Our Views: New rules for villages

The Island Now

Voters in the Village of Roslyn Estates went to the polls on Tuesday to pick two trustees, but only had one name on the ballot from which to choose.

Village Clerk Brian Rivera said before the election that the village would rely on write-in votes to determine the second trustee. And if there were none, the board of trustees would appoint the trustee.

Sorry if we don’t think that’s what the framers of the Constitution had in mind.

Our answer, in the words of comedian Bill Maher, is that it’s time for new rules.

If a village is unable to muster enough candidates to fill a board it should give up on trying to be a village.

Village officials can either reach out to a neighboring village to see if they would be willing to consolidate or turn the keys back over to the Town of North Hempstead.

This is not to criticize residents of Roslyn Estates.

We understand that people lead busy lives, often struggling to balance work and family.

We also get that serving on a board often at little or no pay after a long day might not appeal to too many people.

But if a village can’t find five people to sit on its governing board, residents need to accept the reality that there aren’t enough people interested in serving to have their own government.

Before he became governor, Andrew Cuomo frequently criticized the proliferation of government entities in the state and the money that could be saved by consolidating some of them.

Ground zero for this proliferation is Nassau County with 56 school districts along with one county, two cities, three towns and dozens of villages and special districts.

But there has been no rush to embrace Cuomo’s idea to save money through consolidation – despite the frequent complaints about too much government and high taxes. Apparently, that only applies to someone else.

In fact, Cuomo’s recommendation was greeted with indifference if not hostility.

Fair enough. If people choose to pay more for their government services because they want a greater sense of control that is their right.

But with that comes a responsibility to get involved.

That involvement begins with residents attending board meetings and voting in elections, and goes on to include running for office.

While Roslyn Estates was alone in not fielding enough candidates to fill open slots, most trustees running Tuesday were unopposed — with notable exceptions in Mineola, East Williston and East Hills.

The lack of competition could be a result of residents being happy with their trustees, residents not caring who their trustees were or a combination of the two.

In most cases, the unopposed candidates did not feel the need to discuss what they had done for their village in the past and what they intended to do in the future.

We’d like to think that each of the unopposed candidates deserved election. 

But we would feel much more comfortable if they were required to at least present what their qualifications were.

Call that new rule No. 2: If someone is running for re-election, he or she has to tell us why.

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