Margot Garant announces retirement, to step down as Port Jeff mayor this June

BY RAYMOND JANIS EDITOR1@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

During a public meeting on Monday, Feb. 6, Village of Port Jefferson Mayor Margot Garant announced her retirement from public service. Her 14 years of uninterrupted tenure presiding over the village government will come to its conclusion this June.

“We’re going to give the community back to the residents,” Garant told a group of supporters the night of her first election win in 2009.

Six successful races later, Garant has been at the seat of power longer than any other in the village’s nearly 60-year history. And during that window, the village has undergone considerable change.

Garant’s mother, Jeanne, served three terms as mayor starting in 1999 through 2005. Unlike her mother, who had previously sat on the village Board of Trustees, Margot Garant was a first-time elected official upon entering the mayor’s office.

For over eight years, Garant’s administration engaged in a widely publicized legal battle with the Long Island Power Authority over the assessed valuation and property tax bill on the Port Jefferson

Power Station. The tax grievance case was settled in 2018.

Colloquially known as the glide path, the village and LIPA agreed to an eightyear phasing out of the public utility’s local tax contribution, with a 50% reduction in revenue by 2027.

Known for her ambitious building

MAYOR GARANT CONTINUED ON A4