It appears that the current mayor of East Williston, David Tanner may not seek re-election when his term ends next year. We thank the mayor for his service to our community, but this decision appears to be good news for our village.
Mayor Tanner’s tenure has been plagued with many issues that impacted residents. Below I will highlight three.
Issue 1. The East Williston village water tower
After thousands of dollars of wasted money. We ended up where we should have – with a revised agreement with Williston Park to provide water to our Village.
The exercise of evaluating this multimillion dollar boondoggle was a complete waste of time, village resources and money.
It also created an atmosphere between the Village of East Williston and Williston Park of tension and opposition.
I am pleased this matter was ultimately resolved, but recent comments from Williston Park about who will fund their new water tower, give me concern that the agreement negotiated will continue to burden residents with unexpected costs into the future.
Issue 2. The broken property tax assessment system
Mayor Tanner is the last remaining village official that supported the adoption of the current East Williston property tax assessment system.
Since its adoption, the assessment system has been shrouded in secrecy and after multiple FOIA requests we now know why.
Years after its adoption, the village can’t demonstrate that residents benefit if any way from this change. More concerning is that it costs us more to maintain and does not treat all residents equally and fairly. This is simply a terrible outcome for a public policy.
Issue 3. Village security and vandalism.
In 2016/2017, when our village was being plagued by an unprecedented crime wave.
The mayor was publicly leadingthe opposition against residents who expressed concern. Even after being presented with crime statistics from the NCPD that confirmed what many residents already knew, he continued to downplay the seriousness of the issue – then ultimately limited public comments altogether.
Luckily, residents banded together and through awareness and persistence, the level of crime ultimately decreased. Some recent events confirm that crime is not gone from our Village but our residents continue to remain vigilant.
Over the past years, each of these issues have impacted our residents and for the most part, the mayor’s communication with the community and actions taken to address these challenges have been largely inadequate.
But today is a new day, and there is hope for residents that the next mayor will take a different path and be more responsive to the concerns of residents.
Early indications are that two existing members of the board could run for the position – the deputy mayor or Trustee Casella.
In addition, a couple of other residents have expressed interest in running. I believe the challenge for existing board members is that they have publicly supported many of the current mayor’s unpopular positions.
I believe the next mayor should focus on the following three things:
1. Are we prioritizing the spending of village taxes to address the concerns of residents?
2. Will we fix the broken tax-assessment system and begin to treat all residents equally and fairly?
3. Are we doing enough to prevent crime and vandalism in our village?
I encourage anyone who is considering running for mayor to use this forum to share your views on what you would do as mayor. I look forward to sharing more on this topic as developments occur.
Stephan Leccese
East Williston
Well stated, and actually way more kind than deserved. Thank you for making these statements public.
First, it is well known that Mayor David Tanner’s actions are devised to self-serve. Any search of him and review of his professional business will highlight that. If something doesn’t align with his ability to put it on his resume or his ability to improve his personal situation, he will NOT listen and worse, employ tactics to shut the conversation or suggestion down, even if it’s been proven as the best course of action for residents.
Next, his manner with residents is unnecessarily obnoxious, (and to an extreme and embarrassing extent). I personally, was simultaneously appalled, disgusted, and STUNNED by his egregious behaviors towards residents at his town halls. When discussing with others I learned his childish manner of barking at residents while banging a gavel was normal and the reason why most have opted to disengage – Various, well-meaning folks who have lived here decades and were always volunteering and involved pre-Tanner…
Further, Mayor David Tanner has been caught, and oh I saw the hard proof, overtly lying – to both the media and residents.
Yikes indeed.
Most all EW residents I’ve spoken with know about the above, discuss it openly amongst themselves, and are waiting patiently for another mayor with great hope that the new individual will be an emotionally healthy leader with an authentic brand of care for EW and its residents. Someone with an ear to listen to concerned residents and take meaningful action on the topics important to them, rather than someone who employs a strategy to shut them down with the condescending smack of a gavel when a suggestion doesn’t serve to improve the sales pitch for his personal business.