5 candidates vie for 2 Village of Great Neck trustee seats

Adam Lidgett

Voters will decide Tuesday between five candidates vying for two trustee spots in the Village of Great Neck elections — the only contested race among the three villages holding elections in Great Neck.

In Kings Point, trustees Ron Horowitz and Hooshang Nematzadeh are running unopposed as are Village of Lake Success trustees Adam Hoffman, Gene Kaplan and David Milner.

Village of Great Neck trustees and Better Government Party members Mitch Beckerman and Jeff Bass are running for their spots against Voice of the Village Party candidates Anne Mendelson and Raymond Plakstis Jr. and Bridge Party candidate Sam Yellis.

Mayor Ralph Kreitzman is also running on the Better Government Party ticket for Mayor, while doctor Pedram Bral is running for mayor on the Voice of the Village Party ticket.

Bral, Mendelson and Plakstis have said that a prime reason for the challenge is their dissatisfaction with the rezoning of parts of Middle Neck and Steamboat roads.

The rezoning, which was intended to revitalize the downtown business district, permits apartments above commercial businesses in the central business core and apartments and townhomes at the northern and southern ends of Middle Neck Road.

Under the rezoning, townhomes are also allowed on portions of Steamboat Road.

Yellis said the first thing he would do if elected would be to overturn the rezoning and create a more pedestrian friendly plan for reviving the business district. He said he wants to offer incentives for businesses to come to the village, but wasn’t sure what they would be yet.

“You don’t save it by shrinking it,” Yellis has said of the business district. “We need more stores and customers, and their plans will eliminate stores that have been around for generations.”

In defending the rezoning, Kreitzman was pointed to the Smart Growth Award that Vision Long Island has awarded to the village for the rezoning. Vision Long Island, a smart growth advocacy non-profit, has said the rezoning improves downtown walkability in the Village of Great Neck, enhancing the resident and community experience.

Yellis has criticized the award, saying that the issue of walking downtown is not related to walking from the southern to northern ends of Middle Neck Road. He said the issue with downtown walkability is trying to cross the street.

“No ‘calming’ of the street is included in the plans; nothing to help pedestrians cross the ever-busy Middle Neck Road,” Yellis said in a statement. “Indeed; their plan calls for hundreds of housing units, meaning hundreds more cars, using Middle Neck Road, making it that much harder to cross.”

He also said he wants to work more closely with other villages, special districts and the Great Neck School District to provide more services in the Village of Great Neck, such as possibly using the Village Green for a farmers market or high school band concerts.   

Yellis said he would also try to put in a mini-mall at the current Department of Public Works facility, located at 765 Middle Neck Road. He said by creating a destination such as the mini-mall, the village can attract more shoppers.

A teacher at the Village School, Yellis said that while he doesn’t have experience in government, but that he does have experience in dealing with many different peoples’ concerns.

“I deal with 50 parents every year,” Yellis said. “I’m dealing with children of the community. Right there I’m dealing with two generations of people every year.”

If elected, Yellis has said, he would try to get town, county, state and federal funding to bring in five electric shuttle buses to bring people into the village to shop.

“There is nothing in the [rezoning] plan that calls for using the Village Green, a jewel in the heart of the village, that could serve as a destination, a place where ‘something is always going on,’” Yellis said in a statement.

Mendelson, a technical software product manager for Thomson Reuters, has also criticized the rezoning of parts of Middle Neck and Steamboat roads, saying they will burden village.

“The zoning has changes such that it expanded residential areas so that apartment buildings can be put in,” Mendelson has said. “As a result, we will have greater traffic and greater stress on our aquifers.”

Mendelson has said she also opposes the sale of the current Village Hall and building of a new Village Hall and Department of Public Works facility at 265 East Shore Road. She said the village can currently work with what it has, and that the current Village Hall only needs renovated.

“I don’t want any unwanted expenses,” Mendelson has said. “It’s needed renovation for as long as I can remember.”

Mendelson worked in defense and software development for years before she got her teaching certificate in 2003, after which she taught math at Great Neck North High School. She worked as a teacher until 2013 when her job was eliminated due to budget cuts, she has said.

She said her willingness to work with residents and help the community, coupled with her familiarity with the village, will help her serve as trustee if elected.

“After 10 years of having the current people in power, they have been dismantling everything we hold dear in this village and turning it into a place we don’t recognize,” Mendelson has said.

At a meet and greet event held by the Voice of the Village Party at Great Neck House Tuesday night, Bral addressed concerns that his party wants to close all stores in the village on Saturdays because he is an orthodox Jew. Bral said to the crowd of about 25 people that while he is orthodox, his running mates are not orthodox, and he does not want to close any businesses.

Bral called the email “racial slander” and a “desperate move.”

Mendelson said at the meet and greet that the candidates on the Voice of the Village Party ticket all come from different backgrounds, but that they are a unified group.

She said being a trustee is about moving the village forward and dealing with the larger issues. She said the day-to-day operations of the village should be left up to the full-time village staff.

Voice of the Village supporters at Tuesday’s event said it is time for new people to lead the village.

Daniel Rahmani, a 16-year village resident, said developers who want to start projects in the village are treated better than village residents.

“No good government can stay the same this long,” he said. “There isn’t anything good that can come out of it.”

Bob Meheizadeh, a village resident for 12 years, said he wants to see a younger generation of people on the Board of Trustees.

“We need new blood in the system,” Meheizadeh said.

Continued efforts to reach Plakstis, a former Great Neck Alert Fire Company chief, were unavailing.

According to a platform sent by the Voice of the Village Party’s campaign manager Rebecca Gilliar, Plakstis lead teams of volunteers at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, according to the platform. He has decided to run for office because “current mayor, with the approval of his trustees, has interfered in decisions by the zoning and planning boards, lobbying on behalf of developers.”

He also said, according to the platform, the village has a pattern of withholding information from residents.

Plakstis ran for Great Neck Park District Commissioner in 2011, losing to current commissioner Dan Nachmanoff. Plakstis came in second with 368 votes, Neil Leiberman, husband of Great Neck News columnist Karen Rubin, received 347 and Great Neck resident Martin Markson received 342.

The Better Government Party has received an outpouring of support from a wide range of state, federal and village officials.

Letters to the editor submitted to Blank Slate Media over the past several weeks have included endorsements from Congressman Steve Israel, state Sen. Jack Martins, state Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel and a number of village mayors.

Endorsements have also come from Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender, Kensington Mayor Susan Lopatkin, Kings Point Mayor Michael Kalnick, Russell Gardens Mayor Steven Kirschner, Thomaston Mayor Steven Weinberg and Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy.

While many of these endorsements were intended specifically for Kreitzman, some were also for Beckerman and Bass. In their campaign advertisements, the Better Government Party states the elected officials have endorsed the whole party.  

While Beckerman and Bass have said that neither of them asked for endorsements, Kreitzman has said he had separate conversations with Israel, Martins and Schimel about his campaign and that one out of the three of them offered their endorsement without him asking first, while the other two he asked. He would not specify which official offered their endorsement unsolicited.

Kreitzman has said he began speaking with other mayors after he began to think the Village of Great Neck might have a contested election. He said the opposition candidates ran on a “stealth” basis last time, so he assumed they would be back for this election, but on the ballot.

Beckerman, a certified public accountant, said part of being trustee is making sure the village runs effectively and that most don’t know the day-to-day operations — such as cleaning the streets — take a lot of work.

“I want to continue to maintain the services of the village,” Beckerman said. “Garbage, infrastructure; all these things that everyone wants.”

Beckerman was first elected as trustee in 2001, has said he is running for re-election because he is committed to making the village a better place to live.

“It’s not just about Village Hall,” Beckerman said. “It’s about the day-to-day operations of the village.”

Beckerman said if re-elected he wants to continue to move the village forward.

“I want to continue to listen to residents and make government work for them,” Beckerman said. “It’s keeping the village running, the [Department of Public Works] moving, keeping village services going and improving infrastructure.”

Bass said he wants to see things he has helped implement as trustee come to fruition, such as the rezoning of parts of Middle Neck and Steamboat roads. He said the rezoning will create more housing, increase commercial opportunities and make Middle Neck Road more walkable.

Bass, who is CEO of Executive Strategies Group LLC, a strategic advisor to business owners and executive management, was first elected to be a Village of Great Neck trustee in 2007. He said he had previously served on the village’s planning board from 2000 to 2002 and the village’s zoning board of appeals from 2002 to 2007.

Bass began his career as a transportation planner in New Jersey during the early 1970s. He returned to New York and became the first district manager appointed by Community Board 11 in Queens where he supervised the delivery of municipal services to the area.

He then worked in the administration of New York City Mayor Ed Koch as the director of the Bureau of Management Analysis in the Department of Sanitation.

He is the chairman emeritus of the Long Island Capital Alliance, a member of the Manhasset Bay Protection Committee and on the Board of Governors for the American Jewish Committee.

Bass said he also wants to continue the routine work that comes with being a village trustee as well, such as making sure the roads are cleared and the trees are maintained.

“I don’t need to do this, I want to do this,” Bass said. “Being an official at a local level is a very personal thing. Chances are you know most people.”

Being a trustee, Bass said, requires experience and skill, and that if someone wants to run for trustee they should join one of the smaller village boards first.

“I would rather those running for office attend meetings on a regular basis and get deeply involved in the ongoing operations in the village,” Bass said.

Bral, Mendelson and Christine Campbell were part of an under-the-radar write-in campaign in the 2013 elections, which resulted in hundreds of residents lining around the block to vote for the challengers.

Campbell was originally set to run for trustee on the Voice of the Village party ticket, but declined the nomination after her name was submitted on the petition. Plakstis then accepted the nomination to replace her and run for trustee.

On voting day in 2013, Trustees stood for hours making phone calls outside the polling station to residents, contending with rain as they shored up support against the surprise challenge, officials said at the time.

In one instance, Kreitzman called former Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-Great Neck), who put out a robocall to encourage supporters to vote for the re-election of Kreitzman, Beckerman and Bass, as well as the election of Trustee Mark Birnbaum as village justice.

Kreitzman defeated challenger Bral 325 to 232. Beckerman took 316 votes and Bass won 320 votes, with opposition trustee candidates Christine Campbell and Mendelson receiving 226 votes each.

Voting on Tuesday will take place from 12 p.m.-9 p.m. at Great Neck House at 14 Arrandale Ave. The Village of Great Neck Mayor is paid $10,000 a year and trustees are each paid $4,800.

Nematzadeh said that as an Iranian-American he feels an obligation to serve his community and run for trustee in Kings Point.

“The Iranian-American community has an obligation to serve on local boards — community members need to step up and serve,” Nematzadeh said.

Nematzadeh, president of Nemat Homes Inc., was first appointed as a Village of Kings Point trustee in September 2012 after former Trustee Peter Aron resigned. He was then elected to his first full term in 2013.

He has also been Great Neck Chamber of Commerce President for four years.

“I care for my village. I don’t need this for any other reason than I want to serve my community and my village,” said Nematzadeh.

Nematzadeh also served as vice president of the United Mashadi Jewish Community of America from 1998 to 2001 and as executive vice president of the Iranian American Jewish Community of America from 2003 to 2014. He also has served on the Village of Kings Point Planning Board since 2001.

If re-elected, Nematzadeh said he wants to continue to maintain the quality of life in his village. He said he also wants to keep taxes low for village residents all while not compromising on the quality of village services.

Voting will take place from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Kings Point Village Hall, 32 Steppingstone Lane.

In Lake Success, trustees Adam Hoffman, Gene Kaplan and David Milner will all run unopposed. Trustees are paid $1,800 a year.

Voting will take place from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Lake Success Village Hall, located at 318 Lakeville Road.

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