Floral Park Mayor Dominick Longobardi will not run for re-election in the March 16 elections, according to village officials.
Officials said Trustee Kevin Fitzgerald is running in the place of Longobardi, who was first elected as the village’s mayor in 2017. Officials did not disclose why Longobardi is not seeking re-election and efforts to reach Longobardi and Fitzgerald for comment were unavailing.
Trustees Lynn Pombonyo and Frank Chiara are running for re-election.
Pombonyo, who was first elected to the board in 2014, served as the superintendent for the Floral Park-Bellerose school district. She also holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Seton Hall University. Chiara, a chief investigator in the Bronx district attorney’s office, was elected to his first term as a trustee in 2017 and has been a Floral Park resident for 19 years.
Fitzgerald was appointed to the village board in 2011 and was made deputy mayor in 2016 after James Rhatigan’s death.
He first got involved in village government as a member of the Third Track Task Force, fighting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s plan for a third Long Island Rail Road track in the mid-2000s.
Though a trustee seat will remain vacant with Fitzgerald running for mayor, village officials said, a third trustee seat will not be up for grabs in the coming election, since the mayor will appoint someone to that position. Officials did not comment on any challengers to the incumbents, who are running on the Citizens Party Line.
Earlier, Village of New Hyde Park Mayor Lawrence Montreuil announced that he will not seek re-election in the coming election. Montreuil has served as mayor since April 2017 and his term ends March 31.
“While it has been my absolute passion and privilege to serve my New Hyde Park neighbors for 30 cumulative years, I plan to shift my attention from the important concerns of my neighbors to matters closer to home,” Montreuil said.
The March election has a new local political party throwing its hat in the ring with endorsements from a previous village mayor.
Former New Hyde Park Mayor Dan Petruccio, who served from 2001 to 2013, has endorsed the New Hyde Park Unity Party’s slate of candidates.
The candidates are Christopher Devane for mayor, Madhvi Nijjar and Arthur Savarese for the two trustee positions, and Timothy Jones for village justice.
Devane served as a village justice from 2003 to 2021, Nijjar is a 20-year resident of the village who works in the mental health and human services fields, teaching others who aspire to work in the same profession. Nijjar earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from John Jay College prior to receiving a master’s in social work with a major in psychotherapy from Adelphi University.
Savarese works in marketing and sales and has served on the board for and coached local Little League teams, and Jones is a trial attorney for the Scahill Law Group in Bethpage.
According to the party’s mission statement on its website, it stands for “the principles of an open, honest, diverse and inclusive form of Village government.”
Trustee Richard Coppolla will not seek re-election but Trustee Richard Pallisco will run, Montreuil said at a meeting of the village Board of Trustees on Jan. 28.
