McGovern and Siskind re-elected to village council
The wins went to the incumbents in Wellington as Vice Mayor John McGovern and Councilwoman Tanya Siskind were re-elected by large margins to their seats on the village council.
For Seat 3, McGovern faced challenger Bart Novack, a shipping and transportation entrepreneur and longtime Wellington gadfly. Challenging Siskind for Seat 2 was Frank Ferrano, a business owner and former Wellington employee who hoped to bring his business savvy to the dais.
Siskind could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. The pair shared an election-night party at Wellington National Golf Club. McGovern said there were hundreds of people there.
“What this night means for me to be elected by this margin in the town where I grew up, in the town that I came back to to raise my family is incredibly humbling and means the world to me,” McGovern said.
“I’m looking forward to the fact that the community now at large has said we support John McGovern, we support Tanya Siskind, we support this council. Not because we agree with them on every issue and every vote, but we support them because they reflect the culture and character and judgment of our community and that we expect from our elected leaders,” he added.
McGovern, 43, was appointed to the council in 2015 to replace former councilman Howard Coates. McGovern then was elected to Seat 3 in 2016 and appointed to
be vice mayor.
Novack, 61, also applied for the seat in 2015 and decried McGovern’s appointment, saying the process was unfair to himself and the other 22 applicants because two council members, now-state Rep. Matt Willhite and John Greene, made only one choice when asked to narrow the field to five candidates. That choice was McGovern. But Willhite and Greene said it would be unfair to the applicants to choose runners-up when there was a clear option.
McGovern previously told The Post he is proud of the “important strides” Wellington has made during his time on the council to “set in motion big plans and big projects.”
Novack has been a frequent critic of Wellington officials and has tangled legally both with the village and his neighbors in The Preserve at Binks Forest. He said he wanted to bring fresh ideas and more transparency to the council.
This was the 49-year-old Siskind’s first campaign after being appointed to the council in 2016 to fill the seat left vacant when Anne Gerwig resigned to run for mayor. She previously served on Wellington’s Education Committee and has made education one of her top platforms since joining the council.
The 61-year-old Ferrano said he decided to run for council because he felt his background in both the private and public sectors could be a boon to the village.