At the Aug. 24 board meeting, the Village of Manorhaven Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution calling for a referendum at Village Hall on Tuesday, Oct. .
Residents will have the opportunity to vote on whether to change the term of mayor to four years or retain the two-year term.
Many villages across the U.S. adopted four-year terms and have found that their governments operate more efficiently as a result.
The Board of Trustees encourages Manorhaven residents to vote “Yes” and adopt a four-year mayoral term of office.
The board feels strongly that changing to a four-year mayoral term will improve our Village government by: increasing continuity of management and procedures; allowing the Village to commit to critical long-term projects (such as repairing roads and sewers) without costly disruptions; attracting the highest-quality staff (two-year mayoral terms negatively impact staff job security and are a deterrent to applicants); and minimizing the time and expense lost to new mayors and staff learning the ropes and forming working relationships with other community leaders (such police and fire chiefs, town and county leaders, etc.).
Approving this resolution will not extend the mayor’s current term.
Rather, the four-year mayoral term will go into effect following the June 2018 election. Furthermore, voters will still be able to elect trustees to two-year terms.
Our village’s system of checks and balances requires almost all decisions to be approved by a majority of the Board of Trustees.
The Board of Trustees strongly believes that approving this resolution is in Manorhaven’s best interest.
A four-year mayoral term will cut down on time and effort lost to needless politicking and will help our government address our village’s difficult long-term projects.
\Village of Manorhaven Board of Trustees,
Mayor Jim Avena
Deputy Mayor Priscilla von Roeschlaub
Trustees Rita Di Lucia, Ken Kraft and John Popeleski
