The low turnout in the recent uncontested municipal election is indicative of a larger trend away from involvement in community affairs, according to New Hyde Park community leaders.
“It’s a major problem for New Hyde Park, not only with the village government, but the fire department and the Kiwanis,” said Village of New Hyde Park Mayor-elect Robert Lofaro, who received 134 votes in his uncontested race for the job in the March 19 balloting.
Lofaro said he sees a general decline in the spirit of volunteerism in New Hyde Park because of changing lifestyles.
“Going to the Knights of Columbus meeting on a Tuesday night years ago, guys couldn’t wait to go because there was nothing else to do,” Lofaro said. “Now we have too many TV channels to watch and we have more things to take our children to.”
Marianna Wohlgemuth, president of the Lakeville Estates Civic Association, said she’s witnessed diminishing active membership in the New Hyde Park civic associations in recent years as well.
“You have a different population. You have a different demographic. Your community’s more diverse,” Wohlgemuth said. “As you get more immigrants from other countries, they don’t have the same roots that they feel.”
She said she also pins the low turnout in the New Hyde Park village election to a lackadaisical attitude among the voters.
“I think it’s probably voter apathy,” she said. “When everything is going good, people sit home and say ‘This is great. I don’t have to do anything’.”
Lofaro said the relatively low voter turnout is something he’s become accustomed to.
“From a numbers perspective, this is what we consider typical for an uncontested election. As I talk to people about the local election, it’s almost an inconvenience for them to vote,” Lofaro said.
In the five times he has run for village trustee starting in 1999, he has run each time as an uncontested candidate garnering between 130 voters and 180 voters.
This year, he said, 152 voters came out to elect him mayor, replacing outgoing Mayor Daniel Petruccio who chose to not run. Voters also re-elected trustees Donald Barbieri and Lawrence Montreuil and village justice Christopher Devane – all of ran unopposed.
Barbieri drew 131 votes, as Montreuil drew 139 votes and Devane received 144 votes.
There are currently 5,717 registered voters in the Village of New Hyde Park, according to the Nassau County Board of Elections.
Lofaro said he thinks voters are happy with the way the Village Party has handled New Hyde Park’s finances over the past 14 years since he was first elected is another reason people don’t feel compelled to vote.
“I’d like to believe that as the person who was running uncontested, it is because taxes have been relatively stable. People are proud and happy to live in the village,” he said. “We righted the ship, and it’s sailing along fine.”
The last time there was a contested election, according to Lofaro, was in 2000 when 2,000 voters came out for the election that first put Petruccio in office as mayor and his running mate Montreuil in office as trustee.
That election came at a time that the village’s finances fell into disarray during the administration of former Mayor Warren Tachenberg.
A movement was afoot to dissolved the village after the Tachenberg administration proposed boosting village taxes by 37 percent to deal with a serious erosion of roadways through the village, Lofaro said.
“There were lawn signs and full-page newspaper ads. You had six candidates mobilizing people,” Lofaro said. “We formed the Village Party to not dissolve the village.”
But, he said, he doubted any future village election will likely ever draw that many residents to the polls again. And apart from drawing voters, he said the lengthy terms of the current board members is a further indication that the spirit of community service is waning.
“It’s like jump rope. When do you step out and let somebody else in?” he asked, expressing concern about other people stepping up to become village trustees.
Lofaro said he has identified several candidates to fill his seat on the board after he resigns his position as trustee to take the reins as mayor. The person he appoints to the job will face a special election next spring to continue in it.
While he said he understands why so many voters don’t come to the polls, he said he thinks people are making an incorrect assumption about the process.
“Some people have taken uncontested elections for granted and a write-in candidate has won,” Lofaro said, pointing to the successful write-in election campaign of Chris Engel as Garden City Park Fire Commissioner several years ago as one recent example.
This time around, Lofaro said, he and his fellow Village Party candidates spent no money on the campaign and each candidate reached out to 30 or 35 close friends to encourage a turnout for the balloting.
“If we did heavy campaigning with lawn signs and everything , which we could have done, we could have had 500 people come out and say, ‘Well, we didn’t need to come out anyway’,” he said.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
