Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender will not run for re-election in March, according to filings submitted to the village by the Tuesday deadline.
Celender began serving on the Board of Trustees in 1984 and was elected mayor in 2000. In 2013, Celender was granted full-time mayoral status, which resulted in a pay raise from $40,000 to $65,000 per year. She remains the lone full-time mayor among the nine Great Neck villages.
Efforts to reach Celender for comment were unavailing.
The race to fill her position as mayor of Great Neck Plaza features both a new and familiar face.
One candidate, Ted Rosen, has been on the board since 1985 and has remained deputy mayor since 2000 when Celender appointed him to the position. Village Clerk Pat O’Byrne said Rosen will be running on the United Residents Party line.
Trustee Pam Marksheid and Board of Zoning Appeals member Michael Deluccia will also run on the United Residents Party line for trustee positions.
In the mayoral race, Rosen will take on longtime Great Neck resident Leonard Katz, who is running on the Revive Great Neck Plaza party line. Residents Siu Long Au and Robert Farajollah are running on the same slate for trustee positions.
The Revive Great Neck Party has laid out four objectives if elected: revitalizing the town, removing useless regulation, providing more information to residents and setting term limits for officials.
In the Village of Great Neck Estates, Trustees Lanny Oppenheim and Howard Hershenhorn are running unopposed for re-election on the Better Government Party line.
Hershenhorn began serving on the board in 2008 and Oppenheim began serving on the board in 2011.
In the Village of Kensington, Mayor Susan Lopatkin, Deputy Mayor Phillip Bornstein and Trustee Jeffrey Greener are all running for re-election unopposed.
Lopatkin began serving on the board in 2008, while Bornstein and Greener have served on the board since 2012.
The three are running on the Kensington Preservation Party line.
In the Village of Thomaston, incumbent Trustees To-On Pang and James Sharkey are running unopposed for re-election on the Good Neighbors Party line.
Sharkey began serving on the board in 2010 and Pang began in 2012.
In the Village of Saddle Rock, Trustees Manny Alani and Ronen Ben-Josef are running uncontested races for two trustee positions after the retirement of Kamran Barelli.
Ben-Josef won an uncontested race for Alani’s seat in 2018 after Alani did not file papers to run. Village Clerk Hinda Goldman said Alani has served on the board “off and on” for the last 15 years.
In the Village of Russell Gardens, Trustees Lawrence Chaleff and Matthew Ellis will run unopposed for re-election on the Evergreen Party line.
Ellis began on the board in 2012, while Chaleff was appointed as deputy mayor this past year.
The elections in these villages will take place on Wednesday, March 18.
The villages of Great Neck, Lake Success and Kings Point all have June 16 elections.
