1 Photo
From left, North Haven Village Mayor Jeff Sander and the candidates to succeed him, Terie Diat and Chris Fiore.
Two members of the North Haven Village Board almost immediately jumped into the fray as candidates to succeed Jeff Sander as mayor after he announced at the March 23 Village Board meeting that he would not seek reelection to a fifth term this spring.
Trustees Terie Diat and Chris Fiore, retired corporate executives who cross-endorsed each other in 2021 when they ran unopposed for two-year terms on the board, each soon announced in emails that they would vie to fill the top job.
Diat is running on the Community Vision Party ticket. Fiore said veteran Trustee Dianne Skilbred, the deputy mayor, will run with him on the North Haven Party line.
Diat announced her candidacy in an email the day after Sander’s announcement.
“While I have served as village trustee for two years, I have worked hard, have learned much under Mayor Sander’s tutelage, and already have achieved a long list of accomplishments in a very short period of time. With my strong professional career experience and leadership background, I am perfectly suited and prepared to serve as mayor of North Haven,” she wrote in her release.
Fiore followed on Monday, March 28, with an email that began: “I was hoping Jeff would be allowed some time to get the word out after 10 years of selfless service as mayor, but, unfortunately, there was an email within hours of his announcement to the board regarding his possible replacement.”
He went on, “It’s the personal qualities of an individual that make one an attractive candidate. Do you trust this person? Is he approachable? Can I take him on his word? Will he keep his word? Does he listen? Is he a natural leader? Do people like working with him? What about vision — what’s he stand for? Can he get things done? … Does he realize North Haven is a village and not a corporation?”
After last week’s Village Board meeting, which was held in person and not available on Zoom, Sander said in an interview that he felt comfortable leaving office when his term ends on June 30, because “we have a phenomenal board right now” that has been “very active” addressing important issues. “I feel good about what we’ve done,” he said.
Among the board’s most recent accomplishments, Fiore took the lead in pushing for the acquisition of the Lovelady Powell property on Sunset Beach Road this year as preserved open space and parkland. Diat spent months crafting a new policy and code amendments to set standards for permitting erosion-control solutions for protecting eroding shorelines. Sander himself kicked off both efforts originally but asked the two trustees to get them accomplished.
“I hope they will continue to serve,” Sander said of the current board members, but the time had come for him to “move on and turn over” village government to “younger, ambitious” residents. An avid sailor, he said he was looking forward to “moving on” to other things.
Sander said he would not endorse either of the two candidates seeking to succeed him. “I told them I’m not going to take sides,” he said. “Both are great candidates.”
Sander, who turned 80 this week, was first elected a trustee in 2007 and first ran for mayor in 2014, after having been appointed to the post by the Village Board following Laura Nolan’s resignation. He ran for mayor and, unopposed, won three more times after that. Both trustee and mayoral terms are for two years.
Sander introduced Fiore to public office when he appointed him to a vacant trustee position in April 2020. Five months later, Diat challenged him when he ran to keep the seat for its remaining year and won by a vote of 148-120. After the election, the board named Fiore to fill a vacancy on the Planning Board
In 2021, they both ran again, cross-endorsing each other and running unopposed for two open trustee seats on the board.
Their terms end in 2023, so whoever loses the mayoral race will continue to serve on the board as a trustee. The mayor-elect’s empty trustee seat will be filled temporarily by a board appointment.
Besides Fiore and Diat — and the two trustee candidates for reelection, Skilbred and Claas Abraham — there may be others on the ballot by the time of the election on June 21. Candidates must file nominating petitions with the village clerk by May 17 containing the signatures of at least 49 residents to be eligible.
