Seven Minutes With TOM Council Member Candidate, Seth Marcus

Editor's Note: With elections for Mamaroneck Village Mayor, Mamaroneck Village Trustee and two seats on the Mamaroneck Town Council a week away, Patch will be running the candidate profiles that were originally posted on the site over the summer.  Let us know what you think in the comments section below. 

Seth L. Marcus is no stranger to complex contractual disputes and issues of fiduciary responsibility. These are just a few of the matters he successfully negotiates, according to his company biography for the NYC law firm he co-founded. As the sole Republican Mamaroneck Town Board candidate this November so far, Marcus is going to need his highly honed skills to navigate towards the “bipartisan community solutions” he would be essential. 

This week Marcus took time out of his increasingly busy schedule as a successful litigator and local political hopeful to speak to Patch. We now invite you to spend “seven minutes with candidate Seth Marcus.”

Patch-1: If you were to meet with a layperson, completely unfamiliar with local government, how would you describe the duties and responsibilities of the position you are currently running for? [Town Councilmember]

Marcus:  “The Town Council is the town’s legislative function. We work with the [Town] Supervisor who is also on the Town Council and participates in the meetings, but really the major responsible of the Town Council is budgetary. How are we going to pay for all the services we have? It also decides upon a number of other quality of life issues…but to me, the nuts and bolts of it is how are the services that we enjoy getting paid for. The Town Board comes up with the budget every year.”

Patch-2: What will it mean to the residents of Mamaroneck if Seth Marcus is elected to the position of Town Councilmember in November?

Marcus:  “It should mean that you have somebody who is going to go after the budgetary process with some seriousness and understand how we are going to continue to maintain the high level of services that we have in light of some significant challenges on the expense side of what we know is coming down the road.”

Patch-3:  Specifically, how will my family be impacted as a Mamaroneck homeowner?

Marcus:  “Hopefully, if I’m elected you won’t notice any difference on your tax bill. Which of itself is not going to be an easy task.”

Patch-4:  How do you think your previous experience as an attorney will help you if you are successful in your bid for Town Councilmember? 

Marcus:  “One of the things I do as a litigator is work through some very difficult problems with people coming at them in a controversial setting where they’re not likely to agree. Most lawsuits are settled, and I know how to work with an advocate who is aggressively trying to pursue their agenda and at the same time come to some common ground and get problems solved. That’s what I would like to be able to do on the Town Council.” 

Patch-4a:  Might that experience be a negative thing, as opposed to somebody from another field?

Marcus:  “Nope, it’s all good!” [Laughing]

Patch-5:  What do you see as the single most critical issue facing the Town of Mamaroneck Board in the coming 4 years of the term for which you are running?

Marcus:  “Exploding expenses in an environment where we already have an overtaxed population.”

Patch-5a:  What is Seth Marcus going to do to make this issue better for the residents of Mamaroneck?

Marcus:  “I think my skill set lends itself towards working with others to find a solution to difficult problems. It’s difficult to say specifically at this point what we need to do because you’re going to have a whole range of perspectives on how you meet the challenges. Mine is going to be with the idea foremost in my mind that we are already overtaxed. How do we solve the problems that we face in that situation?”

Patch-5b:  What is your realistic prognosis for this issue four years from now if you are elected to the Town Council?

Marcus:  “Four years is an awful long way to try to peer into the future…I would like to see it improve year by year. If you ask me what I would like to see if I’m part of a budgetary process in 2012-2013, I’d like to see us have a plan for dealing with increase pension expenses with largely fixed revenues and still maintain the quality of services we have. I think it’s really a year-by-year compromise; exactly what it’s going to look like in four years is really impossible to tell at this point.”

Patch-6:  What can you tell our readers (in 60 sec or less) about the legal action you filed last week against one of your opponents, Abby Katz, and the Westchester County Board of Elections? [Click PDF on the right.]

Marcus:  “Well, it really goes to the fairness of the process and whether or not the petition process was legally observed. It’s sort of a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ thing that the court will answer. Either the unorthodox procedure that they adopted does pass legal muster, or it doesn’t. It really has very little to do with Abby Katz, she just happened to be the person they substituted in. That’s what we have courts for and they’ll figure out whether it works or not.” 

Patch-7:  Is there anything we haven’t discussed that you would like the residents of Mamaroneck to know about the candidate, Seth Marcus?

Marcus:  “I’ve been raising a family in Mamaroneck for the past 11 years; I’ve been living in the town for about 14 or so. I’ve come to value the experience and I’d like to serve on the board to ensure that it continues to be a nice place to raise my family and for everybody else to raise theirs.”

The legal action Marcus initiated seeking to have Katz removed from the September Democratic primary and the November general ballots is ongoing at this time. Be sure to click the green “Keep me posted!” button at the bottom of this article, because Patch will be following this local race closely.