The Great Neck Library will hold its annual elections Monday, more than a month after Hurricane Sandy led to the cancellation of the originally scheduled vote.
Board of Trustees President Varda Solomon and trustee Josie Pizer are up for re-election to another four-year term. Nominating committee candidates Stacee Bernstein and Andrew Dorf are running for the three-year positions currently held by Naomi Feldheim and Michael Fuller.
As no other candidates were nominated, the election is uncontested and only the incumbents are on the ballot; votes for other candidates must be made via write-in.
Complicating the voting process were the election guidelines in the library’s bylaws, which mandate that elections be held the last Monday of October but provide no guidance on how to reschedule the vote in the event of an emergency like Hurricane Sandy.
“When a state of emergency is declared, we cannot really have an election,” Solomon said in an interview.
Solomon said she made the switch after consultation with the library’s legal counsel and the other trustees.
That explanation did not satisfy Lakeville Estates Civic president Marianna Wohlgemuth, who argued that the rescheduling was improper and could hurt a potential write-in campaign by cutting short the time available to organize a candidacy.
Wohlgemuth, a member of the Library Watchdog Group – an association of ex-trustees and residents who vocally opposed last fall’s failed proposal for a $20.8 million bond to expand the library’s main branch – wrote a letter to the Great Neck News criticizing the decision.
“The Dec. 3 election was decided upon in haste by President Solomon without regard to basic election rules and library bylaws,” Wohlgemuth wrote. “This is highly irregular, especially in a election campaign during which President Solomon is seeking re-election.”
“Because of the fact that she has an interest in the election, she should have recused herself and turned over all of these decisions to the board secretary,” she added in an interview Monday.
Solomon rejected the charges of improper conduct, writing that, in a move cleared by legal counsel, she consulted by e-mail with all members of the board and all but Trustee Marietta DiCamillo supported the new voting date.
DiCamillo is Wohlgemuth’s sister and fellow civic activist.
Wohlgemuth told the Great Neck News that she was acting on her own behalf and not in concert with DiCamillo when she wrote her letter.
Solomon also said the board was constrained in the dates it could choose because if new trustees were not selected by the new year, her and Pizer’s terms would expire leaving the board without a quorum to hold meetings or make decisions.
“At the time the decision was made, our main focus was to ensure that we gave our community 15 days notice, as required by our bylaws,” Solomon wrote. “I was not worried about any ‘write-in campaigns’ since at that time I had no knowledge of any write-in campaign.”
Solomon said in an interview that the board had placed notices of the election in the Great Neck News and Great Neck Record and sent out mailers to all eligible voters.
Wohlgemuth said she, a New Hyde Park resident who lives within the boundaries of the Great Neck School District, had not yet received a mailed notification.
Wohlgemuth also expressed concern over the status of absentee ballots filed before the election was delayed. Solomon wrote that the six ballots cast remained in their sealed envelopes in the library director’s office.
Voting will be held Monday, December 3 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Residents living north of Northern Boulevard can cast their ballots at the Main branch and those living south of Northern Boulevard may vote at the Parkville Branch.
Voting is open to any resident of the Great Neck School District 18 years of age or older who is either a registered voter in Nassau County or was a valid library card holder as of Oct. 1.
Proxy ballots can be picked up at the Main branch and must be returned by Friday, Nov. 30.
