In their January 27, 2015 caucus, Village of Larchmont Democrats endorsed Jerry Bernstein, for Village Justice, and Lorraine Walsh and John Komar, for Village Trustees. The three are running without opposition in the election to be held on Wednesday, March 18. Polls are open from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM. All voting takes place at the Larchmont Village Center, 119 Larchmont Avenue (behind the Library).
The following candidate biographies are from the Village of Larchmont Democratic Party.
Justice Jerry Bernstein, Trustee Lorraine Walsh, Trustee John Komar
Village Justice – Jerry Bernstein
Jerry Bernstein has been Village Justice in Larchmont for twenty years, having been elected to five consecutive terms. Judge Bernstein has lived in the Village since 1989, and raised his three children there, Aaron, Maia and Ethan. He now lives on Guion Lane, with his wife, Ann, who is a first grade teacher.
In addition to his services as Village Justice, Judge Bernstein is a senior partner in the New York office of Blank Rome LLP, a 500-lawyer law firm with offices around the country. He specializes in complex commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense and investigations. Judge Bernstein is a highly skilled trial lawyer and advocate; he is ranked A.V. Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell and listed by Chambers U.S.A., in Superlawyers, and in Best Lawyers in America. Prior to entering private practice, Judge Bernstein was a federal prosecutor, first in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. and then with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Strike Force in New York. Among other well-known cases, he prosecuted the cases depicted in the movie Goodfellas.
As Village Justice, Judge Bernstein handles a busy criminal calendar, as well as small claims, traffic and landlord tenant cases.
Village Trustee – Lorraine Walsh
Lorraine Walsh is running for her third term as Village Trustee.
Lorraine says her 4 years as a trustee have always been interesting and challenging. She finds great satisfaction in being part of an organization whose efforts make the community better. During her 17 years as a Larchmont resident, Lorraine has shown her dedication to community by serving as co-chair of the Town of Mamaroneck/Village of Larchmont Coastal Zone Management Committee and chair of the Larchmont Democrats, volunteering at the Sheldrake Environmental Center, and being an active member of the PTA.
One of Lorraine’s first trustee assignments was as liaison with the Parks and Trees Committee. She is very proud of the tangible results of her work with this committee, the renovated and well-used playgrounds at Pine Brook and Willow Parks.
In addition to the highly visible park renovations, Lorraine has been working on equally important internal projects to seek out cost-savings, make our government work more efficiently and improve infrastructure, all critical to the well being of our community.
To this end Lorraine has worked hard these past few years on bringing our Village government operations into the 21st century. She improved the village’s technology management by replacing the ad hoc support with an outsourced service contract that provides round the clock monitoring of IT systems to keep them up and running, as well as technology strategy consulting at a lower cost than an IT staff position. Lorraine also realized significant savings by switching to the county broadband contract for faster Internet service at a lower cost.
Lorraine has managed the selection process and contract negotiation phases for a new financial and utility billing software package. The planned spring implementation will streamline workflow in our treasurer’s office and integrate with our planned water meter upgrade. This past November she facilitated the switch to a computerized parking permit process which, with continued tweaks over the next year, will become a more user friendly system, possibly with credit card payment options.
And finally, Lorraine has plans for creating a Village Facebook page to add another way that residents can receive updates about events and news in the Village.
She hopes to be able to continue working on these and many other projects if elected to another term.
Village Trustee – John Komar
John Komar is running for a third term as Village Trustee. John is a Westchester native and has been a resident of Larchmont for 11 years. He is married to Katharine Colloton Komar, a Larchmont native.
John is a member of the Larchmont Yacht Club and a parishioner at St. Augustine’s Church.
John has volunteered as a member of the Larchmont Fire Department, the Village Board of Assessment Review and the Village Business District Improvement Committee. John is a strong advocate of community service and his experience in the financial industry are an asset to the Village of Larchmont.
John is employed as the Chief Credit Officer at a community bank in NYC and has over 31 years experience in accounting and finance, with the most recent 25 years specializing in real estate financing and banking. John earned a degree in business management at Boston College.