Two former East Hampton political party leaders are among four people on the East End being charged with fraud related to signatures gathered on nominating petitions ahead of November's election, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office said.

Online records show that Amos Goodman, who resigned last week as the East Hampton Town Republican Committee chairman, and Pat Mansir, the former vice chairwoman of the East Hampton Independence Party and a former East Hampton Town Councilwoman, are facing felony charges.

Mr. Goodman, a 35-year-old Springs resident who ran for Suffolk County legislator in 2015, is facing 10 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree and 10 counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree. He is alleged to have submitted nominating petitions, including for Green Party judicial candidates, that contained at least 43 forgeries, the D.A.'s office said late Tuesday night. One signature was of a person who is deceased, the D.A. alleged.  

He is scheduled for arraignment Wednesday morning in Suffolk County District Court in Islip.

Meanwhile, Ms. Mansir was arraigned Tuesday on eight charges — four counts of possession of a forged instrument and four counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree. The D.A.'s office said she submitted nominating petitions for her party's candidate that contained eight forged signatures, including one person who was deceased. Justice Jennifer A. Henry released her on her own recognizance. 

"My client denies the allegations and looks forward to being proven innocent, though she never should have been put in a position to have to defend her good name," Carl Irace, an East Hampton attorney who is representing Ms. Mansir, said late Tuesday night. Ms. Mansir did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday night. 

Mr. Goodman could not immediately be reached Tuesday night. It was not clear who his attorney was. 

The D.A.'s office also announced the arrest of two other men, William Mann, 60, of Cutchogue, and Gregory Dickerson, 55, of Mattituck, who were charged with unrelated petition fraud, as well. Both are Suffolk County Board of Elections employees.

“Through their alleged actions, the defendants corrupted the democratic process and violated the public’s trust,” Suffolk District Attorney Tim Sini said. “This brazen scheme to get preferred candidates on the November 2018 ballot by any means necessary included the alleged filing of petitions with forged signatures, some of which included forged signatures of deceased individuals. In addition, one of the defendants is alleged to have used his position as a member of the Suffolk County Board of Elections to deceive voters into signing petitions they might otherwise have declined to sign. This kind of conduct is unacceptable; if you abuse your position of public trust and attempt to disrupt the integrity of the election process, you will be brought to justice.” 

The Republican Committee asked for Mr. Goodman's resignation two weeks ago, after it became aware of an investigation by the Public Integrity Bureau of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. The D.A.'s office said it received complaints from representatives of the Suffolk County Green Party, the East Hampton Town Republican Party and the East Hampton Town Independence Party.

The investigation was said to be focused on the validity of nominating petitions submitted by Mr. Goodman for the Republican Party’s candidate, Manny Vilar, in the special election for a seat on the town board. Elaine Jones, the chairwoman of the East Hampton Independence Party, had made allegations of fraudulent signatures after Mr. Goodman previously leveled the same accusation at the Independence Party.

David Lys, who had been appointed to the vacant seat in January, won the Nov. 6 election in a landslide, with unofficial results giving him 69 percent of the vote, versus Mr. Vilar's 31 percent.

The Independence Party had chosen David Gruber, a Democrat, over Mr. Lys and Mr. Vilar for its nomination. Ms. Mansir gathered signatures for Mr. Gruber's nominating petitions. The East Hampton Town Republican Committee challenged the petitions, and New York State Supreme Court Justice Carol MacKenzie ostensibly agreed with the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, which had challenged the petitions, writing in August that they were "replete with fraudulent dates and forged signatures and/or initials of signatories and/or subscribing witnesses."

Mr. Gruber's name did not appear on the ballot after the petitions were voided.

The investigation did not reveal evidence that any of the candidates were aware of or involved in the alleged schemes, the D.A.'s statement said. 

Ms. Mansir, 72, who lives in East Hampton, has long been involved in politics. She was a town councilwoman for 12 years and served for 10 years on the East Hampton Town Planning Board. She last held public office in 2017, when she resigned in her first term as an East Hampton Town Trustee, expressing growing frustration with colleagues who “diminish and restrict” other trustees and with what she described as the panel’s dysfunction. When she ran for town trustee she did so as a Democrat and was elected with Independence endorsement. 

Mr. Goodman runs a corporate advisory firm focused on the aerospace and defense industries. He assumed chairmanship of the Republican committee in 2017.

If convicted of the top count of criminal possession of a forged instrument, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of two and one-third to seven years in prison. 

With Reporting by Christopher Walsh

This article was updated since it was first published. 

Two hundred and twenty balloons have been collected from East Hampton Town beaches in the course of 15 beach cleanups organized by the Surfrider Foundation’s Eastern Long Island chapter this year, and each represents a hazard to wildlife, the group’s clean water coordinator told the East Hampton Town Trustees on Monday. 

Colleen Henn read a list of statistics detailing the amount of litter collected from the town’s beaches this year and suggested that the trustees urge the town board to follow the lead of several coastal municipalities in New Jersey by banning the intentional release of balloons. 

More than 4,400 pounds of debris have been collected from the town’s coastline this year, Ms. Henn told the trustees, describing what was found as “eye-opening and terrifying.” Part of the problem, she said, stems from the fact that Suffolk County law allows an individual to intentionally release 25 balloons in a 24-hour span. “All of us could go outside right now and release 25 balloons per person, and do it again tomorrow night,” she said. 

Susan McGraw Keber of the trustees, who earlier this year designed a T-shirt depicting a fish crafted from found balloons in order to illustrate the danger they pose to marine life, said that 33 balloons were among the 610 pounds of trash collected at the Surfrider Foundation-hosted cleanup of beaches, brush, and parking areas between East Lake Drive and Turtle Cove in Montauk on Friday. 

Marine animals can mistake balloons for jellyfish and ingest them, blocking the digestive tract and causing a slow and painful starvation. Wildlife can also become entangled in balloons’ ribbons or strings, another cause of mortality. 

A ban on the intentional release of balloons would target such events as weddings and graduations at which the practice is common, and not, for example, a child accidentally letting go of a helium-filled balloon, Ms. Henn said. On Block Island the Town of New Shoreham banned the sale and use of balloons, citing their “risk and nuisance to the environment, particularly to wildlife and marine animals,” according to the amendment adopted in April. 

The trustees were amenable to the suggestion that they encourage a ban on the intentional release of balloons. “We might even, as a group, feel we could go farther,” said John Aldred. In addition to urging the town board to take action, the issue might be brought to the attention of Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, the trustees said. The trustees told Ms. Henn that they would discuss the matter in the coming weeks. 

In other news from the meeting, the trustees are planning a publicity effort to recruit help in next year’s mosquito larval sampling program in areas surrounding Accabonac Harbor. This year’s effort, a joint venture that brought together the trustees, the county, the Nature Conservancy, and the town’s Natural Resources and Planning Departments, resulted in the dramatically reduced application of methoprene, a larvicide that conservationists fear is harmful to nontarget species including crustaceans. 

Sampling took place on Monday mornings this year. Next year’s effort, which may include some sampling on Thursdays, will begin in June and continue through August or September, Ms. McGraw Keber said. Applicants must be at least 18 years old and possess a driver’s license.

East Hampton Town has an opportunity to purchase and repurpose the building on Stephen Hand’s Path in East Hampton that housed the Child Development Center of the Hamptons, which closed in 2016, the town’s attorney told the town board at its Nov. 20 meeting. 

Michael Sendlenski said that the town could reach an agreement to cancel the lease it signed with the C.D.C.H., initially set for 30 years and scheduled to expire in 2032, and purchase the building for $800,000, less than a third of a recent $2.6 million appraisal. The lease restricts the building’s use to a school for special-needs children. 

The school, which was managed by the nonprofit organization Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, or FREE, had unsuccessfully sought a subtenant to take over operation of the building, Mr. Sendlenski told the board. “As a result of them being unsuccessful, they have run into some financial difficulties whereby the mortgage that currently exists on the property is becoming close to or is in default with their lender.” 

The town owns the land at 110 Stephen Hand’s Path. An agreement is in place whereby the town could purchase the building, thus terminating the lease and giving it ownership of both the structure and the property, Mr. Sendlenski said. 

The goal would be to issue a request for proposals to nonprofit and public-benefit organizations, with the chosen respondent, or respondents, taking on management of the building on the town’s behalf, he said. 

The school property is part of 30 acres owned by the town that also contain heavily used soccer fields and volleyball courts where youth and adult leagues play.

Such a move would align with the town’s policy to secure public-private partnerships with not-for-profit groups for unused buildings, said Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, to defray management and maintenance costs “and secure the asset for the public benefit.” 

Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez asked what would happen if the town does not purchase the building. “At some point it’s going to be foreclosed on, most likely,” Mr. Sendlenski said. “The bank will start looking for a tenant, and will probably start challenging the provision in the lease and claim ing it’s overly restrictive in that it limits use of the premises to a school for special-needs children.” 

A purchase, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, “would be a way to amicably settle the bank’s position.” The building could become a community center, he said. “I completely support moving ahead with this. I think it will be a great asset to the town.” His colleagues agreed. 

The town had considered moving its senior citizens center into the building from its present location on Springs-Fireplace Road, but town officials concluded that it would require substantial reorganization and improvement for a use other than a school, Mr. Sendlenski said. Older residents who used the current center also raised concerns about the location of the C.D.C.H. building. The proposal was abandoned, and the town is planning to construct a new senior citizens center at its present location. 

The board agreed to prepare a bond resolution for the purchase, to be voted on at its meeting next Thursday. 

C.D.C.H. opened as a charter school in 2001, after launching in 1997 as a program for a small group of toddlers in a parent’s house. It provided regular and special education programs, drawing students from local school districts, which paid tuition. 

Amid financial difficulties in 2016, C.D.C.H. was in talks with Gersh Academy, which runs private schools for autistic children, about a potential takeover, but that failed to materialize.

The Empire State Trail, a continuous bicycling and pedestrian path that is to span the state from New York City to Canada and Buffalo to Albany upon its expected completion in 2020, may also extend to Long Island, the East Hampton Town Board was told last week, and could dovetail with a townwide goal for more cyclist and pedestrian-friendly roadways. 

As of 2016, 80 percent of the trail was complete, Andrew Drake, an environmental analyst with the town’s land acquisition department and a dedicated cyclist, told the board at its Nov. 20 meeting. In January 2017, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo approved a $200 million expenditure to complete the trail, he said, but no funding has been allocated, to date, to extend the trail to Long Island. 

Mr. Drake attended a Nov. 7 stakeholders meeting in Hauppauge, hosted by the New York Bicycling Coalition and the Trust for Public Land. There, he told the board, he participated in a preliminary discussion as to how the trail could be brought from Battery Park in Manhattan to Montauk Point. 

Should it come to fruition, the 10-to-12-foot-wide path would accommodate cyclists and pedestrians, and be wheelchair-accessible, he said. Reading from a document outlining the project’s goals and benefits, he said that its purpose is to “promote healthy lifestyles by providing safe and enjoyable outdoor recreational opportunities for New Yorkers of all ages and physical abilities. Studies show that every one dollar invested in recreation trails yields three dollars in direct medical benefit.” 

While the path travels along utility corridors in areas upstate, “on Long Island, they basically determined that’s going to prove a lot more challenging,” Mr. Drake said. “Their ultimate goal on Long Island is simply to use state roads and widen them to add protected bike lanes.” 

“I would love to try to have safer areas for individuals to bike ride, to recreate, to move within the pathways of our hamlets,” said Councilman David Lys, adding that connectivity is a recommendation in the hamlet studies being conducted now by town consultants. 

Mr. Drake said that Suffolk and Nassau Counties have the highest rate of bicycle-vehicle accidents in the state, “by a large margin.” Board members referred to Springs-Fireplace Road, where shoulders are narrow or nonexistent, as a roadway in particular need of a bicycle path. “If we give people safe alternatives, they’re going to take advantage of it,” said Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc. “What’s better than riding a bicycle around town in the summertime . . . if you could do it safely.”

No timeline for a Long Island extension of the trail was provided at the Nov. 7 stakeholders meeting, Mr. Drake said, but “they recognize the demand for it.”

The building plan for the subdivision of one of the most visible of the South Fork’s remaining farmland vistas, a 41-acre parcel on Montauk Highway in Sagaponack, will be given a public hearing on Dec. 10.

Kenneth Schwenk and his family, who own the parcel, have been meeting with the Sagaponack Village Board to refine the details of the project they call Meadowmere since early this year. Mr. Schwenk is seeking to develop nine house lots clustered in the southwest corner of a property that will also contain nearly 27 acres of agricultural reserve. Eight of the lots will be approximately 53,000 square feet, one will be more than 56,000 square feet, and Mr. Schwenk’s existing house and accessory structures will remain on its 55,000-square-foot lot at the north end of the parcel. The map also features a proposed road that will provide access to the new houses from Montauk Highway.

“The board and applicant have hashed out what each would be comfortable with, and now they are looking for input from the public,” Rhodi Winchell, the Sagaponack Village clerk, said on Monday. 

Since the property is located just 500 feet west of the East Hampton border at Town Line Road, state law mandated that Sagaponack give the town the opportunity to weigh in on the development. In a March 9 memo to the town’s planning board, Marguerite Wolffsohn, the planning director, described the site as not only one of the most visible, but also one of the most “important farmland vistas on the South Fork.” She recommended against creating a new curb cut on Montauk Highway for a road, and suggested that Sagaponack seek to protect at least 80 percent of the farmland. 

At a March 14 meeting of the East Hampton Town Planning Board, Job Potter, the chairman, called the proposal an “ugly subdivision of farmland” and the board urged the village to find ways — including using community preservation fund money — to protect the property.

Sagaponack Village Mayor Donald Louchheim broached the idea of having Southampton Town purchase some or all of the development rights to the parcel during a board meeting on April 9, but Mr. Schwenk said he was not interested in selling them.

As it stands, the map allocates 65 percent of the property for farmland, but that includes a 50,000 square-foot building envelope that will be used for agricultural accessory structures to be constructed on the east side of the existing homestead. The Sagaponack board members designated that placement in order to minimize the impact of the structures on the vista. The existing house, they reasoned, would keep the new buildings out of view from those traveling east on Montauk Highway, and a deep slope in the land would keep the structures largely out of sight from those traveling west. The board has set a 28-foot height limit on the structures, said Ms. Winchell, and before construction can begin within the envelope, Mr. Schwenk would have to return to the board for site plan approval. 

Ms. Winchell said she would be notifying both East Hampton Town and county officials about the revised site map. On Tuesday, Ms. Wolffsohn said she had not yet received the notification or the updated map, but she anticipated that the town’s planning board would once again offer an assessment. 

After the public has its say, Ms. Winchell said, the village planner will present the board with a preapplication report on the project, which the board will need to adopt for it to move forward. If the report is adopted, Mr. Schwenk will then have one year to file a preliminary application for the subdivision.

Despite objections from farmers to a proposed law on the installation of eight-foot-high deer fences, which they said would be burdensome, the Sagaponack Village Board passed the measure without revision last week.

The village code had stated that deer fences were allowed only on properties in agriculture production; the new law defines agricultural production as a commercial enterprise and among other provisions, it requires applicants to demonstrate that an economic loss would occur without fencing.

The installation also would have to protect the “visual and scenic resources of the village.” It contains a sunset clause requiring such fences to be removed on agricultural land that has remained fallow for two years.

A Southampton Town Board proposal on how the town’s citizens advisory committees operate drew harsh criticism from the Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee at a meeting Monday night. The committees, appointed volunteers who represent the hamlets, have frequently opposed development projects.  

The proposed new rules are intended to limit the committees to commenting on matters before the town board rather than on land use issues before the planning board and the zoning board of appeals.

 “The board doesn’t interfere with the other boards, so it doesn’t make sense for the C.A.C.s to weigh in as a body, as individuals sure, but not as a body,” said Jay Schneiderman, the Southampton Town supervisor, at the board’s Nov. 1 meeting. Mr. Schneiderman also said C.A.C.s should avoid partisan politics. Committee members should be “advising the town board, not deciding who should be on it,” he said. 

But Pamela Harwood, the Bridgehampton committee chairwoman, said the consensus among members of C.A.C.s throughout town was that the proposal seemed to be a form of retribution for the opposition the groups have mounted against projects such as the expansion of T.J. Maxx, a chain store, at Bridgehampton Commons. “Since there have been so many overdevelopment issues and the citizens have been so vocal, many people see this as an attempt to stifle our feedback,” she said. “This does feel like a total shutdown,” Nancy Walter-Yvertes, another C.A.C. member, said.

The proposal lays out guidelines on everything from the number of members appointed to the advisory committees to the way their meetings should be conducted. 

Tommy John Schiavoni, a town board member who attended Monday’s Bridgehampton C.A.C. meeting, said that since the groups are an extension of the town board, it was a legal and ethical question whether they should be allowed to exert influence on officials making land-use decisions. 

“If we’re not encouraged to comment directly on planning and zoning cases that are before these boards, I think you can kiss the C.A.C.s goodbye,” said Peter Wilson, another longtime member. “Frankly, 99 percent of the reason people get involved in these things is because of what is going on in terms of development.”

Ms. Harwood said the town board had not included any of the committee chairs in the process of writing the new rules and that the proposal would leave the groups without clear purpose. “Everybody agrees that the big stuff going on in Southampton Town is all about zoning and planning and development and, minus that, what are we going to give feedback about?” she asked. 

The conversation then turned to whether it might be better for the Bridgehampton C.A.C. to reorganize as a civic association, which would mean it no longer had ties to or oversight by government and would therefore be able to advocate freely. 

“As a civic group, we’ll be able to raise money, and have lawyers show up to speak at every single town meeting, is that really what you want?” Peter Feder asked Mr. Schiavoni, who turned the question around and asked if that was what the Bridgehampton C.A.C. wanted. Mr. Feder replied, “If you’re going to limit what we can comment on and how we can interact then I would say, ‘What do we have to lose?’ ”

A town board vote on the proposal had been scheduled for Nov. 13, but it was pushed to Dec. 11 after Marlene Haresign, a member of the Water Mill C.A.C., also objected to being prevented from weighing in on land use. “We’ve never had anyone challenge the fact that we review site plans and offer concerns,” she said. “We’ve done it for 20 years and no one’s ever questioned it.”

Julie Lofstad, the board member who sponsored the proposal, said the intent was not to silence citizens groups or inhibit their participation. She promised that even if the new rules were put in place she would make sure the C.A.C.s continued to receive site plans and pertinent information from the planning and zoning boards.

Without fanfare and with no public comment, the East Hampton Town Board voted unanimously on Nov. 20 to adopt amendments to its zoning code establishing parking requirements that could affect motels’ ability to add accessory uses such as a restaurant, bar, or retail store. 

The amendments were noisily debated, however, at an Oct. 4 public hearing, when Montauk residents and business owners weighed in emphatically on the proposal. The former group was unanimously in favor of a mechanism to control paralyzing traffic and what they called an out-of-control party atmosphere, while the latter pleaded with the board not to restrict their ability to offer amenities on which they said the modern tourist insists, and the executive director of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce complained that its 300-plus members had not been consulted in the drafting of the legislation. 

The board received public comment on the proposed amendments until Nov. 1. 

The amendments set an establishment’s parking requirement for its principal use, as calculated by the current code and not its preexisting nonconforming status, as a starting point. Adding an accessory use would compel the on-site addition of 50 percent of that use’s required parking as calculated by the code. That requirement can be reduced, however, if the planning board determines a reduced need based on conditions it imposed or through mitigation offered by the property owner. Properties seeking to add an accessory use are to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. 

Another amendment limits the floor area of a resort, motel, or club’s accessory use to one-third of the facility’s aggregate floor area. A third amendment limits any portion of such a business devoted to the sale of amenities such as T-shirts and other clothing and “logo” items to 100 square feet. 

Montauk residents at the Oct. 4 hearing had identified as problematic businesses including the Surf Lodge, Ruschmeyer’s, the Sloppy Tuna, the Montauk Beach House, the Atlantic Terrace, and Hero Beach Club, the latter two having recently changed hands, with their new ownership apparently seeking to add a restaurant or bar. Their quality of life has deteriorated, residents said, as Montauk’s popularity as a destination for young adults has soared. 

“We’ve had a public hearing on this,” Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the board’s liaison to the business committee, said on Nov. 20. “We’ve received quite a few comments, and all the ones I received were in favor. The business committee also weighed in — it was not unanimous but was in favor of passing this legislation.”

East End

C.P.F. Revenues Up

Revenues for the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund for the first 10 months of 2018 are up 3 percent over the same period last year. 

Through October, the C.P.F. had collected $81.27 million, versus $78.88 million in 2017. The fund collected $8.31 million in October, almost $800,000 more than the October 2017 figure, which was $7.53 million. Over the last 12 months, the fund has collected $97.6 million. 

The Town of East Hampton saw a 23.9-percent increase over the first 10 months of 2017, with revenue rising from $21.64 million to $26.82 million. Southampton Town, however, saw an 8-percent decrease, its share falling to $43.3 million through the first 10 months of 2018 versus $47.09 million from January through October 2017. Shelter Island saw an even greater decrease, to $970,000 from $1.35 million, a 28.1-percent decline. 

Among the five East End towns, Riverhead saw the greatest gain percentagewise through the first 10 months of 2018, revenue rising by 43.3 percent, from $2.82 million to $4.04 million. Southold Town saw a modest uptick in revenue, from $5.98 million to $6.14 million, or a 2.7-percent increase over the first 10 months of 2017. 

The community preservation fund comes from a 2-percent real estate transfer tax, proceeds from which are disbursed to the townships in which the transaction takes place. It is used to acquire land, development rights, and other interests in property for conservation and water quality improvement purposes. 

Cumulative C.P.F. revenue stands at $1.364 billion since the fund’s inception, in 1999. In 2006, voters in all five townships approved a referendum to extend the fund’s life from 2020 to 2030. In a 2016 referendum, voters extended the fund to 2050 and added the opportunity for the towns to invest up to 20 percent of the funds toward water quality improvement projects. C.W.

Suffolk County

Schneiderman Concedes

Jay Schneiderman has officially conceded the race for Suffolk County comptroller to the incumbent, John M. Kennedy Jr., three weeks after the election. Mr. Schneiderman, who is the Southampton Town supervisor and a former East Hampton Town supervisor, had been waiting for the absentee ballots to be tallied. 

He said on Tuesday that he finished 4,536 votes down out of more than 500,000 cast. “The margin was less than 1 percent,” he said. He ran on the Democratic ticket.

There are also 1,000 or so votes being challenged by Mr. Kennedy’s team, and those have not been counted yet, Mr. Schneiderman said. He estimated that in the end he will have lost by 3,000 to 4,000 votes. 

“I just called John Kennedy and conceded. I congratulated him on his victory and pledged to work together to help the county get through its financial challenges,” Mr. Schneiderman said. He plans to run for re-election as supervisor in the fall. 

New York State

Thiele Supports Solar Expansion Campaign

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. has announced his support for the Million Solar Strong campaign, an effort to power one million New York households, including 100,000 low-income households, with solar energy by 2023.

The coalition comprises industry, environmental, justice, and community organizations that are working toward a clean energy economy that benefits all state residents. The campaign strengthens the state’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative, which seeks to develop the renewable energy industry, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and derive 50 percent of New York’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Accelerating the transition to a clean energy system will make energy and utility bills more affordable, create new jobs, reduce air pollution, and combat climate change. 

“These efforts will help combat climate change, reduce emissions, and build a more environmentally-friendly, resilient and affordable energy system,” Mr. Thiele said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “It is imperative that we reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and support initiatives that seek to advance New York’s clean energy future — one that is available to all New Yorkers, regardless of income level.”

Jay Schneiderman has officially conceded the race for Suffolk County comptroller to the incumbent, John M. Kennedy Jr., three weeks after the election. Mr. Schneiderman, who is the Southampton Town supervisor and a former East Hampton Town supervisor, had been waiting for the absentee ballots to be tallied.

He said on Tuesday that he finished 4,536 votes down out of more than 500,000 cast. "The margin was less than 1 percent," he said. He ran on the Democratic ticket.

There are also 1,000 or so votes being challenged by Mr. Kennedy's team, and those have not been counted yet, Mr. Schneiderman said. He estimated that in the end he will have lost by 3,000 to 4,000 votes.

"I just called John Kennedy and conceded. I congratulated him on his victory and pledged to work together to help the county get through its financial challenges," Mr. Schneiderman said. He plans to run for re-election as supervisor in the fall.