Residents voiced their concerns Tuesday night about the Village of Great Neck’s proposal to change mayoral and trustee terms from two years to four, a move the Board of Trustees argued would benefit the village and voters.
Deputy Mayor Barton Sobel said the village’s elections every year are “taxing and incredibly onerous” for residents coming out to vote, village staff coordinating the elections and the candidates running every other year.
The board opted to table a decision on the term changes to continue the public hearing at its next meeting on Nov. 5, Election Day.
Five residents were present for Tuesday night’s Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees public hearing, and their opinions ranged from staunch opposition to hesitancy.
“This will make the near impossibility for any new blood or new ideas to be represented in our village administration even more impossible,” resident Karen Bardash said, referencing some of the board members’ decade in office.
Many of the residents expressed their main concern about the lack of communication with the public about the proposed change. Many said they only learned of the hearing through social media posts by other concerned residents.
Cohen said the public hearing was advertised in the legal notices of the local newspaper and on the village’s website. The legal notice was published in the Great Neck News Record on Oct. 10, five days before the meeting.
Bardash said the public hearing followed quickly and with little notice to the public, saying it “doesn’t feel very democratic” to go forward with a vote without greater community engagement
She advocated for terms to remain at two years and also for term limits to be instated after 8-10 years.
Resident David Zielenziger also said he was against the term increase. He compared the elections to the House of Representatives, which also has two-year terms.
“You are the closest representative, elected body, closest to the people,” Zielenziger said. “What’s the problem about having an election every two years?”
Unlike many congressional members, Sobel said it is not the board members’ full-time job to be in the village’s elected offices.
“Well, you volunteered for it,” Zielenziger said. “… If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it.”
Residents called for a referendum on the ballot next year so the village can vote on the terms, which the board denied.
Mayor Pedram Bral and Sobel were the main board members arguing for the change.
Bral said there are pros and cons for two-year and four-year terms, but he advocated for the longer term. The main con of the longer terms he mentioned was that if an unqualified person were to take office, then they would be there for a longer time.
But Bral said longer terms would also bolster the members’ job performance and give them a longer period of time to deliver on projects. He said this would increase village stability.
The village has to hold an election every year for the board’s staggered member terms, which Bral and Sobel said costs village staff both financially and resource-wise.
The two also said that holding an election every year can be taxing on the candidates who have to petition every time and on the residents who come out to vote every year.
Bral said the two-year terms do not bother him, thus he is not personally motivated on the issue. He said it would benefit the village staff and voters more.
He said they have received complaints about two-year terms from residents who support the longer terms.
Sobel said he attended a conference for village officials a few months ago where most village representatives said they are elected to four-year terms. He said he was in the minority of representatives elected to two-year terms.
Bral clarified that the lengthening of the terms would not directly benefit the sitting board members as it would not be applied to their current terms. He said that the terms would be increased for the candidates elected in the following elections starting next year.
The amendment proposes that in the 2025 election, the mayor, trustee and village justice positions would be for four-year terms. But in the 2026 election, the trustee positions up for election would be for five years.
After those two elections, all positions would be for four-year terms.
Under the proposed new law, village elections would be held biennially in odd-numbered years.
Bral’s mayoral seat would be up for election again in 2025, and if the law were passed, it would be for a four-year term.
Trustees Anne Mendelson’s and Steven Hope’s seats are also up for election in 2025.
Sobel’s and Trustee Eli Kashi’s seats would be up for election in 2026. These two seats would be for a five-year term.
Bral also addressed a letter from a resident against the term increase, which accused the board of financial favoritism, that the village hall would not be accessible for those with physical disabilities and that employees were removed unfairly. Bral denied all of these accusations.
