Former mayor Paul Rupp written in as new Bayville Village mayor

When Bayville voters went to the polls Tuesday to decide their next mayor, they had only one option: Write down a name.

Voters wrote in a total of 46 names. But it was Paul Rupp, a former mayor of the small North Shore village, that a majority of voters inscribed on blank ballots. 

About 1,400 voters cast ballots for mayor in the 7,000-resident village. Rupp received 519 votes, followed by Steve Minicozzi, the current mayor, who collected 382 votes. A total of 46 names were written in for the role. Village officials said it was the first time in Bayville's history the mayor's seat was decided by write-in votes. The job comes with a $5,000 stipend.

Rupp, 66, served as mayor from 2014-18 and was a trustee for eight years before that. Rupp said he considers Minicozzi a friend. When he learned the mayor had declined to run for reelection, residents started floating the idea of a return, Rupp said. In the past few weeks, he said he kept a low profile and did not actively campaign.

“We’re going to take it one issue at a time,” Rupp said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Tackle the issues and come up with solutions.”

He said he spent his first term encouraging residents to participate in village committees and in the village’s budget process.

By the time he left office, the village was operating on a surplus, said Rupp, a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative.

“During my first term, I didn’t borrow a dime,” Rupp said. “My belief is to live within your means. … Don’t go out and start borrowing a lot of money and putting the village in a bad situation fiscally.”

The village, nestled on Nassau County's North Shore, has its challenges. The infrastructure is old and needs repairs, and the village is working to repave Mountain Avenue, said Rupp, who has lived in Bayville since the 1980s. 

He wants to "keep up with the momentum" made by his predecessors, he said. "I'm not going to change a lot of things. I'm only going to tinker with them."

Voters also approved a proposition to lower the eligible age for the village's volunteer fire service award program to 60 from 65. The proposition, approved 1,047 to 228, also increases the number of years of service a volunteer firefighter can earn from 30 to 40. 

Minicozzi, who declined to run for reelection, said he was pleased voters selected an experienced former leader.

“It’s nice to have the title as the mayor, but you still have to do the job,” Minicozzi said in a phone interview. “There’s instances that arise — resident disputes and union contracts you have to deal with; waste disposal contracts. It’s nice to have someone that’s got experience with it.”

Fully permitting a restaurant on the site that once held the iconic Steve’s Pier One seafood restaurant was among his top accomplishments, Minicozzi said.

It was a complex process that involved a bevy of agencies, he said. While the new restaurant is “coming along slowly,” getting the site fully cleared for development during his single term as mayor “was definitely a compliment to me and the rest of my board.”

Craig Burnett, professor and chair of the political science department at Florida Atlantic University, said local elections can come down to "a model called 'friends and neighbors'," where "it's literally who's got more friends and neighbors."

Since voters went into the booth without names to pick from, it requires them to go to the polling site "with intention," Burnett said.

At West Harbor Beach on Wednesday, Greg Notine, 67, a craftsman in Bayville, said he did not vote the day before. But he said he understood why no one formally ran. The responsibilities are substantial, and most mayors also work a full-time job.

“Just keeping all these beaches clean and controlling all the snow plowing, the things that they have to maintain in the village ... [are] pretty tough,” Notine said. “I've been here since '87, so I know a little bit about the town. But I wouldn't want it.”

Newsday's Amit Ben-Bassat contributed to this story.

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ