Ocean Beach voters keep incumbents in village leadership sweep

Ocean Beach voters kept James Mallott, Dawn Hargraves, Marco Arment and William Wexler in place, giving the village a clear vote for continuity. Mallott defeated Ian Levine 408 votes to 239, while Hargraves led the field with 482 votes.

The June 5 election at the Ocean Beach Community House drew 647 voters from 883 registered residents. Seven candidates were chasing four seats, and the final count included machine ballots, absentee ballots and early ballots after a long evening for inspectors, poll watchers, candidates and residents.

Arment won reelection with 440 votes, and Wexler held his Village Court Justice seat with 368 votes to challenger Ali Marin Mitchell’s 228. Kathleen Skelly Kurka, an inspector from Fair Harbor, said the turnout was “robust and worth commending.”

The result leaves Ocean Beach with the same leadership team entering the summer season, and the same unresolved questions about how the village handles services, code enforcement and day-to-day quality of life. Mallott, Hargraves and Arment are listed on board terms through July 2026, while Levine and Jennifer Moritz are on terms through July 2027.

Mallott has served as mayor since 2010, after 16 years as a village trustee, making the race a test of whether residents wanted to keep a familiar hand on the wheel. Levine, a firefighter and EMT, former chief of the Ocean Beach Fire Department and a business owner in Ocean Beach, campaigned on communication, efficiency, tax restraint and financial accountability.

Those fiscal arguments were shaped by state audit findings that remained part of the backdrop. In October 2022, the New York State Comptroller found that the village clerk-treasurer had received $44,135 in overpayments for unused vacation and sick leave and unauthorized comp time. In June 2023, the comptroller’s office said 2,866 of 3,108 credit card transactions, totaling $356,610, did not comply with village policy. The Ocean Beach Board of Trustees unanimously adopted a corrective action plan in April 2023 after the compensation audit.

Instead of a reset, voters kept the existing slate in charge, and the village’s current approach to public-space rules, taxes, and seasonal governance will stay in the same hands. The next Village Election is set for June 4, 2027, but for now Ocean Beach has chosen to stay the course.