MICHAEL UTEVSKY was first elected Mayor in March 2024. A few months into his term, he was confronted with the unprecedented flooding and collapse of Harbor Road in August 2024. He immediately took action, with the assistance of dedicated Village employees and the Smithtown Highway Department, to build a temporary road that provided access to seven stranded homes, until the private Mill Creek Road was rebuilt by Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO). Many damaged Village roads were also quickly repaired by our Highway Department. However, the collapsed portion of Harbor Road was about 20 feet beyond the Village border, in the neighboring Town of Brookhaven, and the Village had no legal right to rebuild it. “If it had been in our Village, we would have been out there with shovels the next day,” Mayor Utevsky has said. Instead, he has worked tirelessly for more than a year to obtain an agreement between Brookhaven and WMHO to rebuild the road and the dam beneath it, as well as the Stony Brook duck pond, and to obtain Federal and State reimbursements for most of the costs. That effort is ongoing.
Preventing damage from stormwater runoff has been a major concern of Mayor Utevsky throughout his term, and he has focused the efforts of the Highway Department on maintenance of storm drains, as well as installing new drains. He has created an Infrastructure Planning Committee to develop long-term strategies for this problem. Nonetheless, the Village has continued to repave our roads when needed, including much of Harbor Road and Bacon Road, and parts of Moriches Road and Fifty Acre Road together with Wetherill Lane and Watercrest Court. And the Highway Department has quickly cleared our roads of snow in the last two storms.
Mayor Utevsky has also commenced work to modernize our Village Code, to balance the need to preserve our historic landscapes and homes with modern lifestyles.
Much work remains to be done, which is the reason that Mayor Utevsky is running for a second two-year term, with Rob Kent for Trustee. (Lisa Davidson has decided not to run again.) Our priorities are described in our Sustainable Village Party Platform.
Michael lives in Head of the Harbor with his wife Alexandra Leighton. He is an attorney in private practice, concentrating in real estate law. He is the proud father of three children and Grandpa to three grandchildren.
Prior to becoming Mayor, Michael was a member of the Village Planning Board for eight years, and he acted as liaison between the Planning Board and the Joint Village Coastal Management Commission. He previously chaired the ad hoc Deer Management Committee.
When he lived in New York City, Michael was a Board Member of Manhattan’s Community Board 5, which covered midtown Manhattan, and Chair of its Land Use Committee. He was also a Board Member of Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park Conservancy, and he previously served as Board Member and President of the Flatbush Development Corporation, a not-for-profit organization serving Ditmas Park and other parts of Flatbush in Brooklyn.
He is a graduate of Lawrence High School on Long Island, Cornell University, and Fordham Law School, where he served as an editor of the Law Review.