Residents of the Village of Suffern vote in a new mayor.
Familiar faces populate the mayoral contest in Suffern as four challenge to fill outgoing Mayor Dagan Lacorte’s seat. Two former mayors and two current village trustees go before voters Tuesday, November 5.
Lacorte leaves office having invested in the village’s water and sewer treatment facility as well as having made major efforts to develop part of the village center. The whole question of Suffern’s Urban Renewal plan, which involves the proposed 111 apartment rental complex at Orange Avenue, will be put on hold until the game of musical chairs involving the mayor’s seat and village trustee seats is settled post election.
The whole Suffern mayoral race has been veiled in internecine village politics culminating in the cancelation of a recent Greater Suffern Chamber of Commerce candidate forum because both the chamber and candidates couldn’t or wouldn’t get on the same page.
In the mayor’s race, Jim Giannettino will represent the Republican ticket as well as the Independent line. Giannettino is a former one-term mayor. Current longtime Village Trustee Patricia Abato is on the Democratic ticket. Another former mayor, John Keegan, is on the up-and-coming Working Family ticket, after losing out to Abato in the recent Democratic primary. First-time Village Trustee Charles Falciglia is on the newly created Preserve Rockland ticket.
Falciglia has been outspoken on such touchy topics as Suffern’s Parking Authority, a quasi-private corporation that runs independently of the village. The authority is operated by a 5-member board that manages Suffern’s some 1000 visitor, employee and commuter downtown parking spaces. The Authority’s 2014 budgeted revenues were reported as $241,200, which included $193,000 in parking fees, with total expenses of $238,200.
Falciglia supports transitioning the Parking Authority back under village control. Currently, the authority has an outsized voice on village issues but is technically outside the village municipal control.
There are two open seats on the Suffern Village Board — trustees serve two-year terms.
Chairman of the Suffern Parking Authority William Schoenleber is running for trustee on the Working Family Line. It’s not clear how a seat on the village board would impact Schoenleber’s term at the Parking Authority but one assumes he would have to resign that seat if elected to the board.
Lisa Estrin and Barbara Mazza are running on the Democratic line. Mazza is also on the Working Family ticket. Local attorney Matthew Byrne and Parking Authority employee Frank Hagen are on the Republican line as well as the Independent line.
