Segal resigns as Village of Great Neck Planning Board chair

Adam Lidgett

The Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees on Tuesday picked Michael Fuller, who also serves as a Great Neck Library Board trustee, to replace Charles Segal as the chair of the village Planning Board.

Segal resigned as chairman of the village planning board, according to village Clerk and Treasurer Joe Gil, and was appointed a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Segal will fill a vacant spot on the Zoning Board of Appeals, Gil said.

The appointment of Fuller was the latest in a series of changes to the village’s leadership since the election of Pedram Bral as mayor and Anne Mendelson and Ray Plakstis Jr. as trustees on June 17.

Bral, running on the Voice of the Village Party ticket, with Mendelson and Plakstis Jr. defeated Mayor Ralph Kreitzman in the election with more than 70 percent of the votes.  Mendelson and Plakstis Jr. defeated  trustees Mitch Beckerman and Jeff Bass.

At the meeting Tuesday, the board also picked Dina Hammerman to replace Dov Sassoon as the Architectural Review Committee chairperson. Hammerman was formerly a member of the review committee.

Aaron Goykadosh was also picked to replace Richard Stancati – who wrote letters of support for Kreitzman during the recent election – as the alternate member to the planning board.

At the first board meeting following the election, the trustees replaced Stephen Limmer of Ackerman, Levine, Cullen, Brickman & Limmer, LLP as the village attorney with Peter Bee of Bee Ready Fishbein Hatter & Donovan.

Limmer said at the time he believed his firm’s representation of the Village of Great Neck dated back to the 1930s. He said his firm had represented the village at the time he started at the firm in 1973, and that he himself became the village’s primary attorney in the mid-1990s.

Bral said that with a new administration, it was time for a new attorney as well.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Bral said Bee would be paid an hourly rate of $260 — $20 less than what Limmer was paid.

“I’m billed for an attorney hourly rate,” Bee said. “I indicated after some period of time we might revisit the issue of legal fees.”

He said his firm would be paid solely an hourly rate, and the village would not pay for a separate retainer fee.

Bral said Bee was well prepared for his new role.

“I’ve spoken to counsel in the past couple weeks and found him to be extremely knowledgeable in village code,” Bral said.

Segal, who is a lawyer, recused himself from contentious discussion on a proposed 11-home residential development on Clover Drive when it came before the planning board in January 2014.

He had said at the time that his law firm, Jaspan Schlesinger LLP had provided certain legal representation to proposed projects developer Frank Lalezarian.

Segal said at the time he did not personally do legal work for Lalezarian, but that other members of his firm did.

Lalezarian is seeking to build 11 homes on a 3.1 acre plot of land on Clover Drive. He has already received a site-plan approval from the Village of Great Neck Zoning Board of Appeals.

Paul Bloom, Lalezarian’s attorney, had accused the planning board of being biased against the proposed Clover Drive development.

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