Two Saddle Rock residents are challenging trustees David Schwartz and Mark Collins in Tuesday’s elections as the village continues its transition two years after the death of long-time mayor J. Leonard Samansky.
Shlomo “Mony” Zenou and Hamid “Ben” Sharifiazad, running on the Independent Party of the Village of Saddle Rock line, say they represent hundreds of residents who are cut out of the governmental process and promise more transparency and engagement with residents.
But Schwartz says the village has already made great strides in opening government to the people since Village of Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy took office, and that the board has worked hard to undo the centralization that characterized Samansky’s decades in office.
“I think that me and my partner Mony Zenou – we feel that we could contribute to the village in different ways. We can improve things, we can encourage people to participate more and more,” Sharifiazad said. “We think that the mayor and trustees have done a good job, but there’s always room for more.”
Zenou, who owns a technology business, has lived in Saddle Rock since 2007 and has never been formally involved with village government. Sharifiazad, an engineer, ran unsuccessfully for trustee in 2005 and said he has been a resident for 19 years.
The pair also said that more than 150 residents requested them to run.
Schwartz, a financial consultant who has served on the board since 2011, said that he has been instrumental in helping run the village since joining the board after Levy became mayor, and that he has always been on-call to address village problems and help rebuild the administrative knowledge that died with Samansky.
“I’m running again because I do a tremendous amount of work for the village. I consider myself the right-hand man of the current mayor,” Schwartz said, citing his all-hours availability to the village and his physical work on village infrastructure, including the salting roads and cleaning the municipal pool. “I’m one of the few people on the board aside from Dan [Levy] who’s available to help out at all times.”
Schwartz said he had helped the village with financial and legal matters, including cutting contract costs and fighting tax certiorari cases.
Zenou and Sharifiazad have not been active in village government and should gain that experience before becoming a trustee, Schwartz said.
“I’ve never seen them at a meeting,” Schwartz said. “There are a few people in the neighborhood who I could pick up the phone tomorrow and call and get help. They’re not on that list.”
Zenou and Sharifiazad acknowledged they were not regular attendees at village board meetings, but said that lack of engagement with village government was driven by a lack of communication and an outdated village Web site that does not post meeting agendas.
“If your Web site is not promoting residents’ participation, then people will not be part of it. That’s the nature of the beast,” Zenou said. “We believe the way the board is structured right now, there’s not a enough participation from the village.”
Zenou said that if elected, he and Sharifiazad would update the Web site, request comment from residents and broadcast meetings online with the goal of increasing attendance at meetings.
Levy, who is also running but has no opponent on the ballot, criticized the challengers for a lack of participation in meetings prior to announcing their candidacies.
“I was disappointed that residents of the village who thought they had an agenda did not feel strongly enough to come to the village meetings and discuss their ideas,” Levy said. “And furthermore, creating a party the night before the petitions were due tells me that there must be ulterior motives.”
Schwartz rejected the claim that the current board is not transparent enough, saying that it has been a major goal of the board to increase openness after Samansky’s 20 years in office.
“He really ran it himself. His board – the trustees – were there, but he really ran it top down,” Schwartz said. “He did a fine job, but we needed to change it to a much more open village.”
The board has been transparent and informed residents of all changes being considered, according to Schwartz, and is working on bringing the Web site into the 21st century.
“We have to change the web site. We’re trying to hire someone to do that,” Schwartz said. “We inherited an antiquated village Web site.”
But, according to Sharifiazad, many residents do not participate in village government because of an absence of communication from the board.
“We’re in a vacuum,” he said. “If they inform us about the agenda, you really look forward to something.”
Collins, who has served on the board since 2005, could not be reached for comment.
