Amid Litigation, Salt. Elections Go Forward
By David Crohn

The mayor of Saltaire and two trustees were reelected last Friday, May 26, despite the litigious efforts of a former trustee.

A settlement was reached last Thursday in State Supreme Court in which Justice Edward Burke dismissed most of Noel Feustel’s case against the candidates. In compliance with the judge’s decision, Trustee Bruce Rich withdrew his name from the ballot, and 78 voters wrote him in.

In all, 100 votes were tallied for the candidates, all of whom ran unopposed. Mayor Scott Rosenblum got 90, and Trustee Hugh O’Brien received 86.

Feustel sought to remove all three officials from the ballot, claiming their dual registration as voters rendered them illegitimate as candidates. The candidates, like many residents of Saltaire, have primary residences elsewhere where they are already registered to vote, Feustel and his lawyer, Barry Kaman, charged.

New York state law requires the registrant to sign an affidavit confirming that he or she has lived in that jurisdiction for at least 30 days before the election.

Their suit also challenged the way the candidates’ names were filed on their nominating petitions. The candidates didn’t include their middle initials, and O’Brien failed to indicate that he is Hugh O’Brien III.

But Justice Burke ruled that the officials could remain on the ballot and asked Feustel which trustee he had the strongest case against. He named Rich, who volunteered to take his name off the ballot and run as a write-in candidate.

“That seemed to be a way to resolve things for the election to go forward,” Rich said. “Knowing just a handful of write-in votes would be enough to become the second trustee, I went on my sword for the team. The key thing was to have the election go forward.”

Feustel said his lawsuit was part of a larger effort to expose what he calls rampant voter fraud in Saltaire.

By issuing subpoenas for about 16 to 20 Saltairians who signed nominating petitions for the candidates, he “wanted to expose the flagrant numbers of dual registrants” in the village and support his claim that voters were conspiring with the candidates to commit election fraud.

Peter Bee, an attorney for the Saltaire officials, contended that Feustel offered no proof that the candidates knew about the signers’ registration history. About ten signers showed up for the hearing, and Justice Burke chose not to hold the no-shows in contempt.

“It was a slam dunk for us,” said O’Brien. The judge was “disposed against [Feustel’s] case,” he said.

The lawsuit is the latest chapter in a feud between Feustel and the village, dating back to last summer, when Saltaire security issued a stop work order on a house he was renovating. A judge later repealed the decision, but Feustel is currently suing the village over a variety of issues.