Southampton - Southampton Town Supervisor Linda Kabot wants another term at the helm to right the financial problems she began speaking out about in 2005.

Kabot met with Hamptons.com at our offices on Main Street in Southampton earlier this week.

As a councilwoman in 2007, Kabot ran against then Supervisor Patrick "Skip" Heaney, a fellow Republican. "It was really a race that was focused on what I called 'Enron accounting'," Kabot explained during an interview at Hamptons.com's offices in Southampton, "With the challenges facing us then, I could no longer sit back and pen memos." Kabot said that as early as the 2006 budget, which she worked on in 2005 at the beginning of her second term on the town board, she noticed accounting issues. The Heaney administration "never taxed the people at the right level" in order to keep the tax rate low through election years, according to Kabot, "It's a classic case of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. In our town they borrowed from the big, fat general fund to pay Paul, the police fund."

The $1 million deficit in the police fund and a similar-sized deficit in the highway fund pale in comparison to the deficit in the capital fund, which is used for long-term projects, projected between $5 million and $11 million. The capital fund deficit was created when the funding for certain capital projects was taken from the general fund surplus rather than long-term bonding between 2004 and 2007, however some of the cash was never transferred into the capital fund. "We realized that for three solid years the approved cash transfers never went through," Kabot said, "The former comptroller confirmed that she failed to transfer millions of dollars from the capital fund, that was a hidden IOU."

Along with the three structural deficits, the town is also dealing with a $7.5 million operating fund deficit that dates back to 2007. "What I'm asking in 2009 is for the voters to give me two more years to move the town to a more solvent future," Kabot stated.

Kabot seen here as a councilwoman before her run against then-Supervisor Skip Heaney in 2007.

"The deficits as they existed at the end of 2007 will be cured in 2010," she assured, as the $7.5 general fund deficit is zeroed out in the supervisor's proposed 2010 budget. Balancing the 2010 budget meant cutting 48 positions along with significant cuts in expenses. "I was able to go line-by-line and curtail spending," in travel budgets and office supplies, "cutting to the bare bones first, before the blood letting." The choices were difficult, the supervisor stated, "It's easy when it's a vacant position, but when there's people in the position you have to look at redeploying staff, duplication of jobs, then you start looking at where we might have to cut and do without." While painful, Kabot believes the cuts are necessary. "I tried to sustain the staff for another year, that's what 2009 was," she explained, however the economy has yet to turn around and revenues coming into the town's coffers are still at record lows.

Kabot's plans for deficit financing would require taxing above the five percent tax increase cap, however much of the deficit would be zeroed out by the end of 2010.

Though the capital fund discrepancies have yet to be reconciled, on the low end, a $5 million deficit, could be paid off over five years, with the sale of property to cover the first payment in 2010.

"The second part is the police fund," Kabot continued. The town and Police Benevolent Association (PBA) are in arbitration over an unresolved contract dispute. "They're looking for a 4.5 percent wage increase retroactive to January 1, 2009," she explained, "That will be a new deficit. They're asking for more money and less work," as the duration of shifts is also under contention in the contract negotiations. Kabot is offering a two percent increase and "steady midnight tours," so that officers can expect consistent schedules.

"They want to change the negotiator to my opponent," Democratic challenger Councilwoman Anna Throne-Holst, "Who has said, 'Whatever you want.'" Throne-Holst was endorsed by the PBA this summer for her staunch support of the Police Department last year when Supervisor Kabot attempted to cut back the department.

"We're in a recession the magnitude of which we have not seen in the Hamptons in a long, long time," Kabot said, "People have to tighten up the belt and, likewise, the town government has to cut back - back on spending on parks and aesthetics - and we must hold the union's feet to the fire, 4.5 percent is not a cost-of-living increase."

Kabot is hopeful that the trial for her driving while intoxicated charge will be held before Election Day so as not to taint the vote.

The DWI
"The town needs a top-notch administrator who can navigate treacherous conditions," Kabot asserted, alluding to herself as the prime candidate for the task. While in the midst of a tough financial situation, Kabot is also dealing with the political ramifications of a late-night traffic stop on the Sunday before Labor Day. Shortly after 12 midnight, police report pulling Kabot over for allegedly failing to maintain her lane of travel and swerving over the center line while turning onto Main Street in Westhampton Beach Village; she was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated after refusing a breath test. Kabot pled "not guilty" at arraignment that Monday and will be back in court on Thursday, October 29.

"I've admitted I had two wines that night," Kabot said, "I am responsible, but I am also human. I was not driving erratically," she asserted, adding that she "believes the officers were over-zealous in their accounts."

"At the time of my traffic stop, it went through my mind that this was not just a traffic stop," Kabot said, explaining why she refused to consent to a breathalyzer test. Kabot's attorney has requested that the trial be expedited so that the case can be heard before Election Day. If the judge grants that request, a jury will be selected on Thursday and the trial will be held on Friday, October 30. "It's really a detraction from the issues," the supervisor said, "We're facing many issues right now and it gets more news coverage than the finances."

Despite such publicity problems, Kabot is confident that she is the right choice to continue leading Southampton. "It is surgical right now, the level of administrative oversight is so critical right now," she asserted, "You need somebody of my institutional knowledge over the next years."