Voters will decide Wednesday between three candidates vying for two spots in the election for Great Neck Plaza trustee – the only contested race among the six villages holding elections in Great Neck.
Great Neck lawyer Jonathan Stein is challenging Great Neck Plaza trustees Gerry Schneiderman Lawrence Katz. They are joined on the ballot by Great Neck Plaza Village Justice Neil Finkston, who is running unopposed.
Stein has criticized the current Great Neck Plaza leadership, saying they have failed to adequately address the number of empty storefronts in the village and put “Band-Aids” on issues. He has also expressed concerns about parking issues in the village.
He has engaged in a series of heated exchanges with Schneiderman, who last week demanded that Stein retract what Schneiderman called libelous statements Stein made in his campaign literature about a $2,500 payment made to consultant hired by the village to study parking congestion downtown. On his website, he characterized Schneiderman’s support for the contract with Level G Associates as “Trustee Schneiderman Caught Urging $2,500 Payoff by Plaza Board” in the headline of a release.
Schneiderman, who criticized Stein’s lack of previous involvement in the village, and Stein then challenged each other to a debate. The debate talks ended after Stein demanded that he and Schneiderman engage a one-on-one debate and Schneiderman demanded that Katz be included in a debate moderated by the League of Women Voters.
Schneiderman has been a trustee since 2000, and served as chairman of the Board of Zoning Appeals from 1982 until 2000. Katz has been a trustee since 2012, and served as a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals from 2010 until 2012.
Stein has criticized Katz for being an absentee trustee and a “rubber stamp.” Katz responded to the absentee trustee charge, saying he has been to nearly every meeting since he was elected.
Katz also said his support of important issues such as approving the budget, 50 conditional use permits and authorizing the mayor to implement more than $4.5 million in grants for traffic safety and beautification made him an effective trustee, not a rubber stump.
Great Neck Plaza trustees each receive $10,000 a year in salary. The mayoral and trustee positions in the other villages with upcoming elections do not receive a salary.
The Great Neck Plaza election will take place from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 2 Gussack Plaza.
The other five villages have uncontested elections for village trustees, and in some cases village mayor.
In Russell Gardens, Mayor Steven Kirschner and trustees Martin Adickman and Jane Krakauer are running for re-election.
Kirschner would be serving his second term consecutive term as mayor if elected. He also served as mayor from 2003 to 2009, and has been a trustee since 1989 when not serving as mayor.
He said he decided not to run in 2009, citing personal and business concerns. He then returned as mayor when his successor, Michael Bloomfield, decided not to seek re-election in 2013, .
Kirschner said he decided to run again for mayor in an attempt to stabilize the village, which he described as being in “disarray” at the time.
Kirschner said as the time Bloomfield decided not to run the village’s purchase of tennis courts from the Russell Gardens Association was at the center of controversy.
He said Russell Gardens made the right decision in making the purchase and not borrowing to finance it.
Before the purchase, the tennis courts were only open to one family homeowners in the village. Kirschner said when the courts are refurbished sometime in the fall they will be open to all village residents.
Adickman has served on the board since 2003. Krakauer has served since 2009.
Voting will take place from 12 p.m. until 9 p.m. at 6 Tain Drive.
In Thomaston Mayor Steven Weinberg and trustees Gary Noren and Jill Monoson are all up for re-election.
Voting will take place from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Village Hall at 100 East Shore Road.
Weinberg, an attorney with the firm Gottesman, Wolgel, Flynn, Weinberg & Lee P.C., was named acting mayor in September 2014 after former Mayor Bob Stern resigned, and officially became the mayor about a month later.
He had served as deputy mayor from 2003 through 2014, trustee from 2001 to 2003 and village justice from 1997 to 2001.
Weinberg said he is currently focused on the replacement of the Colonial Road Bridge, a $24.9 million project planned by the LIRR, which is part of a larger project in the Village of Thomaston that includes improved drainage at track level, landscaping and the extension of an existing pocket track used to turn trains around. The total project will cost $45.1 million and allow the LIRR to improve train service reliability, according to MTA officials.
Weinberg said last month the Long Island Rail Road is tentatively scheduled to close the Colonial Road Bridge on March 30. He has said the LIRR expects the bridge to reopen in April 2016.
Noren, vice president of sales for Outerstuff LCC, a sports apparel company, said the Colonial Road Bridge project will most likely be the last thing he oversees as he does not plan on running for another term after this one. He was elected to the board 14 years ago.
He said he isn’t ready to retire quite yet from his day job yet, but he would like to do more community theater.
Monoson, an attorney with the Great Neck firm Kestenbaum & Mark, took office in just January when Weinberg became mayor. She said was approached to served as a trustee because of her record of pubic service as a village justice from 1999 through 2009.
In Great Neck Estates, Mayor David Fox, trustees William Warner and Sidney Krugman and village justice Harry Burstein are all running for re-election.
Krugman, who first ran for village trustee more than 20 years ago, said one of his first projects as trustee was helping to fix the bad road conditions in the village. Now two decades later, he is helping to fix those same roads.
The idea to run for trustee came to Krugman from Arthur Winston, who was with the village civic association at the time, who told Krugman in a small village like Great Neck Estates he could make a difference.
Warner, who has been on the Great Neck Estates Board of Trustees since 2001 said he started becoming involved in the village years earlier. In 1996, Warner said he founded the village’s Day Camp in the Park, a summer camp that offers activities such as swimming, tennis lessons and soccer to residents of the Estates.
Warner said he’s still active in sports and the park facilities, even though he is now the public works commissioner. Besides spending time as deputy mayor, Warner said he is involved in youth basketball, assistant coaching the Great Neck South High basketball team.
Voting will take place from 12 p.m. until 9 p.m. March 18 at 4 Gateway Dr.
There are three open seats in Saddle Rock as well – for Mayor Dan Levy, Trustee Mark Collins and Trustee David Schwartz.
Levy was elected as mayor in 2011. Collins has been serving as trustee since 2005 and Schwartz has served since 2011.
In 2013, Levy ran against Sasha Masri, who later in 2013 pleaded not guilty to assault charges after an altercation at Saddle Rock Village Hall with Levy. The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division overturned Masri’s conviction earlier this year.
Prosecutors said at Masri’s trial that after an October 2012 Saddle Rock Board of Trustees meeting Masri caused deep lacerations to Levy’s head and fractures to Levy’s shoulders after a physical confrontation.
The altercation began when Masri approached village Trustee David Schwartz after the meeting, to ask him about an outgoing audit of village finances. Witnesses said that after Marsi made his request, Levy – who considered Masri a disruptive presence at village meetings – began to belittle Masri, and the two started to swear at each other.
Differing accounts in arguments made by defense attorney Robert McDonald and Assistant District Attorney Christine Geier’s say Masri either slapped Levy with an open hand or punched Levy in the face with keys in his hand. The defense said Levy was motivated by anger and a desire to discredit Masri, and that Levy’s injuries were not a result of Masri’s initial blow.
Prosecutors cited medical testimony from the surgeon who treated Levy to show his injuries came from a sharp object, such as Masri’s keys.
Levy pleaded the Fifth Amendment when asked about the village’s finances during the trial. Efforts to reach Masri and Levy were unavailing.
The trial brought to light documents showing auditors were concerned about some of the Village of Saddle Rock’s financial packages, including Levy’s cashing of village checks written out to a contractor owned by a personal friend.
The auditing firm Satty, Levine and Ciacco prepared an audit of the village’s finances for the fiscal year ending in February 2012. The firm sent a memorandum to the village highlighting missing invoices, questionable charges on the village gas card, an unaccounted purchase of a laptop and checks to a contractor personally cashed by Levy as issues.
A Nassau County District Attorney’s investigation into the village’s finances determined in January 2014 that Levy committed no criminal wrongdoing in his handling of the village’s finances.
Saddle Rock elections will take place from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 18 Masefield Way.
Kensington won’t see mayoral elections this time, but it will see two trustee elections. Trustees Alina Hendler and Darren Kaplan are both running for their open seats.
Kensington elections will take place from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 2 Nassau Drive.
All terms are for two years.
