Depending on party affiliation and political persuasion, Tuesday’s Election Day may either be a day of reckoning or a day of rejoicing. All sorts of political signs waver about in the wind, representing the diverse beliefs of residents in the Town of Ramapo and beyond.

Village of Suffern residents vote for mayor and two trustees in the Tuesday, November 3, election.

From a Suffern/Hillburn Rockland County Legislative seat to the Suffern Mayor and Ramapo Supervisor elections, a few top of mind themes this political cycle are the high cost of living in the Town of Ramapo and how to jumpstart area economic growth at the village, town and county levels.

Village of Suffern Team Pride
As foretold, the Village of Suffern election pits current Mayor Trish Abato against first-term Trustee Ed Markunus in a bruising contest rooted in debates on the costs of village services and quality of life return on those services.

First-term Suffern Trustee Ed Markunus tops the Team Suffern bill and is running against current Mayor Trish Abato for the center dais seat.

Those who have attended Suffern board meetings over the past year have often been witness to tense political theater that has sparked a very real community conversation to clarify the very values of village life itself.

Suffern will vote Tuesday on a mayor and two trustee seats out of four. Current Trustees Frank Hagen and Jo Corrigan are running for re-election. Corrigan has been a vocal, articulate board member, working on flooding and FEMA issues in Suffern’s Squires Gates community and on local water and sewer fiscal issues. Hagen has a good board attendance record.

Suffern’s first female mayor, Trish Abato, leads the Suffern Pride ticket in Tuesday’s election, with running mates Jo Corrigan and Jim Lyons.

Perhaps the top issue facing Suffern is the financial health and long-term sustainability of village quality of life, which includes everything from tax rates that pay for services to development strategies that attract new residents and businesses.

Team Suffern is led by Markunus at the top of the ticket and includes Hagen and longtime Suffern resident Moira Hertzman. Team Suffern’s main message is focused on “fiscal responsibility” and “effective leadership.”

If Suffern’s election season was written up as a country song it might be a tune called “I Caught the High Cost of Living in a Small Village with You”.

As Trustee, Markunus has advocated streamlining the village budget, even if that involves cutting personnel, programs and services — call it hitting the reboot button. Throughout his brief tenure Markunus has mostly hammered on the Suffern budget process, itself a thing in progress, stating that Mayor Abato has “consistently failed to exercise the appropriate fiscal responsibility necessary to avoid the financial crisis we are now facing.”

A Markunus administration and Village board might pursue any combination of fiscal solutions that could involve anything from deep village budget cuts to the elimination and/or consolidation of Village services to inviting the New York State Financial Restructuring Board to examine Suffern’s finances.

Details of any Markunus mayoral plan have not been articulated publicly outside of his actions on the dais and campaign boilerplate points. Team Suffern failed to provide a response to a Rockland Star questionnaire that involved specific issues Suffern is facing.

Mayor Abato’s campaign provided a detailed response to the questionnaire — see Mayor Abato’s responses here.

The loud voice of opposition is important in maintaining transparent political dialogue — and works best in calling a bluff on pointless political chicanery. In a small village community that voice can quickly become obstructionist and even petty if it does not provide, say, even a five point solution on solving a community’s top issues.

The way forward must be well marked.

Markunus has been an important and refreshing political hammer that has prompted Mayor Abato and her Suffern Pride constituency into action to build a new, detailed platform that seeks to articulate primary village issues and provide solutions.

The mystery of Markunus is that he hasn’t done the same.