Though there may have been fireworks in the contested Village of Great Neck Plaza elections last Wednesday between incumbents Gerry Schneiderman and Larry Katz and challenger Jonathan Stein, the rest of the village elections in Great Neck were fairly calm, with all incumbents being re-elected.
Schneiderman and Katz were both re-elected, along with Village Justice Neil Finkston, but Stein is now is accusing Plaza officials of “stroking” Atria assisted living home residents to send in absentee ballot votes to re-elect incumbents. Stein, who engaged in a series of heated exchanges with Schneiderman, received 229 votes, while Schneiderman received 286 and Katz received 331. Finkston, who ran unopposed, was re-elected with 370 votes.
In the Village of Saddle Rock, Mayor Dan Levy, Trustee Mark Collins and Trustee David Schwartz were re-elected with Levy receiving 72 votes, Collins 59 and Schwartz 63 votes.
Only 27 out of the 630 registered voters came to the polls, Saddle Rock clerk and treasurer Maura McMullen said, with the rest of the votes coming from absentee ballots.
McMullen said about the same amount of voters came out for last year’s village election.
“It’s a very low mark,” McMullen said. “It’s sad but that’s the way it goes.”
Levy was elected as mayor in 2011. Collins has been serving as trustee since 2005 and Schwartz has served since 2011.
In 2013, Levy ran against Sasha Masri, who later in 2013 pleaded not guilty to assault charges after an altercation at Saddle Rock Village Hall with Levy. The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division overturned Masri’s conviction earlier this year.
Prosecutors said at Masri’s trial that after an October 2012 Saddle Rock Board of Trustees meeting Masri caused deep lacerations to Levy’s head and fractures to Levy’s shoulders after a physical confrontation.
The altercation began when Masri approached Schwartz after the meeting, to ask him about an outgoing audit of village finances. Witnesses said that after Marsi made his request, Levy – who considered Masri a disruptive presence at village meetings – began to belittle Masri, and the two started to swear at each other.
Differing accounts in arguments made by defense attorney Robert McDonald and Assistant District Attorney Christine Geier’s say Masri either slapped Levy with an open hand or punched Levy in the face with keys in his hand. The defense said Levy was motivated by anger and a desire to discredit Masri, and that Levy’s injuries were not a result of Masri’s initial blow.
Levy pleaded the Fifth Amendment at Masri’s when asked about the village’s finances during the trial. Efforts to reach Masri and Levy were unavailing.
The trial brought to light documents showing auditors were concerned about some of the Village of Saddle Rock’s financial packages, including Levy’s cashing of village checks written out to a contractor owned by a personal friend.
The auditing firm Satty, Levine and Ciacco prepared an audit of the village’s finances for the fiscal year ending in February 2012. The firm sent a memorandum to the village highlighting missing invoices, questionable charges on the village gas card, an unaccounted purchase of a laptop and checks to a contractor personally cashed by Levy as issues.
A Nassau County District Attorney’s investigation into the village’s finances determined in January 2014 that Levy committed no criminal wrongdoing in his handling of the village’s finances.
In Russell Gardens, Mayor Steven Kirschner and trustees Martin Adickman and Jane Krakauer were re-elected.
Kirschner, who received 48 votes, will serve his second term consecutive term as mayor. He also served as mayor from 2003 to 2009, and has been a trustee since 1989 when not serving as mayor.
Adickman, who received 47 votes, has served on the board since 2003. Krakauer has served since 2009, and was re-elected with 46 votes.
The Village of Russell Gardens has 777 registered voters, village Clerk and Treasurer Christine Blumberg said. Blumberg said 44 people came to the polls to vote, and that the remainder of the votes for each candidate came from absentee ballots.
Kirschner did not run for re-election in 2009, but returned as mayor when his successor, Michael Bloomfield, decided not to seek re-election in 2013. Kirschner said he decided to run again for mayor in an attempt to stabilize the village, which he described as being in “disarray” at the time.
In Thomaston Mayor Steven Weinberg was re-elected with 26 votes and trustees Gary Noren and Jill Monoson were re-elected with 25 votes and 22 votes, respectively.
Weinberg, an attorney with the firm Gottesman, Wolgel, Flynn, Weinberg & Lee P.C., was named acting mayor in September 2014 after former Mayor Bob Stern resigned, and officially became the mayor about a month later.
He had served as deputy mayor from 2003 through 2014, trustee from 2001 to 2003 and village justice from 1997 to 2001.
Weinberg has said he is currently focused on the replacement of the Colonial Road Bridge, a $24.9 million project planned by the LIRR, which is part of a larger project in the Village of Thomaston that includes improved drainage at track level, landscaping and the extension of an existing pocket track used to turn trains around. The total project will cost $45.1 million and allow the LIRR to improve train service reliability, according to MTA officials.
Long Island Rail Road is tentatively scheduled to close the Colonial Road Bridge on March 30. The LIRR expects the bridge to reopen in April 2016.
Noren, vice president of sales for Outerstuff LCC, a sports apparel company, has said the Colonial Road Bridge project will most likely be the last thing he oversees as he does not plan on running for another term after this one. He was elected to the board 14 years ago.
Monoson, an attorney with the Great Neck firm Kestenbaum & Mark, took office in just January when Weinberg became mayor.
In Great Neck Estates, Mayor David Fox, trustees William Warner and Sidney Krugman and village justice Harry Burstein were all re-elected.
Fox received 54 votes, Krugman received 49, Warner got 52 and Burstein received 48 votes.
Village of Kensington trustees Alina Hendler and Darren Kaplan were both re-elected with 17 votes each.
