Ted Rosen does not have the best interest of Great Neck Plaza residents at heart, something that was abundantly clear for anyone who watched the recentGreat Neck News candidate forum. Ted was arrogant, combative, defensive and antagonistic, and could not provide one example about his record other than the creation of a parking brochure. I for one would have loved to hear the incumbent review his record publicly and explain why he has served as nothing more than a pawn of the current mayor.
Though this village has a sad history of not electing anyone who wasn’t first appointed by Jean Celender (Schneiderman in 2000 and Marksheid in 2009, for example), we now can demand change. After Rosen’s 35-year reign of insolvent leadership, complacency and disinterest, we have the opportunity to write in three candidates on Sept. 15.
By doing so, we could effectively write away a group of long-serving politicos who collect annual salaries, pensions and free health insurance, courtesy of the Plaza taxpayer. Imagine what a successful write-in campaign would mean, particularly since it is likely that a mere 200 voters would determine the outcome of the election. This village deserves forward-thinking leadership, and Ted Rosen is not the answer. For decades Ted has failed to be transparent, creative, tenacious or thoughtful, andin election after election he has banked on low voter turnout.
During the candidate forum, Ted mentioned that village revenue was down by $300,000 this year and he was concerned. Yet he never once mentioned that Plaza taxpayers (his neighbors!) have paid out more than $2 million over the past 20 years in salary, health insurance, pension contributions and other special perks afforded to him and his band of part-time politicians. The data is available at www.SeeThroughNY.net.
While Ted and his running mates continue to chastise those challenging them for office, I thought I would take an opportunity to break down some of the adjectives Ted and his team have used to describe themselves:
Experienced. Yes, they are in fact experienced at selfishly placing their needs ahead of the community’s. Ted Rosen is experienced at taking benefits from the community while ignoring the many quality-of-life issues that continue to plague us (such as doing nothing to address the dangers that confront us every day as people run stop signs and put pedestrians in danger). Pam Marksheid is experienced at sitting on the stage at Village Hall and never raising an issue, never offering up legislation that would improve the community, and never disagreeing with the mayor, a fact so salient that upon reviewing her voting record she appears to support the mayor 100 percent of the time. Michael DeLuccia is experienced at never holding elected office (something he has personally attacked his opponents for) and at being someone in the community that no one ever heard of prior to this election.
Dedicated. Perhaps this term was chosen because Ted Rosen and Pam Marksheid are dedicated to supporting the status quo, a system that is designed to better only the lives of Plaza politicians and not the few people who put them in office. I for one appreciate their public acknowledgement of being dedicated to failed economic policies, burdensome barriers for new businesses, shameful self-promoting political tactics, and a reckless dependency on a part-time mayor whose singular success is securing grant money for concrete slabs that are referred to as “parks” and dangerous bike lanes.
Effective. Perhaps this term is most accurate. Ted Rosen and Pam Marksheid are effective at ignoring the fact that over 6,000 people reside in this village. The success of this approach comes in the form of ensuring voter apathy, whereby most elections are determined in great part by the assisted-living centers through absentee ballots.
Plaza residents should go to the polls in droves and vote for the write-in candidates because the people of Great Neck Plaza deserve better than Rosen and Marksheid. We deserve local government that is about public service, not about the perks. It is time that the core issues we face in our village are addressed. There is no question that 35 years of ineffective service is enough. It’s time to retire, Ted!
Write in Leonard Katz, Marnie Ives, and Robert Farajollah on Sept. 15th.
Michael S. Glickman
Great Neck Plaza
