Mineola village Trustee Lawrence Werther has been dropped from the New Line party ticket for next spring’s election after two contentious years of Werther publicly criticizing Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss and his fellow trustees.
Werther said he still plans to run, but is undecided on whether he will seek re-election to his board seat or challenge Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss.
The New Line party voted to replace Werther on its ticket with Dennis Walsh, a community activist who is a fixture at village board meetings, at a Dec. 2 party meeting.
Walsh will run with Strauss and village Trustee George Durham in the March 19 election.
Werther, an 11-year incumbent, has run as a New Line candidate since first running for the village board.
In a statement released last Wednesday, Werther called the party’s decision “a shocking and unexpected move” that was made a “secret” meeting.
Strauss said the meeting wasn’t a secret and he doesn’t understand why Werther was surprised by the party’s decision to not include him on the ticket.
“It’s unfortunate that he’s taking a lower road on issues. I don’t know why he’s taking a negative trail. I don’t know why he’s shocked,” Strauss said.
Werther has been at odds with Strauss on a number of issues since Strauss was chosen by the village board to serve as mayor following former Mayor Jack Martins’ victory in a state Senate race two years ago.
Werther, who had served as deputy mayor under Martins, served briefly as mayor following Martins’ resignation mayor.
Earlier this year Werther accused Strauss of improperly trying to set up meetings between village board members and representatives of Polimeni International at a the developer was changing its application for the proposed Churchill senior citizen apartment building from a condominium to a rental property.
Werther has also criticized Strauss and his fellow board members for discussing issues in the “back room” rather than in public meetings.
“I’ve been a thorn in the mayor’s side,” Werther said.
Strauss said Walsh is a “respected” civic activist who will bring “innovative ideas” to the board.
“Dennis had always been active in the community. He’s well versed and well read on everything that is happening and has happened in the village,” Strauss said.
Strauss selected village Trustee Paul Pereira as his deputy mayor following the board selected him as mayor.
Strauss said he chose Pereira over Werther because his managerial style is different than Martins.’
Werther, he said, “just didn’t fit with that.”
Last week Werther said he was either going to run independently for trustee or assemble a ticket with him as the mayoral candidate.
“I don’t know. I know I’m going to run for something,” Werther said.
He said he helped Martins restore “fiscal sanity” to the village when Martins was mayor and said “I know I can do a lot more.”
While his campaign plans remain undefined, Werther immediately criticized the New Line’s selection of Walsh, who he described as “an inexperienced individual.”
Walsh has been a vocal activist at the village board meetings on a number of issues, including the improper carting of materials from building demolitions in open freight cars on the Long Island Rail Road main line through Mineola earlier this year. He said he had planned to run for trustee before New Line party members approached him to run on their ticket.
“For the past two years, I’ve seen quite a negative tone from Mr. Werther on the board and I would like to bring a positive tone to the board,” Walsh said. “This was something I was planning on doing one way or another.”
Werther said when Durham called him after the New Line meeting to inform him that he would not be on the ticket, Durham was “very upset that I was out.”
Durham said the New Line ticket vote was “unanimous” and he expressed “no misgivings” to Werther about it.
Durham said Werther told him “he was left with no choice but to run for mayor.”
Durham said Werther invited Durham to run on a ticket with him. Durham said he declined the offer.
Werther said he had responded to Durham “out of shock in the heat of the moment.”
One source said that Werther had been approaching other people as prospective running mates before the New Line meeting took place last week and has yet to find any takers.
“That’s news to me,” Werther said.
