Video: NHP Mayor Petruccio Announces Retirement

New Hyde Park Mayor Daniel Petruccio made an announcement Tuesday night that he would not seek reelection to the village board in 2013, ending his 12-year term on the village board.

“In my case, I think the decision is all for good reasons,” Petruccio said during the village board meeting at village hall. “My health is good, my family’s health is good, my job is good. I just fell that at this juncture of time when I started this venture, probably 16 years ago when we got involved, a number of us on the board – pretty much all of us on the board – came to village meetings at around the same time and we were really summoned I think in a sense... to come because we had received notification of a large tax increase at the time – almost 37 percent.”

Petruccio will be mayor through the end of March 2013. The village election will be held on March 19, 2013. There are no set term limits for the village. He was uncontested in the previous two elections.

“Either that’s a form of apathy or just satisfaction,” he said.

If Petruccio had run for another term he would have been the longset-serving mayor in the history of the village.

“I don’t think we need them,” Petruccio said. “I think residents are the best arbiter of term limitations; if they don’t like you, they usually find someone to replace you. When I set out to take this job I had some ideas of what I wanted to accomplish, what we wanted to accomplish as a board and I feel like we’ve done almost all of that; there’s always more though, I can say this. I just think it’s time for me to make some room for somebody with some fresh and new ideas and it seemed to be the right time.”

There was no announcement on who would be running for mayor to succeed Petruccio, though an announcement is expected on January 7. Should a current member of the village board run and be elected, that person would have the power to appoint someone to fill their vacant seat. In addition to Petruccio, the seats currently occupied by Donald Barbieri and Lawrence Montreuil are also up for election.

“I would like to say ‘thank you’ for your service,” Montreuil said. “I’m sure they’ll be other opportunities but it’s been for me a tremendous experience to serve with you, enjoy the benefit of your leadership and as we all know, there’s diverse opinions across this board and for the public’s sake, the mayor has always been very open to everyone providing their points of view and putting their arguments across and really weighing all the issues and has been a tremendous facilitator and leader in every sense of the word. Your presence will be missed.”

Resident Kurt Langjahr thanked Petruccio “for listening to all my exciting ideas and I hope there’s going to be a retirement party and I’m invited to it. Congratulations for a job well done I’ve really observed it for all these years. Being in public office myself, either the school board or various other jobs and things, I admire your job.”