Mayors in Northport, Old Field reelected; preservationist slate wins in Garden City

Mayors in Northport and Old Field won new terms Wednesday as voters 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.

And in Saddle Rock, a new mayor was elected after the current mayor's slate was invalidated last month.

Northport Mayor Donna Koch defeated village trustee Joe Sabia 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. A ballot quirk the re had resulted in almost all candidates mounting write-in campaigns, including Gulbransen and Van Der Bogart. 

Kambiz Akhavan was elected Saddle Rock's mayor, defeating Robert Kraus in a race that wasn't finalized until about 2 p.m. Thursday, Village Clerk Carmela Speciale said. Akhavan wasn't available for comment. The term is four years.

Newsday reported that Dan Levy, the outgoing Saddle Rock mayor, was accused of tampering with the poll book Wednesday, but Levy denied that.   

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 expires this year, was making his second run for mayor. He had criticized Koch’s “harsh” leadership style.

On Thursday, Koch, a former village clerk, said she was “thrilled" and "very humbled" to be reelected. She said she planned to “just continue with the path we’re going," citing stormwater runoff problems as an issue that needs to be addressed. 

Koch also said she intends to “preserve the history and historic nature of the Village of Northport.”

In other races:

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 building — a 19th century structure whose fate has bedeviled local 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 each received more than 2,000 votes to win two-year, unpaid terms.

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.

“This was really about St. Paul's,” Muldoon said Thursday of his slate’s victory. “We feel like we certainly have the mandate” to preserve the building.

The For A Better Garden City candidates proposed what they characterized as a pragmatic approach: saving 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.

Old Field

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, who had resigned last month over a dispute regarding a petition deadline, received 55 votes to win another term. Those seats carry two-year terms.

In an email Thursday, Gulbransen, the reelected mayor, said it was "encouraging to see approximately 25% voter turnout" and added that the victories of Chase, Schaefer and Birzon "restores orderliness that everyone appreciates."

"I look forward to learning the desires of voters whose support I've yet to earn," Gulbransen said.

Babylon Village

Incumbent trustee Jeff Szabo defeated challenger Jordan Hoffman, 511-256, according to results from the village clerk.

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.

Reached Thursday, Szabo said he is looking forward to doing the work needed in the next year.

“We ran a focused, grassroots campaign centered on the issues that matter most to the residents: quality of life, keeping the charm of the downtown while looking to the future and working to keep taxes as low as possible,” Szabo told Newsday.

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. 

Plandome Manor

Two incumbent trustees won, according to officials. 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. 

Saddle Rock

Joshua Rabanipour and Kousha Askari won trustee seats, defeating Martine Alter and Vivian Kollenscher. The two victors, like Mayor-elect Akhavan, ran on the Friendly Neighbors line. Rabanipour and Askari each collected more than 390 votes. Alter and Kollenscher ran on the Concerned Citizens of Saddle Rock line.

Write-in trustee candidate Hal Chadow defeated Sigalit Sanilevich. Trustees serve four-year terms.

Newsday's Denise M. Bonilla, Carl MacGowan, Deborah S. Morris, Joseph Ostapiuk and Ted Phillips contributed to this story.

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

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.