has appealed the ruling.
De Natale, 77, who retired from the jewelry business, has vowed to end the appeal and to repeal the code to preserve Bayville as a single-family-home community. Russo, 57, a retired information technology manager, said allowing a limited number of apartments to fill vacant storefronts won’t change the character of Bayville. 
“Some space that has been vacant on the first floor for a long period of time in some locations could be much better converted to four apartments — a maximum of four apartments within a single structure,” Russo said. “I don’t have an opposition to residential housing even in our business district.
De Natale said zoning changes made under the current administration could lead to the creation of hundreds of new apartments “to an already overburdened and congested village.”
“We strongly oppose any consideration to build a condo, an apartment house, or a seaside inn,” he said.
Russo, who was elected in 2014 when the Bayville Revitalization Party swept the vote, said he wants to continue the financial management practices that led to Moody’s Investors Service upgrading the village credit rating in February to Aa3 from A1.De Natale, who was elected in 2016 when the Taxpayers Party swept into office, said he would like to see a learning center to help students with schoolwork established in the village. 
Running for village trustee on the Taxpayers Party line are: David Wright, 51, an attorney; Valerie Belcher, 59, a special-education teacher; Peter Valsecchi, 55, a machinist; and Patricia Farnell.
The Bayville Revitalization Party candidates for trustee are: Jen Jones, 41, a marketing executive; Al Avazis, 50, who works in financial services; Christopher Pflaumer, 55,; and Erika Bruno.

TOBAYV180615

Bayville election sees 10 candidates for mayor, village trustee

10 candidates running for village mayor, trustee

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Fiscal responsibility and community improvements are the top issues among three candidates running for two seats on the Bellport Village Board in the June 19 election.
Challenger Dan Polner, 54, of Bellport, unsuccessfully ran for a Brookhaven Town Council seat in November and is now seeking a village board seat. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in accounting and systems engineering, and earned a master’s degree in business from the University of Chicago.
Polner works at Stony Brook University as an incubator advocate, helping startup technology companies develop business plans. He has two daughters.
“I’m very focused on financial accountability, keeping taxes from going up, and keeping services from declining,” Polner said. “We are going to come to a point in the very near future where you could price everyone out of enjoying their quality of life.”
Incumbent Steven Mackin, 42, is a 37-year village resident and former captain with the Bellport Fire Department. He works for a company that sells sirens and voice alert systems to law enforcement. He graduated from the New York Institute of Technology in 1998 with an electronics degree.
Mackin, elected two years ago, said he would fight to keep taxes low. But he voted in March to raise taxes 7.7 percent, and the average homeowner’s tax bill went up $144 annually.
“I didn’t have the intimate knowledge of how things go,” Mackin said of his voting for the spending increase. “We were behind on equipment and a lot of our vehicles were 25 or 30 years old. “We didn’t have much of a choice. . . . But knowing what I know now, there was no way to sustain without raising taxes slightly.”
He touts his helping to implement a new security system that provides camera surveillance at village facilities and meeting with Suffolk County officials to curtail speeders, and to possibly install new traffic lights.
Joseph Gagliano, 72, a 46-year village resident, retired as a high school principal in the Eastport school district in 2002. He graduated from Long Island University in 1968 with a degree in clinical psychology and received a New York State public education certificate from Hofstra University in 1970.
Gagliano was picked by Mayor Ray Fell to run for trustee in 2016.
Two years ago, Gagliano said he would create a zombie home registry that would fine absentee homeowners, but because the village has fewer than 5,000 residents, it didn’t qualify for a state program providing funding to help track the absentee homeowners.
Gagliano said the village is keeping track of residents who aren’t paying their tax bills, calling the effort “a work in progress.”
He said he’s helped the village win about $2 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds for a bulkheading project and was part of initiatives that reduced debt service, improve roads and redesigned the village website.
“I’m very proud to serve the residents of the village,” Gagliano said. “I have the best interests of the village at heart, including safety and communication.”

Suffolk

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Bellport election sees 3 candidates for 2 trustee seats

Three candidates vie for two village board seats

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Rachelle Blidner

A Brightwaters village trustee is challenging the incumbent mayor in the June 19 election.
Trustee John Valdini is running against Mayor Joseph McDermott for a two-year term as mayor in a race that could open up a board seat. 
Valdini, 60, is running on the Unification party line with the candidates for two open trustee seats: incumbent trustee Carmine Chiappetta and candidate Michael Dopsovic. If Valdini is elected mayor, an appointee would fill his vacant trustee seat until his current term expires next year.
McDermott, 50, is seeking his third term as mayor and is running on the Brightwaters Party line. The iron worker announced in April that he would not run for reelection because of personal matters but said he decided to get into the race after the issues, which he did not detail publicly, were resolved.
McDermott said village finances have turned around during his tenure, noting Brightwaters has been removed from the state comptroller’s fiscal stress list and has received an AA+ bond rating from the Standard &amp; Poor’s ratings agency. 
McDermott said he wants to create a new highway building and get grants to improve Concourse East bulkheads. He said he is seeking more parking in the downtown, known as Four Corners, and to build up the village’s fund balance for future projects or emergencies.
Valdini owns Dukes Development Corp. construction company and is a partner in fatfish Wine Bar &amp; Bistro in Bay Shore. He said he helped start the Brightwaters Business Association about eight years ago. 
Valdini said he wants to overhaul the village website to make it more user-friendly and communicate with residents about long-term plans through a quarterly newsletter and social media. Valdini said he would seek to increase oversight of rental houses and lower the village speed limit to 25 mph. He is looking to restore the cabin at Wohseepee Park, which is used for a day camp and has not been renovated in years, using volunteers.

TOBRIG180615

Brightwaters mayor’s race could open up trustee seat

Village mayor’s race could open up trustee seat

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Vera Chinese

Three candidates are seeking two trustee seats in the East Hampton Village election June 19.
Incumbent trustees Bruce Siska and Arthur Graham will face off against newcomer Rosemary Brown for a four-year term. Brown and Graham are running on the village’s Fish Hooks Party line, which advocates for reviving village infrastructure and revitalizing its commercial district, among other issues.
Graham, a retired Wall Street professional, was elected last year to finish the term of Elbert Edwards, who died. Graham said he would continue to push for exploring the creation of sewers in the village’s downtown, which could potentially increase the number of bars and restaurants there and allow for workforce housing above commercial buildings.
“Sag Harbor did it [created a sewer district] in 1977 and aren’t they happy,” he said. 
Another important issue for Graham is instituting regulations on landscaping equipment noise.
Graham is the former president of the East Hampton Historical Society and chairman of the Thomas Moran Trust, a nonprofit that plans to restore the 19th century artist’s historic studio in East Hampton Village.
Siska, the deputy mayor, has served on the board for seven years. He was a member of the village zoning board of appeals from 1998 until 2011 and the planning board from 1994 until 1998.
He said he would like to continue as trustee “to help the village of East Hampton maintain its historic preservation and quality of life for the residents.”
Siska cited water quality as a top concern and said the village will soon release a report on its waterways. He said he’d also like to see tightened regulations on the size of new houses built in the village.
“I think I can give a fair decision on whatever comes up before the board,” he said.
Brown, who currently is on the village design review board and previously served on the planning board, also cited water quality as a top issue. She said she supports exploring the creation of a sewer district and other infrastructure improvements.
“I feel my voice would offer a new, fresh perspective on the board and make it more well-rounded,” she said.
Brown has worked as a social worker and is currently employed by architect Katherine McCoy in Bridgehampton.

TOEAST180612

East Hampton village election sees water quality as top issue

Water quality top issue for village candidates

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Two incumbent trustees and one challenger are running for two at-large trustee seats in the June 19 election in Great Neck, where transparency and downtown revitalization are key issues.
Perry Spector, Khoshrow (Norman) Namdar, and Bart Sobel will be on the ballot. 
Spector, 20, a student pursuing a finance degree at Baruch College, is running on the Voice of the Village ticket. He said that his youth gives him a fresh perspective to help with decision making and that he hopes to build citizen awareness and involvement in local government. 
“My generation and every generation, I think, it’s important for everybody to have a voice,” Spector said. If elected, Spector said he plans on creating a village newsletter, livestreaming all village board meetings, updating the village website, and establishing more citizen advisory committees such as the one recently formed for the Middleneck Corridor revitalization planning. 
Sobel, 55, an attorney, is running on the Great Neck Greater Village ticket for a fifth two-year term. He is currently the village’s deputy mayor. Sobel said that he wants to continue having a role in the village board’s priority projects such as downtown revitalization and improving roadways for pedestrians. Sobel said he enjoys “connecting with the people of the village” and that he also plans on continuing to improve the efficiency of the village court system. 
Namdar has been a trustee since 2013. He is running on the Great Neck Greater Village ticket. After being appointed to the board in August 2013, Namdar served for a year and was re-elected in 2014 and again in 2016. He could not be reached for comment.

TOGREA180613

Great Neck voters to chose 2  trustees from 3 candidates

Three candidates seek 2 village trustee seats

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John Asbury

Two Hewlett Harbor trustees are seeking to defend their seats against one challenger in the village’s first contested race in more than a decade. 
Hewlett Harbor trustees Kenneth Kornblau and Thomas Cohen are running for re-election on the Citizens Party Line, against challenger John Novello, running on the Unity Party Line.
Mayor Mark Weiss is running unopposed. The mayor and trustees are all running for two-year terms. Hewlett Harbor is a 0.8-square-mile community in the Five Towns region of the town of Hempstead made up of 439 homes.
Cohen, 56, is a registered Republican running for his fifth term as trustee. He also serves as village police commissioner and has lived in the village for 25 years.
Cohen works as a fur trader in Manhattan and is married with two children. He is also president of the Five Towns Kiwanis.
Cohen said he has streamlined the village’s computer system and worked with Nassau County police to reduce burglaries and property crimes.
The board of trustees is working to repave roads and continue to rebuild after superstorm Sandy, by connecting the building department to residents, Cohen said. He said the village should remain focused on beautification projects and maintaining home values.
The village is also working to begin a $3 million storm water runoff project under a grant from the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, which should reduce storm surge flooding to about 50 homes, Cohen said. 
Kornblau, 60, a Democrat, has served as trustee for 11 years and also is the village’s deputy police commissioner. He works as chief operating officer of the Manhattan-based Petra Capital Management real estate investment firm.
Kornblau said he wants to keep the town safe, maintain quality of life and slow down vehicles cutting through from East Rockaway Road. The village has conducted a ticket blitz with Nassau County police and added radar signs. He has also worked with fellow trustees on the $3 million GOSR storm water flooding project. 
Kornblau said it is important to maintain beautification and peace and quiet for residents, such as a resolution banning construction work on weekends. During his tenure, Kornblau has worked to keep the village fiscally responsible without raising taxes beyond the state tax cap, he said.
Novello did not return phone calls for comment.
Novello, 49, a Republican registered in Cedarhurst, is challenging the two trustees at-large. Novello is the deputy building commissioner for the Town of Hempstead and serves as chairman of the Cedarhurst Zoning Board of Appeals.

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Hewlett Harbor has first contested race in a decade

Village has first contested race in a decade

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The race for two village board of trustees seats in Huntington Bay pits a pair of incumbents who tout their records on taxes against a challenger calling for fresh perspective on local issues.
Donald T. Rave, Jr., 66, and Jay Meyer, who declined to give his age, are defending their long-held seats against John Cannon, 77, who said he would explore introducing term limits if elected.
“People who have been on [the board] a long time, they tend to get entrenched,” said Cannon, a Halesite Fire District commissioner who is running on the Gold Coast Party line. “We need some new blood, some new ideas, some new ways of doing things.”
The election is June 19.
Rave and Meyer cited six years without a tax increase and the high quality of services the village provides as evidence that no change is needed on the board.
“The important issues we face are land use regulations, road improvements and maintenance, and negotiations with the village police department — all of which are being addressed exceedingly well,” Meyer, an accountant and financial planner, wrote in an email. 
He was first elected to the board in 1996 and is running on the Winning Party line.
Rave, a maritime attorney running on the Bay Sunset Party line, said preventing storm water runoff from polluting Huntington Harbor and Huntington Bay is a central concern of the village government. To combat the problem, he said he would continue to support the village’s efforts to improve its drainage infrastructure.
Rave, who was first elected to the board in 2004, also stressed the importance of striking a balance on new development in the village.
“We have to be reasonable and respect people’s rights to expand their property and sell and subdivide, but at the same time we have to preserve the character of the village,” he said.
Cannon, a retired builder and carpenter, questioned whether the village can continue to afford to provide all of its current services, and said fiscal responsibility would be a primary focus of his if elected. The trustee terms are for two years.

TOHUNT180613

Huntington Bay voters to pick 2 trustees from 3 candidates

Incumbents, challenger vie for 2 trustee seats

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Candidates in contested mayoral and trustee races in Lawrence say they are concerned about potential development at a decommissioned sewage plant in the village and the neighboring Woodmere golf club. 
Deputy Mayor Michael Fragin, 44, is challenging incumbent Alex H. Edelman, 69, for the mayoral seat. The mayor’s term is two years and unpaid. The election is on June 19. 
Stanley R. Kopilow, 71, is running against trustee incumbents Uri Kaufman, 54, and Syma F. Diamond, 41 . The trustee terms are two years, and the top two vote-getters win the unpaid seats. 
Edelman, a 17-year resident of the village, is running for his second term. He was a trustee for two terms before winning the mayor’s seat. He owns a school bus company, an ambulette company and several assisted living centers but refused to disclose their names. 
He said he opposes residential development at The Woodmere Club because it would cause additional traffic in Lawrence. Edelman said he has worked on flood mitigation, lighting and signage issues and the future relocation of the Peninsula Public Library to a larger facility during his tenure as mayor. 
“The village has been running very well under my direction,” he said. 
Fragin, a self-employed communications and political consultant, has lived in the village since 1999. He has been on the board of trustees for a decade since his appointment to fill a vacancy in 2008. He has been deputy mayor since 2016. He is a former Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department firefighter and a current emergency medical technician with the Hatzalah ambulance corps. 
Fragin said the village needs to improve the finances of the Lawrence Yacht and Country Club, as well as increase transparency and offer more services online for residents. He added that superstorm Sandy “exposed a lack of preparedness and a reliance on a lot of outside sources.” 
“We just can’t continue to rely on the timetables of outside officials to get things done,” he said. 
Kaufman, a real estate developer, is the president of Harmony Group Capital LLC and has lived in the village for 15 years. He is running for his second term and was a member of the Lawrence school board between 2006 and 2015. 
He said he wants the village to “very carefully” study possible development of the decommissioned sewage plant on Rock Hall Road. He said he had previously thought a hotel might be possible on the site but has since realized it wouldn’t be feasible. 
“A park is definitely a possibility, an assisted living [development] might be a possibility, houses might work also,” he said. 
Diamond, a matrimonial lawyer who stopped practicing about five years ago after the birth of her youngest child, has lived in Lawrence for more than 13 years. She is running for her second term. 
She said she is focused on continuing her efforts to make the village more family friendly. She also wants to make sure that any development at the former sewage plant is kept in the “character” of the residential area. 
“We’ll see what ideas come forward, but I’m cognizant that it’s in a residential neighborhood,” she said. 
Kopilow is a criminal and matrimonial lawyer whose practice, Hopkins &amp; Kopilow, is based in Garden City. He served a term on the Lawrence school board and has lived in the village since 1977. 
He said he wants to see seven houses developed on the sewage plant land, but opposes residential development at the Woodmere golf club because it would contribute to additional congestion in Lawrence. 
“It would be an absolute mega traffic jam, from the start of the day to the finish,” he said.

TOLAWR180614

Future of old plant, club are top election issues in Lawrence 

Development at old plant, golf club are top issues

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Candidates challenging incumbents in the June 19 village election in Muttontown say the current mayor and trustees have presided over a government with an adversarial relationship with residents, while the incumbents tout their experience.
The incumbent trustees deny the allegation of an adversarial board and point to 12 years with only two small tax increases and $5 million in reserves. They say the challengers don’t have the experience to run the village of about 3,600 residents.
Julie Albernas, 54, a former systems analyst and a trustee for four years, is running for mayor against James Liguori, a neurologist. The mayor and the three open trustee seats are for four-year terms.
Mayor Julianne Beckerman, first elected in 2006, is not seeking re-election. She said her decision is unrelated to her October indictment on five counts of tax fraud over allegedly not paying state taxes from 2010 to 2014 and one count of repeated failure to file income and earnings taxes. She pleaded not guilty.
“I’m a big believer in term limits,” Beckerman said.
Incumbent trustee Carl Juul-Nielsen, 64, is running for a fourth term. He said he, Albernas, fellow trustee Salvatore Benisatto and their running mate, planning board member Santosh Mathai, have extensive knowledge of village issues and operations. The challengers have “never served on one board, on one committee, have never volunteered to do anything in the village and suddenly they want to run the village,” Juul-Nielsen said.
Liguori, 50, said his “real-world experience” running his own practice prepares him for the mayor’s office. 
The Muttontown Police Benevolent Association endorsed Liguori and running mates Sudha Prasad, 54, a pediatrician, Chris Economou, 53, an attorney, and Brian Fagen, 43, an attorney.
A PBA letter to residents noted “low morale” in the department because of several issues, including officers having to work a rotating schedule of day, night and overnight shifts.
Liguori said officers “need to be treated with more respect.” The rotating schedule, for example, leads to more sick days and lower productivity, he said.
Albernas, who has been police commissioner for seven years, said the schedule has been in place since the village created its own department in 2011. Changing it would increase costs, she said. 
Prasad said the current village government is not transparent enough, that the village website lacks basic information and Village Hall hours of 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. weekdays don’t reflect residents’ schedules.
“Why can’t we have a couple of evenings a month?” she said. “Why can’t we have some Saturday mornings?”
Economou said he has received complaints from residents about a building permit process that can take years and is not “resident-friendly.”
“Our residents . . . have been run through the mill for trying to build, repair or fix their homes,” Economou said.
Mathai, 47, an advertising and sales executive, proposed having building department workshops at Village Hall and in the neighborhoods, along with meetings between officials and residents planning renovations.
Juul-Nielsen said his slate is proposing putting downloadable permit forms online and speeding up permitting for smaller projects, such as roof repairs and patios. 
Fagen, 43, questioned the timing of the incumbents’ proposed changes.
“We are the ones who brought up quick permitting, doing things online,” he said. “Now that’s suddenly a part of their platform.”
Two-term incumbent Benisatto did not respond to requests for comment.

TOMUTT180611

Muttontown village election pits experience against new voices

Village election choice: Experience or new views

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Carl MacGowan

Poquott Mayor Dee Parrish faces an election challenge from trustee John Richardson, who says he has been unfairly targeted for code violations because he has criticized Parrish.
Parrish and Richardson are among six candidates seeking three seats on the village board in the June 19 election, including two open trustee seats.
Trustees William Poupis and Christopher Schleider are being challenged by Felicia Chillak, a real estate agent and civic activist, and Dianna Padilla, a Stony Brook University ecology professor.
Parrish, Poupis and Schleider are running on the Poquott’s Future ticket. Richardson, Chillak and Padilla are running as the We The People Party.
The incumbents and their challengers have different views of the village’s finances and disagree about how village officials have handled a controversy over a proposed dock.
Richardson, Chillak and Padilla also complain about what they call “selective enforcement” of village building codes.
Richardson, 43, a New York City firefighter who was elected to the village board last year, said he has been cited for several code violations. He said his attempts to bring his house into compliance have been stymied because of his opposition of Parrish.
“It could have been taken care of,” he said of his building code violation case. “They could have taken $200 for a permit. They chose to make it into a lawsuit.”
Parrish denied targeting Richardson, who she said owes the village more than $17,000 in building and legal fees.
“We did try multiple times to work with him ... but it never came to fruition,” Parrish said.
Richardson and his running mates say Parrish has used the village reserve funds to avoid raising taxes, leaving the village with little money in case of a natural disaster.
Parrish, 50, a two-term incumbent, said the allegation is not true and that she has increased village reserve funds to almost $67,600.
Parrish, an accountant in her family’s environmental consulting business, defended her administration’s handling of a proposal to build a dock. She said the project’s cost, originally estimated at $150,000, ballooned to $250,000 because of federal and state building requirements.
The plan is on hold while village officials review the dock’s potential impact on taxes and property values, she said.
“If we find it’s really not the best thing for the residents, then we’re just not going to do that,” Parrish said.
Richardson and his running mates said village officials have ignored comments about the dock made by residents at public meetings and have refused to hold a public referendum on the issue. 
“I think we need a government that listens to the citizens, rather than intimidates them,” Padilla, 63, said. “I think we need a government that is respectful of all the citizens of the village.”
Chillak, 60, said she would solicit public input on issues by using email.
“Our plan is to have a public hearing, email the actual law to the residents,” she said. “We’ll vote based on what the residents want, not what the board wants.”
Poupis, 60, who was appointed last year to fill a vacancy on the board, said he favors the dock and doesn’t believe village officials have mishandled the issue. 
“I don’t think it’s been a rush because the whole process of putting in the dock has been happening for years, long before I was on the board,” said Poupis, vice president of operations for an environmental drilling company.
Schleider, 46, a teacher who was appointed a trustee last year, said the dock “would be great for the village as long as the cost is responsible.”

TOPOQU180614

Poquott village election focuses on finances, new dock

Finances, dock among village election issues

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Port Jefferson’s financial future has become a main issue shaping the June 19 election with two incumbents and a political newcomer running for two trustee seats. 
Incumbents Bruce D’Abramo and Bruce Miller are vying to retain their two-year seats while Kathianne Snaden is undertaking her first run for elected office. D’Abramo, 70, is running for a fourth term and Miller, 73, is seeking his third. 
Snaden, 46, is a homemaker who said she wants to get more residents civically involved. 
“I would like to see a better connection between our young families and the village, and for those families to get more involved in the issues our community faces,” Snaden said. 
One of the biggest issues for the village and its school district is a property-tax settlement being negotiated with LIPA that would reduce the utility’s payments by 50 percent, in steady increments, over eight years starting in 2019. The plan stems from a tax challenge filed by the Long Island Power Authority over the National Grid-owned Port Jefferson power station nearly a decade ago. LIPA, which buys all the power from the little-used plant, is arguing that the approximately $32.6 million it pays annually in taxes is based on an over-assessment of the plant. 
Port Jefferson and Brookhaven Town officials have been working on a settlement with LIPA and have reached an agreement in principle, according to town officials. It’s likely to result in an annual tax payment reduced to $16.3 million by 2026, leading to a scramble by taxing entities to replace the lost revenue. 
Offsetting that loss starts with increasing property taxes at new housing developments in the village, D’Abramo said. He cited a 112-unit apartment building on West Broadway and two other developments that are underway. D’Abramo said those developments will provide needed tax dollars, but acknowledged that “it may be tough to do it to the extent of what we were getting from LIPA.” 
“I’m not sure if it’s going to be enough, but they [the developments’ tax payments] will be clear steps in the right direction,” he said. 
Miller said the ideal LIPA scenario would be to repower the Port Jefferson power planet, effectively retrofitting the space with new or more sustainable energy sources. Doing so could entice LIPA to maintain its presence at the plant and keep some tax dollars flowing into the village, Miller said. 
The plant “would be used as a backup to an expanded solar or wind capacity on Long Island,” Miller said, detailing a potentially new Port Jefferson plant. 
Snaden echoed D’Abramo’s comments about new developments helping offset loses from LIPA for the village and school district and said she wants to find new ways for village government to talk to school district officials. 
“Being in a very small village, we have to be able to work together and we need to be connected,” Snaden said. “And I have a different perspective than the guys who have been sitting there [on the board] for a long time.”

TOJEFF180614

Port Jefferson election focuses on power plant, tax payments

Power plant, taxes top village election issues

toJEFF180613

Jean-Paul Salamanca

Two incumbents and a challenger are vying for two board of trustee seats in the June 19 village election in Quogue.
Jeanette Obser, seeking her ninth two-year term on the five-member board and Kimberley Payne, running for his seventh two-year term, are being challenged by Eileen Duffy, a Quogue resident who made an unsuccessful last-minute bid for a board seat last year.
Duffy, 52, a freelance writer who formerly served as editor for several North Fork publications including The Suffolk Times, ran as a write-in candidate two days before the 2017 elections. 
She said she wanted to try again this year in order to provide a new perspective on the board and to give village residents a greater sense of representation.
“It feels like the same people get voted in year after year, and I believe many residents of the village don’t feel represented,” said Duffy, who added she had been hearing such sentiments from residents by going door-to-door talking about her campaign. 
Duffy, running on the Beach Party line, said if elected, she wants to start with small initiatives to keep the public informed, such as updating the village website and issuing a regular village newsletter to residents from Village Hall.
“With a lot of the national rhetoric and talk of ‘draining the swamp,’ I think public service is valuable,” Duffy said. Being a village trustee “doesn’t pay much, so I think anyone who wants to step up would be providing a great service.”
Neither Obser nor Payne responded to requests for comment.

TOQUOG180612

Quogue voters to select two trustees from three candidates

3 candidates run for 2 Quogue trustee seats

TOQUOG180612_WEB

What to know about June 19 village elections

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What to know about June village elections

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