Sanitation 7 hearing postponed

After 42 days, what’s another week?

A hearing for the still-undecided June 19 Oceanside Sanitation District commissioner’s race, scheduled for July 30, was postponed until August 7, when Nassau Supreme Court Justice Arthur Diamond is expected back from vacation.

Tom Lanning, his attorney John Mannone and Jack Libert, a mediator hired by the district, appeared at the Mineola Courthouse last week, only to be told that Justice Diamond was away and that a hearing on that date had been scheduled in error.

Lanning and Mannone filed an injunction on July 23 calling for the district to count the 184 paper ballots that were collected during the election, and then declare a winner.

According to the two voting machines the district used in the election, Lanning led Mike Franzini by a count of 837-739, with Steve Edmondson a distant third, when the polls closed on June 19. The voting machines, which the district rented from a Queens company called Pull This!, subsequently indicated an irregularity in voting: As many as 140 people who entered a voting booth did not cast ballots. Additionally, there were 184 paper ballots cast but not counted.

Libert was brought in to examine the election. He presented his findings to the sanitation board on July 14, concluding that an examination of the voting booths and the voting register proved that there was a “significant undervote,” and that 33 voters somehow voted without signing the register. Libert said that the board had three options: count the paper ballots and certify a winner, order a recount or prepare for a new election. The board made no immediate decision on the matter.

Libert also asked the board to facilitate a meeting of the three candidates, their representatives and Libert so that a resolution could be discussed and court proceedings be avoided. Both Lanning and Franzini expressed an interest in such a meeting, but it never came to fruition. Libert finally got a chance to sit down with Lanning and Franzini on July 23, but instead he was served with the court papers.

The board of commissioners met again on July 17, but did not address the election.

Lanning, Franzini and Edmondson are vying for the seat left vacant by the retiring Fred Morse. The job has a five-year term, and pays $7,500 annually. The district serves more than 13,000 households and 950 commercial businesses, has an annual budget of about $8.65 million and covers more than five square miles, including Oceanside and parts of Baldwin and East Rockaway. The services it provides include garbage collection and recycling pickup. The average homeowner in Sanitary District 7 pays about $600 in sanitation taxes per year.

A pre-hearing conference between Mannone, Libert and Judge Diamond was scheduled for Monday, August 4, after The Herald went to press.