Southampton - Democrats Bridget Fleming and Sally Pope, a political newcomer and a 10-month Town Board incumbent, are running on a ticket of professional competence and community inclusion. The two Democratic candidates for Southampton Town Board are looking to institute what they feel are much-needed reforms of the town's financial structure and planning process.

Democrats Pope and Fleming standing in front of an electoral district map of Southampton.

"Good government sums it up," Pope said during an interview with both candidates at Fleming's law offices in Sag Harbor, "Good government and less cronyism."

Specifically, there are two priorities for the coming year, according to Fleming, the budget and the planning process. "We definitely need to institute generally accepted accounting instruments and controls," she said, a task she feels "well suited for and up to doing." Before moving to Noyac in 2001, Fleming headed up a unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office that prosecuted fraud in large public programs, such as welfare, Medicaid and public housing. "I have the skills and experience in investigating financial misdealing," said Fleming, "Our budget has been very poorly mishandled. We need to get it back in order."

Supervisor Linda Kabot submitted her tentative 2010 budget to the board on September 30, calling for a five percent tax increase, the maximum allowed under town law, and town-wide layoffs. "I feel blackmailed," Pope said, "In order to save jobs we have to increase the tax rate."

"The difficulty is that we're trying to close the barn door after the horses have already left," Fleming stated, adding that Pope and Democratic nominee for supervisor Anna Throne-Holst inherited the financial problems of the town, "and the increases in spending from 2005 to 2007, and the folks on the board stayed mute."

"There was a lot of money flowing in in those days and they were budgeting for more than what was coming in," Pope asserted. After being elected in 2008 to finish the last year of the term left by Kabot when she was elected to supervisor, Pope says she "saw greater deficits coming," adding that the board members "weren't getting monthly reports" on the town's finances. While she has only been in town government for 10 months, Pope was proud of her accomplishment in bringing in the New York State Comptroller to begin a full-scale audit of the town. "First [the state] was to come in to see if we needed an audit, then they decided just to come in and do it," Pope said, "It's a function of the numbers not being clear, but they have started and that's been in the background the entire time."

Fleming's legal background includes prosecuting fraud in government services, a skill she believes will be essential to rooting out Southampton's financial problems.

"Also, the planning process is in need of reform - it's broken and it needs to be fixed," Fleming asserted. "Our town is not structured the way it is in most other municipalities," Fleming said, "It's a haphazard approach to what makes it to review. Much like in the financials of the town, we have a planning process that needs to be clearer so that applicants and the community alike have some predictability in the outcome."

Specifically, Fleming would like to create a mission statement for planning that includes the need for more community input ("Everyone needs to understand that community input should be invited and accepted"), and there should be standard operating procedures for the planners. "For instance," Fleming explained, "You would start sitting down with the planners at a very early stage in the process. Then, once you have that standard beginning, the planners need to be able to interact with the Planning Board members before applications are considered for review. We don't have that standard approach that makes it easier for everyone to do a professional job."

"On the other end, we need to support the Planning Board with vigorous legal council," Fleming added, "Threats of lawsuits have much greater impact on the decisions than they should."

If re-elected to a full term, Pope would like to continue her efforts to bolster community involvement and enthusiasm.

"It's about, how do we reduce the influence and the pressure" on the review boards, Pope said, while acknowledging the town board's accountability in that, "We need to have standards of performance, the board appoints these people and we should be responsible for their performance."

Overall, it is about establishing a standard vision for the town and procedures to ensure that vision is followed. "The code has been created over time without an overview, nobody's taken a broad view," Fleming said. The town board needs to analyze "what are our priorities, how do we implement them and what have we done," along with "not allowing individuals to manipulate" the system.

"I would also like to see the community involvement talked about in the planning process," Pope asserted, "I would like to see a way to really feel the community inspired and I think it will happen as changes are made, but we can be more deliberate about it." Pope's vision of an "enthusiastic community" centers on Town Hall. "If we can't provide particular services because of money, then we can provide referrals," she offered.

Pope was also proud of her involvement in revealing that the Highway Department had not paved any of Southampton's roads for a year, which she chalked up to open community discourse. "We found it out through discussion," Pope explained, "One of my roles [over the last year] was to be an outsider and ask a lot of questions."

"For so many years people felt, 'why bother,' for so many years people weren't attended to," Pope said, "We need this all through Town Hall, not just the town board. There should be a sense of welcome instead of 'you're bothering me.'"

And Pope and Fleming believe that they can bring that tone to Town Hall come January. "There's a sense that we really will do this right," Pope said of her time campaigning, "We really would bring independent voices."