Four Candidates, All With Experience, Vying For Two Seats On Southampton Village Board

Four candidates are vying for two open seats on the Southampton Village Board in June.

Current Deputy Mayor Gina Arresta and current Trustee Joe McLoughlin, who ran together two years ago, are up for reelection but are running independently of each other this time around. Meanwhile, two former trustees, Kimberly Allan and William Manger Jr., also have thrown their hats into the ring.

Allan was appointed to the board to fill a vacancy in 2017 and won a full two-year term in the 2018 election. She served her first two years under the administration of Mayor Michael Irving. Current Mayor Jesse Warren was in his first year as mayor in Allan’s final year.

Allan moved to the village when she was a teenager but worked predominantly in New York for most of her career, as a senior vice president and executive at three Fortune 500 companies, with a specialty in financial services.

Allan spoke about her choice to run again, describing herself as a truly independent voice.

“I value the entire village and feel as though the entire village deserves to be represented,” she said. She added that she’s always focused on “quality of life issues,” pointing out that she helped usher in the first summertime gas leaf blower restrictions under Irving’s administration.

Manger said he is also running as an independent, under the Good Government banner. Manger was first elected as a village trustee in 1997, in the Doug Murtha administration, and he was reelected in 1999, when Joe Romanosky was mayor. He did not run again in 2001, going to work for the Transportation Department in Washington, D.C.

Manger returned to Southampton Village last year after running the Paycheck Protection Program, which helped small businesses and nonprofits affected by the pandemic.

He was appointed as the chair for the steering committee to update the village’s Comprehensive Master Plan, which was last updated in 2000, also under his guidance. He said ensuring that the recommendations are implemented once the plan is complete was a big motivating factor in running for trustee again.

Arresta officially announced her reelection campaign on May 17, saying that while she was proud of the work that had been done over the past several years in lowering taxes, reducing waste, cleaning up the environment and preserving the historic character of the village, there was still more to do.

The deputy mayor is also the liaison to the Department of Public Works, and in that capacity helped create a downtown crew to keep the village business area clean, facilitated paving the parking lot behind Citarella as well as other roads, helped open Moses Park, and expanded outdoor dining. She has also been involved in several environment initiatives in the village.

Arresta has lived in the village for more than 30 years.

McLoughlin, like Arresta, is also seeking reelection. McLoughlin is a lifelong Southampton Village resident and Southampton High School graduate. He graduated from Iona College in 2013. Serving as a trustee is a family tradition, as his father served as a trustee from 1999 to 2003 under Romanosky.

During his first term, McLoughlin served as liaison to the police department and fire department and reviewed building department operations.

This would be McLoughlin’s second term and he said that if reelected, he’d like to “continue to promote transparency and work to implement and adhere to our Master Plan.”

“I can’t stress enough the importance of strong working relationships with all of our departments and employees in order to address the needs of the taxpayer,” he said.

The vote is set for Friday, June 17, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center on Pond Lane.