Riding a crest of 'no' votes on the school budget and a concerted effort by the Taxpayers Oversight Committee , Joseph Whelan, the certified public accountant who challenged Bedford Central School Board President Paul Alcorn, appears to have won a narrow upset victory in Tuesday's school board election, according to unofficial election returns.

In addition, Bedford Central's school budget, which represented an 8.5 percent increase in spending over last year ' was turned down decisively by a vote of 1,365 in favor to 1,834 against.

However, the difference in the school board election between the two contenders was only 12 votes apart. Mr. Whelan received 1,578 votes to 1_566 cast for Mr. Alcorn. The vote for Dorothy Fallon, who ran for reelection unopposed, was 2,527. There were three write-ill votes cast in the race.

Affidavits not counted yet

Tuesday’s unofficially totals included all absentee ballots but did not include 14 affidavit votes filed by voters at the polls due to lack of registration records. Election officials must decide on the validity of these affidavits, as voters are

required to have been registered in the school district, according to Bedford Central School District Clerk Verna Carr. Mr. Alcorn has formally requested a recount of all ballots cast.

On Wednesday, Ms. Carr said that she hoped to have the affidavit results and election recount both accomplished in the next few days, With the cooperation of the candidates, who have asked to be present when the recanvassing takes place.

"I'm discouraged," said Mr. Alcorn when contacted Wednesday morning. "A lot of members of the community, including many parents of school-aged children, for whatever reason, chose not to vote. The vote was down from the election three years ago, when I was first elected," he said.

"Maybe it's because there is not the level of conflict and discord that there was on the board at that time. Many people may have taken a look and thought things were going well, so they just didn't vote. When there was a tot of turmoil, there was a lot more interest," he said.

Although the turnout was down from three years ago, it was tip by almost 600 votes over last year's school board election.

Full-scale effort by TOC

When questioned, Mrs. Fallon said

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that Mr. Whelan's election was the result of "a full-scale effort put out by the Taxpayers Oversight Committee," of which Mr. Whelan is a member. "They sent out a lot of mailings and made a lot of, phone calls," she said.

She also said that her endorsement by the TOC and the effort the organization made to link her name with that of Mr. Whelan had apparently helped him, with many people who voted for them both, as if they were running as a team.

"I am extremely disappointed that the Voters in this district would vote to turn out someone like Paul Alcorn, who is such a quality person and who has worked so hard for this school district. You don't have peo le like Paul standing for election every day his defeat represents a tremendous loss to the school board," she said.

However, Mrs. Fallon said that she did did not disavow the endorsement of the TOC or say anything about either Mr. Alcorn or Mr. Whelan in the campaign because of the way she had been treated by incumbent board members when she first ran for election three years ago.

"Members of the board worked very hard to defeat me and even lied about me during the campaign. It was awful. It made it very awkward and embarrassing to work with them after I got elected," Mrs. Fallon said.

"Generally speaking," she said, "there was a great deal of voter apathy this year with a voter turnout much lower than it was three years ago."

Mr. Whelan agreed, saying that there was little voter education or awareness. He also noted that he had urged someone to vote in the school board election on Tuesday, only to be asked, "When is it?"

"I drove around in a van plastered with get out the vote' signs that I called the votemobile he said. "I even put up a sign in the Mount Kisco Public Library after I noticed there was no posting of the election date.

Budget "no" vote hurts Alcorn

' Mr. Alcorn said that the large vote against the school budget hurt him, saying that it drove the vote for his challenger. I was president of the school board when the budget was increased," he said. "The pocketbook issue was definitely most important."

He dismissed the three adverse rulings in The "Satan Suit" or the state education commissioner's reprimand of the school board for paying the cost of chaperones on recent student trips to France and Spain as having any effect on the election outcome.

Mr. Whelan agreed, saying that Mr. Alcorn had to "take responsibility for a hefty, insensitive increase in taxes."

"The consumer price index went up only 2.2 percent. The proposed budget and tax increases were much higher," Mr. Whelan said. The proposed tax increases ranged from eight to 10 percent for Mount Kisco, Bedford, New Castle and Pound Ridge, to a 20 percent increase for North Castle.

"I think the board needs someone like me who likes to consider how to allocate resources most effectively I am a certified public accountant with a CFO's point of view," Mr. Whelan said. "I believe that if spending is increased 300 percent of inflation, the board has to show results for that increased spending."

Voter mailings

Mr. Whelan said that he had seen the postcard mailing that was sent out to voters about three days before the election. The card asked voters if they had "learned their lesson."

"What do you get when you put five registered Democrats and one 'Closet Democrat’ on a school board?" the postcard asked. The term "closet Democrat" apparently referred to Mr. Alcorn, who said he is a registered independent.

Mr. Whelan identified himself as a member of the Independent Party of New York and said that the postcard was sent out by a "Mount Kisco Republican."

"'The point was that there was no diversity on the board - no balance," Mr. Whelan said.

Mr. Alcorn questioned the number of mailings sent out on Mr. Whelan's behalf, many of them unsigned, suggesting that some of them might have been paid for by outside organizations. Mrs. Fallon said that she had not heard anything about that allegation, and that the mailings and phone calls all seemed to be generated locally.

Board to revise budget

Mr. Alcorn said that the school board would meet in the next few weeks to consider a revised budget to he submitted to the voters in June.

He said an increase in budget spending was in many ways unavoidable due to the costs incurred in reconfiguring the middle school as a graded school; the district's rising school enrollment; and "skyrocketing prescription costs" covered by the school district's health plan, a cost that he said had risen 20 percent this year.

It was also noted early in the district's budget process that the school board is locked into an increase in spending of 6.1 percent for staff salaries and benefits that were previously negotiated. Personnel costs make up more than half of all Bedford Central expenditures.