Village of Manorhaven officials said Wednesday their work resolving tax disputes that have built up over the years, have saved the village more than $60,000 through the first seven they resolved.

Mayor John Popeleski said the tax certiorari disputes resulted from tax bills filed by property owners that previous administrations had never addressed. The tax bill claims resulted from property owners’ taxes being lowered by Nassau County.

Popeleski said upon finding them, they hired a tax assessor to negotiate the back taxes that had built up over the years.

Village attorney Kenneth Gray said the tax assessor is a municipal valuation expert, not an attorney, who was able to find mistakes in the property owners’ tax refund claims.

“This isn’t right for the taxpayer,” Popeleski said.

Popeleski said the back taxes amounted to thousands of dollars, yet many were reduced to just hundreds.

Gray said through just the seven tax certiorari settlements they approved Wednesday, the village saved $62,000 by assessing each settlement and reducing the claims of the property owners.

The attorney said the savings were calculated based on the property owners’ demands for what they were owed, and what the village’s hired tax assessor determined to be the true owed amount. The number provided by the tax assessor was the amount settled for.

One example provided by Gray was a property owner requesting more than $7,500 in refunds, which the tax assessor reduced to $0. Another one was reduced by $18,000.

The board of trustees resolved seven of the tax certiorari disputes, crediting or refunding five property owners and not paying two property owners as decided in the settlements.

The settlements where money was being awarded to the property owners were either a refund or a credit – which is when the amount of money awarded to them will go towards taxes in future years.

Popeleski said the seven settled Wednesday night were just the beginning, with “a lot more” to be resolved in the future.

“We’re moving in the right direction with our finances,” Popeleski said. “We’re saving the taxpayer money and that’s really what we’re here for.”

Gray refused to answer a resident’s question on how many total tax certiorari settlements the village is facing.

The board also appointed Elise Ledda to the village’s Architectural Review Board Wednesday night. Her term on the board is to end on July 1, 2028.

In other news, Popeleski and Stone had another public dispute at the board meeting as the mayor called out the trustee for requesting information on a property under construction on Matinecock Avenue under the Freedom of Information Law

Popeleski questioned why Stone would FOIL for the information when he has the ability to view the information due to his position as trustee.

“So putting a FOIL request in it’s telling me that, well first of all you’re going behind my back which I don’t like and you constantly do it to me, it’s telling me that either you’re working for somebody and you’re getting information,” Popeleski said. “Where if you are, the person who you’re giving it to should be the one doing FOIL requests.”

Stone said he requested the information because he was unable to attend the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting when the property was discussed and wanted to see the transcript.

“Nothing more, nothing less,” Stone said.

He denied that this was done behind the mayor’s back and was solely to be informed on the topic so as to answer resident questions.

Stone asked Popeleski to speak to him privately about the issue, not in a public forum.

“This has to stop,” Popeleski said. “Whatever your goal is, or whatever you’re trying to do, knock it off.”

The Village of Manorhaven Board of Trustees will convene again on Dec. 27 for a special meeting where they will review the village’s monthly abstract of expenditures. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.