Trustee Doug Roberts won’t seek re-election in March
Greenport Village Trustee Doug Roberts, whose four-year term on the board expires in March, has decided not to seek re-election.
Mr. Roberts posted the announcement Monday night on his “Trustee Doug Roberts” Facebook page, which he has used to report village news and take in community feedback.
“It has been a great honor and privilege to serve as your Village Trustee the last four years,” Mr. Roberts wrote. “With regret, I am announcing that I will not be seeking re-election this coming March.
“For me, this position is about public service, and Greenporters deserve Trustees who can give their all to the work without hesitation. My consulting business has created increased demands on my time, and my daughter is growing quickly. When I am not working, I need and want to spend more time with my family. This is a difficult decision and one over which our family has spent a lot of time deliberating.”
The terms currently held by Mr. Roberts, Trustee Jack Martilotta and Mayor George Hubbard Jr. — all of whom were elected to four-year terms in March 2015 — will be up for re-election March 19, 2019.
The Village Board has already voted to set that date, as well as the time and polling location, which will be 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Third Street firehouse.
Mr. Roberts said progress was made on a lot of issues in the village over the last four years.
Among those he cited in his Facebook post were increasing incentives to provide housing for locals; increased parking enforcement; encouraging short-term rentals in owner-occupied or long-term-tenant occupied two-family homes; aggressive enforcement of building safety measures; and removing costly family health insurance from part-time elected officials.
Mr. Roberts said the Village Board also now has every village meeting broadcast live and archived online to allow more people to see them.
Mr. Hubbard said he does plan to seek a second term as mayor.
“I think we got a lot done in the first term,” he said. “We all worked together on things. We might not always agree on everything, but we moved the village forward. I think the village is in a better spot than it was before. I think it’s going good, and we’ve got some projects in the works and I’d like to finish them.”
Mr. Martilotta also confirmed his intention to run again.
“I think we’ve been able to accomplish a lot of good things for the village,” he said. “We’ve paved a lot of roads, the light plant is working. We still have work to do, but I feel we’ve really being moving in a great direction. I think the mayor has done a great job and I’d like to continue moving in that direction.”
Photo caption: Doug Roberts, file photo
