Pictured from left to right, Commissioner Vanessa Tamari, Commissioner Steve Reiter, Commissioner Brian Morris
Courtesy of the candidates
Great Neck Park District voters re-elected Commissioner Vanessa Tamari to serve as one of its three commissioners Tuesday night with 73% of votes.
Tamari, who received 1,681 votes, fended back against challenger Gordon Charlop, who received 615 votes.
Great Neck voters headed to the polls in two other elections for the Great Neck Water Pollution and Control District and the Manhasset-Lakeville Water/Fire District.
Steve Reiter was re-elected as a commissioner for the water pollution control district and Brian Morris was re-elected as commissioner for the Manhasset-Lakeville water/Fire District.
The park district race heated up in the days before the election. Challenger Charlop, who ran in 2023 and sued the district for alleged election tampering, presented his findings after reviewing the 2023 absentee ballots.
While Charlop had originally requested the courts to throw out the 2023 election after accusing them of illegal election tactics, the courts denied this request. Instead, they allowed him to view the election’s absentee ballots.
Charlop brought in a handwriting expert to compare the signatures on the absentee ballot applications and the absentee ballots. The handwriting expert determined that more than 100 of the absentee ballots he reviewed had signatures that appeared not to have been made by the same person.
Charlop said he also observed that a majority of the absentee ballots had designated the 2023 incumbent he ran against, Commissioner Tina Stellato, and Tamari as those receiving and delivering the ballots on behalf of the voters.
Tamari was elected to the park’s Board of Commissioners in 2021, filling the seat left by longtime Commissioner Robert Lincoln, who opted not to run for re-election.
Her next three year term begins in January.
Efforts to solicit comment from Tamari were unavailing.
Charlop’s 2024 campaign focused on a platform of equitable resources for all park district residents and their neighborhood parks as well as district transparency.
“I feel strongly that, no matter where in Great Neck you live, you and your family deserve fair access to this town’s resources,” Charlop wrote in his candidate statement.
Reiter was re-elected to the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District Board of Commissioners with 152 votes in an uncontested election.
Reiter, a Great Neck resident for more than four decades, was elected to the board of commissioners in 2012. This would be his fifth term, which will begin in January.
The Great Neck Water Pollution Control District treats the wastewater for the Villages of Great Neck, Saddle Rock and Kensington, parts of Thomaston, Great Neck Plaza, east of Middle Neck Road, all unincorporated areas north of the railroad and a part of Manhasset.
For the Manhasset-Lakeville Water/Fire District, Morris was elected with 289 votes in an uncontested election.
Morris was elected in 2009, making his term beginning in January his sixth.
The Manhasset-Lakeville Fire and Water District takes in all of Manhasset except for Plandome, half of Great Neck and some of northern New Hyde Park.
The Manhasset-Lakeville Water District serves approximately 45,000 customers who use 7.4 million gallons of water a day within the service area of 10.2 square miles, according to the water district’s website. Eighteen wells at 13 locations provide water to Manhasset and portions of Great Neck and North New Hyde Park.