Politics & Government

Trustees Blast Board At Flanders Civic Meeting

Some trustees believe they should have their own tax line.

Sparks flew as election season kicked off Monday night at a civic meeting in Flanders, where at least two incumbent town trustees started the mud-slinging in earnest.

At a candidates' night presented by the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association, incumbent trustees and new candidates for the seats introduced themselves to the public.

And incumbent Trustee Bill Pell, an Independence Party member backed by the Democrats, who is running for his third term, wasted no time before blasting the Southampton Town Board.

"I'm saying what they are afraid to say. Our biggest problem is the town board," he said. 

The board, he added, "is our biggest hurdle. I want the town board to say, 'What can we do to help you?' We can put all the clams and oysters back into the water but we can't keep them alive because the bays are in tough shape."

What needs to be monitored, he said, is the septic runoff and fertilizers that load the waterways. 

Pell implored the public to help. "We need you to help us to get our own town board to back the trustees."

The trustees, he said, are always fighting court cases about access. 

Incumbent Trustee Ed Warner, Jr., a Republican running for his fifth term, said the town board, highway department, and trustees need to work together to tackle road runoff.

Trustee President Eric Shultz, a Democrat who switched from the GOP party in 2011, agreed that communication with the board was critical.

Shultz also expressed some concerns about a new sewer districtdiscussed at the meeting for Riverside, and said the trustees have a "track record of not allowing any effluents into the bay." One solution would be to discharge onto dry land, he said.

Pell told the audience they should ask Southampton Town board members to support the concept of the trustees having their own tax line.

"Ask the town board questions," he said. "Ask them why we don't have a tax line. If you don't, they'll forget in six months and be worried about something else, like police contracts."

"You've opened up a hornet's nest tonight," Shultz told Pell. "That's good."

Shultz said a few months ago, the trustees met with Senator Ken LaValle and Assemblyman Fred Thiele.

When Thiele was Southampton Town Supervisor, Shultz said, "The trustees had to sue because the town board was trying to dissect the trustees."

The trustees, he said, won that court case, 19 years ago, and it was decided the trustees should have their own tax line, something that has never happened.

"We are at the mercy of the town board as far as our budgetary process," Shultz said. "We are like a person without credit, we have to save up the money to do projects."

After the fund have been saved, Shultz said, "the town board sees our budget and cuts it. The only thing that saved us was mining sand out of Mecox. That allowed us to buy new vehicles. Before that, the last vehicle was 12 years old."

The trustees, Shultz said, need the ability to bond. 

He added that it was only because they had savings that the trustee were able to fight ongoing lawsuits for instances when the "community put up steel walls and hardened structures, degrading our beaches."

While in the past, the town board always backed the trustees, Shultz said, "The past four years, we have gotten nothing. It's  all trustee money; it hasn't cost taxpayers a dime."

He added, "We control the economic engine of this town, our beaches, but we are relegate to one step below the dog catcher in some people's eyes."

Also at the meeting, new trustee candidates Howard Pickerell, Jr., an Independence Party member backed by the Dems, Ray Overton, a Republican, and John Bouvier, a Democrat, explained why they were running, and incumbent trustees, including Scott Horowitz, a Republican, Pell, and Shultz explained why they were seeking new terms.

Incumbent Republican Trustee Jon Semlear declined to seek re-election.

In the weeks leading up to the election, Patch will provide full bios on each candidate.


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