Six Great Neck villages held their elections Tuesday with 15 candidates running unopposed for mayoral, trustee and village justice seats.
The Village of Saddle Rock was the lone village to have a change in trustees.
Kamran Barelli and Manny Alani will take over the seats vacated by former Deputy Mayor Avery Modlin and trustee Robert Steinberg, who both decided not to run.
Barelli was elected with 26 votes and Alani with 25. The village has 628 registered voters, according to a village spokeswoman.
The spokeswoman could not verify how much the rental of the voting machines cost for the village. The village pays two election inspectors $100 each, the spokeswoman said.
Efforts to reach Barelli or Alani for comment on the results were unavailing.
Modlin declined requests for a comment on why he stepped down, only saying he had no time to be a trustee and be president of the North Shore Hebrew Academy. Efforts to reach Steinberg were unavailing.
Modlin and Steinberg defeated resident Sasha Masri two years ago.
Masri later accused Village of Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy of financial wrongdoing during a trial on charges that Masri assaulted Levy following a village board meeting.
Levy pleaded the Fifth Amendment when asked about the village’s finances during the trial. Masri was later convicted of misdemeanor attempted assault.
Masri’s comments led to an investigation by Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, whose office last month cleared the mayor of any criminal wrongdoing.
A special counsel’s review found no apparent criminality in Levy’s cashing of village checks to pay three employees of village contractor Next Capital Corp., including his daughter, but questioned Levy’s judgment.
Barelli, an immigrant from Sweeden, said he has worked with the village on redesigning their website and has aspirations for designing a Saddle Rock smartphone application.
Barelli declined to comment on the investigations, simply saying “if there was wrongdoing, I’m sure the courts will settle that.”
Saddle Rock trustees are unpaid.
The Village of Great Neck Plaza, which has about 4,500 registered voters, had the greatest turnout of voters with 129 votes for incumbent Mayor Jean Celender, 128 for Deputy Mayor Ted Rosen and 127 for trustee Pamela Marksheid.
A spokesperson for the mayor said the election cost “a little over $1,000.”
All three incumbents have said in separate interviews they hope to improve the village’s roads and walkways and utilize a recent grant given by the federal government.
Celender, who will serve her ninth term as mayor, is paid an annual salary of $65,000. Rosen, who has been on the board since 1985, is paid $12,500 as deputy mayor and Marksheid is paid $10,000 and has been on the board since 2008.
The Village of Kensington, which has 891 registered voters, re-elected all four of its candidates.
Mayor Susan Lopatkin received 28 votes, Deputy Mayor Phillip Bornstein 27, trustee Jeffrey Greener 26 and justice Richard Dennett 23.
The village has a total budget of $750 for its elections, according to a copy of its budget.
Lopatkin, who will serve her fourth term, said she plans on beautifying the village, something she hasn’t been able to do in recent years with the occurrence of Hurricanes Irene and Sandy.
“It would be nice if we could make our village entrance that much more impressive,” Lopatkin said.
Bornstein, who has been a trustee for four years, said he wants to make sure objectives, such as beautification can be accomplished while keeping lines in cost.
Dennett, a former trustee, will serve his second term as a village justice and is paid $500 a year, according to Lopatkin.
Kesington’s mayor and trustees are unpaid positions.
In the Village of Russell Gardens, trustees Matthew Ellis and David Miller were elected with 28 and 26 votes respectively. A spokeswoman for the village could not immediately verify how many registered voters there are in the village.
“I see opportunities to modernize the village,” trustee Ellis said when asked what he hopes to do in his next term.
Attempts to reach Miller were unavailing.
Russel Gardens trustees are unpaid.
Village of Thomaston trustees To-On Pang and James Sharkey were both elected for with 21 and 15 votes respectively. The village has a total budget of $500 for elections, according to a copy of its budget.
To-On Pang, the first Asian-American trustee in Thomaston, declined a request for interview.
Efforts to reach Sharkey were unavailing.
Thomaston trustees are unpaid.
Village of Great Neck Estates trustees Lanny Openheim and Howard Hershenhorn were elected with 17 and 18 votes respectively. A spokeswoman for the village could not immediately provide an estimate on how much the election cost.
Both said in separate interviews they will work to providing the village with services while keeping taxes low and the budget balanced.
Great Neck Estates trustees are unpaid.
