The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals had a busy work session on July 10, approving variances for several applicants. None of the applications was considered controversial, as evidenced by the fact that no one spoke against them at the public hearings, although the East Hampton Town Trustees had sent the Z.B.A. a letter saying they intended to turn down one of the applications, from the Devon Yacht Club.

    The yacht club asked for and won unanimous approval of a natural resources permit to dredge 950 cubic yards of sand annually for five years from the northwestern side of the inlet to its boat basin and to deposit the sand on the southeastern shore. The trustees own the beaches and bottomland in the area.

    Alex Walter, the Z.B.A. chairman, said the trustees’ letter should not affect the decision, while Sharon McCobb, one of the members, said she was under the impression that the trustees merely wanted the zoning board to act first, before issuing approval. The chairman, however, called the project an environmental upgrade and said the decision should be based “on its merits.”

    “They don’t do public hearings; that is why they kicked it to us,” Don Cirillo, a member, said.

    In other decisions that night:

    • Laurence Cohen won unanimous approval to build a 2,400-square-foot house on the last undeveloped lot on Mitchell Dunes. The hearing was held on May 1. Board members expressed appreciation for the work the applicant had done on the plan.

    • Phyllis and John Chiarelli got an okay to put a 676-square-foot second story on their house at 107 South Fairview Avenue in Montauk, overlooking the golf course.

    • Diane Lentini won approval for a planned 614-square-foot addition to her house on South Elroy Drive in Montauk. Bryan Gosman, a board member, noted that the family had owned the house for over 40 years and said the variances were minor.

    Ronald Webb’s proposal to divide a piece of undeveloped land on Oakview Highway, East  Hampton, into eight lots with houses, with one being for affordable income candidates, appears near final approval, with a site plan ready for a vote, despite the protests of neighbors, who wanted to see the land purchased by the town and preserved as a park.

    The East Hampton Town Planning Board held preliminary discussion about the proposal during a work session on July 11,

    Board members expressed support for the neighbors sentiments, but cast doubts about the practicality of such a purchase, since negotiations over the almost nine-acre parcel of land have apparently gone nowhere.

    “It is not something we are able to deal with,” said Ian Calder-Piedmonte.

    “I am sympathetic to the  neighbors. I feel bad for those people.  Just to go on the record, we have forwarded a letter to the town board” in support of aquiring the land, said member Diana Weir.

Laurie Wilshire, of Land Planning Services, who has been shepherding the proposal through the approval process, told the town board on Tuesday that Mr. Webb was fully prepared to include an affordable housing unit in the final plan.

    With 2012 a major year for the politically inclined, the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons has announced that details about local and national races and candidates, as well as registration information, can be found at vote411.org.

    Oct. 12 is the last day eligible residents can sign up to vote in the Nov. 6 general election. League members have been setting up tables at many South Fork supermarkets, libraries, and farmers markets at which registration materials and change-of-address forms can be obtained.

    The local league will welcome volunteers who would like to help with the drive. Inquires can be made to Judi Roth, who is a co-president of the local chapter, at [email protected]. First-timers will be paired with an experienced league member at the registration tables.

    The creation, at the state comptroller’s recommendation, of an East Hampton Town audit committee to oversee the town’s financial reporting and controls has the endorsement of the town’s budget and finance advisory committee, although not in the form in which it has been proposed.

    Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley were the only two board members who supported a resolution offered by the supervisor last month naming themselves, both Republicans, along with two town residents, Stanley Arkin, and Carole Campolo, the secretary of the East Hampton Republican Committee, to the group. Len Bernard, the town budget officer, who was appointed by Mr. Wilkinson, Charlene Kagel, the town’s chief auditor, and Patrick Gunn, an assistant town attorney, were to be named as ex officio committee members. The resolution failed at a June 7 meeting.

    In subsequent discussions at town board meetings, the other three members of the board, Dominick Stanzione, Peter Van Scoyoc, and Sylvia Overby,  questioned the makeup of the committee, suggesting a more bipartisan group. Ms. Quigley offered to vacate her spot to allow a Democrat to be named, but the participation of Mr. Wilkinson — who, as supervisor, is the chief financial officer of the town — was also questioned. The proposal has not been reconsidered in public by the board.

    Discussion has apparently continued behind the scenes, however, and the budget and finance advisory committee weighed in recently in a letter to the board.

    The committee’s members include, the letter said, people with “financial expertise, accounting backgrounds,” and people who have served on public company audit committees.

    The creation of an independent audit committee, the letter said, would “help cement” the advances made by the Republican-majority board over the last two years in bringing the town’s financial affairs under control. Besides complying with the recommendation of the state comptroller, an audit committee would improve the town’s standing with credit rating agencies and “increase the confidence of town residents in the propriety of its financial management.”

    But the members of the group “unanimously recommend” that the audit committee include only independent, qualified town residents and not town board members or town employees.

    “The purpose of the [audit committee] should be to encourage candid discussion of possible improvements to the town’s financial controls and to give the town residents comfort that the town’s financial management has operated solely in their best interests,” the committee stated.

    The audit committee’s role, the advisory group said, should be to make recommendations on improving financial management and internal controls as well as on how to correct problems pinpointed by outside auditors in their annual audits of the town’s various funds.

     However, the budget and finance committee suggested, the town board could assign additional tasks, such as evaluating the qualifications of the town’s financial area personnel or providing a venue for town residents or employees to report financial irregularities “with the expectation of not opening themselves to retaliation.”

    “Often instances of financial misfeasance slip through controls but could be brought to light by a whistleblower system,” the advisory committee’s letter to the board said, suggesting that a dedicated telephone number could be set up and accessed only by the independent audit committee members.

    After researching the audit committees set up by other municipalities or public companies, the budget and finance committee recommended that the group have five to seven members who should all be “able to read and understand financial statements,” with at least one having a more extensive professional finance or accounting background.

    At public companies, according to the letter, audit committees do not include anyone who is part of management or doing significant business with the company. “Some governmental audit committees include no elected officials or employees. Others include one or more,” the committee’s letter said.

    However, the group noted, both Mr. Bernard and Ms. Kagel “generally favor” having board members on the audit committee. Mr. Bernard explained at a recent board meeting that that practice is followed by other entities, such as nearby municipalities and school boards, and is based on the fact that the board members are ultimately responsible for their entity’s financial affairs.

    In a response to the advisory group’s recommendations, Ms. Kagel said that “in order to provide the necessary oversight, the committee must also possess the authority to direct town personnel and contract vendors to provide the information needed by both the external and internal auditors to perform their work. This would have to come from the town board, which provides a valid argument to have their representation on the audit committee.”

    Should the audit committee contain board members, the budget and finance advisory group suggested an equal balance between Republicans and Democrats.

    The Group for Good Government, an independent local residents group that has sponsored educational efforts on various matters of public interest, also recently weighed in on the town audit committee idea.

    It called the recent proposal “a good initiative that needs refinements.” The biggest concerns about the proposed membership of the group, it said, were that “town officials who had prepared the financial statements and instituted the financial controls would now control the ‘independent’ audit committee to review them” and that the committee, as proposed, would include no Democrats, and that one of the two “outside independent members was an active Republican and secretary of the local party.”

    Ms. Campolo has said she would resign from her Republican Committee post if appointed to the audit group.

    The advisory group said that it believes both Ms. Campolo, as a former deputy executive director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, and Mr. Arkin, who has a background in investment banking, venture capital, and money management, “have the background and expertise to . . . contribute to the work of the audit committee.”

    “I just wanted the committee to have balance,” Councilman Stanzione said this week. “I didn’t want a rubber stamp.”

    The Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee was pretty much talked out Monday night after a long discussion about crowds at Indian Wells Beach, but not so much so that the perennial subject of public bathrooms in the parking lot behind Main Street did not come up for an airing.

    Bathrooms were promised there as long as 12 years ago, and a $225,000 bond was floated, but nothing has come of it; and now the necessary County Health Department permits have expired and the application process must start all over.

    Over the 10-day stretch surrounding July 4, said Michael Cinque of Amagansett Wines and Spirits, at least three or four people a day asked to use his bathroom.

    At the Amagansett Library, the need was so great that one of the two toilets overflowed, “which usually doesn’t happen until August,” said Cynthia Young, the library’s director.

    “We can count on it, on a busy weekend,” Ms. Young said. “The year before last we had people lined up out the door to use the bathroom. As much as we would like to, we would never turn anyone away, but it does have an impact on the quality of life.” She said she had spent “well over $100 on toilet paper in the last two weeks.”

    Ms. Young waded in herself to help clean the bathroom. “If I could just get an allowance for shoes,” she said. “I’ve lost a couple of pairs cleaning up in there.

    Mr. Cinque also said, as he and others have before, that the parking lot behind Main Street was full to overflowing for the entire holiday and beyond, and that a single traffic control officer had boasted of writing 40 tickets, $80 apiece, for cars parked at the the end of the lot facing the field, where there are no white lines.

East Hampton Town

Lifeline for Life Saving Station

    Exterior repairs and restoration of the historic Amagansett Life Saving Station will be done gratis by Ben Krupinski, an East Hampton resident and contractor.

    After attending a recent re-enactment of the Nazi landing on nearby Atlantic Avenue beach during World War II, Mr. Krupinski offered to do the work, which will include installing authentic window replacements.

    The life-saving station, which was a private residence off Bluff Road for many years, was donated to the town by the Carmichael family and moved to its original location on Atlantic Avenue. A committee has been formed to raise money so that it can be restored and opened to the public.

Sloppy Tuna in Trouble

    The East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing on Aug. 14 on whether to suspend a music permit issued to the Sloppy Tuna in Montauk, which has received its fourth citation for violating the town noise ordinance this summer.

    The town code calls for a mandatory hearing to occur after a fourth alleged violation. Members of the public may attend and comment. The hearing will be held during a regularly scheduled town board work session at the Montauk Firehouse, which begins at 10 a.m.

    The former chairman of an East Hampton Town computer committee spoke to the town board on Tuesday about upgrading some of the town’s information technology services, regardless of a recent board deadlock over a plan to seek proposals from outside companies to take over some of the town I.T. Department’s duties.

    “All I want to see . . . is some progress on something that I think is achievable,” Paul Fiondella told the board. “The public doesn’t care if you get along or not. We just want you to move forward,” he said.

    One way to begin addressing a technological upgrade, Mr. Fiondella said, is to develop a Web-based payment system through which residents can apply and pay for town permits, needed for beach parking or the recycling centers, for instance.

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley told him that is something she would like to do, “but I can’t get the board to agree.”

    Ms. Quigley and Supervisor Bill Wilkinson supported a resolution to seek proposals on outsourcing information technology services, but the other three board members did not.

    Mr. Fiondella suggested seeking compromise where it might be possible. “Why not move forward with one area you can agree on?” he asked. A request for proposal could focus on just the services needed to set up an online payment system, he said, which would be a convenience for taxpayers. “It’s not an issue of all or nothing,” he told Ms. Quigley. “You have to start with consensus.”

    “This town does not have a good track record in dealing with big issues,” he said. But Ms. Quigley said that there are other areas she feels are “just as much needed” as online bill paying — wireless Internet at Town Hall, for instance. Not being a town employee, she told Mr. Fiondella, he is unaware of the extent of the town’s problems with technology. For example, she said, “I can’t open my e-mail.”

    “I am not willing to stop there,” she said of Mr. Fiondella’s suggestion. “Dealing with minutiae is not a way to run government. And so to back down because of political pressure — either it’s a choice that we deal with this issue, or we back down,” she said.

    “It’s a very limited and narrow focus, and I think it’s a great approach,” Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc told Mr. Fiondella. Councilwoman Sylvia Overby agreed.

    To address the bigger picture about information technology services, she said, analysis is needed. “Maybe we need to expand our existing I.T. Department,” she said.

    “I appreciate the fact that you’re pointing out that we can make progress on small issues,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “There won’t be a deadlock. When you take on a huge, huge topic, you’re not going to agree on everything.”

    Mr. Van Scoyoc said that WiFi is slated to be installed at Town Hall this week. Ms. Quigley said that was due to efforts by her and Mr. Wilkinson.

    Mr. Wilkinson addressed only the issue of the proposal to seek outsiders to provide information technology services. In private business, he said, “you mandated that your employees perform at the same level or better” than others who could perform the same duties. “That’s performance. We don’t have that option here.”

    He said Ms. Overby’s stance that the board should solicit information from other town departments about what is needed by them as far as technology before making wholesale changes to the Information Technology Department, or outsourcing duties, “scares the hell out of me. It becomes a plethora of a ‘want list,’ and it’s financially irresponsible,” he said.

Cost-Saving Efforts

    Efforts to reduce overtime and compensatory time costs have been effective, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley reported to the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday. After issuing a directive requiring town department heads to give prior approval to employees before overtime or “comp time” hours are accrued, the town has saved close to $500,000 in a year on those payments to staff, Ms. Quigley said. “It’s been very effective,” she said.

    The Cornell Cooperative Extension’s marine program has received two grants, one to further its work to bring back this area’s scallop industry, the other to determine if there is more than a single monkfish population along the East Coast.

    In 2005, in cooperation with Long Island University, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s marine program created protected areas that have helped to increase the success of bay scallops’ spawning seasons.

    Last week, the extension received a $182,900 grant to expand the scallop spawner program. The grant was part of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s regional council initiative. The program has the support of the Long Island Regional Economic Council and the Empire State Development Corporation.

    Before a series of brown algae tides killed off scallops and other shellfish beginning in the mid-1980s, the Peconic scallop fishery kept between 400 to 600 baymen and shuckers busy. The Peconic scallop industry, the largest in the nation at one time, contributed an estimated $10 million to the Suffolk County economy before the fall, and after the economic multipliers were added.  

    Cornell Cooperative Extension has also received a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s cooperative research program to study genetic variations in monkfish.

    The study, which will sample monkfish stocks from Newfoundland to North Carolina, aims to determine whether the coastwide population is comprised of one or more separate stocks. Monkfish make up a valuable contribution to the New England and Mid-Atlantic seafood industry. In 2010, landings had a market value of nearly $19 million.

    The project, with its fishermen collaborators, will evaluate sampled monkfish using sensitive D.N.A. markers. New York University and Rutgers University are participating in the study. The Cooperative Extension does not receive direct funding for the study. Rather, NOAA allocates a number of fish from the overall monkfish quota that are sold to finance the research.

    Paper lanterns made of rice paper and bamboo, which float gracefully skyward when lit on fire until burning themselves out, are becoming popular amusements, but they are dangerous and are prohibited under state law, the East Hampton Town Fire Marshal’s office advised this week.

     David Browne, the chief fire marshal, said in a release that numerous complaints about the lanterns have been received, and that several fires related to them have been reported.

     According to Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, who proposed a law banning the lanterns at a town board work session on Tuesday, one of them recently landed on the roof of the Albatross Motel in Montauk and started a fire. It was quickly squelched.

     State law does not ban the lanterns outright, but categorizes them as “recreational fires,” which must be constantly attended. Therefore, Mr. Browne wrote in his memo, the use of sky lanterns is a violation of the state fire code, unless they are anchored or tethered.

    Patrick Gunn, a town attorney who is the public safety division administrator, informed the town board on Tuesday that it could not adopt a law that differs from state law without first obtaining a variance from the state. Mr. Wilkinson suggested that the town pursue that permission. “It’s pretty, it’s a nice aesthetic, but I don’t think the risks associated are worth allowing them to continue,” he said.

    Meanwhile, town fire marshals will begin enforcing the state fire code and citing those who release sky lanterns. Violations could result in a $1,000 fine, Mr. Gunn said on Tuesday.

    Mr. Browne is recording a public service announcement that will be broadcast on the Sag Harbor radio station WLNG by the end of the week, Mr. Gunn told board members Tuesday, and will issue a written notice about the law to businesses selling the sky lanterns.    

    The new control tower at East Hampton Airport will begin operating Friday morning at 7. Air traffic controllers will direct planes coming into and flying out of the airport from 7 a.m. till 11 p.m. daily, through October.

    Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione said yesterday that he worked for a year to get the control tower, a temporary trailer-like structure, up and running, and to obtain the required Federal Aviation Administration permission.

    The federal agency published a notice officially designating a radius of 4.8 miles from the airport, and up to 2,500 feet, as controlled airspace during the tower’s operating times.

    The ruling creates a “cylinder of control,” Councilman Stanzione said, in which routes for approaches and takeoffs — and minimum altitudes — will be dictated by the air traffic controllers on duty.

    “The first and principal responsibility of the air traffic control tower is to increase safety, and provide a controlled airspace,” he said. However, “it is hoped and anticipated that having professionally controlled airspace will make a real contribution to noise mitigation, through radius and altitude restrictions, and enforcing what are now voluntary rules,” added Mr. Stanzione.

    He expressed “a tremendous amount of appreciation” toward Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, as well as the existing and previous town boards, both of which provided “unanimous support for this effort.”

    Jim Brundige, the airport manager, along with town attorneys and workers who installed electrical and communications connections, “made a Herculean effort to get the thing hooked up,” he said.

    In an e-mail to airport users, Mr. Brundige said there will be a meeting at the airport terminal on Saturday at 10 a.m. to brief everyone on tower operations and give them a chance to meet the controllers.