Margot J. Garant

Margot J. Garant is a long time resident of the Village of Port Jefferson where she served 14 years as Mayor. She and her family moved to Port Jefferson in 1974 when her father, Dr. Philias R. Garant, accepted a position at Stony Brook University’s new School of Dentistry where he served as a full professor of Periodontics and dean.  One of six children, Margot excelled in both scholastics and athletics while in high school and become the first seventh grader permitted to play on a varsity team, making New York State history when she made the varsity tennis team in 1979.  

Graduating from Earl L Vandermeulen in 1982 with honors as the most valuable student and president of the National Honor Society, Margot went on to attend Lehigh University where she earned a B.S. in Finance, Economics, and Urban Studies and continued to play intercollegiate tennis for the Lehigh Engineers. Upon graduation, Margot worked in the New York City trade towers for Oppenheimer and Co. Inc. during the yuppie years of the 80’s enjoying the boom of the Reagan Economics era.  

In the years to follow, Margot became involved in selling real property as an associate broker with Jeanne Garant Real Estate, a successful local Real Estate company founded by her mother. By 1992, Margot had developed Long Island’s first web and windows based software for home searching as a shareholder and founder of the Visual Listing Systems, Inc. (VLS).  Using the proprietary VLS software and website, Margot trained brokers, owners and realtors alike from Greenport to the five boroughs on use of the Internet and web-based technologies to increase sales and productivity. 

In 1995, Margot entered Touro Law School and worked her way through four years of night classes while working full time. She became a member of the New York State Bar Association in 2000 and since then has maintained a successful practice in the Village of Port Jefferson, specializing in real property and land use, corporations, trusts and estate  planning. 

Elected mayor of Port Jefferson Village in 2009, this was Margot’s first debut in public office. Over the last 12 years, Margot has effectively worked with the EPA to remediate the Lawrence Aviation toxic plume, FEMA and SEMO on various coastal restoration projects to protect and preserve Port Jefferson’s beautiful wetlands and beaches, LIPA and National Grid to negotiate a historic tax certiorari case, and has updated the Village's master plan to revitalize a Transportation Overall District with the MTA in upper Port Jefferson. Margot has successfully balanced the annual $12.6 million budget with minimal impact to the residents while rebranding the Village through her economic development efforts, preserving and upgrading Port Jefferson’s many parks, including the prestigious country club facilities with its five-star tennis courts and golf course.