Oceanside Sanitation candidate files injunction

Posted

The Sanitation 7 election is going to court after all.

Tom Lanning, who led the June 19 election by 98 votes as the polls closed, only to have the certification of the election repeatedly delayed because of “irregularities in voting,” filed for an injunction last week. The motion calls for the district to count the 184 paper ballots that were collected during the election, and then declare a winner.

A hearing was set for Wednesday, July 30, in the Nassau County Superior Court, after The Herald went to press.

Jack Libert, an attorney hired by the district to investigate the contested election, had been hopeful that he could avoid a lawsuit by negotiating a settlement between the three candidates — Tom Lanning, Mike Franzini and Steve Edmondson. He had been speaking on the phone to the candidates’ representative, trying to arrange a sit-down, for weeks. But when the candidates finally met with him last week, Lanning’s attorney, John Mannoney, served the court filing to Libert and Jerome Cline, an attorney for the district.

A posting on Lanning’s facebook page on July 23 read, “You heard it here first: Jerome Cline, Esq., attorney for Oceanside Sanitation, will appear in Court next week to explain why he didn’t certify the election on election night although all the poll watchers (including his wife who was paid to work that night) affirmed that the machines were working and results accurate. Move on Oceanside Sanitation, stop wasting our tax dollars.”

According to the two voting machines the district used in the election, Lanning led 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. Those ballots still had not been counted as of July 28.

Libert investigated the election and presented his findings to the board on July 14. He concluded 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. “My perception of the candidates is that they’re all gentlemen, and they all want a fair result,” he said on July 14.

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 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.