Challenge in the Estates Forcing Another Run-Off Election

An Oxford Boulevard resident is challenging his property owners' association's selection of John DeMaro for village trustee, forcing a run-off election Jan. 29 in the Estates section of Garden City.

This will be the second run-off election scheduled for this month; Francine Ryan is challenging the Eastern Property Owners' Association's selection of Dennis Donnelly for village trustee.

Greg Blair, a 15-year resident of the village, told Patch he filed a requisite nominating petition with the Estates Property Owners’ Association (Estates POA) after participating in the annual Nominating Committee process in late November 2012.

The position is a two-year term beginning in April.

"Garden City faces many challenges to our way of life, most importantly the ever compounding growth of the cost of delivering municipal services. We cannot continue business as usual and must seek new ways of thinking about old problems," he said.

"With the experience of success and the lessons of many challenges, I have learned that the contributions of a group, properly channeled, lead to results superior to that of the individual. Our board of trustees must do a better job working together as a team to achieve meaningful gains in cost savings while preserving expected levels of service.”

Blair is a graduate of St. Anne’s School, Holy Cross High School and Fairfield University and says he's especially proud of the role he played in the "turnaround of St. Anne’s School," where he served as a member of the school board and chair of the budget and development committee from 2001-2007.

Blair is the founder and president of National Public Energy, Inc. and has spent his professional career in industrial management, international energy project development in the USA, India, Pakistan and the Caribbean. His professional background has focused on complex contract structuring and negotiation, conflict resolution, staffing and cost analyses for efficiency and value creation, as well as strategic planning and corporate development, according to a press release announcing his candidacy.

“I have learned that a path to probable solutions can evolve through cooperation and respectful collegial effort that is in agreement as to the nature of the problem, the goal that is sought and the resources at hand to be deployed," he said. "I offer my time and my talent to my neighbors in Garden City to bring this approach to our village board of trustees."

Blair and his wife, Rene, raised two sons and three daughters in Garden City.

Both candidates are members of St. Anne’s parish.

A run-off election will be held Jan. 29 in the Estates section at Stratford School; times to be announced.