Tomorrow is Election Day in New York State with various town and county offices offices up for grabs.
Locally, voters will be electing two members of the Southold Town Board, three town trustees, two assessors, the superintendent of highways and one town justice. In addition, voters will elect a county legislator, a county district attorney and county sheriff. Four State Supreme Court seats in Suffolk County are also open. Voters will also be asked to weigh in on three ballot propositions tomorrow.
Polling places will open and 6 a.m. and remain open until 9 p.m. tomorrow night. If you don’t know your polling location, you can find it on the N.Y. State voter search website maintained by the state board of elections. You can also use this site to verify your registration.
There were 17,553 registered voters in the Town of Southold as of Nov. 1, according to the N.Y. State Board of Elections. That’s an increase of 1,474 registered voters over 2015, the last local election year. In 2015, 40 percent of registered voters turned out to cast a ballot.
In terms of party affiliation, the town’s 17,553 registered voters break down this way: 37 percent Republican, 28 percent Democratic, 26 percent unaffiliated, 6 percent Independence, and 3 percent Conservative.
Southold Town Board – two open seats
Four-year term, $35,078 annual salary
Four candidates are vying for two open town council seats this year.
Jim Dinizio, 63, of Greenport, incumbent, is a registered Conservative running on the Conservative, Republican and Independence lines. Dinizio was appointed by the town board in 2013 to fill a vacancy created by the election of Al Krupski to the county legislature. He previously served 25 years on the town’s zoning board of appeals. Dinizio, a U.S. Navy veteran, is a small business owner; his company installs alarms and phone systems. The Greenport native is married and the father of two children.
Mary Eisenstein, 68, of Mattituck, is a Democrat running with the Independence Party endorsement. She is a certified mediator, professional trainer, facilitator and coach. She is founder and past president of the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association. Eisenstein and her husband Mel Morris have lived in Mattituck for more than 25 years.
Bob Ghosio, 54, of Greenport, incumbent, is a Republican running with the Conservative endorsement. He is a manager at a heating and air-conditioning company and a managing partner in a fuel oil company. The holder of a bachelor’s degree in zoology, Ghosio served seven years as a town trustee and has been a town council member since 2014. Ghosio is married and the father of two children.
Debbie O’Kane, 61, of Orient, is a Democrat running with the Women’s Equality Party endorsement. She is a medical office administrator and the program director for the North Fork Environmental Council. She is president of the North Fork Audubon Society, a member of Southold Rotary and of the town’s housing advisory commission. She has volunteered for many nonprofit organizations and has a long history of service with the NFEC.
Southold Town Trustee – three open seats
Four-year term, $19,371 annual salary
Derek Bossen, 47, of Southold, is a self-employed landscape designer and horticulturalist. He is running on the Democratic line. Bossen has volunteered for 13 years with the town tree committee and is a past member of the town’s Conservation Advisory Council. He is an Eagle Scout, a Cubmaster and a Little League coach. He is married and the father of two sons.
John Bredemeyer, 66, of Orient, an 18-year incumbent trustee, is running on the Republican, Conservative, and Independence lines. He has chaired the Board of Trustees as its president for three terms. A graduate of Greenport High School and Cornell University, Bredemeyer is retired from the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, where he worked for 35 years, the last 25 in the division of environmental quality, bureau of marine resources. He is an adjunct science professor at Suffolk County Community College. He serves as chairman of the town’s shellfish advisory committee. A former Peace Corps volunteer, Bredemeyer is married and the father of two adult children.
Michael Domino, 73, of Southold, is running on the Republican, Conservative, Independence party lines. A retired earth science teacher, Domino earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Adelphi University, and master’s degrees in education, from Adelphi, and applied science, Stony Brook University. He is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. Domino has served on the tree committee, the Anti-Bias Task Force and the North Fork Environmental Council. He and his wife of 51 years have four children and six grandchildren.
Elizabeth Smith, 43, of Greenport, is running on the Democratic line. She is and environmental economist with a PhD from the University of Rhode Island. Smith is a member of the Conservation Advisory Council.
Greg Williams, 45, of Cutchogue,is running on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines. He has owned a cycle shop in Mattituck for 20 years. He is married and the father of two. Williams is a member of the Southold Conservation Advisory Committee and CAST and has volunteered with CYO basketball and Boy Scouts.
Highway Superintendent
Four-year term; $106,506 annual salary
Vincent Orlando, 56, of Southold, is an incumbent seeking a second term of office. He is running on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines. Orlando is a former town councilman (2008-2012) and member of the Southold Zoning Board of Appeals (2002-2006). He worked in managerial positions for 19 years for an environmental services company. He holds an associate’s degree in mechanical engineering from SUNY/Farmingdale and was awarded a U.S. patent for his invention of a wireless remote fuel gauge. He has served on the town’s parks and recreation committee and renewable and alternative energy committee. He is married and the father of two grown children.
Gene Wesnofske, 70, of Cutchogue is running on the Democratic line. He has been a vegetable farmer in Peconic for the past 50 years. He runs two farm stands and sells his produce at farmers’ markets. He and his wife have five children and six grandchildren.
Southold Town Clerk
Four-year term, salary: $102,624
Elizabeth Neville, 70, of Southold, seeking her sixth term of office, is running unopposed on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines. Neville was previously a deputy town clerk and prior to that worked in the planning, zoning and building departments. She earned an associate’s degree in business from Suffolk County Community College. In 2010 she earned the master municipal clerk designation through Cornell University’s Municipal Clerk Institute. She is active in professional organizations and serves on several town committees. She is married and has a son.
Southold Town Assessor – two open seats
Four-year term, $76,707 annual salary
Damon Peter Rallis, 43, of Southold, is running on the Democratic party line. A 16-year- employee of Southold Town, Rallis works for the building department. A native of the North Fork, Rallis s a Boy Scout leader and a member of the Peconic Lodge No. 349 of Free and Accepted Masons. He and his wife have two young sons.
Charles Sanders, 49, of Greenport, is running on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines. He is currently a member of the Southold Town Trustees (elected in 2013) and works as an associate broker at Town and Country Real Estate in Southold. He has been an associate real estate broker since 2003 and was a licensed real estate salesperson from 1999-2002. Sanders holds a bachelor’s degree from Taylor University and a master’s degree in liberal studied from Stony Brook. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he has served in Army National Guard since 2008. He has deployed twice to Afghanistan (2010-2011 and 2012-2013) and once to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Cuba (2015-2016). Sanders is the commander and historian of the American Legion Post 803 in Southold and a member of the North Fork School-Business Advisory Board in the Southold School District and of the Mattituck-Laurel Historical Society and Museums.
Kevin Webster, 47, of East Marion, is a 12-year incumbent and current chairman of the the Southold Board of Assessors. He is running on the Republican, Conservative, Independence party lines. Webster is a state-certified assessor and licensed appraiser and has worked in the industry since 1992. He is also a member of the NYS Assessors’ Association and Suffolk County Assessors’ Association. Webster holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Ithaca College. He is the current Chairman of the East Marion Fire District and has been a member of the fire department there since 2004. He was named Firefighter of the Year for 2016. He and his wife have one son.
Southold Town Justice – one open seat
Four-year term, $71,755 annual salary
Robert Meguin, 69, is running on the Democratic line. He is an attorney in private practice. Meguin is a former law clerk for five different judges, spanning more than 25 years. He also served as a Lindenhurst Village justice, Babylon Town director of finance, as the head of Suffolk County’s consumer affairs unit and as the county’s commissioner of consumer affairs. He ran unsuccessfully for Southold town supervisor in 2011. Meguin is a 1974 graduate of St. John’s University School of Law in 1974 and a 1970 graduate of Boston University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business. He is married and the father of two.
Eileen Powers, 50, of Southold, is running on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines. An attorney in private practice since 2005, she previously served as an assistant district attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, where she was deputy bureau chief of the major crimes unit. She is a former Southampton town attorney and village attorney for the Village of Belle Terre. Powers is a 1992 graduate of St. John’s University School of Law and a 1989 graduate of Stony Brook University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in history. Married and a mother of three, she has served on the Our Lady of Mercy Regional School board of education, and has volunteered with St. Patrick’s CYO basketball, ans as a girls softball coach with North Fork Little League. She is a member of the Suffolk County Bar Association and the Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association and a former member of the Southold Town Board of Ethics and the board of directors of The Retreat.
