By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
After serving for 10 years, Liverpool village Trustee Dennis Hebert has declined to seek re-election.
The village’s Republican caucus convened April 27 and Hebert attended to nominate Balsam Street resident Jason Recor to replace him on the village board.
The caucus of 35 registered Republicans voted unanimously to back Mayor Gary White’s run for a fifth term, Trustee Christina Fadden Fitch for a second term and newcomer Jason Recor who seeks his first term as trustee.
“We had a real good turnout,” said village GOP Chairman Joe Ostuni Jr., who chaired last week’s caucus. “And we’re very pleased with our candidates.”
All three Republicans are expected to run unopposed in the June 20 Village Election. Democrats have failed to field any candidate for village office since 2001. The party has not conducted a caucus since that year, when Republican Marlene Ward defeated former Mayor Jon Zappola to become the first female mayor in village history.
Recor is an account manager for Time Warner Cable Business. He and his family recently moved to Liverpool from Bradenton, Fla. He’s originally from Nedrow and attended Onondaga Central High School. He is presently a member of the village Zoning Board of Appeals.
Hebert has served on the board since 2007 when he was appointed to fill a seat vacated by Terri Cook, who resigned for personal reasons. Hebert is a financial planner and former IBM employee. A few years ago, he was appointed deputy mayor.
White, a retired deputy police chief from the Syracuse Police Department, served six terms as a village trustee before running for mayor in 2009 when he prevailed over independent candidate Tom Stack by a vote of 291 to 154. In three subsequent elections White ran unopposed.
Fadden Fitch was appointed trustee in 2014, replacing Bob Gaetano, and then ran unopposed in 2015. A former assistant executive director of the New York State Right to Life Committee, Fitch ran unsuccessfully for state Assembly in 2008 and 2010. She works for Brown & Sanford Consulting LLC for Honeywell International.
Democrats now outnumber Republicans in the village by more than 30 voters, 521 to 490, according to the Onondaga County Board of Elections.
As of late February, 521 Democrats, 490 Republicans, 410 village voters not enrolled in any party, 83 Independents, 24 Conservatives, two Working Families Party members and two Green Party members, for a total of 1,532 eligible voters out of a population of some 2,300.
Republicans have dominated village government for decades and have enjoyed largely unchallenged control for the past 16 years.
