Editorial: The Journal endorses Weber and Boziwick for Northport Village trustees; election March 19

It’s hard to imagine the friction at Northport Village board of trustees meetings lately without experiencing it firsthand. Divisions on the board were clear early on and now – fast forward to present day – the infighting is unbearable, and even embarrassing. Public meetings have become a spectacle as board members and residents trade jabs that have stifled discussion and halted the momentum necessary to fulfill the purpose of local government. 

The dysfunction at Village Hall is the result of a breakdown in trust, of power grabs, grandstanding, and opportunistic alliances. It’s a debacle and a disservice to the community. 

It seems, despite their role as a governing body, the mayor and trustees cannot work together and do what they were elected to do: identify their constituents’ wants and needs, and meet common goals for the community’s future.

Things have to change. 

We’re hopeful that with this upcoming election, a shift in Village leadership will create a path toward progress. 

It’s for this reason that the Journal has chosen to endorse Dave Weber Jr. and Richard Boziwick for the two vacant trustee seats that will be filled this Tuesday, March 19. We call on Village residents to vote, not only for your own interests and those of your families, but for everyone in the greater Northport community who enjoys, supports and deeply loves this Village and all it has to offer. 

Our reasons for endorsing Weber and Boziwick over incumbent Ernest Pucillo are not personal. We simply believe Weber and Boziwick can be more productive and effective as members of the board than if Pucillo returned to his seat as trustee.  

The truth is, Pucillo and Trustee Joe Sabia have aligned themselves in a calculated battle against their fellow board members, and in particular Mayor Donna Koch. While all fault does not lie with the two trustees alone, Pucillo and Sabia have distanced themselves to the point of no return, often refusing to find common ground with their peers in government.  

The dissent, at times, seems hasty and unstudied. The importance of teamwork, collaboration and mutual respect seems to have been forgotten. 

A major theme of the Meet the Candidates event hosted by the Northport Chamber of Commerce on March 12 was the idea of “unity” – a term Boziwick has used throughout his campaign and emphasized during his opening and closing remarks. While it’s expected and even healthy for board members to disagree on issues related to Village development, budgeting, hiring, and more, an efficient and well-functioning team relies on open-mindedness, information-gathering and communication to reach a successful outcome. 

“If you work it out ahead of time, you will find that you’ll get to that position [of compromise] where everybody will be satisfied,” Boziwick, who has served on the Village planning board for over 25 years, said on Tuesday. “Not everybody may be happy, but they’re satisfied,” he added. Boziwick said that this process – of preparedness, teamwork and compromise – is missing on the current board of trustees, and needs to be built. 

With his decades-long experience on the planning board, as well as his leadership role on the Great Cow Harbor Run committee and former commodore position with the Northport Yacht Club, we trust Boziwick’s ability to better the board so that it can face the critical decisions related to infrastructure, development and planning that are ahead. 

Compromise, of course, is only achieved when all board members are willing to engage with one another and review the information they’ve received. Several times in the last two years, when the board was expected to vote on a resolution, certain board members were not ready. They needed more information, they had more questions, they hadn’t sought legal counsel or opinions from other board members in order to better understand the issue. Much of this stems from a lack of communication and trust in the expertise of others, matters that can be improved with more collaborative board members, such as Boziwick and Weber. 

As an example, when Trustees Weber and Pucillo had questions related to the proposed 2024-25 Village budget, they asked for another workshop (three had already occurred). At the added workshop, heads of every department went through each line item in their budgets with the board, explaining their expenditures in detail. Department heads felt that they had already made cuts during the three-month budget process and were unable to reduce their costs any further without cutting services. 

At the next board meeting, when the budget vote was presented for approval again, Weber voted “yes,” stating that he received the answers he needed and understood the 1.44% increase (approximately $50 per year for the average household). Weber also made clear the budgetary issues he saw facing the Village, such as salary increases for employees – an issue he hopes will be addressed in a systematic way. Pucillo voted “no” on the proposed budget, and said he felt departments could have made additional cuts, but offered no specific examples of where, or how. “Department heads felt they could not reduce discretionary spending, but I disagree,” Pucillo told the Journal after his vote. 

A functioning board requires members with both trust in the experts and an adaptable perspective. Disagreeing with no effort to understand and accept an alternative does not benefit the Village. 

Weber has shown time and again that he’s willing to gather information and listen to others before making a decision. He seeks answers when they’re needed and has trust in department supervisors. 

In regards to the Cow Harbor Park basketball court (a topic we are happy to put to rest until the project’s celebratory ribbon-cutting), Pucillo made the decision to NOT attend the last board of trustees meeting before the election, during which a vote to approve court construction passed 3-1. At the meeting prior, he told his fellow board members he would be absent for the vote, offering with resignation a “That’s fine, if you have a quorum,” to the three members who had made their support of the project known. 

Rather than explain himself and his opposition to the project, rather than stand up with conviction and state why he “would have” voted no at the meeting, Pucillo was a no-show. (He later told the Journal he was teaching at Farmingdale State College, where he’s an adjunct professor, the night of the meeting.) He provided no statement regarding his stance to be read at the meeting, either. 

At the Meet the Candidates event, Pucillo focused largely on the protection of resident rights and challenged Boziwick’s idea to lead with unity. “You don’t want unity if your rights are being taken away from you,” he said, before referencing recent challenges he’s faced with Mayor Koch. “We did have some differences and I’ve had some arguments with the mayor, and the mayor felt that she had been prevented in obtaining cooperation to get things done,” he said. “Well, I’m going to say here tonight, that it’s not my job to make her feel better. It is my job to make sure that your interests are represented.”

While going after the mayor may have seemed justified to Pucillo and his followers, it was not right. The event was an opportunity for candidates to show the public their plans to move forward and work together with fellow board members; to acknowledge that, while disagreements are inevitable, they intend to honor their partnership, and the community, by achieving goals none of them could accomplish alone.  

Pucillo’s choice to get on the defensive – to purposely highlight his differences with and objections to the mayor – proved that his return to trustee would just lead to the same-old, same-old: a disjointed board more intent on proving each other wrong than pushing the community forward. 

Board members who can balance expertise and perspective will allow for the shift needed to tackle the many important projects ahead, together. From Weber’s extensive knowledge of Northport Harbor, which will become critical during the LWRP (Local Waterfront Revitalization Program) process and other green initiatives, to Boziwick’s unique understanding of Village planning, which will play a major role in the development of the comprehensive plan, these two candidates offer what’s required to move the Village forward. 

We hope a refreshed board can build the camaraderie clearly lacking in today’s administration, and believe Weber and Boziwick have learned through experience to avoid the drama that impedes growth and advancement. We also hope to see Weber continue working with the mayor in a positive, productive way, especially as we near another run for mayor in 2026.

“Fostering positive change and progress,” as Weber put it on Tuesday night, has never sounded so good. 

Election Day is Tuesday, March 19; residents can vote at Village Hall, 224 Main Street, Northport, from 6am to 9pm.