Stargiotti to Launch Bid for Pleasantville Village Board Return
The Pleasantville Village Board will say goodbye to longtime Trustee Jonathan Cunningham at the end of March, but his replacement could be another familiar face.
Joseph Stargiotti, a partner at the Pleasantville law firm of Stargiotti & Beatley, is currently in the process of collecting signatures to get on the ballot for the March 18 village election. Stargiotti was elected to a village trustee’s seat in 2006 but stepped down in 2008 after he was elevated to Peekskill’s corporation counsel. As corporation counsel he was required to attend Monday city council meetings, which conflicted with village board meetings.
Now exclusively in private practice after also having served as counsel to other municipalities, Stargiotti has decided to seek a return as a village trustee.
“I enjoy civic service,” Stargiotti said. “Local government is the purist form of government [and] it’s the least likely to be corrupt.”
He compared local government to a small business where the employees run the company; local elected officials who sit on the village board are residents who are invested in Pleasantville. Stargiotti noted that he is looking forward to once again being part of a group that makes decisions on a variety of issues, from taxes to recreation department changes.
Since stepping down from the board Stargiotti has remained heavily involved in the community. He began his association with Pleasantville Community Television (PCTV) where he served as its treasurer and eventually was president of the organization’s board.
He is currently a member of the Planning Commission, a position he was appointed to eight months ago, and serves on the board of directors for Foodchester, the nonprofit company that operates the Pleasantville Farmers Market.
So far, Stargiotti is the only other potential candidate to join Mayor Peter Scherer and Trustee Colleen Griffin-Wagner to announce plans to run in the upcoming election. Scherer and Griffin-Wagner revealed earlier this month that they intend to run for re-election.
Cunningham decided against running again after serving on the board for the past 12 years.
If elected, Stargiotti said he hopes to focus on good business development and new construction in certain areas of the village to increase the commercial tax base and help protect residents from tax increases. It’s a feat he said will be difficult to accomplish.
“It’s not like I’m going to come in and, with a whirlwind, change things but it’s a direction I would like to help take the village in,” Stargiotti said.
Residents who wish to run for the village board have until Tuesday, Feb. 10 to file a petition with the village clerk to be on the ballot for the election.
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