West Hampton Dunes Election Friday: Four Seek Two Trustees Seats, and a Contentious Mayor Race Comes to a Head

For West Hampton Dunes residents, this week’s election for the Village Board is likely the most momentous ballot cast since the vote to incorporate the village in 1993.

The village’s only mayor in all that time, Gary Vegliante, is facing only his second challenge ever — and certainly the most heated.

His opponent, Irwin Krasnow, and a chorus of critics, have questioned the legality of Vegliante’s residency status in the village and, thus, his eligibility to serve as mayor. They also have accused him and his running mates of steering village policy to favor their business dealings within the village or to cement Vegliante’s hold on office.

Vegliante has countered his critics with the simple argument that he has led the village over the last three-plus decades, from the destruction by the sea in the early 1990s to the real estate boomtown it is now, where property values soar as high as the rooflines in the most liberally zoned municipality in the region.

Four candidates are also competing for two trustees seats on the ballot, a race that is intricately entangled in the mayor’s race.

To complicate matters, there is a full slate of candidates — one for mayor and two for trustee — whose names will be on the ballot but who say they are no longer running and do not want residents to vote for them but, rather, for the challengers to Vegliante and incumbent Trustees Michael Craig and Harvey Gessin.

The ballot will display the names of Gary Trimarchi in the mayor’s race and Priscilla Adam and Salvatore Mattioli on the Improve the Dunes Party line — but all three have said they do not want to be elected.

There is also an uncontested election for village justice, with only incumbent Justice Adam C. Gomerman appearing on the ballot.

All the offices on the ballot will be elected to four-year terms.

Voting in the election, which is open only to Village of West Hampton Dunes residents who are registered to vote at a Dunes address, will be held at the village municipal building at 914 Dune Road from noon to 9 p.m. on Friday, June 21.

Michael Craig

Craig, 56, is an incumbent village trustee who was first elected in 2008 and is running for a fifth four-year term on the Beach Preservation Party ticket with Vegliante. He has been a Dunes homeowner since 2001. He works in investment banking and is senior managing director for a prominent Wall Street firm.

In his role as trustee, he serves as the deputy police commissioner and says he played an integral role in the recent negotiations of a new seven-year contract with the village’s constables.

The biggest challenge facing the Village Board in the immediate future, he says, is still the threat from the ocean and he said that experience of the current board members with working with officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other government agencies makes them uniquely suited to continue in their current roles.

“Our greatest asset can be our biggest threat,” he said. “The mayor and members of the board take our responsibility of protecting our shoreline, as well as the wildlife and the environment, very seriously. The village’s very survival and growth depends on the mayor and the board to maintain consistent contact with interested government officials at the local, state and federal levels to ensure our beaches remain healthy and nourished.”

He said he is also already working with local state representatives on the creation of a real estate sales tax — charged to buyers — similar to the Community Preservation Fund, but with the money dedicated to the village’s Emergency Beach Fund for future beach nourishment projects.

If reelected, he said that among his top priorities would be making improvements at the two properties owned by the Barrier Beach Preservation Association at 906 and 914 Dune Road, and expansion of the structures to allow for more government and social functions to be held in them. He would also support the addition of pickleball and basketball courts and a playground for children.

“This can only be achieved if the BBPA board will agree to meet with the Village Board and negotiate a solution, which has yet to occur,” he said. “These properties are a valuable untapped resource that I believe would greatly improve our village and the enjoyment of our residents.”

Howard Freedman

Freedman, 64, is running for elected office for the first time, challenging the incumbents on the Clean Slate Party line. He has been a West Hampton Dunes property owner since 1999.

Freedman owns a New York City-based real estate financial services company. He also serves on the boards of directors of several co-op and condominium boards in the city and serves as treasurer for two nonprofit foundations that direct funding to charities that support community food pantries and disadvantaged children.

He said he would look to bring his extensive financial management experience to the Village Board to help steer efforts to fund future beach nourishment projects and to improve oversight of village finances.

Freedman said he would like to modernize the village’s accounting systems with new accounting software and better internal accounting controls and staff separation. He would also advocate for much more detailed village budgets to be released to the public.

He’d also “ensure that all government reporting is completed timely and audited financials are provided to homeowners,” he said.

If elected, he said he would push for the village’s offices to be moved from the current shared space on Arthur Street in Westhampton to one of the BBPA buildings in the Dunes itself.

“This will save money and allow residents easier access to the village employees and officials,” he said.

Harvey Gessin

Gessin, 74, is an incumbent trustee seeking reelection to a second term on the Beach Preservation Party line with Craig and Vegliante. He has been a Dunes property owner since 1999. Prior to being elected to the Village Board, he served on the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals for 10 years.

Gessin operates a residential construction business that he said specializes in coastal construction with an emphasis on durability in the marine environment and energy efficiency in West Hampton Dunes, throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties and in New York City.

As trustee, Gessin said this week, he oversaw the construction of the new village constables headquarters, free of charge, and touted the stout construction of the “self-sustaining” building that he says can serve as a “safe house” for the community in a storm. He said that he looks forward to also spearheading the renovations of the village’s other municipal building at 914 Dune Road to make it a more usable meeting space for the village’s governmental boards.

Gessin said that he and the village’s building inspector have conducted a house-by-house survey of the village to catalog the propane tanks at each property to ensure compliance with storm resilient building codes and is working with the village’s attorneys on updating the village’s codes to better parallel new state requirements.

He touted the financial management of Vegliante’s administration and said that he and his company’s staff are always eager to lend their time or equipment to help village residents.

“Again, the current board has a projected budget that will not raise taxes,” he said this week. “My firm has staff and equipment on Dune Road all year and the constables regularly tap into our resources for a tall ladder for a rescue or a quick cleanup of the road from dropped debris, or snow removal, at no cost to the village.”

Regina Mulhearn

Known to most of her neighbors by her married name, Gina Cappiello, Mulhearn has lived in what is now West Hampton Dunes since the 1980s and has been a property owner since 1991. She and her family have lived in the village full time since 2007.

Mulhearn, 68, is retired from the home furnishings business, where she was a national sales manager for Springs Mills, the largest textile mill in the nation, then started her own furnishings importing business for large retailers like Pottery Barn and Bed, Bath & Beyond.

She is a member of the Barrier Beach Preservation Association and says that she helped revitalize its role in the community. She worked on the effort to establish oyster growing projects, the children’s marine education program and spearheaded the effort to rid the village of its feral cats, which were killing birds — working with ARF to trap and neuter 70 feral cats.

“We found the cats good homes off the beach and the result was a big rebound in the entire song bird population here in the Dunes,” she said. “My husband, Mark Cappiello, and myself have been the site coordinators for the [State Department of Environmental Conservation] and Cornell Cooperative program, which monitors horseshoe crabs at Pike’s Beach. Over the last 20 years, we have tagged over 20,000 horseshoe crabs for U.S. Fish & Wildlife as well as leading hundreds of volunteers and educating them on the importance of the species.”

In the coming year, Mulhearn says the village’s biggest challenges will continue to be managing erosion along its shorelines on both the ocean and bay and that nourishment projects will be needed in both areas to bolster the shoreline and protect homes.

She said that as trustee she would like to work to make the voting process easier for village residents and those looking to get involved in government.

“I would like to thank all the voters who have jumped through all the hoops to have their voices heard,” she said. “It can be made much easier.”