I have been a resident of the Village of Great Neck Plaza for over 20 years.
While I did not grow up in the Village, after graduating from law school, I decided to make Great Neck my home. For me a home is more than the four walls of my apartment, it is the community surrounding me.
After moving to the Village, I made the decision to become involved in my community. I’ve attended almost every Board of Trustees meetings for the past 10 years.
Recognizing my commitment to the village, I was asked to join the Historic Preservation Commission. I was only too happy to join.
After serving on this Board, I was asked to join the Zoning Board of Appeals. Today, I am chairman of the Zoning Board and am proud of the contributions the board has made.
During this time, I also became involved in my Co-Op, eventually running to be a board member. Today I am the president of my co-op and could not be happier to help improve the quality of life for all residents. My co-op is the largest in the village with 150 apartments and 29 stores. We have a bright future ahead of us.
I am writing this letter because I am deeply troubled by Mr. Katz’ recent letter to the paper appealing for a drastic change in the local government.
Firstly, I want the community to understand that to have experienced individuals represent you, the residents of the village is vitally important.
We have relationships with other local, county and state officials that can and do help us when needed. Secondly, many improvements have been made within the village to help protect pedestrians, traffic congestion and improve the quality of our lives.
These improvements have been made while maintaining the strong fiscal stability of the community. Finally, while there are store vacancies in the downtown, Ted Rosen, Pam Marksheid and I have made it a priority to fill these stores with viable businesses that will succeed for many years to come.
While Mr. Katz may have a catchy slogan and send letters to the paper every week, I think the village needs to understand why inexperienced leaders, like Mr. Katz and his running mates, will lead to our downfall.
Firstly, Mr. Katz has only been attending board meetings since he decided to run for mayor. Mr. Farajollah has never attended a Board of Trustees meeting. The newest addition to the team, Marnie Ives, attended her first meeting last week.
How can we think about electing people to our local government when they have never attended a Board of Trustees meeting?
Secondly, Mr. Katz and his team are running as “write-in” candidates. You may ask why? Simple, Mr. Katz and his running mates did not follow the rules established by the Nassau County Board of Elections.
The Nassau County Board of Election reviewed all petitions and signatures. While the Rosen, Marksheid and DeLuccia team met these requirements, every signature from Mr. Katz’s team was held invalid.
Please feel free to reach out to the Nassau County Board of Elections for more information. What’s most upsetting is that rather than take responsibility for his actions, Mr. Katz blamed his invalidated petitions on the village clerk, Pat O’Byrne.
Rather than blame an integral, highly competent employee of the village, it was your inexperience and failure to follow rules that caused your situation.
In his most recent letter, Mr. Katz accuses the village of not being more proactive in helping businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
When in fact, one of the trustees personally visited almost every store and asked how the village could help them during this pandemic.
Rather than recognize and commend these actions, Mr. Katz accuses her of grandstanding. Perhaps a better example of grandstanding would be Mr. Katz suddenly visiting the 2 Atria’s on Valentine’s Day with roses and a photographer.
In his letter, Mr. Katz refers to the Celender/Rosen administration. Mr. Katz, after many years of dedicated service to the village, Mayor Celender is retiring.
There will be a new mayor and a new trustee. Please be assured, the Rosen, Marksheid and DeLuccia ticket will bring new and innovative solutions and improvements to the Village.
Finally, Mr. Katz indicates in his letter that the village is not taking enough initiative to clean up the train station. Unfortunately, the inexperienced Mr. Katz may not know that the train station (serving the entire peninsula) is operated and maintained by the MTA and not the Village of Great Neck Plaza.
I’m appealing to all of the voters in the Village of Great Neck Plaza, do not let the inexperienced team of Katz, Ives and Farajollah decide the future of our Village. Other than a catchy slogan, what do they have to offer?
Complaints? No solutions? Inexperience?
We need experienced leaders like Ted Rosen, Pam Marksheid and myself, Michael DeLuccia, to run our village and continue to implement new strategies that will make the Plaza into an even better place to live.
Michael DeLuccia
Village of Great Neck Plaza
