Village of Manorhaven residents will decide in October whether to lengthen their mayor’s next term to four years instead of two.
The village Board of Trustees unanimously voted last Thursday to schedule an Oct. 3 referendum on the issue.
Trustees voted to make the change in June, but rescinded it in July after it sparked a controversy.
“The voters of the Village of Manorhaven will be given the opportunity to come in and vote either to approve or disapprove the resolution,” the village attorney, Steven Leventhal, said at last Thursday’s board meeting.
If the voters approve, Manorhaven would become the only Port Washington village with a mayor serving four years. The village’s other four trustees would continue to serve two-year terms.
The changes would not take effect until after the June 2018 village elections, in which the current mayor, Jim Avena, along Deputy Mayor Priscilla Von Roseschlaub and Trustee Ken Kraft would be up for re-election.
Avena, first elected mayor in 2016, said a four-year term would give new mayors more time to learn the ropes and move projects and initiatives forward.
Avena has maintained that the idea is not about protecting his seat. The four other trustees would remain accountable to residents with two-year terms and could in turn hold the mayor accountable, he said.
“It would give the mayor at the throttle more time to complete his strategy,” Avena said. “The check stands in place — the trustees would be elected every two years. The trustees are involved in every decision.”
The village will advertise the vote with flyers and a phone call to residents, as well as the required legal notice in newspapers, Avena said. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Village Hall, located at 33 Manorhaven Blvd.
Manorhaven has seen contentious elections in recent years. Avena was first elected a trustee in 2015, when he beat an incumbent, Lucretia Steele, by one vote. He defeated former mayor Gary Pagano in 2016 by a margin of 505 votes to 371.
Avena noted that his two most recent predecessors, Giovanna Giunta and Michael Meehan, each served for four years — though Meehan resigned three months before the end of his second two-year term.
Rudy Santo, a resident, commended the board for turning the issue over to voters, said giving the mayor a longer term could be dangerous for the village.
“We don’t know who we’re going to get down the road,” Santo told the board. “… If we learn anything from this history of this community, I’d be very, very reluctant to” lengthen the mayoral term.
Also last Thursday, the Board of Trustees passed a local law allowing it to empower village employees to issue court appearance tickets.
The change expands a provision in the old law that allowed the board to give trustees the power to issue such tickets, Leventhal said. The board also voted to give that power to Lori Vlahos, the village’s part-time code enforcer.
Relatedly, Avena said village officials and outside consultants are preparing a report on illegal over-occupancy in residences that will be presented in September. Addressing the issue is “a major, major goal of this government,” Avena said.
