In a contest that was at times contentious and controversial, first-time candidate Laura Reich topped incumbent trustee and Wantagh Board of Education President Peter Mountanos by a margin of 939-795 in a second-round school board runoff election on June 26.
The two tied for second place in the election on May 21, with 927 votes each.
Questions about Mountanos’s residency had still not been resolved last week. According to Tara Cassidy, who finished third in the first round of voting, Board of Education rules require all prospective candidates to be vetted before their names are placed on the ballot. In her case, she said, it appeared that no vetting was undertaken, and she was unaware of any investigations of the other candidates.
The controversy centered on questions about Mountanos’s use of a New York City apartment for business purposes. He is a software engineer in Manhattan, and said he sometimes stays there overnight when he works late or when issues with the Long Island Rail Road make commuting impractical.
The school board’s policy manual stipulates only that a candidate for office must have lived in the district for at least a year before an election, may not live with another board member and may not be a district employee. Multiple residences are not addressed in the handbook, nor is permanent residency defined. It was not clear what documents, if any, the board requested in order to determine Mountanos’s eligibility.