School board run-off election keeps cost low

After a dead heat was declared between two school board incumbents last month, the Long Beach Board of Education announced that the district’s run-off election will take place on June 26.

On May 16, incumbent Trustee Gina Guma withdrew from the race, handing the second contested board seat to fellow incumbent Darlene Tangney.

“It was totally my decision,” Guma said. “I’m very happy that she’s there. It was easy for me to walk away knowing that she is going to be there.”

A day after the May 15 election and the recounts, Tangney disputed the validity of one absentee ballot for Guma, challenging that it was unclear which candidate the voter had checked off. On May 16, after the district’s attorney, Niel Block, met with the school board to explain their options under election law, all five trustees — including Tangney and Guma — voted to validate the tie and other vote outcomes. At a school board meeting the following week, a teary-eyed Guma announced that she was calling it quits.

“There were several things involved, Guma said of her decision. “The first and most important was not to spend money on another election because one of us was going to win. Both Mrs. Tangney and I, who have been friends for many, many years, decided that we definitely would not do a run-off. We just felt it was not necessary.”

Although Guma decided to forgo the run-off, effectively making Tangney the de facto winner of the seat, state law requires that the district hold a run-off election. Tangney will serve alongside newcomer Stewart Mininsky — who will begin his first term on July 1.

School officials said that changes to the normal polling procedures have been made in order to limit the cost of the election, reducing expenses from the usual $40,515 for a regular election to $1,825 for the special election.

To limit costs, the district said that it decreased the polling hours, using only one polling place instead of the usual eight, replacing voting machines with paper ballots, and forgoing the use of BOCES Election Services. The district said the move also limits the size of legal ads and reduces the number of election clerks used to count the election will result in additional savings.