Progress

NYCOM Conference

By:  Progress for WHB

NYCOM and the Office of the State Comptroller collaborate each year to create a program known as the Fall Training School.  Approximately 400 city and village officials from across the state gather together to attend a variety of innovative training sessions specializing in municipal law, government operations, and local finance issues.

Mayor Moore was in Washington D.C. to attend her niece’s wedding this past weekend but left early on Sunday morning to get to the conference.  Deputy Mayor Palmer drove the 6 hours to the conference which is held in Lake Placid.  We need to lobby NYCOM and the State Comptroller for an off season conference to be held here in WHB! 

You only need to look at  New York Conference of Mayors – 2014 Fall Training School Tentative Agenda  to know that only a lawyer and an accountant could find this stuff exciting.  Hope its a thrill a minute Charlie and Maria!

Trustee Meeting

Sept. 4, 2014

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By:  Progress For WHB

The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m., routine matters on the agenda were addressed with dispatch and all business together with public comments was concluded by 7:40 p.m.

Not surprisingly, the public comments were largely addressed to the unsubstantiated report in the Southampton Press that village officials had discussed consolidation of police departments with the Town of Southampton.  See post under 4th estate and truth at this link.  The Mayor and each of the trustees made it clear that consolidation of the police departments was someone else’s invention.

CVSlogo

A matter of significant note was the appearance of John Bennett, Esq. of Bennett & Read Attorneys at Law, the attorney for CVS on the application it submitted to the Village Board for a Special Exception.   CVS seeks approval to operate a store (in the former bowling alley on Sunset Avenue) with floor space in excess of the square footage restrictions of the Hamlet Commercial district. CVS has requested that this out-sized use be permitted by special exception.

John Bennett

Counsel for CVS undertook to hijack the public comment section of the meeting by presenting  legal arguments concerning the application process where both his remarks and trustees’ responses could be captured on video for posterity, or some other advantage at a future date.

Counsel for CVS  remarked that it had submitted a completed application in April of this year and argued that it was time for the trustees to act.  However, the Mayor pointed out that it was only at 4:00 p.m. today that additional materials were received from the applicant as had been requested by the former village attorney.

Patricia Debenedetto

Village trustee, Patricia Debenedetto, spoke at length and took umbrage at the suggestion by Mr. Bennett that the Board of Trustees had not been diligent and could be viewed as being dilatory in its handling of the application.

 

 

4th Estate, Truth

A New Chief of Police, Part 2 +Addendum

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By:  Progress for WHB

This week the Southampton Press has attempted to create news rather than report the news.  The Trustees and the Mayor are in the process of considering the appropriate successor to our Last Chief of Police.  That is an ongoing process, and it is worth the time and effort to get it right.  The decision will affect every officer in the department directly.  It is a serious matter that remains under review.  The Mayor has already said this to the Press.

Today, the Southampton Press reported that the Future Of Westhampton Beach Police Department Uncertain As Consolidation Talks Swirl – 27east.  The publication of this headline was a grievous disservice to the members of the Westhampton Beach Police Department and their families.  Consolidation would most assuredly put the jobs of police personnel at risk.  What family needs to carry the burden of such a concern?  The headline would also be cause for concern for residents who could lose a community police department.

The Press went on to report that Southampton Town officials, “appear” eager to discuss a “possible” consolidation.  Notably not a single official from Westhampton Beach told the Press that consolidation with the Southampton Town PD was being considered.

The Press printed this headline even after Mayor Moore expressly told the Press she had never had any such talks at all!   In the face of this express statement of fact, and its own report that the Press  was unable to reach Supervisor Throne-Holst to get “clarification” of a cryptic remark the Press  itself had attributed to the Town Supervisor, the Press manufactured its own news.

policecar

The Village Board has an obligation to both its residents and its employees in the police department and that is:  to provide the best police protection at a fair price.  We should never again have to pay a severance package like that paid to the Last Chief.  The Trustees must consider all options to meet the objectives of our village residents, and when that is done it will be news the Press can truthfully report.

ADDENDUM

Today, the Southampton Press did not publish its story in the eastern print edition.  Apparently the Press realized that its story on 27east, that the Village of Westhampton Beach would pay “$2.28 million” to the Southampton Town Police District for police protection, was more story than news.

A New Chief of Police, Part III