Longtime trustee Kizior off Deer Park ballot

Deer Park's electoral board removed the village's senior trustee, David Kizior, from the April 5 ballot Monday, leaving the town with an uncontested race to fill four available village board seats.

Citing financial reasons, Kizior said he won't appeal the board's decision to uphold an opponent's objections to his nominating papers. Kizior, who was running for his fourth full term on the board, said he heard an estimate of the cost of appealing which was beyond his means.

“I'd love to appeal,” Kizior said Tuesday. “I believe the board's decision was wrong.”

Village President Robert Kellermann, one of the electoral board members, said the strongest part of trustee candidate James Denny's objections concerned the lack of a required ink stamp for the notary public seal on Kizior's nominating papers.

Instead, Kizior's papers bore a notary public seal that made a physical imprint on the pages without the use of ink.

Kizior said last week that his notary public had assured him the seal was valid because it was made by a device available only to notaries public.

He argued before the electoral board that his nominating petitions were in substantial compliance — that the signatures and papers he submitted met the letter of the law in every other way.

The election code Denny cited in his objection specifically calls for an ink stamp because it can be seen on photocopies.

Besides Kizior and Denny, the other candidates to file for the three four-year terms up for election are recent appointee Alan Czarnik and newcomer Rita Finley.

Joel Thomason is running unopposed for the remaining two years of the term of Joyce Trost, who resigned last year.

Czarnik was appointed to Trost's seat, but is running for a full four-year term instead of the remainder of Trost's.