Court rules against candidate

Only two will run for Lawrence trustee

Posted

jbessen@liherald.com


Incumbent Trustees Michael Fragin and Daniel Goldstein are the only two candidates who will be on the June 20 Village of Lawrence ballot since Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Daniel Palmieri ruled on June 7 that Larry Kolodny’s legal action was “untimely” and submitted past the lawful
deadline.


Kolodny had filed his order to show why he should be on the ballot on May 30. He contended that he had submitted it within the legally prescribed time — counting from when he learned that the Board of Elections determined his petition invalid, which was May 27. Palmieri ruled that the last day to file the order to show was May 26, as the seven-day time limit expired.


In addition, after an entire Wednesday of hearings, motions and reviews, only 92 of the 115 submitted petition signatures were considered valid by Palmieri in a line-by-line evaluation. That decision coincides with the May 22 determination by the Nassau County Board of Elections that deemed 22 signatures invalid. Palmieri approved one signature that the Board of Elections voided. A candidate is required to have 100 legally signed names on a petition.


“The count eliminates you from the ballot,” Palmieri said to Kolodny at the end of a day that began near 10 a.m. in a courtroom and ended close to 6 p.m. in a makeshift conference room at the Board of Elections. “The village clerk is not to place his name on the ballot,” the judge added in response to a question.


The village, Ron Goldman — the village’s administrator and clerk of elections, Goldstein and the Board of Elections, were named as defendants. Procedural motions were pending as of press time, but Kolodny said he would not appeal Palmieri’s ruling.


Controversy ensued after Kolodny submitted his petition on May 16, which included Fragin’s name and stated that both were running under the Taxpayer Party banner. While no law precludes candidates from running on multiple party lines, Fragin was already running with Goldstein as Unity Party candidates. Fragin said he had “no comment” because he was not a party to the legal action.


One day after Kolodny’s petition was submitted, Goldstein filed his objections that challenged 67 of the 115 signatures collected. The Board of Elections based its decision to rule Kolodny’s petition invalid on signatures that were illegible or addresses not matching up to where the signatories currently lived.


Kolodny contended that Goldstein’s objections were not addressed properly. He said that he collected 85 of the 115 signatures submitted. “If they said they were not registered to vote in the village or they had already signed for another candidate, I declined their signature and requested that all people collecting signatures on my behalf do the same verification,” Kolodny stated in his affidavit. He added that Goldstein’s objections “contained multiple erasures and are illegible.”


Kolodny said that he was never served with notice of either the general objections or “specification of objections,” and that Goldman erroneously stated in the objection document that the document was filed with the Board of Elections. It was filed with the village and then sent to the county board.


Both Goldman and Goldstein remained silent during the day’s proceedings and let their lawyers, Stephen Martier and John Ciampoli, respectively, do the talking. Kolodny represented himself, and Alpa Sanghvi advocated for the Board of Elections.


Goldstein said Palmieri’s ruling proved that Kolodny’s contentions were incorrect. “The law did what it had to do, and he was given more than fair time to prove his case,” Goldstein said. “Not just the judge, but the Board of Elections, found his petitions unfit.”

Have an opinion about the Village of Lawrence trustee race? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.