Village of Great Neck Plaza mayoral candidate Leonard Katz on Friday disputed claims made by Village Attorney Richard Gabriele that sufficient notice was given on the change in date of the village elections.
Katz also criticized the village administration for what he claimed was a lack of transparency in the waning days of his bitterly fought election campaign.
“I was astounded, yet not surprised, to see such negative yet wholly untrue assertions coming from the [Ted] Rosen campaign, quoted as from Mr. Gabriele, the village attorney,” Katz wrote in a statement. “I guess they must be running scared to have to do what they did.”
Election petitions for Katz, who is running on the Revive Great Neck Plaza Party line, were disqualified by the Nassau County Board of Elections, which cited petitions with the wrong election date and changes in the election date after petitions were already signed.
Katz said the Revive Great Neck Plaza Party will continue its campaign against the United Residents Party on a write-in basis.
Katz is running with Siu Long Au (Alex), and Robert Farajollah on the Revive Great Neck Plaza Party line on a platform calling for downtown revitalization and greater transparency.
Rosen is running for mayor and Trustee Pam Marksheid and Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Michael Deluccia for trustee on the United Residents Party line. Rosen, who has served since 1985, is seeking to replace Mayor Jean Celender, who chose not to run for re-election.
Katz said Village Clerk-Treasurer Patricia O’Byrne provided him with the incorrect date “in early January”.
O’Byrne angrily denied she provided Katz incorrect information. O’Byrne said she initially corrected Katz on the date when he announced he was running for mayor.
In response to Katz’s claim of O’Byrne providing him with incorrect information, Village Attorney Richard Gabriele provided election petitions from the Revive Great Neck Plaza Party as early as Jan. 4.
The petitions show an “8” written over the originally printed “9” on the election date.
Gabriele claimed Katz corrected the petitions as early as Jan. 4, but Katz denied this.
Katz said he made the corrections “in mid-to-late January” when he claims O’Byrne provided him with the correct election date.
Rosen said he was “astounded” to hear that Katz thought he could amend the petition and it would remain valid.
“I think it is astounding and very concerning someone like Mr. Katz, who does not know the severity and importance of the information on a[n election] petition is running for mayor,” Rosen said.
Gabriele provided a legal notice from one local paper with the correct election date published on Nov. 6, 2019.
“…the entire public, including Mr. Katz and any other candidates seeking to run, had official notice of the election date, given by numerous methods, long in advance of the election and long advance of the date to get petitions signed,” Gabriele said in an email to Blank Slate Media.
Gabriele concluded his email saying, “All of the above show that the errors in Mr. Katz’s petitions resulted from carelessness and/or a blatant disregard for setting forth a correct election date in his petitions. His efforts now to deflect blame from himself by making the totally unsubstantiated claim that he received the wrong information from the Village Clerk is ludicrous in light of the above documentation.”
Katz said he “didn’t know” to check the legal notices for the election date and village information posted online.
“It should also be worth noting that [Gabriele] did not provide any evidence that proves she did not give me the wrong date,” Katz said in a phone interview.
“Our plan is to bring together our residents, business interests, local non-profit organizations, and other political leaders to build community insight and intelligence into decisions and continue working together to make our community a place where people want to come and visit, shop, eat, browse, and enjoy the local atmosphere,” Katz said.
“People are saddened by the business district and how it has become a ghost town,” Katz added.
Rosen said the village is accommodating to businesses, citing almost 70 conditional-use permits provided over the past few years to new businesses.
“Businesses want to move here, and families want to move here,” Rosen said. “Sure, there are businesses that are no longer here, and we are upset about that. We are looking to find more ways to retain businesses. We are symptomatic of something that is happening throughout the country.”
Katz also said the current administration lacks transparency and makes public information difficult to access.
“Pertinent Village information, when posted online, is hard to find and not necessarily in readily apparent places,” Katz sent in a letter to Blank Slate Media. “There are no Board Minutes shared with the public or budgetary data. No one seems to returns calls or emails from the public and many have said, if you finally have an opportunity to express a concern, you get answers like “We’ll look into it.” Of course, with no response or outcome.”
Rosen disputed Katz’s claim and said the board is one of the more transparent villages in the area.
“We invite members of the public audience to speak at our meetings all the time,” Rosen said. “Sometimes we may be inviting an empty room, which we certainly don’t want to happen, but the Plaza board is certainly transparent to the public, and other officials such as [O’Byrne] are dedicated to helping our residents with anything they need.”
O’Byrne said the budget summary is available on the website.
“The latest budget became effective on March 1 and the summary will be put up on the website shortly,” O’Byrne noted.
O’Byrne said the full budget and a verbatim transcript of board meeting minutes can be obtained free of charge to any member of the public who requests it at Village Hall.
Rosen touted the village’s transparency by their use of a verbatim transcript and said it is more beneficial than minutes.
“That transcript picks up everything,” he said. “Minutes are simply a summary of meetings, whereas the transcript is probably the most transparent document we could provide to the public.”
When asked why online links to the full budget and minutes are not immediately available online, Rosen and O’Byrne acknowledged it has been the way the village has operated since the website went up.”
“There’s really never been too much of an immediate request for it,” O’Byrne said. “I’m sure we could put all of the links online if we really wanted to.”
“I personally don’t know of anyone who had an issue with obtaining documents,” Rosen said. “But we are always open to new ideas, and if people suggest we do that, we can look into it further.”
O’Byrne said she typically requires an email, FOIL request, or any written inquiry for village document and tries to respond back as promptly as possible.
“It is also my practice to email them to persons requesting them so that they can avoid the inconvenience of coming into Village Hall, which I have done for Mr. Katz himself,” O’Byrne said.
O’Byrne sent receipts of board minutes emailed to Katz on more than a dozen occasions. She said she has “always responded to any calls or emails to me from the public, including Mr. Katz.”
“I typically respond to people and send over documents as quickly as possible,” she said. “I am a human, and it may take a bit longer for me to respond to someone. When I remember to do so, I quickly respond and apologize for the delay.”
Rosen lauded O’Byrne’s involvement in providing documents to residents in a timely manner.
“She is a wonderful, and incredibly honest person,” Rosen said. “Whatever Mr. Katz is saying she did, I am sure it is untrue. We aren’t like that in the village government.”
