Vilardi, Garry win one for Sanitary District One (for now)

                                                                         

Hempstead Sanitary District One

It's been ten months since voters in Hempstead Town's Sanitation District One voted for its commissioners but the election was only decided yesterday.

And it's possible that a very detailed 14-page decision by Nassau Supreme Court Justice Randy Sue Marber could still be appealed.

Her decision is complicated, but the politics behind the fight are even more convoluted.

First, as background,  the sanitation district "provides municipal solid waste collection, recycling, transfer and disposal services to well over 50,000 residents and various commercial and institutional properties in the Villages of Cedarhurst, Hewlett, Hewlett Bay Park, Hewlett Harbor, Hewlett Neck, Inwood, Lawrence, Woodmere, Woodsburgh and portions of the unincorporated areas of Lynbrook and Green Acres, " according to its website.

It is run by an elected board of five commissioners and has been chaired, seemingly forever by Inwood Republican leader James Vilardi.

Yesterday, Marber declared that the winner is Gwynn Campbell, an incumbent appointed to the District One board a few months before the July 11 election, handing a victory to Vilardi and the district's administration of the vote.

Gwynn Campbell (credit: Newsday, Tom Lambui)

It's also a win for Tom Garry, a partner in the Harris Beach Law firm hired by the district to defend the election. Garry is a Democratic elections lawyer and a chief strategist for the Nassau and State Democratic party.

Its a loss for Gabriel Boxer, Campbell's opponent who demanded the election be overturned in his favor, and for Boxer's attorney, longtime Republican elections attorney John Ciampoli.

But its also effectively a win by Vilardi over Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.

James Vilardi

You see, Vilardi and Blakeman have been feuding since the Atlantic Beach Republican took office as Nassau's county executive last year. 

Vilardi has been the unofficial political leader of the Five Towns area for years. But Blakeman counts the Five Towns Jewish orthodox community as his base.

Campbell is president of the Five Towns Community Center. Blakeman has said he will not renew the Center's longtime lease with Nassau County and appears to favor granting a new lease to the Lawrence School District. The Lawrence School District is headed by Blakeman supporter and appointee Murray Forman.

Bruce Blakeman

Vilardi supported Campbell in the sanitation district race: Blakeman supported Boxer, CEO of both Kosher Response and the Leon Mayer Fund, non-profits based in Hewlett, and is a past board member of the Young Israel of Hewlett.

Here is a link to a past blog item that explained all this.

https://liuncoverednews.blogspot.com/2023/03/political-connections-and-feuds.html 

Boxer, and Ciampoli, argued that Marber should invalidate the July election because of the alleged mishandling of absentee ballots. They also demanded Marber either certify Boxer as the winner or order a new election.

On Election night, Boxer appeared to be the winner but the district said some 900 absentee ballots had to be counted. They appeared to put Campbell in the lead.

The dispute went to court where a bipartisan team from the Nassau Board of elections who had not been involved in the district election recanvassed the votes and, on March 31, concluded Campbell won 762-554.

Ciampoli again argued that the district had not followed state elections law in the handing of absentees.

But Marber said that Sanitary District One is a special district under Hempstead Town, concluding the "election law of the State of New York is not applicable to special district elections."

After the decision was released, Ciampoli yesterday said had yet to have time to review it when asked if he would appeal.