Plandome Manor Incumbents Win, Manhasset Villages Reelect

Voters across several Manhasset-area villages headed to the polls this week, and when the results came in, familiar faces held their ground across the board. The most closely watched contest was in Plandome Manor, where incumbent trustees Patricia O’Neill and Peter Kulka turned back a challenge from Eric Kattan and Sanaz Sadjadi on Wednesday, March 18.

O’Neill led the field with 178 votes, followed by Kulka with 166. Challengers Kattan and Sadjadi received 92 and 86 votes, respectively. The margin was clear, though the presence of challengers at all made Plandome Manor stand out as the only contested village election in the Manhasset area this cycle. Efforts to reach O’Neill and Kulka for comment were unsuccessful.

Across the other villages, incumbents ran unopposed and cruised to reelection with little drama.

In Flower Hill, Mayor Randall Rosenbaum, Trustee Gary Lewandowski, Trustee Claire Dorfman, and Trustee A.J. Smith all secured another term. Vote totals were tight among the four, ranging from 58 to 65, reflecting a small but consistent community electorate. No challengers entered the race.

Munsey Park kept things equally quiet. Trustees Regina Im and Gregory Licalzi, along with Village Justice John Turano, were each reelected with 20 votes. In a village of this size, that kind of uniformity signals a community largely satisfied with the direction of its local government.

Plandome Heights saw its own clean sweep. Mayor Kenneth Riscica, along with Trustees Eric Carlson, Mary Hauck, and Kristina Lobosco, each received exactly 76 votes. Not a single write-in was cast, a detail that speaks to just how uncontested the night was.

The Village of Plandome held its election a day earlier, on Tuesday, March 17. There, too, all candidates ran unopposed. Trustees Robert Broderick and James Corcoran each won reelection to two-year terms, both receiving 26 votes. Trustee Kevin Dunphy, who was appointed in October 2025 to fill the seat of former trustee Don Richardson, received 24 votes and will now complete his term and serve at least one additional year.

But the story in Plandome wasn’t simply about who won. Treasurer/Clerk Barbara Peebles described it as the “lowest turnout ever” in the village’s history. With a population of just over 1,400 residents, the numbers were already going to be modest. Still, the record-low participation raises a question that small villages across Long Island wrestle with regularly: how do you get people to show up for local government when nothing appears to be on the line?

It’s a challenge that cuts to the heart of civic engagement at the hyperlocal level. Village elections rarely generate the attention of county or state races, and when incumbents run unopposed, even engaged residents may wonder whether their vote matters. In Plandome’s case, it clearly did, even if only a small number of neighbors chose to cast one.

The contested race in Plandome Manor offers a slight contrast. Kattan and Sadjadi’s decision to challenge O’Neill and Kulka at least gave residents a choice, and nearly 90 people took the opportunity to vote for change. That’s not a revolution, but it’s a conversation. O’Neill and Kulka’s margins suggest the community gave them a clear vote of confidence, even with an alternative on the ballot.

For most of these villages, life will carry on as before. The same leaders will sit at the same tables, managing the quiet machinery of local governance: zoning decisions, road maintenance, municipal budgets, the kind of work that rarely makes headlines but shapes daily life all the same.

Spring arrives this week, and with it, the usual business of village life resumes. The votes have been counted, the incumbents are returning, and for now, the Manhasset area’s small villages seem content with continuity.