news	« top stories
Updated: November 4, 2009, 3:37 pm	Share    Print    Email

East Hampton Town Supervisor candidates Ben Zwirn and Bill Wilkinson field questions from the media judges. Photos by Aaron Boyd

East Hampton - The candidates vying for the East Hampton Town Board this November met at a League of Women Voters (LWV) debate at the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton Village on Thursday, October 15. The questions, posed by the editors of the three major print publications, revolved around the financial crisis and the candidates' plans to return the town to solvency.

Democratic nominee for Town Supervisor Ben Zwirn giving his two-minute opening address.

Candidates For Supervisor Debate Finance
The candidates for Town Supervisor debated on a cumulative time format, where each politician was given a total of 15 minutes to answer as many or as few questions as they chose, along with two-minute opening and closing statements. Republican nominee Bill Wilkinson was up first. "Two years ago I had the fortune of appearing at this very firehouse," Wilkinson began, referencing his run against Supervisor William McGintee in 2007, "The deficit I spoke of was denied, only to be reported at $10 million after the election was over. For three years I've spoken about the corrective actions necessary," he continued, "During this same period, local Democrats, anxious to hear from their party leadership, were disappointed. My opponent will try to convince you he had nothing to do with the town's financial situation, yet neither did he do anything to take his party to task."

Democratic nominee Ben Zwirn directly countered Wilkinson's assertions. "When I look at this crowd I feel good and I feel hopeful because democracy is alive in the Town of East Hampton," he opened, applauding the more than 150 residents that braved the cold, rainy evening to participate in the process, "We have gone through the most traumatic times in our history, we are rudderless," he continued, "Bill [Wilkinson] would like you to believe it was the entire Democratic Party that was involved. It is not a party, it is people who got us into this problem and it is people who will get us out. For three years Bill Wilkinson has been going around town saying, 'I told you so,' that's not a plan."

Editor-in-Chief of the East Hampton Star David Rattray segued right into the candidates' plans to right the ship. "We're the only group who recognizes the 800-lbs. gorilla in the room - the $28 million deficit," Wilkinson said, "We have created a formula to stop a one-time tax increase" by increasing the amount of deficit financing approved by the state and reducing the budget to $60 million, according to the GOP's financial plan. "A one-time tax increase is totally unsatisfactory to our party," he asserted, "We're tired of the poor people bearing the malfeasance of the town board." Wilkinson added that New York State Assemblyman Fred Thiele and State Senator Ken LaValle have endorsed the GOP's financial plan and "they are going to have to shepherd this plan through the legislature."

The editors of three of East Hampton's weekly print publications asked questions provided from the floor.

Zwirn reiterated his contention that "the Republican plan is defective on its face. One, it says that the deficit is going to be $28 million, we haven't closed out 2009 yet, that number is not real until [State Comptroller Tom] DiNapoli tells us what it is. When that number is arrived at, we will deal with it," whether by bonding over a short or long period of time, depending on the final figures. "The difference in our plans, basically, is that the Republican plan says that the deficit is the problem," Zwirn explained, "If that's the problem, we'll deal with it. We have to bring those numbers into account." Zwirn, using a significant portion of his allotted time, described how he would go after the town's independent auditors AVZ to the tune of $500,000 and would cut expenses to bring the budget in line with the economy. "The reason we survived without any problem is because the real estate market was booming," he said, "but when the real estate market tanked," the town was left with an oversized budget without the revenues to sustain it.

Republican nominee Bill Wilkinson felt as though his prior work experience as Director of Human Resources makes him a perfect candidate to properly reduce the size of the town's workforce.

The topic of hiring a Town Manager, an unelected position to oversee the daily operations of the town and institute the policies set by the Town Board, was posed to the candidates by Stephen Kotz, editor of the East Hampton Press. "I'll wait to decide on that issue until we have at least two quarters on the ground," Wilkinson said, "but I've asked Town Comptroller [Janet] Verneuille to accommodate it in the budget."

Zwirn agreed that "it's a form of government that has worked very well for some communities, but that's a decision that the town board is not going to make," he contended, "that should go to referendum."

Wilkinson objected, stating that, were the job not to interfere with the board's responsibilities, then the creation of the position would not need to go to referendum. "Ben has a desire to go to referendum," Wilkinson said, "I would think that at the levels we're talking about, that might not have to go to referendum."

"Where's the money going to come from?" Zwirn posed, "It's going to come from your pockets, you should have a say," he said addressing the audience.

Getting down to specifics, the candidates were asked what cuts in services and staff will be necessary to balance the budget. "With respect to personnel, the first thing you do is have a hiring freeze," Zwirn offered, "I look at overtime, in this budget you have $400,000 or more in overtime. We have to eliminate overtime, we have to get schedules that are flexible," specifically with regard to the police department.

"This falls into my resume quite comfortably," Wilkinson noted, as he formerly acted as the head of Human Resources for the Walt Disney Corporation, "You cannot in any way make such determinations without feet on the ground. The energies of each department and synergies of each department, it's very important to be on the ground when you make those decisions... I think we can work back through attrition and I think we can freeze jobs," he continued, "We can do it in a way that when we make these transactions with employees and we see them on the street we don't have to be embarrassed by the silly severance package we offered them."

The four Town Board candidates get the rules from moderator Anne Marshall.

Little Separation Between Council Candidates; Some Interesting Comments
After a brief statement from each of the four candidates running for the two open council positions on the East Hampton Town Board, Sag Harbor Express editor Bryan Boyhan asked them, "given the dwindling revenues in the Community Preservation Fund (CPF), how does the town continue, or does it continue, to preserve open space?"

GOP nominee Theresa Quigley answered first, stating that the town should continue "aggressively" conserving land, though only after "we make sure we have adequate money to pay back the money that we borrowed toward CPF acquisitions," she clarified.

Democrat Patti Leber agreed with Quigley's position, adding that "the money is not coming from the tax base, it's coming from real estate," so as not to affect property taxes.

Republican candidate Dominick Stanzione and Democrat John Whelan thinking over a tough question before answering.

Dominick Stanzione, a Republican candidate and third to answer, "wants to be four-square for purchasing open space," however, "I want to be as aggressive an open space acquirer as is fiscally responsible," adding that "we're broke, we have no money for open space right now."

Democrat John Whelan answered last, echoing his support for the CPF program on the whole. "Having worked in the East Hampton Planning Department, I understand what good planning and zoning is," he said, "There aren't many good parcels left, but on the front end, the debt service should be taken care of so that we're not stuck in the future."

The four board candidates' answers to most of the nine questions asked that evening were similar, with each finding a way to stress their particular experience and qualifications. Some interesting responses:

When asked to "talk specifics" with regard to reducing the number of official departments in municipal government, Stanzione and Whelan held a short back-and-forth when Stanzione used one of his two allotted opportunities to speak out of turn. "I have to start with the fact that I'm an outsider, I'm not in government yet," Stanzione began, the first to answer, "We've got a scavenger waste plant in which we're spending $1.4 million a year and that plant is operating at 30 percent capacity. We need to renegotiate that contract, make that a transfer station and put a million dollars, maybe a million-two, back into the coffers of the town."

Whelan answered next, reiterating his support for the job market. "The last thing I want to do is cut jobs. We should ask department heads to take 10 percent off their budgets, whether through a reduction in work time or voluntary retirement. There's going to have to be a paring down of services, we'll all end up feeling this," he said, adding that, "As far as Dominick's comments, the last thing I'd want to do is privatizing, we don't want to have people from up-island coming in and taking jobs."

Stanzione used this opportunity to clarify his position on the scavenger waste plant. "I'm talking about reverse privatization," he explained, as the plant is currently managed by the firm Severn Trent Services under a contract with the town, "I want to make it a transfer station."

When asked about integrating immigrants into the community, all four candidates agreed that necessary steps should be taken to help bring the immigrant population into society, however Quigley and Leber voiced unique perspectives.

Despite brutal weather, the upper floor of the Emergency Services Building was well filled on Thursday night.

"My great-grandmother came over to this county and she and her husband raised 11 children in lower Manhattan in a huge Irish immigrant community," Quigley said, "Immigrants are a part of our culture. I would take the 40 percent of immigrants," speaking specifically of legal immigrants, "They need to be represented in our boards and in our CACs [Citizens Advisory Committees] because they're part of our community."

Leber, who is halfway through her second term on the Montauk Board of Education, stressed the school system's role in assimilation. "The way that we integrate immigrants is in our school system. Being in the school system," Leber said, "the children are very much trying to integrate into our schools. In order to get people more acclimated to our society, we need to start young and we try to bring the parents in at an early level."

When asked to offer specifics for dealing with the affordable housing crisis, Stanzione's blunt reasoning noticeably surprised the crowd. "There are avenues here in town where if we think creatively and inclusively, affordable housing opportunities can expand," he explained, "The average age of a person in East Hampton is 53 years old, less than 12 percent of people in East Hampton have children of school age. We are an elderly community. The number of property transfers is going to be rising in the next few years and we have to recognize this. When demographic changes occur we need to keep our eyes open for options on affordable housing."

On the topic of economic growth, Leber was the first to answer and opened by speaking about constraining government while promoting growth. "I think it's absolutely reasonable," for the Town Board to have a role in stimulating growth, "We have to look ahead. Most of our employees [in East Hampton] are town employees and we really don't have the ability to sustain that. We really need to develop green collar jobs and train people in the movie industry," she suggested, "We have to be looking forward. You can't just put out the fire,

Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman spoke about his record and asked for the community's continued support as he runs for re-election unopposed.

you have to look ahead, and there's not enough variety in the types of jobs out here that people can participate in."

Unopposed, Schneiderman Spoke First
Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, who is running for re-election unopposed with the nomination of every political party, was given the opportunity to address the electorate before the debate portion began. "I've been spending a lot of time in Hauppauge these days," the seat of Suffolk County government, Schneiderman said, "We've had to make very difficult decisions," including threatening 400 layoffs, "but we were able to get some concessions out of the union."

Schneiderman cited his work as chairman of the Environmental Committee, including continuing the conservation of land through stressful economic times and a ban on using fertilizers within 20 feet of any body of water. During his term, Schneiderman was integral in the widening of County Road 39 and helped pass a texting-while-driving ban. "People laughed at me, but it's important," he explained of the ban, "The laws we have on the books should send a message on what's appropriate and what's not acceptable, especially when driving." The legislator also touted a new bill he is shepherding through the county that would ensure that a portion of the controversial hotel/motel tax back to the East End to promote tourism.