It was a “grass roots, spur-of-the-moment type of a situation” that Mojgan Sasson said led her and Dr. David Schifter to stage a write-in campaign for election onto the Village of Kings Point Board of Trustees last summer.
“We were talking and everybody was complaining about the steep increase in the real estate taxes,” Sasson said. “It kind of grew out of that and we decided to give it a go, but without much organization or without a lot of time to plan.”
Although their campaign failed, Sasson said the experience was valuable.
“We learned about the process, about what the village allows you to do and not to do,” Sasson said of last year’s election.
Now, she and Schifter said they are ready for a rematch.
Sasson has returned to challenge incumbent Kings Point Mayor Michael Kalnick in next month’s village election, while Schifter and newcomer Freydoun Elnekaveh are campaigning against current trustees David Harounian and Sheldon Kwiat.
“I’m sure they’re trying to do the right thing, but they’re stuck in one mind set,” Schifter said of the village’s incumbents. “I think people want a change and it’s time for a change.”
The election will be held on Tuesday, June 19 from 12 until 9 p.m. at Kings Point Village Hall, which is located at 32 Steppingstone Lane.
While Sasson, Schifter and Elnekaveh – who recently created the KP Responsible Gov’t Party — are poised for another run at the village’s establishment, the incumbent Kings Point officials said the trio still has much to learn.
“I believe that we have worked hard and performed for (residents), that we have given them one of the best communities to live in,” Kalnick said. “We will continue that. Our experience will help maintain that.”
Kalnick, who has been mayor of Kings Point for the past 30 years, said that he, Kwiat and Harounian, can call upon more than 80 years of combined service in their dealings on behalf of Kings Point.
“We don’t want our village turned over to inexperienced novices, who could potentially destroy our quality of life,” Kalnick said.
Last summer, Sasson and Schifter challenged Kings Point’s seven-term incumbent trustee Pete Aron and Ron Horowitz, who was appointed to join the village’s board in March of 2011 to fill the remainder of a term vacated by former Trustee Richard Sokolov.
Aron received 222 votes in last year’s election, while Horowitz garnered 226 to defeat Sasson’s 58 votes and Schifter’s 29.
“I think it was a great thing for Kings Point and a great thing for the other local communities to look at what’s happening here and make their local elected officials more accountable to them,” Schifter said of last year’s village election. “We took it as a positive and it did invigorate us to get on the ballot this year.”
But there were 130 write-in votes disqualified in last year’s controversial election, which could have seen a write-in candidate receive up to 217 votes if every one had been counted.
Sasson and Schifter last summer threatened to file a lawsuit for alleged voter fraud carried out by village election officials.
“The lawsuit was never filed,” said Phil Orenstein, a hired campaign manager for the KP Responsible Gov’t Party. “They decided to let the residents seek justice through the ballot box rather than the courts.”
And that is something that Kalnick said is welcomed in Kings Point, which has 5,005 residents and 1,475 households.
“There’s nothing wrong with people running for election, by all means, but be educated about it,” the mayor said.
A partner in his own Manhattan law firm, Kalnick has previously served as chairman of the village’s board of appeals. He was also formerly a village trustee and was named deputy mayor before running a successful campaign to become mayor.
Kalnick is also currently the chairman of Water Authority of Great Neck North’s Board of Directors.
“My father was mayor (of Kings Point) when I was a little boy, which is also where I learned my respect for the village,” Kalnick said. “I love the community. I want to give back to the community. All of us, we spend enormous amounts of hours (governing the village).”
In the mid 1960s, Harounian established the American Orient Company of New York, which imports rugs to the U.S.
Harounian is campaigning for re-election to his fifth term as trustee. He was also a member of the village’s Architectural Review Committee for 20 years and is a past vice president of Temple Israel of Great Neck.
“This is where I live,” Harounian said. “This is where my children grew up. This is what I care for. This is the envy of everyone. Everyone wants to live in Kings Point. Why wouldn’t they? We have good services.”
Along with his service as trustee, Kwiat is the current chairman of the village’s architectural review and landmark preservation committees.
According to campaign advertisements being circulated the incumbents’ Taxpayers Party, Kwiat has more than 30 years of service to the village to his credit.
Kwiat, is president of Kwiat Inc., a family-owned 102-year-old diamond jewelry firm in Manhattan.
Due to a death in his family, Kwiat said he was unavailable for comment on this story.
“We are there to serve (the residents),” Harounian said. “We are there to take care of them.”
But for the members of the KP Responsible Gov’t Party, it is time for change in the Kings Point government.
“When I met them, I saw the job is not for money or any type of compensation,” Orenstein said of his candidates. “They really see things are amiss in the village government and they see people want change.”
Although Sasson, Schifter and Elnekaveh have never held an elected political position, the trio is ready to help govern Kings Point, Orenstein said.
Sasson, who was born in Iran and emigrated to the U.S. in 1978, is a lawyer who has been a partner in her own Great Neck practice since 2004.
“I think all of these skills that I’ve acquired through the past 15 years just gives me the perfect background for working as mayor,” she said.
Schifter, a cardiologist, was the former vice president and president of the Medical Board of New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He is also a member of the board of trustees at Temple Emanuel of Great Neck.
“We want to keep the people informed,” Schifter said. “We want their input. I think by doing that, we can show people that we are really trying to keep the budget neutral and have a balanced budget.”
Elnekaveh has lived in Kings Point for 30 years.
After moving to the U.S. from Iran in 1979, Elnekaveh said he opened a chain of retail stores in New York City and was involved “as an entrepreneur in the manufacturing and real estate industries.”
In 1999, Elnekaveh co-founded and became CEO of Global Tissue Group. He said he handles all money management, company advancement and growth management for Global Tissue Group.
“I can bring that knowledge for Kings Point,” Elnekaveh said. “We are not planning to reduce any services of the police, security, (garbage collection) or anything like that. We will try to have better negotiations, better cost structure in order to save money.”
Sasson and Schifter said they were prompted to run in last year’s election due to a 9.8-percent property tax hike included in Kings Point’s 2011-2012 budget.
“The current administration has been serving for a long time,” Sasson said. “Our mayor is a 22-year veteran and most of our trustees have been there for decades. I think it’s become kind of an auto-pilot situation. It kind of breeds complacency.”
A lack of transparency in the operation of the village’s government has also been a major source of concern for the KP Responsible Gov’t Party, Schifter said.
Earlier this year, Kings Point’s board of trustees approved the replacement of the roof of its Village Hall as part of a $252,000 project. The 13,750-square-foot Kings Point Village Hall was opened in 2001.
The Village Hall, which cost $4.9 million to construct just over a decade ago, is situated upon 4.3 acres of property near Steppingstone Park and the United States Merchant Marine Academy campus.
Schifter said it is unacceptable that such work is already needed to be completed.
“We want to keep the same top quality services that we have now,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of wasteful spending going on. A lot of inappropriate spending.”
But Kalnick said that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Kalnick said the Village Hall roof was previously damaged by storms and repairs are not covered by a warranty because its coverage period had already run out.
In March, trustees passed the village’s $15,072,650 budget for 2012-13.
The budget included a property tax increase of $36.05 per $100 of assessed value, which is under the state-mandated 2-percent property tax cap.
With the increased cost of state-mandated expenses such as pension and health care contribution costs for the village’s workers and police department, Kalnick said keeping tax increase below the tax cap was a major achievement.
“I think we’ve done a good job in protecting our property values and our way of life,” he said.
Before voting to accept this year’s budget, trustees also held a series of public hearings to inform residents about the direction of the village’s finances.
These public hearings were an example of the village’s ability to “maintain transparency and accountability,” Kalnick said.
If elected to another term, Kalnick said he is looking forward to again serving Kings Point’s residents.
“I have a duty to them to maintain their property values and their quality of life,” he said. “They expect it and they deserve it.”
