Centre Island, Port Jefferson, Sands Point and Southampton mayoral races set for this week

Voters will decide contested mayoral races this week in Port Jefferson, Sands Point and Southampton as villages across Long Island hold elections.

Seven contested trustee races are also on village ballots this week. Some villages also will elect village justices.

Incumbent mayors face challenges in Port Jefferson and Sands Point in elections set for Tuesday. In Centre Island, an aspiring challenger to the incumbent was mired in litigation after his attempt to qualify for the ballot was denied. That election also is Tuesday. The Southampton Village election is scheduled for Friday. 

Brightwaters, Centre Island, North Haven, Port Jefferson, Southampton, Westhampton Beach and Westhampton Dunes have contested trustee races.

Across Nassau and Suffolk counties, village mayors and trustees set annual budgets and tax rates for their communities, enact legislation, and oversee local zoning and code ordinances, among other tasks. Village justices typically hear cases involving violations of various ordinances, including noise ordinances, traffic violations and building codes.

Here are profiles of candidates in the contested races.

Port Jefferson

The North Shore village's mayoral race is a rematch of the 2023 campaign between then-trustees Lauren Sheprow and Kathianne Snaden.

Sheprow, who ran as a write-in candidate two years ago after being removed from the ballot because she had filed defective candidating petitions, won that mayoral contest, defeating Snaden, 956-796.

Snaden, 53, a paralegal, said she is running again because she said she believes Sheprow has run a secretive administration. Snaden, who is running on the One Port Jefferson Party line, served two two-year terms as trustee from 2019 to 2023, the last two years also serving as deputy mayor.

She said Sheprow and the village board had met behind closed doors to discuss whether to annex a portion of Port Jefferson Station hamlet, where developer Jim Tsunis wants to build an apartment complex.

The village board voted, 4-0, on May 28 to reject the annexation. Sheprow did not cast a vote.

“The public hadn’t heard anything about this annexation until a few months ago," Snaden said. “Meetings need to be out in the public. The public needs to be part of large decisions.”

Snaden said she also disagreed with Sheprow's handling of a $10 million erosion-mitigation plan on a bluff at the village-owned Port Jefferson Country Club.

Sheprow, 64, a retired Stony Brook University spokesperson, is finishing her first two-year term as mayor. She is running on the Concerned Villagers Party line.

She rejected Snaden's contention that the annexation was discussed in secret, noting a joint public hearing in March with the Brookhaven Town Board, which also voted against the annexation.

"The situation played out legally and transparently,” Sheprow said.

She said she had added about 100 volunteers to roles in village government, including service on the village ethics board and on committees looking at issues such as the village budget, erosion control and bluff stabilization at the country club.

“It was locked in prior years," she said of village government. "We opened the doors and I invited people to participate in government.”

Sheprow said she also hired a new grants administrator who has helped secure $1.5 million in funding for capital projects, such as infrastructure improvements. One grant will reimburse the village for $450,000 it had spent on an emergency operations center, Sheprow said.

The mayor is paid $35,000 annually.

In the trustees race, incumbent Robert Juliano and challengers Matthew Franco and Julie Vitrano are seeking two open seats, each carrying a two-year term. Trustees are paid $12,500 annually.

Sands Point

Home to about 2,700 residents on the tip of the Port Washington peninsula, the village is known for its Gold Coast mansions and waterfront views. Political elections typically come and go as quietly as a Manhasset Bay breeze.

This year, there has been a rupture.

Jeremiah Bosgang, executive director of the Sands Point Preserve Conservancy, a 216-acre park full of mansions, nature trails, a beach and more, is challenging incumbent Mayor Peter Forman, who is seeking a third two-year term.

Bosgang, 63, said in an interview that Forman maintains a culture of “bullying” and “condescension.” Bosgang said he has no political ambitions but decided to run for office after frustrations with Forman.

“There is pervasive fear, pervasive favor, it is very transactional,” Bosgang said. “ ... We don’t live in some oligarchy, it’s supposed to be a democracy.”

Bosgang said Forman hired a private investigator to track him down, which Forman denied in an interview with Newsday.

He said Bosgang was a “nice man” but pointed to his lack of government experience.

“He does not really understand how to govern a complex village,” Forman said.

Forman, 63, an investor, previously served as deputy mayor before taking office. He’s focused on keeping taxes within the state’s 2% tax cap, maintaining the village’s public safety and keeping its water clean. Forman also wants to protect the character of the neighborhood by limiting noise, the over-clearing of trees and excessive subdividing of properties.

The mayor is not paid.

Southampton

The mayors race is shaping up to be déjà vu as a sitting trustee once again challenges the incumbent.

Village board member Ed Simioni, who was elected last year, is challenging incumbent William Manger Jr. Manger is seeking a second mayoral term, two years after he defeated former mayor Jesse Warren while he was a trustee.

Manger, 60, whose background includes a top role in the U.S. Small Business Administration, touted investments in village infrastructure and stable village finances as key highlights of his first term.

“I would really like another two years to be able to finish some of the projects that we started,” Manger said in an interview.

Simioni, 73, is a business owner and village trustee who previously served for 18 years on the Southampton Village Planning Commission. He is calling for more transparency and communication with residents to engage the public in decision-making.

“I am for open government for the people, so they know what we’re doing — no surprises,” Simioni said in an interview. “I am not running for the benefits, I am running because I want to do good for the village.”

One key project on the horizon is a stalled effort to establish a sewer district in the village, which could improve water quality in Lake Agawam and allow for economic development.

Manger wants to explore the feasibility of hooking up to a sewage treatment plant at the Stony Brook University Southampton campus.

Simioni agrees that sewers could improve water quality but is advocating for a decentralized system that he said would be more cost effective and easier to build.

Mayors serve two-year terms and earn $35,000 each year.

In the trustees race, incumbents Robin Brown and Roy Stevenson and challenger Rob Coburn are seeking two open seats, each carrying a two-year term. Trustees are paid $20,500 annually.

And in Centre Island, controversy

The typically quiet village, with a population of just 400, has been embroiled in contentious litigation over its mayoral election. Andrew Woodstock sued village officials and other parties after he was disqualified from the ballot. Lawrence Schmidlapp, mayor since 2009, is seeking reelection. 

On Thursday, a Nassau State Supreme judge ruled Woodstock could not appear on the ballot because he filed his lawsuit too late. Woodstock said he is considering an appeal and soliciting write-in votes.

The two sides battled over the legitimacy of Woodstock’s candidacy. Last month, Schmidlapp raised possible issues with Woodstock’s residency and past legal problems, and a village election officer subsequently invalidated his petition.

Woodstock, the owner of the company Woodstock Construction LLC, said “there needs to be a new guard” in the village and pledged to increase transparency. He said the village’s online systems are “antiquated” and decried “mismanagement” in Centre Island’s finances.

Schmidlapp, 80, said if he won, the upcoming two-year term would be his last. He said his success over his span as mayor has been embedded in “not micromanaging” the village and “letting my committees do what they have to do.”

“I’ve done it for 16 years,” Schmidlapp said. “I don't think you should do it for much longer than that.”

During those last two years, he said, he wants to “resolve the expense of our police department” and said he was open to a similar arrangement to one brokered between Upper Brookville and Muttontown.

Woodstock filed a lawsuit June 2 that alleged Centre Island village officials engaged in a "conspiracy" to prevent him from running in the Tuesday contest, Newsday reported.

His attorney, Steven Leventhal, asked a State Supreme Court judge to expeditiously review the case, add Woodstock’s name to the ballot, discard ballots without his name and appoint a “court’s referee” to oversee the election.

Peter MacKinnon, an attorney representing the village, said Woodstock didn’t bring his case in time to be heard by the court.

Attorneys for the village on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss the case. Because Woodstock's petition was invalidated on May 27, his lawyers had until May 30 to file a challenge, the attorneys wrote.

The mayor is not paid.

In the trustees race, incumbents Anne Glass and Walter Roll and challenger Alex Carciu are seeking two open seats, each carrying two-year terms. Trustees are unpaid.

Other trustee races

Brightwaters: Joseph A. McNulty III, Thomas Fauvell and incumbent Patrick Fawcett seeking two open seats, each carrying a two-year term. Trustees are not paid.

North Haven: Incumbents Peter Boody and Terie Diat and challenger Max Rohn are seeking two open seats, each carrying a two-year term. Annual stipend is $1,500.

Westhampton Beach: Incumbent Rob Rubio and challengers Christopher Rizzo, Kim Wolfersdorf and Nancy St. John are seeking two open seats, each carrying a two-year term. Trustees are paid $7,500 annually.

Westhampton Dunes: Incumbent Gary Trimarchi and challengers Ryan Osborne and Luke McGinty are seeking two open seats, each carrying a four-year term. Trustees are paid $3,000 annually.