With the imminent departure of two Democratic village trustees, Ilissa Miller and David Finch, village Republicans will have a chance at three open seats and what the party hopes is its first board majority in [five?] years.
With a majority on the Board of Trustees hanging in the balance, the Republican candidates—Joern Malte Stoeckhert, Dennis P. Cucinella and Maria DeRose—will also be campaigning against one member on the Democratic slate with experience and name recognition to boot: Trustee Leon Potok.
Joining Potok are political newcomers Keith Waitt and Victor Tafur to round out that party’s slate.
Although the Republican ticket would also bring new faces to the Board of Trustees’ dais—none of the candidates have held any elected office previously—all three hope to apply their experience gained through volunteering for the village’s volunteer committees.
DeRose, 49, who is currently the chairwoman of Mamaroneck’s Ad Hoc Parking Committee and operations manager at Lorenz Sciences Group, a software engineering firm, said one of her focuses will be on ensuring the village’s fiscal responsibility.
“I’d make sure that everyone’s tax dollars are spent in a responsible way,” she told the Review. “And keep Mamaroneck a destination for everyone to enjoy.”
Among the specific issues she hopes to tackle, DeRose said, are parking, flooding, and what she described as the “general well-being” of the village; issues reiterated by her fellow running mates.
“I was born and raised in this village,” she said. “I want to keep the hometown feeling.”
Although the candidates all agreed that both flooding and parking—issues that have plagued the village for decades—are high items of priority for their campaigns, for Stoeckhert, overregulation spurred by a cumbersome village code will be on his plate.
“There are way too many rules and regulations in our village code,” Stoeckhert, 48, told the Review. “A lot of the rules are nonsense… “I remember once when I had to replace a window in my house,” he said. “I needed a permit for that”
Stoeckert, is also the chairman of the village Board of Architectural Review and head of commercial real estate lending at NORD/LB, a prominent German bank.
Cucinella, 69, who unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the village Board of Trustees as a Republican in 2012, said that among his major campaign issues will be working on maintaining a reasonable level of taxes.
Cucinella, who was also a code enforcement officer in Scarsdale for nine years until his retirement in January 2013, said that the current Democratic majority of the board has failed to keep the interests of its citizens—and volunteer boards—in mind.
“They form a committee, and then the committee makes recommendations,” he said. “Then they discount the recommendations altogether.”
According to village Trustee Lou Santoro, a Republican district leader and deputy mayor, this election represents an important moment for the village Republican Party, given the fact that winning a majority is at stake.
“We’re going to campaign with candidates very hard this year,” Santoro said.
Village trustees are elected for two-year terms.
