Being village mayor or trustee is a thankless job. It is the very definition of “public service.” Only a few mayors of the most populace villages receive any compensation; those who step forward to give their time, talent and intelligence are motivated most nobly by “giving back” to their community, by a sense of doing what they can to preserve or enhance quality of life.
Villages are the most local and direct form of democracy – it is common to have face-to-face encounters with a mayor, who is a neighbor. “I know where you live,” is a very real aspect of being a village mayor or trustee, and I am sure each one who has served has stories to tell about people knocking on their doors at all hours. It is amazing how fast an election turns a “neighbor” into “the Establishment.”
The bitter rancor that has gripped Kings Point, in the midst of the only contested election on the peninsula (Great Neck and Lake Success also vote Tuesday, June 19) is not new – village government is local. It is personal. It pits neighbor against neighbor.
What is new for village government, is the level of involvement of money, special interest, and professional campaigns.
Kings Pointers are energized. For the first time since 2001, there are challengers on the ballot, not just a write-in, whispered or shouted.
This year, there is a vigorous challenge of Kings Point’s long-serving mayor, Michael Kalnick the mayor since 1982 (who has served on village boards since 1975), and trustees David Harounian (going for his 6th term) and Sheldon Kwiat (a trustee since 1988).
The challengers, Margie Sasson, Freydoun (Fred) Elnekaveh and David Schifter, have formed a new party, the Kings Point Responsible Government Party (KPRGP):
Not surprisingly, the challengers use the long tenure of their opponents as the key reason to put them out.
Change is good, they argue as challengers of long-serving officials always do.
What has always impressed me as I have covered nine village governments, multiple special districts and boards, and governments up the ranks to the federal level, is how much is dependent on individual people – what they bring to their task, their philosophy, their skill, their values. Governing is a collective enterprise, but there are social dynamics underway, a culture that forms from the individuals who serve.
When things are going well, it is easy to assume, as Freydoun (Fred) Elnekaveh, a businessman who is running for trustee, that anybody can do it. Sounding (sadly) like Mitt Romney, he makes a claim that because he is successful at business, he can run government. “We are here to serve our village as our business, make sure it will run 100 percent profitable, without bringing so much expenses.”
Dr. David Schifter, who also is running for trustee and points to his background in running medical practices and associations and serving on his temple’s board, also sounds uncomfortably like the rightwingers who think bonding is a bad thing – like running amok with a credit card – and that any amount of village debt is a bad thing. Amazingly, he says that interest levels are high, when David Harounian, the incumbent trustee, notes that because of historically low interest rates, the village is paying 0.6 percent (that is less than 1 percent) for bonds.
And what is the alternative when you want to repave a road at a cost of $1.5 million- $4 million? How would Schifter pay for that? Out of an operating budget? That means that today’s residents would have to shell out the full amount, rather than spread the cost over the users of the road over its 15-year lifespan.
Sasson’s response about bonding, debt service and how the village provides service to its residents was nonsensical: “Kings Point is number one, no doubt. We are the best village ever, this is the place people want to come to, the place people love to dream about moving to, we are all part of this village, proud of village. On the service issue, I have to reiterate, cutting service would reduce property values, reduce prestige and create a negative effect on village. Our pledge to you, we are not cutting any services. This is what Kings Point is about. At same time, if we manage to run things better, we can make our future brighter – the problem is, the way we are conducting our business is anathema to good government, taxes are going up but not keeping up with expenses – there is gap where bonds, debt are coming in – by issuing bonds, some may be necessary, we are increasing debt and debt service – if 17 percent of budget is used to pay debt service, $2.5 million a year, if we had that money available, we wouldn’t have to issue that money for $2.5 million – this is problem with Greece, in Nassau County. We have to make sure the way we conduct our business is fair and correct.”
What does that even mean? If you had the money in your operating budget, to pay out $1.5-$4 million for road repair, where would that money have come from?
Kalnick’s response: “If Kings Point is Number One, how did it get that way? Our board has been dedicated to the village for years and continues to be dedicated. We make sure everything runs like a clock, watch every expense. The bond amount is diminimus in relation to our village and other villages, bonds we issue. Our AAA rating attests to sound financial management, not ‘a credit card to be spent.’ This board will be dedicated as it always has been to keeping Kings Point the same – keeping the services where we are, being proactive, if something needed. Cameras will not only give added security will also help eliminate need for additional police officers. We will be there for you, we will maintain your property values, but drop services and property values will plummet.”
The incumbents did not take sufficient advantage at the candidates debate to give a picture of what they actually do – from negotiating garbage pick-ups and fire and ambulance service, to pressing LIPA to institute better emergency repair procedures, and in the case of Mayor Kalnick, making decisions regarding the health and safety of the drinking water supply, since he serves with the other mayors on the Great Neck North Water Authority.
These are complex, technical matters which need to be learned. That is not to say that a businessman, a doctor and a lawyer cannot, but that making decisions is far more complicated than saying, “We pay too much in taxes, cut them. Our budget is too large, slash it.”
A few items did manage to emerge, such as Mayor Kalnick’s negotiations with the FAA to change the take-off and landing patterns of those pesky helicopters and airplanes that disturb the peace and tranquility of Kings Pointers. (Mayoral candidate Margie Sasson’s solution: work with other villages, amass more voters to complain. Huh?)
During the debate, the candidates each were asked to pose a question to their challenger: Sasson asked Kalnick how he justifies a 47 percent increase in real estate taxes since 2006.
Kalnick replied, “Absolutely I can explain: all the tax increases are state-imposed mandates, mandatory arbitration awards for police, health and pension costs. When the state invests in the market and they lose, we pay… We also lost an enormous amount of mortgage recording revenue, we lost interest revenue on [reserves]. Tax certioraris – this past year, we had to pay out $430,000. All these costs are beyond our control – every dollar we control, we control. This year, because of the trust of our employees in us they took zero percent increase – they are working with us, understand our plight. None of us want to pay more tax. We are working with state and local officials to reduce the major impact – 61 percent of property taxes are school taxes, 22 percent is county and town – to adjust the equalization rate at the state level. We believe we will be successful and we will reduce your taxes.”
The complaint – resentment, really – that Kings Point’s village officials have operated in a rather insular fashion (some would accuse them of arrogance) is really the residents’ own fault: few (including the candidates challenging the incumbents) have ever attended a trustees’ meeting, let alone offered to serve on any of the village boards, like architectural review, planning board or zoning appeals, where the complexity and nuance of village governance emerges. They really have no right, and no basis, to charge the incumbents with operating in secrecy, when decisions are made at public meetings, and (possibly in response to last year’s write-in campaign by Sasson and Schifter charging the village officials with operating without transparency, Mayor Kalnick and the trustees implemented several changes: a Web site (http://www.villageofkingspoint.org/) where you can see news items, calendar of meetings, review minutes and agendas of meetings, pay and view taxes, and peruse the Village Code.
The village also implemented a reverse 911 system, so that village residents can be alerted in the event of an impending storm, for example.
The challengers took great upset with the expense of the village’s surveillance camera program that was pilot-tested, and soon will be implemented to a much wider degree. Kalnick noted it is intended to enhance security without expanding the police force, especially in view of Nassau County’s decision to shut the 6th Precinct. Sheldon Kwiat, the incumbent trustee who also is the chairman of the architectural review committee, defended the program in comments later, saying, “If we had the whole system in place when there was the robbery six months ago, we would have picked up the license plate of the car, would have caught some other crimes within the village had the system fully functioned.”
In one area where the challengers charge waste, I would agree: defending the lawsuit to stop turning a parcel adjacent to Kings Point Park, designated parkland, for a public works facility.
On the other hand, they also threw out wildly inaccurate numbers of spending, overspending. Sasson charged, for example, that the village was headed for an 8 percent tax increase, omitting the fact she was quoting a May 2011 document that referred to FY 2012 (the village is in FY 2013). The next budget includes a 1.98 percent tax increase, which is below the state’s 2% tax cap.
Their assertions that somehow contracts are put out in secret was negated by Schifter himself who pointed out that any contract over $35,000 is required to go out to public bid. And as Mayor Kalnick noted, anyone can come to village hall to review contracts.
Indeed, the harshest indictment of the challengers is that they have never served on any village board, the normal place where people learn the ropes when they are interested in running government; never even attended a village meeting; and two were accused of never having voted before last year when, presumably, they wrote in their own names for election.
Sasson, who is running for mayor, acknowledged afterward that after last year’s write-in campaign, she was offered a position on the village planning board. She declined, she explained, because after “irregularities” with the write-in, she thought her constituents would think she “sold out” if she joined the board.
Probably the harshest accusation against Sasson – which Kalnick posed in his question to her – was that the major source of campaign funding comes from Curtis Katz, a strong backer of the Kings Point Chabad, and contributions from Katz’s employees who do not reside in Kings Point, and others affiliated with him.
They further connect David Yerushalmi of Brooklyn, who practices with attorney Gregory Bitterman, a strong supporter of Kings Point Chabad, and the American Freedom Law Center, in Brooklyn, on which David Yerushalmi (who is associated with Bitterman) and Robert Muise are listed as leaders and serve as counsel (they sued the MTA for refusing to run pro-Israel advertisements on MTA buses), with further connections to the Thomas More Law Center. David Piedra, of the Thomas More Law Center, in May published an article in the Long Island Jewish World charging that last year’s election was “stolen.”
The controversy of the Kings Point Chabad goes back more than a decade, with the institution originally seeking to build a monstrous 73,000-square-foot complex on the 400 East Shore Road site where once a waterfront mansion had stood, and using the federal Religious Land Use and Incarcerated Persons Act (RLUIPA) to force the village to grant the construction. Kings Point was able to force the project back down to 23,000 sq. ft., and construction began, but has come to a stop.
Could it be that the Chabad is waiting for the election to bring more favorable leadership?
Sasson’s response to Kalnick: “I have no affiliation with Chabad. You can trust and believe what I say or not, but what I say is the truth. Chabad will have no influence in anything we do in the village – for myself, religious beliefs are personal beliefs ..our religious beliefs will never interfere with the [governance] of the village. We have dedicated this campaign to transparency…We have no affiliation with Chabad, – our support comes from all sorts of people…We are not beholden to any religious or any other type of organization (applause)
Afterward, Sasson, who at first suggested that Curtis Katz was just another donor, emphatically denied that she would be in favor of the construction of the Chabad “doubling in size, or expanding at all…
“My goal is to serve the residents I will do that without any interference from any organization, religious or otherwise.”
Katz was also the benefactor for last year’s write in campaign for Sasson and Schifter.
Katz had previously been critical of trustees for suing to stop Chabad of Great Neck from demolishing a local house to build a temple and school.
A copy of the State of New York Board of Elections Disclosure Statement shows that Sasson’s campaign received $47,449, half from individuals and corporations, and half from a $23,249 loan from Curtis Katz; the campaign paid out a total of $47498, including $23,249 to Maella LLC at the Brooklyn address, and to Phil Orenstein of Queens Village, a professional campaign manager, and repaid the $23,249 to Curtis Katz.
Sasson and the KPRGP candidates dismiss all of this, and take aim at village property taxes (too high) and spending (too much). But that is the claim in every municipality in the country, indeed, throughout the world. Their accusations suggest that somehow, every elected village official somehow benefits from high taxes or has an interest in overpaying, or else is just too incompetent to find better ways of delivering public services.
In another instance of a flip, simple answer that belies the complexity of the problem, Elnekaveh and Kwiat were asked their position on ambulance service.
Elnekaveh said, “We have Vigilant. When we call they come to help, but nonetheless Kings Point police are all trained to help as 911 for any health issue, have equipment. We have Vigilant and volunteers and two other hospitals, our neighbor with Great Neck and other villages. We need to cooperate with them, team up with them. Teamwork, in this way can make expenses low.”
Kwiat’s answer was more nuanced: “Our ambulance service is provided by Vigilant, fire service by Alert, but we share the Vigilant ambulance service with several other villages. They have been very responsive, they do not take insurance reimbursement, so the entire cost is placed on individual villages. Our share of the cost is $195,000 a year, that’s part of what your taxes go to pay. We are currently exploring other options with services that might accept outside third party insurance, which would bring down our costs.”
Kwiat gave credit to the contested election, though, which basically has accomplished what a contested election should: air issues and offer new solutions, and yes, engage residents (Elnekaveh’s suggestion to use Skype so that residents can watch village meetings and even participate, is an excellent one).
Kwiat said that the incumbents became aware of “the appearance of being arrogant.. We are aware of the perception and one of the things Kalnick addressed, we will in our next term will be mindful of that, we don’t mean to be, not by intention, and will address keeping up residents up to date, one of the benefits of a contested election, until now, weren’t aware of it, will be addressing it, do take to heart.”
Incumbents Kalnick, Kwiat and Harounian demonstrated why they deserve to be returned to office.
Village elections (Kings Point, Lake Success and Great Neck) are Tuesday, June 19, noon to 9 p.m.
