Mayors in Northport and Old Field were reelected Wednesday as voters there and elsewhere went to the polls to decide a handful of village elections.
In Garden City, where the future of a historic school building was a central issue, a slate of preservationist-minded trustee candidates was elected.
Northport Mayor Donna Koch defeated Joe Sabia, a village trustee, to win a second four-year term, according to results from the village clerk’s office.
Old Field Mayor Tom Gulbransen won reelection to a two-year term, defeating trustee Rebecca Van Der Bogart, 95-62, Village Clerk Patty Rodier said.
Meanwhile, results from the mayor’s contest in Saddle Rock weren’t yet available as of noon Thursday. Robert Kraus, a trustee, faced off against Kambiz Akhavan for the open seat. Village Clerk Carmela Speciale said absentee ballots were still being counted.
In Northport, Koch’s victory caps a contentious campaign during which both she and Sabia characterized their relationship as “very poor.” The final vote tally, according to Village Clerk Georgina Cavagnaro, was 917-532.
Koch, 65, had framed her first term as a success, given that she updated the village’s comprehensive plan for the first time in 50 years and negotiated police and highway worker contracts. Sabia, 69, whose four-year trustee seat is up this year, was making his second run for mayor. He had criticized Koch’s “harsh” leadership style.
Other races
In Garden City, the Community Agreement Party swept all four trustee posts, with its candidates defeating opponents in the For A Better Garden City Party.
In what was considered a referendum on the future of the St. Paul’s School — a 19th century building whose future has bedeviled village leaders since the village bought the property in 1993 — voters chose incumbents Vinny Muldoon, Judy Courtney and Jessica Tai, and newcomer Gerard Smith, all CAP candidates, according to election results posted on the village website. They all received over 2,000 votes.
The party has proposed a $10.1 million project to shore up the building with a roof replacement and other repair work in order to “mothball” the structure until a plan is developed to do something more with it.
The For A Better Garden City candidates proposed what they characterized as a pragmatic approach to save a portion of the building while demolishing most of it and creating recreational space. Their candidates — Thomas Brosnan, Jo-Ann Frey, Thomas Ryan and Neha Bajaj — were defeated. Brosnan received the most votes on the slate, 1,652.
In Old Field, a ballot quirk resulted in almost all candidates mounting write-in campaigns. Incumbent trustee Robert Chase, the only candidate to appear on the ballot, won reelection with 107 votes, and former trustee William Schaefer received 106 votes to win the second trustee spot. Village justice Mitchell Birzon received 55 votes to win another term.
In Babylon Village, incumbent trustee Jeff Szabo defeated challenger Jordan Hoffman, 511-256, according results from the village clerk there.
Szabo, 53, had been appointed by Mayor Mary Adams in October to fill the unexpired term of Sean Goodwin, who died unexpectedly the previous month. Szabo will serve the one year left in the four-year term. Trustees earn $7,500 per year.
Szabo ran on the Better Babylon Party line. He has been chief executive of the Suffolk County Water Authority for 16 years.
Hoffman, 41, an attorney, ran on the Jordan Hoffman for Village Trustee line. He’s a lieutenant in the Babylon Fire Department’s rescue squad.
In Plandome Manor, two incumbent trustees retained power, according to officials there.
Patricia O’Neill and Peter Kulka, of the People’s Party, received 178 votes and 166 votes, respectively, to win two-year terms. Eric Kattan and Sanaz Sadjadi, running on the Community First line, earned 92 and 86 votes, respectively.
In Saddle Rock, the results of three trustees races and a village justice race also weren’t available as of noon Thursday.
Newsday’s Denise M. Bonilla, Carl MacGowan, Deborah S. Morris, Joseph Ostapiuk and Ted Phillips contributed to this story.
Check back for updates to this developing story.
Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
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