North Shore Action hoped to host a mayoral forum with Great Neck Village Mayor Pedram Bral and challenger Rebecca Gilliar on Wednesday, June 14, at the Great Neck Library. But it looks unlikely that Bral will attend.
As the director of a fellowship program in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, Bral said he must do cases every Wednesday, save for the first of every month, and that many of these surgical appointments are made months in advance. As a result, Bral said he is booked until the end of July and needed much more advance notice.
North Shore Action, a political activism group, said it plans to hold the forum from 7 to 8:30 p.m. even if only one candidate attends.
The forum comes less than a week before the elections on June 20. Village of Great Neck residents, who can vote at Village Hall between noon and 9 p.m., will decide who should be mayor and which of three trustee candidates will fill two trustee seats.
Explaining why he probably won’t attend the forum, Bral said: “These are surgeries. Office hours are different. Surgeries — people take off from work and they get letters and they have to get people to replace them. It’s not a simple thing to do. You also have to realize with patients, it’s their health.
“So unfortunately, I don’t think a two-week notice was enough, especially when the notice came at the beginning of the holidays. I’m working on it, but I just don’t see it happening at this time.”
He also noted that, because North Shore Action is relatively new, he may not have initially recognized the forum invitation.
Bral said that residents still have an opportunity to ask him questions at today’s Meet the Mayor event at Mangia Bene, 624 Middle Neck Road, from 7 to 8 p.m.
He has hosted over a dozen of such events since his 2015 election.
“By having a very casual meeting, I think it takes away fear of the government,” Bral said, noting that such events also bring attention to local businesses.
Gilliar and Adam Harel, who is running for trustee, are on the Village Unity Party ticket.
Harel has been a trader of equity stocks, worked for 10 years for the City of New York, and currently works in pharmaceutical marketing, according to a campaign flier. He also studied political science in college.
Gilliar was a freelance magazine writer, television producer, photographer and adjunct professor at Queens College. She also served as a UPTC chairperson for 12 years and gave away thousands of books that were being discarded by the Great Neck Library.
Additionally, Gilliar helped organize a last minute write-in campaign to try unseating then Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman and two others in 2013. She then headed the 2015 campaign that ultimately unseated Kreitzman and got Bral into office.
Annie Mendelson, Steven Hope and Bral are running on the Village Alliance Party ticket.
In addition to serving as trustee, Mendelson serves on the Architectural Review Committee and is a representative of the Manhasset Bay Protection Committee. Currently, she works as a software product manager for Thomson Reuters. Before that, she taught math at Great Neck North High School and worked in the defense and software industries.
Hope served on the Planning Board from August 2015 to April 2017, until his appointment to the Board of Trustees to fill a vacancy when Ray Plakstis left the board. Hope said he has worked in property management for over 20 years, served in Great Neck PAL for over a decade, and served as president of the Brotherhood of Temple Beth-El.
Voters will also decide on the position of village justice. Mark Birnbaum is currently running unopposed.
The invitations for the mayoral forum went out on June 1 to both candidates via email. Gilliar confirmed her attendance.
North Shore Action representatives said they aim to promote civic engagement and inform voters so they can make the best decisions for themselves and their community. This is especially important on the local level, they said, and a forum would help with that goal.
“One could argue that each vote on the local level is even more powerful than on the national level,” North Shore Action said via email. “The reason for this candidates forum — we are not calling it a debate — therefore is to allow the community to learn about each candidate and make an informed decision when they vote.”
Jacqueline Harounian, a member of North Shore Action, also noted that the forum comes after somewhat divisive May 16 school elections, when residents decided upon a $68.3 million bond, a $223.3 million budget and who should fill two school board seats.
She described the event as a way for both candidates “to speak to the community” and “address any unanswered questions or rumors going around.”
North Shore Action is soliciting questions from residents before the event. Questions must be submitted to northshoreaction@gmail.com before June 12 to be asked, although not all can be asked at the forum.
“As a resident of the village, I am concerned about all the issues we are facing and I think it would be very healthy if we got into talking about these issues,” said Steve Markowitz, who has lived in Great Neck for over four decades. “I look forward to hearing the candidates debate.”
This will be the first forum that North Shore Action has hosted and its second major event. The first was a rally with U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat.
