Debate over Filling Yorktown Town Board Vacancy Continues
A second attempt by Yorktown Supervisor Michael Grace to fill a four-month vacancy on the Town Board with Rich Campanaro failed again last week.
Grace made a motion to appoint Campanaro to the seat held by Dave Paganelli before Paganelli was elected highway superintendent following a public hearing on a proposed local law that would give the Town Board the option to hold a special election if future vacancies occur in elected offices.
However, the local law, which is still being modified, would be subject to a mandatory referendum in November and wouldn’t take effect until January at the earliest.
Grace said he opposed the local law regardless of how it is worded and asserted voters elected board members to make decisions.
“We are accountable in the next election if you don’t like who we appoint,” Grace said. “You’re not going to please everyone all the time. We’ve been debating this for four months. We should get on with the business of this town.”
Campanaro, former president of the Yorktown Athletic Club, has lost twice for a seat on the Town Board. He finished third in November running on the Democratic line with councilmen Nick Bianco, who ran for supervisor, and Vishnu Patel. However, Lisa McKay, a member of the town’s Democratic Committee, told the board Campanaro has informed the committee he is changing his registration to Republican.
“As far as I’m concerned he would be fine until the November election,” Grace said.
Councilman Terrence Murphy, who defeated Campanaro, agreed, saying he knew of two other municipalities that appointed the third place finisher in the previous election to a vacancy on a board. “We have a tremendous amount of stuff in front of us that we need to move forward,” he remarked.
Bianco and Patel, who blocked Grace when he made the same motion during a recent work session, voted against Campanaro being appointed.
Former Councilman Tony Grasso, a Republican, urged the board to appoint a fifth member.
“We didn’t elect you to make a decision to have another election,” he stressed. “Do your job. Do what’s right for this community, not what’s right for your political beliefs.”
Paul Moskowitz, who ran unsuccessfully in the past for town board, maintained residents should have the final say.
“We have a tradition in this country. It’s called elections,” he said. “It’s the basis of our democracy. It would be much better to fill vacancies through elections rather than appointment.”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/