Bossart, Krasula, Lavacca-Sewell to run for office in Rockville Centre

The Concerned Citizens Party has announced its slate of candidates for the June 21 village election. Mayor Mary Bossart and Trustee David Krasula will run for second terms, and will be joined on the ticket by Michelle Lavacca-Sewell, who will seek a seat on the village Board of Trustees.

“We are delighted that Mayor Bossart [and] Trustee Krasula have chosen to seek re-election,” said Concerned Citizens President Michael Jewell. “Mary [and] Dave have made significant contributions to our village life during their first four years and deserve to be re-elected. We also believe that trustee candidate Michelle Lavacca-Sewell’s background and experience will make her a dynamic addition to the village board. Our candidates offer village residents experience, accountability and respect.”

In 2007, Bossart was the first woman elected mayor of the village. She had spent years as a village trustee (1997-2005), a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals (1996-1997), a leader of the South Side Civic Association and the RVC Centennial Commission (where she co-chaired the fundraising effort) and a member of the Nassau County Commission on Government Revision.

Jewell said that Bossart’s administration has worked hard to maintain the high quality of life in Rockville Centre, despite a recession acknowledged as the worst in 80 years and what Jewell described as “unprecedented assaults” on the sovereignty of villages in New York state. Last fall Bossart was the only mayor from Nassau County to serve on the New York Conference of Mayors’ statewide Mayoral Mandate Relief Task Force, which provided recommendations for incoming Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislators on reducing the cost of government in New York.

On April 12, the Nassau County Village Officials’ Association is expected to elect Bossart its president for 2011-12. She has led the opposition to state government efforts to ease the dissolution of village governments, Jewell added, and reached an “equitable” compensation agreement with the developer AvalonBay, avoiding a loss of millions of dollars in taxes that he said would have resulted if a Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agreement for the housing project had been enacted alone.

Since Krasula was elected in 2007, Jewell said, he has worked diligently to improve village life. He led negotiations for the new solid-waste disposal contract that saves village taxpayers a half million dollars a year. As liaison to the Planning Board, he also promoted changes in the village’s zoning code designed to reduce density, lower building heights and restrict “McMansions.”

Krasula supported the board’s hiring of an independent engineering firm to evaluate the condition of all village streets and establish priorities for street resurfacing, Jewell said. He continues to work with the comptroller and Information Technology director to update the village’s financial software. He also worked with his fellow trustees to pass a local social-host law and then amend it to lower the age of responsibility. Jewell added that Krasula proposed legislation, which was enacted, to ban landscapers and builders from working on Sundays or starting on other days before 8 a.m.

Lavacca-Sewell has been involved in the village since moving to Rockville Centre eight years ago. She is currently an executive board member and budget representative for the Watson Elementary School PTA, and is also on the board of the RVC League for Mercy Medical Center. In addition, she leads two Girl Scout troops and is a coach in the Rockville Centre Soccer Club. She is a member of the Rockville Centre Newcomers Club and a past president of the South Shore chapter of NYS Women Inc.

Jewell said that Lavacca-Sewell’s education and experience make her “exceptionally qualified to help improve village services without breaking the budget.” She was appointed to the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee because of her master’s degree in finance and her experience of almost 20 years in investment banking and corporate finance. For the past four years, she has been an adjunct professor of finance and business at both Hofstra University and Molloy College. She is also a substitute teaching assistant in the Rockville Centre School District.

Bossart will face Francis X. Murray, who announced a run for mayor on the new RVC United Party ticket, and Michael J. Leboff, who said he would run as an independent. Krasula and Lavacca-Sewell will go up against Nancy Howard and Michael Sepe, of the United Party, for the two available

trustee seats.

Also on the Concerned Citizens slate — as well as the RVC United Party ticket — is William J. Croutier Jr., who is seeking another term as justice of the Village Court.

“Village Justice Bill Croutier has demonstrated fairness and superior legal and administrative skills in his first term as justice,” said Bossart. “We believe he will continue to fulfill our expectations for the court. He is a worthy successor to the many excellent justices who have served our village, and we are again honored to have him on our ticket.”

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