Mineola trustees okay 4-year terms

Richard Tedesco

After a sometimes contentious public hearing, the Mineola Board of Trustees voted unanimously last Wednesday night to increase village trustees’ terms of office from two years to four years and to hold staggered elections every two years.

At the outset of a public hearing before the vote, Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss said the board didn’t need to hold a hearing on the proposed term change.

“We could have taken a simple vote to resolve this, but we have chosen to have a public hearing for a public input,” Strauss said.

Strauss said the change will phased in with candidates running in 2016 the first to run for four-year terms.

The two trustee seats up for election in 2014  – currently held by Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira and Trustee Paul Cusato – would be for two-year terms, Strauss said. The candidates running for three seats in the 2015 village election – including his own – would run for three-year terms. 

Strauss said the four-year terms would mean fewer elections and, therefore, lower costs at a time when the cost of elections are expected to go up.  The use of scanner voting machines, which are scheduled to replace lever machines in 2015, requires governments to purchase as many paper ballots as there are registered voters. There are currently 12,000 registered voters in Mineola and the cost of paper ballots is 55 cents a piece. 

Strauss said that with many people not expected to vote the cost of holding elections will be considerable in relation to the actual number of people who do vote. 

He also said enacting four-year terms would enable newly elected trustees to acclimate to handling village business.

“There is no trustee college,” he said. “Continuity and consistency come from experience.”

Establishing relationships with members of municipal organizations in the village “happens over time,” he said.

He pointed out proposals for the Polimeni International projects to build the Winston and Churchill apartment complexes – now in the first stages of construction – were first presented to the village board in 2006.

“A certain continuity helped get this project to the finish line,” Strauss said. “Our job is to make good policy decisions, not good political decisions.”

Before the trustees’ vote, residents presented a wide range of opinions on the legislation. 

Resident Sal Cataldo said a public hearing did not give voters sufficient input into the new law.

“The people should have a choice. Why didn’t you put it on the ballot?” he said. “You’re not giving the people a choice.”

Resident Ed Savarese agreed with extending the trustee terms, saying “it probably takes a year or two before you get used to your shoes.”

“It’s not a position you get comfortable in within two years, maybe not even four years,” said resident Joe Grilo.

Christopher Wales, who ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for village trustee two years ago, said two-year terms are “a good incentive” for prospective candidates.

Resident John Curry disagreed, saying, “I think you would have more people run if it was a four-year program.”

Resident Elizabeth Henley argued against four-year terms and complained that the village was running under a one-party system.

Four of the five trustees, including Strauss, are members of the New Line Party. 

“Why not 10-year terms? Why not just appoint a dictator?” she said.

Resident Paul Duik reacted to Henley’s comment, saying, “I think equating four-year terms with totalitarianism is ridiculous.”

Resident Bill Urianek said he recalled one trustee who would fall asleep at meetings, then hit his head on the microphone in front of him and wake up.

“He lasted more than two years, so I think the four-year term is a good idea,” Urianek said.

Cusato, a trustee for 10 years who noted he is not a member of the board’s majority party, said four years gives a trustee a good grounding.

“Four years is what a trustee needs to learn how the village runs,” he said.

Dennis Walsh, who was elected trustee earlier this year, said it isn’t possible to learn to work well as a board member in one year.

“For the benefit of the village, I think the four years is a good idea,” Walsh said.

Pereira, who said he hadn’t yet decided if he would run again next year, said the trustees were looking beyond their current terms in office.

“This board could be out by 2015. In a four-year cycle, you could change the whole board,” he said.

He acknowledged there are salary and benefits tied to the trustees’ positions, but said none of the current trustees are taking benefits.

Village code puts no limit on the number of terms a trustee may serve. The trustees each earn $14,500 and the mayor earns $29,000 per year, according to village Clerk Joseph Scalero.

In other developments:

• Thomas Rini, superintendent of the village Department of Public Works, said Pratt Brothers has been awarded the contract for the village’s 2013 road rehabilitation work as low bidder at $767,000. He said roads in the water works section of the village, including Elm, Jefferson, Clinton and Washington streets would be included in the road recovery work.

• Rini reported the work on the Bruce Terrace flood relief project is virtually complete. He said the county is finishing work on the Sheridan Avenue interceptor pipe that will feed into a bifurcated drainage basin. 

“For the most part, the project is done,” Rini said. 

The project was a three-way initiative between the village, the county and the Town of North Hempstead, with most of the cost being covered by a $2.4 million state grant.

• The village board approved a special-use application for members of the Mahraz Darshan Das spiritual movement to use a building at 115 Jericho Turnpike as an ashram for its spiritual services and religious education. 

The board also approved a special-use permit for a Christian group seeking to establish a house of worship on the second floor of 500 Jericho Turnpike. 

The group is comprised of former members of the Assembly of God.

Both applications had been awaiting review by the county planning commission before the village board could make a decision on the applications.

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