Lewis Yevoli

Yevoli said he became close friends with the late legislator Judy Jacobs of Woodbury when he was an Oyster Bay town board member and she was a community activist. When Jacobs died last year, Yevoli said friends asked him to run for her seat. He decided to run a primary this year after the party did not nominate him for last year’s special election. Yevoli said towns, rather than Nassau County, should take over the assessment system and partner with banks, which already conduct appraisals for mortgages and loans, to help value properties. He would prohibit or limit contributions from any entity doing business with the county and he would push for the county legislature to adopt a discharge motion to allow proposed bills to be considered. Currently, the presiding officer decides whether proposals will be brought to the legislature.

Yevoli, 78, of Old Bethpage, is seeking elected office again for the first time since his last term as Oyster Bay supervisor expired in December 1997, after 27 years as an elected official at the local and state levels. Yevoli was first elected to the Oyster Bay town board as a Democrat in 1970. He served in the New York State Assembly for 17 years and then ran for Oyster Bay supervisor, winning in 1991. He served three two-year terms. After losing a race for county executive in 1997, he was a consultant for a graphics company for 18 years. In that period, he served as chairman of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency and then as chairman of the county planning commission. Retired from private business, Yevoli is a member of the Oyster Bay Board of Zoning appeals. He is married and has two children.