Challenge in the Village of Great Neck elections

Adam Lidgett

A slate of candidates who ran a write-in campaign two years ago in the Village of Great Neck will again challenge the incumbent mayor and two trustees in the June 16 village elections.

Pedram Bral will challenge Mayor Ralph Kreitzman for his open seat, and Anne Mendelson and Christine Campbell will face off against incumbent trustees Mitch Beckerman and Jeff Bass, according to Village Clerk Joe Gill.

Sam Yellis, a Village School social studies teacher, will also challenge Beckerman and Bass for the position as trustee.

The Village of Lake Success and the Village of Kings Point will also see trustee elections, but the races are uncontested. The final day to file nominating petitions for candidacy is May 12.

Bral, Mendelson and Campbell, all running on the Voice of the Village Party slate, were part of an under-the-radar write-in campaign in the 2013 elections, which resulted in hundreds of residents lining around the block to vote for the challenger. Kreitzman, Beckerman and Bass are all running on the Better Government Party ticket.

Efforts to reach Bral and Campbell were unavailing. Mendelson declined a request to be interviewed for this story.

In 2013, Kreitzman defeated Bral 325 to 232. Beckerman took 316 votes and Bass won 320 votes, with opposition trustee candidates Campbell and Mendelson receiving 226 votes each.

The opposition campaign led incumbents to rally for support at the last minute.

Trustees stood for hours making phone calls outside the polling station to residents to shore up support against the surprise challengers, officials had said at the time.

In one instance, Kreitzman called former Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-Great Neck), who put out a robocall to encourage supporters to re-elect Kreitzman, Beckerman and Bass. Ackerman had said he made the call as a gesture of support for Kreitzman’s governmental record.

Community activist Rebecca Gilliar, who helped organize the opposition campaign, submitted a letter to the Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees after the election asking the board to seek review of the election results by the state attorney general, citing voting irregularities.

The board swore in its re-elected members at a meeting following the election without considering the letter, saying that it was submitted after the village’s deadline for agenda items.

Voting will take place from 12 p.m.-9 p.m. at Great Neck House at 14 Arrandale Ave. The Village of Great Neck Mayor is paid $10,000 a year and trustees are each paid $4,800.

Sam Yellis, a Village School social studies teacher, is running as the lone candidate on the Bridge Party ticket. He has said he is running because of his unhappiness with decisions made by the village trustees in recent years, including the rezoning of Middle Neck Road and Steamboat Road.

Yellis said he objected to the reduction to the village’s business district along Middle Neck Road and an increase in residential properties along parts of Middle Neck and Steamboat roads in the rezoning plan.

“You don’t save it by shrinking it,” Yellis has said of the business district.

Kreitzman responded by saying many people in the village were in favor of the rezoning.

“We probably had a dozen public meetings,” Kreitzman said. “There was no outcry that we were wrong.

If elected, Yellis has said he would try to get town, county, state and federal funding to bring in five electric shuttle buses to bring people into the village to shop.

Yellis said he is not seeking campaign donations, and that he is only campaigning through word of mouth.

Kreitzman was elected as a Village of Great Neck trustee in 2001, and as mayor in 2007. Before he became trustee he served on the villages’ Architectural Review Board and on the Planning Board.

He said he and the trustees running for re-election have the experience to run the village. There are many projects, Kreitzman said, that the village board has started and he would like to see finished, including the rezoning of Middle Neck Road and Steamboat Road various measures to calm traffic and increase pedestrian safety.

“We’re moving in the right direction and we want to continue that momentum,” Kreitzman said.

If re-elected Bass has said he wants to continue the work he has been doing as Village of Great Neck trustee, including making Middle Neck Road more walkable and ensure the quality of life in the village. He also said he works closely to make sure the village’s storm water is as clean as it can be, as it eventually flows in Manhasset Bay.

Bass, who is CEO of Executive Strategies Group LLC, a strategic advisor to business owners and executive management, was first elected to be a Village of Great Neck trustee in 2007. He had previously served on the village’s planning board from 2000 to 2002 and the village’s zoning board of appeals from 2002 to 2007.

Bass began his career as a transportation planner in New Jersey during the early 1970s. He returned to New York and became the first district manager appointed by Community Board 11 in Queens where he supervised the delivery of municipal services to the area.

He then worked in the Ed Koch administration as the director of the Bureau of Management Analysis in the Department of Sanitation.

He is the chairman emeritus of the Long Island Capital Alliance, a member of the Manhasset Bay Protection Committee and on the Board of Governors for the American Jewish Committee.

Beckerman, first elected as trustee in 2001 said he is running for re-election because he is committed to making the village a better place to live. Beckerman, a certified public accountant, has also pointed to village plans to move Village Hall from its current location at 61 Baker Hill Road at 265 East Shore Road and upgrade the village’s computer system.

In Lake Success, trustees Adam Hoffman, Gene Kaplan and David Milner will all run unopposed, Village of Lake Success Deputy Clerk Pat Pilla said. Trustees are paid $1,800 a year, Pilla said.

Voting will take place from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Lake Success Village Hall, located at 318 Lakeville Road.

Village of Kings Point trustees Ron Horowitz and Hooshang Nematzadeh will also run unopposed, Village of Kings Point Clerk Gomie Persaud said. Kings Point trustees are not paid, Persaud said.

Voting will take place from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Kings Point 32 Steppingstone Lane.

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