Great Neck Park District Commissioner Bob Lincoln was elected chairman of the park district Board of Commissioners at their meeting Thursday, and newly elected commissioners – Frank Cilluffo and previous board chairman Dan Nachmanoff – were sworn in.
Lincoln gave a short state-of- the-parks address after he was elected chairman, saying that the park district is financially stable, has infrastructure in good condition and is able to operate in 2015 without a tax increase or user fee increase. Lincoln also said the parks district is looking forward to another successful year.
“Work is underway to open a brand new indoor play area at Steppingstone Park so that young children can once again enjoy park activities year-round,” Lincoln said. “We will continue to plant trees so that each park has a variety of species of different ages; this will protect their beauty and ambiance from loss due to storms, disease and sad but necessary removal when trees become decayed and unsafe.”
Lincoln also read aloud a letter from Sharon Epstein, one of the four people to run for the open park district commissioner spot in December that Frank Cilluffo won, in which she outlined some concerns she had during the special districts election process.
Epstein wrote in the letter that her pole watchers saw some of the election inspectors were people who had openly endorsed certain candidates for running, and that an unregistered voter was allowed to view the list of registered voters to see if they were on the list.
Epstein also wrote in the letter that the date of the election – Dec. 9 – could be improved, especially considering the shortened daylight and the bad weather that came with this years election day.
Lincoln said that the timing of the special district election is governed by town law, and must be the second Tuesday in December. He also said the district has looked into the feasibility of having longer voting hours during the day, but that nothing has been done concretely.
Lincoln said the district is going to appoint a focus committee to address a specific list of things in the election rules the district thinks need to be clarified and tightened.
“There are other issues — among these several issues [brought up by Epstein] — that came up during the election,” Lincoln said. “There were a number of issues identified during the process that should be clarified and in some cases changed.”
Lincoln was not more specific on what issues the proposed committee would address. He did say the committee would be four or five people at maximum, some of whom have already been approached.
The people that would be on the committee, Lincoln said, would be people who have demonstrated objectivity, have had minimal participation in the park district and that it would not include candidates or commissioners, although Lincoln said he thought candidates should be at least interviewed.
“The election was well run, it was fair and it was objective,” Lincoln said. “The results speak for themselves – people came out and voted. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make them better.”
Cilluffo, a retired New York City police officer, won in December the two-year seat vacated by Ruth Tamarin with 621 votes, defeating Epstein, former president of the Parent-Teacher Association at E.M. Baker Elementary School and founder and owner of Body Dynamics Inc., who had 383 votes along with insurance broker Eileen Falk, who received 153 votes, and North Shore Hebrew Academy executive board member Laura Cohen, who received 278 votes.
Nachmanoff won his term of three years with 782, defeating former guidance counselor and physical education teacher Neil Leiberman, who received 325 votes, and North Shore Décor owner Jeffrey Meier Stein, who got 171.
Lincoln also said the district plans to hold a series of community meetings to discuss the future of the parks. The district did this last in 2004, Lincoln said, with the purpose of reviewing the programs of the district and the desires of district residents.
“Part of the process will be consideration of cost and how programs should be funded,” Lincoln said. “But, the park district belongs to our residents; their input is essential to ensure that, as commissioners, we fully represent their interests.”
