Jay Schneiderman, who previously served as East Hampton Town supervisor and has since reached the term limit in the Suffolk Legislature, will serve in Southampton Town come January.

Voters elected Mr. Schneiderman, who moved from Montauk to Southampton not long ago, the next Southampton Town supervisor on Tuesday night. Mr. Schneiderman received 56 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Suffolk County Board of Elections. An Independence Party member, he also ran on the Democratic and Working Families tickets.

His opponent, Richard W. Yastrzemski, a longtime Southampton Village Board member and the deputy mayor there, received 44 percent of the vote in the Town of Southampton on the Republican and Conservative lines.

“I actually felt the race was going to be much closer than it was,” Mr. Schneiderman said yesterday morning before heading to a budget meeting at the Legislature in Hauppauge. “Everybody was confident except me.”

Mr. Schneiderman said he would be able to get right to work, with less of a learning curve than he has had in the past, because of his experience.

“East Hampton and Southampton are very similar,” he said. In Southampton, he will oversee a $90 million budget and 500 employees, but the issues are the same — housing, overcrowding, keeping taxes down, water quality, to name a few. “It’s not like I’m coming from an area in the Midwest. I know the town well. I’ve represented it for 12 years.”

When he first took office in East Hampton, he had served only on the zoning board. “I had to learn the job of supervisor real quick,” he said.

Mr. Schneiderman said he believes he may be unique in having been elected to serve as supervisor in two towns: “This may be a first in the state’s history.”

Come January, Mr. Schneiderman will succeed Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, who chose not to seek re-election and instead is mounting a campaign in the First Congressional District against Representative Lee Zeldin in 2016.

The supervisor-elect will maintain a Democratic majority on the Southampton Town Board, though only one of his running mates was elected with him on Tuesday. John V. Bouvier of Westhampton received 4,808 votes, coming in second in a four-way race for two seats. Christine Scalera, the Republican incumbent and an attorney based in Water Mill, received the most votes, with 5,235.

The other Democratic candidate, Julie R. Lofstad of Hampton Bays, came in third with 4,698 votes. Damon A. Hagan, an attorney from East Quogue who ran on the Republican line with Ms. Scalera, finished last with 4,365 votes.

Bridget Fleming did not seek to keep her seat on the town board, instead running a successful campaign for a seat in the Suffolk Legislature. She defeated Amos Goodman on Tuesday.

Mr. Schneiderman said he is looking forward to reaching across party lines to Ms. Scalera and her fellow Republican on the board, Stan Glinka, and getting to work. “I don’t think they’ll be partisan for the sake of partisanship,” he said.

He also thinks there are new opportunities to work with the Town of East Hampton to tackle regional issues such as traffic and water quality.

In Tuesday’s election in East Hampton, two first-time candidates and one with a long involvement in local politics are challenging three Democratic incumbents for the town supervisor and town board seats.

Larry Cantwell, the supervisor, is running for a second two-year term, while Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc are each seeking their second four-year terms on the town board. Tom Knobel, who is also the East Hampton Town Republican Committee chairman, hopes to unseat Mr. Cantwell. His running mates are Margaret Turner and Lisa Mulhern-Larsen.

Mr. Cantwell, who describes himself as a “consensus-builder,” said that under his leadership a formerly dysfunctional town government that treated the public with disrespect has been changed for the better.

He points to a surplus in the budget, a reduction in debt, and an upgraded credit rating as some of the accomplishments of his first term. Reducing aircraft noise at East Hampton Airport has been another priority.

A balanced budget, drinking-water protection, and improving the local economy are top priorities for Mr. Cantwell. He also wants to continue to improve code enforcement and to focus on long-term planning to address sea level rise. “Many of the problems we have in this community still result from overdevelopment and overcrowding,” he commented in a September debate, saying that preservation of open space can help reduce those pressures.

Mr. Cantwell retired from his post as the East Hampton Village administrator in 2013 after more than 30 years on the job. Before that, he was an East Hampton Town councilman for five years. He also served on the town planning board and on the board of the East Hampton Housing Authority.

A native of Amagansett and a lifelong resident of East Hampton Town, his involvement in town politics began in 1975 when he was elected a bay constable, a position that no longer exists. He first ran for supervisor in 1981 in an unsuccessful bid against the Republican incumbent, Mary Fallon. Mr. Cantwell, who has been endorsed by the New York League of Conservation Voters, the Long Island Environmental Forum, Newsday, and State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., is running on the Democratic, Independence, and Working Families lines.

Mr. Knobel has been elected to public office six times, once as a town board member and five times as a town trustee, serving a total of 14 years. His current campaign for town supervisor is his second run for the job; he ran unsuccessfully in 1997.

“Essentially, the keynote has been to preserve the character of East Hampton by preserving the ability of its people to live here,” Mr. Knobel said on Tuesday. “This campaign has been about trying to address the difficulties people have existing and staying in their own town.”

He has promised to push for better code enforcement and more affordable housing opportunities as well as policies that support job creation. Among other things, he has suggested that the town lobby the state to increase the limit on improved properties that are exempt from the 2-percent real estate transfer tax, from $250,000 to $500,000.

Mr. Knobel has criticized the current town board for holding too many closed-door sessions, for failing to take action on important issues, and for failing to enforce legislation already on the books while simultaneously proposing new laws. “Reflexive fattening of the town code will never be the solution to immediate problems,” he says in his campaign literature.

A past president of the East Hampton Town Baymen’s Association, Mr. Knobel was a commercial fisherman for 25 years, starting in 1976, and now works for the Suffolk County Board of Elections. He lives in Springs.

He has served as a chairman of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee and on the Cornell Cooperative Extension’s marine committee, in addition to his many years as chairman of the local G.O.P. He is running on the Republican, Conservative, and Reform Party lines.

Ms. Overby cited her work on housing, the environment, and chain store limits as among her accomplishments during her first term. She has supported efforts to rein in airport noise, and wants to continue the town’s work to address noise problems, overcrowding, litter, and nightclubs.

Before winning election in 2011, she served for seven years on the East Hampton Town Planning Board, four of them as its chairwoman.

A 31-year resident of Amagansett, where she and her husband, Steve, raised their two sons, she served for many years on the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee and was its chairwoman for six. She headed the hamlets and villages subcommittee for a citizens’ group working on a 2005 update of the East Hampton Town Comprehensive Plan.

She has a bachelor’s degree in biology, and taught that subject in middle school. While living in Atlanta, Ms. Overby started her own successful business baking restaurant cheesecakes.

She has been endorsed by the Long Island Environmental Voters Forum, Eleanor’s Legacy, and Mr. Thiele, and is running with the backing of the Democratic and Working Families Party.

Issues surrounding water quality, energy needs, quality of life, coastal resiliency, and long-term hamlet planning are at the top of Mr. Van Scoyoc’s agenda. “We’re starting to tackle the idea of adapting to changes in the environment, particularly sea level rise,” he said Tuesday. “We need to be thinking ahead so we can adapt to those changes in a structured and well-planned way rather than just reacting to catastrophic loss.”

An important change for the better during his time on the board, he said, has been in the way government interacts with town employees, colleagues, and the public. “The town board had really become dysfunctional” under the previous administration, he said. Now, “we welcome the public into the process, which has meant that some of those issues remain unresolved, because we’re still looking to find consensus within the community.”

Prior to his election, Mr. Van Scoyoc served for six years on the planning board. He also served a five-year term on the zoning board of appeals, the last year as its chairman.

He runs his own residential construction company and a seasonal charter-fishing business. His wife, Marilyn, is an East Hampton High School music teacher and band director. While their son and daughter were growing up, Mr. Van Scoyoc volunteered his time coaching Little League, girls softball, and youth soccer in East Hampton and Springs.

Mr. Van Scoyoc, who is running on the Democratic, Independence, and Working Families lines, said he was pleased that the town board has been able to put steps in place to curtail aircraft noise to keep East Hampton Airport a “local airport for recreational flyers” as opposed to a “regional hub.” He said that the Army Corps project on the Montauk beach was temporary and that a long-term answer for the downtown’s vulnerability must be found.

Ms. Turner was the executive director of the East Hampton Business Alliance for 10 years before stepping down in July to focus on her campaign for town board. As the business alliance director, she said, she has attended every town board meeting for a decade, analyzing proposed town legislation and communicating its relevance to local businesses.

Her 2015 campaign for a seat on the board marks her first run for an elected position. Ms. Turner has served since 2009 on six different town committees, appointed by three different supervisors, to work on issues such as affordable housing, energy sustainability, wastewater management, and business relations.

A resident of East Hampton for close to 20 years, she is actively involved in Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church and charitable organizations and events such as Maureen’s Haven and the church’s Silver Tea. She also runs her own pet care business. She has said that concern for the local environment must be balanced against the need for jobs and affordable housing. Ms. Turner is running on the Republican, Conservative, and Reform Party lines.

Ms. Mulhern-Larsen is a native of Montauk who lives in East Hampton, runs a private security business, and is a licensed associate real estate broker with Brown Harris Stevens in Amagansett. Her name can be found on the Republican, Conservative, and Independence Party lines; she won an Independence Party primary in September. Her campaign for town board is her first run for a public office.

Ms. Mulhern-Larsen’s list of community involvements includes the East Hampton Community Council, the board of the Stella Maris Regional School, and the East Hampton Town Recreation Advisory Committee. She coached and served as a vice president in the East Hampton Little League Association, and is a past president of the East Hampton Women’s Softball League. She and her husband, East Hampton Village Police Chief Jerry Larsen, have six children between the ages of 17 and 23.

She has said that problems, especially in Montauk, are not being solved, and that the current board is doing nothing to help people who live in the Town of East Hampton.

___________

With Reporting by Joanne Pilgrim, David E. Rattray, and Christine Sampson

East Hampton Democrats' strong showing in the Tuesday election carried over to the town trustees contest. Unofficial results posted around 10:35 p.m. showed what would be a 5-to-4 Democratic majority.

The trustee clerk, Diane McNally, and incumbent trustee Sean McCaffery were within 10 votes of one another at the bottom of the list of nine. Both are Republicans. Francis J. Bock, a Democrat who had previously served on the board, was the trustees' top vote-getter.

Candidate

Votes

Bock, F.

3144

Mansir

2701

Bock, T.

2647

Taylor

2615

Drew

2557

Grimes

2549

Armstrong

2539

McNally

2514

McCaffrey

2506

Byrnes

2420

Lynch

2402

Bloecker

2333

Cohen

2311

Klughers

2124

Miller

2097

Klopman

2091

Havens

1970

Davidson

1463

Pat Mansir, a former East Hampton Town councilwoman who ran with Democratic and Independence endorsements, had the second-highest vote count after Mr. Bock. Tim Bock and Bill Taylor, Republican and Democratic incumbents, respectively, appeared to have been re-elected. Following them were Rick Drew, James Grimes, Tyler Armstrong, Ms. McNally, and Mr. McCaffrey.

Three incumbents, Brian Byrnes, Nat Miller, and Deborah Klughers, appeared not to have won re-election.

The Oct. 21 East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting covered an array of topics, including plans for a new bowling alley, the conversion of what had been a furniture repair business to vehicle repair, and a public hearing about a concrete barrier in the parking lot at the Amagansett I.G.A., a.k.a. Cirillo’s Market.

A new bowling alley may be coming to Wainscott. Scott Rubenstein, managing director of East Hampton Indoor Tennis on Daniel’s Hole Road, along with Dave Weaver of George Walbridge Surveyors, gave the board a first look at a proposed 10-lane alley, with bocce courts, a game room, a sports bar, and other amenities to replace tennis courts that are now in a seasonal bubble. This would increase the coverage on the slightly over 24-acre property from just under 7 percent to a little under 10 percent.

“We want to make sure we aren’t going down the wrong route,” Mr. Weaver said, asking for the board’s guidance. “We can’t be wrong. It is a $6 million  project,” Mr. Rubenstein added. The property is in a water recharge district and zoned for commercial-industrial use.

“We are about recreation. We are surrounded by 500 acres of reserve,” Mr. Rubenstein said. Describing the neighbors, he said, “We have the dogs here, the airport there, and the gun club there.”

Nancy Keeshan, a  board member, asked the applicants to examine the traffic that would result, and although two other members, Job Potter and Kathleen Cunningham, had some skepticism about the proposal, the apparent consensus was expressed best by Mr. Jones. “I thank you for wanting to invest in the community. I think it was a sad thing when the bowling alley closed. I am supportive of what you are trying to do.”

In discussing the parking that would be required, and the board’s recent preference for non-paved parking surfaces, Ian Calder-Piedmonte addressed a larger issue. “As long as it is this board’s opinion that it is generally better not to have pavement, [the town board] should change the code. We are making the exception all of the time. It is a contradiction of our board policy and what the code says.”

One of two Amagansett matters to come before the board that night concerned 79 Spring Close Highway, for which Britton Bistrian presented a new site plan. The property, zoned for commercial-industrial use, is owned by Randy Lerner, who also owns several notable properties in Amagansett, including Amagansett Square.

There is a 2,685-square-foot building on the about one-acre property, which Eric Schantz, a senior planner for the town, said had long been a “furniture repair shop.” Ms. Bistrian said the building would be replaced, and a tent, which covers 424 square feet, would be replaced with a 245-square-foot greenhouse. The land is severely constrained by wetlands at its western border, however.

 Ms. Bistrian said the property would be used to service tractors and trucks in connection with Mr. Lerner’s various properties. The site plan calls for a circular work area, with vehicles arriving and exiting after they were serviced. “It’s a workshop. It is just not a furniture workshop,” Ms. Bistrian said.

“It sounds an awful lot like a repair garage,” Marguerite Wolffsohn, planning director for the town, said.  “I’m a little confused,” Ms. Cunningham said. “I just don’t see as it is currently configured that they are bringing trucks in there.” Mr. Potter suggested that the work area be moved closer to the front of the property, away from the wetlands. And the topography was also a concern.

“There is a downhill slope to the wetlands,” Reed Jones, the chairman, said. “I still don’t understand why the drive-through is needed.” Ms. Bistrian said she would sit down with Mr. Schantz and the town engineer, Tom Talmage, to do some reconfiguring and develop a narrative about the planned use.

The board split on whether to ask the applicant for an increased buffer area to protect the wetlands, with Mr. Jones, Mr. Potter, and Ms. Cunningham losing an effort to get that done, by a 4-to-3 vote.

With regard to the Amagansett I.G.A., Fran Cirillo had come before the board in 2011 and 2012, receiving a permit to expand and modify the store and parking lot. The changes were made as approved by the board, with the exception of the area at the eastern edge of the parking lot, where the board had wanted open access to the adjacent commercial property. A memo laid out as far back as 1976 by Thomas M. Thorsen, then of the Planning Department, called for “unified parking facilities,” and “fewer strategically placed entrance and exit ways.” The survey approved in 2012 showed an island separating the properties. But the island that was constructed

does not conform to the survey and has held up a certificate of occupancy for the building.

Robert Savage, Ms. Cirillo’s lawyer, told the board that Mr. Talmage, the town engineer, had approved the current configuration of the lot. He also said that the resulting traffic flow had reduced the number of accidents in the lot. He presented the board with a petition with about 270 signatures supporting Ms. Cirillo, and said more were on the way. Several members of the public spoke in support, as well, and the record was kept open until last night.

Frustrated East Hampton Town union employees, who have been working without a contract since the beginning of the year, took to the street in front of Town Hall for several hours Monday afternoon after negotiations last week failed to result in an agreement. They carried signs that displayed their concerns about receiving wage increases in pace with the cost of living and achieving salary parity with workers in nearby towns.

At issue, Miles Maier, the president of East Hampton’s Civil Service Employees Association said yesterday, is the bottom line — just how much the town is willing to offer in wage increases. “We need to fight to support our families; it’s getting tougher and tougher,” he said Tuesday. A mediator is now slated to step in.

Under its previous contract, signed with the previous town administration and covering 2011 through 2014, the union agreed to forego raises as the town struggled with a $27 million accumulated deficit as well as the pressures of a nationwide economic recession. In addition, Mr. Maier said, overtime rules were changed, decreasing opportunities for that added source of income, and a new policy adopted requiring insurance premium contributions by new employees.

“They were big concessions, but overall, we didn’t really push back,” Mr. Maier said. Now, however, with the town on stronger financial footing and budget surpluses accruing, workers want town officials to begin to make up for lost ground. “The slice of the pie in the town budget for C.S.E.A. members has not increased,” he said.

“They did it on our backs,” Mr. Maier said of the town’s gain in financial status. Wages for town workers in other East End towns are about a third higher than their East Hampton counterparts, he said. Adding to the climate among workers — and helping the town improve its budgetary outlook — is the fact that a number of staff positions have been left unfilled. That, Mr. Maier said, impacts the remaining employees, who are working to answer an increasing demand for services from the public.

The union head said the group is seeking 3 and 4-percent salary increases across the board, in addition to maintaining a salary step system, through which employees receive separate, standardized increases for the first eight years of their tenure, in addition to the wage increases called for in any new union contract.

The proposed contract voted down by the union membership in August, with a large turnout and a 139-to-6 tally, called for wage increases over the next four years of an initial 2 percent followed by two years of 2.5-percent increases and a final 2.25-percent rise. It also would have eliminated the step system.

An offer by the town during the most recent negotiation to maintain the step increase system was outweighed by a proposed concurrent decrease in annual raises, Mr. Maier said. 

Both sides have agreed to work with the mediator. “I have been negotiating with the C.S.E.A. in good faith and will continue to do so,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said yesterday. “At this point the union’s demand for a 24-percent wage increase over four years is unrealistic because it would increase the budget by $3 million and force the town to break the tax cap every year,” Mr. Cantwell said, adding, “I am happy to work with the union toward a fair and reasonable contract.”

Seven of the nine East Hampton Town Trustees are seeking re-election for new two-year terms.

The trustees, the original governing body of the town, oversee most of East Hampton’s beaches, waterways, and bottomlands on behalf of the public. They review applications for bulkheads, revetments, dredging, and dock repairs, oversee boat moorings on waterways they manage, and issue permits for duck blinds and fish traps.

Last week The Star profiled the 11 non-incumbents running for the board. This week, attention turns to the incumbents, who include the Republicans Diane McNally, Tim Bock, Sean McCaffrey, and Nat Miller, and the Democrats Deborah Klughers, Brian Byrnes, and Bill Taylor.

Ms. McNally, the longest serving incumbent, has held her post since 1990 and has been the trustees’ clerk, or presiding officer, since 1991. That is now a paid, full-time position. Before being elected, she served for six years as the trustees’ secretary.

Her knowledge of trustee matters makes her a mentor to newer board members. The East Hampton Town Republican Committee says in campaign literature that “the continued ability of all residents to access and enjoy the resources and public lands of East Hampton are due to her diligence on their behalf.”

Mr. Bock, a trustee for 10 years, is the son of a bayman, and he grew up hunting and fishing here. A former assistant clerk of the trustees, he has expressed concern in the past about the negative effects of revetments on the beaches here.

Mr. McCaffrey came to the board four years ago but was no stranger to the role of the trustees. His father, the late Jim McCaffrey, was a longtime member of the board, and his mother, Nancy McCaffrey, was an East Hampton Town councilwoman. He is a lifelong resident of East Hampton and works in  a family landscaping business. He is seeking his third term on the board.

A commercial fisherman, Mr. Miller brings that knowledge to bear to his efforts as a trustee. Campaign literature credits his “insights and advice regarding the current difficulties faced by” commercial fishermen as helping the board “re-evaluate and update procedures.”

He has been outspoken about poaching and the lack of adequate enforcement of shellfishing regulations, especially with regard to scallops. He has served two terms on the board.

Ms. Klughers has a master’s degree in marine conservation and policy from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and a bachelor’s in environmental studies. A trustee for two terms, she has been involved in fisheries rehabilitation, eelgrass and dune restoration, and has pushed for a pilot scallop shell recycling effort.

Ms. Klughers is also chairwoman of the East Hampton Town recycling and litter committee, and she produces a public access TV show called “Keepin’ It Green.” She is a beekeeper who runs Bonac Bees.

In addition to serving as a town trustee for the past two years, Mr. Byrnes is a member of East Hampton Town’s disabilities advisory board and a volunteer with the Amagansett Fire Department and the East Hampton Food Pantry. He works as a foreman and superintendent of the Windmill I and II and St. Michael’s affordable senior citizens apartment complexes.

Mr. Taylor, a waterways management supervisor for East Hampton Town and a harbormaster before that, is seeking his second term on the panel. Working for the town, Mr. Taylor was involved in the creation of East Hampton’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program and in pushing successfully to have local waters designated no-discharge zones.

He has been involved in local politics for many years and was at one time chairman of the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee.

These seven will vie for a spot with 11 non-incumbents. Two of them, Joe Bloecker, a Republican candidate, and Francis Bock, a Democrat, have served on the board in the past. Pat Mansir, who is running on the Democratic line, is a past East Hampton Town councilwoman. Zachary Cohen, another Democratic candidate, has run for both town supervisor and the town board in the past, and Rona Klopman, also a Democrat, has run before for trustee.

Six of the candidates running for elected office for the first time are Tyler Armstrong and Rick Drew for the Democrats and Joshua Davidson, Mike Havens, Jim Grimes, and Steven Lynch Jr. for the Republicans.

The top nine vote-getters will win seats on the board.

A conversation with Lisa Mulhern-Larsen immediately yields one conclusion: She is unabashedly proud of the accomplishments of her children, all six of them, who are between the ages of 17 and 23. Four are in college all over the country, and last winter, she made it to each of those college campuses for a visit. She can relate a story about her family to lots of topics you could bring up, including her current endeavor — running for a seat on the East Hampton Town Board.

“My husband, family, and friends all thought that I would do a good job. I had a lot of support and that’s what helped me make the decision to give it a try,” said Ms. Mulhern-Larsen, who initially declined the East Hampton Town Republican Committee’s invitation to screen for candidacy, but accepted when they approached her a second time. She also won an Independence Party primary and will appear on that line on the ballot, as well.

She is concerned for her children, who may decide to come back after college to live in the community where they were raised, but would really have no place to establish new roots here, so affordable housing is at the top of her list of issues. She said she worries about things like drug use in East Hampton, mental health care for young people, and fair, practical policies for those who live and work in the community.

“They’re common-sense kinds of things,” she said in an interview Monday. “I think it’s taking too long so far, in my opinion, to get enough places for young working families or singles to live. Even people with average incomes struggle to live out here. I’m also passionate about the town employees. I feel that they’re not given fair wages and I’d like to see their salaries increase. They’re the backbone of our community.”

She thinks the town’s proposed rental registry legislation still needs work.

She is a licensed real estate broker with Brown Harris Stevens in Amagansett and is the founder and president of Protec Services Inc., a security business. She grew up in Montauk, where her family owned the Viking Fleet, and is now married to East Hampton Village Police Chief Jerry Larsen. Her list of civic and religious involvements is long: She has served on the East Hampton Community Council, the board of the Stella Maris Regional School, and the East Hampton Town Recreation Advisory Committee, among others. She coached and served as a vice president in the East Hampton Little League Association, and is a past president of the East Hampton Women’s Softball League.

“I felt I would like to serve the community on a broader scale, and the way to do that is to get involved in politics,” Ms. Mulhern-Larsen said. “I think getting in would be a great challenge, to try to solve some of the really important issues that we’re facing.”

“I’m open-minded and I get along with people really well,” she said. “I like to take a look at both sides and try to figure it out. You’re not going to please everybody all the time . . . but I’m just going to be independent and fair.”

With a handshake and a “Hello,” Tom Knobel, the Republican candidate for East Hampton Town supervisor, introduced himself to a few dozen folks on Tuesday morning at One Stop Market in East Hampton. His hope was to put a face to the name for those who had heard his radio advertisements on the air locally, and to get his name out to those who had not.

“I’m a walking billboard,” he joked to a reporter who joined him at about 7:30 a.m., in the thick of the morning rush hour at the mom-and-pop market.

Mr. Knobel, who began his career as a commercial fisherman on the East End in 1976 and now works for the Suffolk County Board of Elections, has done this before. He served one term on the town board before running unsuccessfully for supervisor in 1997, and also served four terms as a town trustee, not to overlook leading the local Republican Party on and off for many years. So he knows the rules of campaigning, like the one that says you should not try to hand a piece of campaign literature to someone whose hands are already full. Over the months since he earned the Republican nomination in May, he has heard his share of questions, compliments, and tirades.

“There will be days that are better than others, and sometimes people aren’t going to like what you say,” Mr. Knobel said. “You can’t take that to heart. . . . You can’t just back down and retreat, you have to keep pushing forward and asking for more.”

To that extent, Mr. Knobel said that if elected, he will keep pushing for “fair, effective, and open government that actually gets things done.” He will push for better code enforcement and stress policies that support job creation and affordable housing opportunities.

“Nobody has questioned my ability to do this,” he said. “I’ve kept it strictly to my priorities.”

Asked what those priorities are, Mr. Knobel simply said, “No one issue stands out by itself because they all affect each other.”

Unlike Mr. Knobel, his running mates in the town races, Margaret Turner and Lisa Mulhern-Larsen, are first-time candidates. “I have experience and name recognition, and it helps to balance the new faces who are coming in,” he said. “They’re bringing fresh insights that, frankly, the other people don’t have. They listen to me describe the mechanisms of campaigns and so forth, and it certainly helps me to hear things from their angle.”

As he handed out fliers promoting not only his campaign but also an oldies musical performance the East Hampton Republican Committee is sponsoring tonight, he recounted a story — one that explains why he has not given out “campaign swag” this time around.

In the mid-1990s, he said, “I gave out potholders during my campaign, but they were apparently too thin. It turns out I was burning people’s hands.” Not exactly the impression he wanted to give.

He recounted another campaign story, a more recent one in which he and Ms. Turner were walking door-to-door together when they met someone who knew his grandmother, who died in 1968. Walking the campaign trail can be tough, but moments like that are rewarding, he said.

“It doesn’t get better than that,” he said.

Concerned about a dearth of year-round, affordable housing, East Hampton Town officials are working on changes that encourage more legal apartments in existing buildings.

East Hampton Town already has provisions in place to allow one-bedroom rental apartments in single-family houses or above certain businesses, but, according to Tom Ruhle, the town’s director of housing, only 13 have been registered since the program’s inception. The principal change to the town zoning code would be to allow apartments above detached garages, pool houses, barns, or other stand-alone buildings. Additionally, the one-bedroom maximum could be raised to two bedrooms.

During an East Hampton Town Board work session on Tuesday, Mr. Ruhle and Job Potter, a member of the town planning board, described the changes that they hope would add to the number of apartments. A plan for a new affordable housing complex also was described at Tuesday’s work session. It is reported separately.

Mr. Potter chaired the town’s community housing opportunity fund committee, which presented the recommendations Tuesday, following a plan adopted by the town board earlier this year. Like the existing law, the rules would require that tenants be current East Hampton Town residents and that landlords live on the premises. Renters and landlords would have to provide affidavits and other documentation to the town, as well as allow inspections.

Under the proposal, a strict cap would be placed on rents. Mr. Ruhle said the town’s current figure, $1,534 a month, would be maintained. There would be no income requirements for tenants. Leases would be for one year at a minimum.

A possible change would be to allow an apartment to be lived in by the homeowner, with the balance of the building rented out. This is technically illegal in the current law.

“We’re gone out of our way to make this as simple as possible,” Mr. Ruhle said. “We are only looking for compliance. Unless we have some issue, we don’t inspect. We try not to be intrusive.”

Permits for apartments would only be available for structures meeting the setback and height limits for residences. That would mean, for example, that a garage near a property line is likely to be ineligible for the program.

Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said that the new provisions might appeal to older residents looking to downsize or provide a starter home for younger relatives. “I think this really helps families stay together,” she said.

Mr. Ruhle said that the town’s main concern was keeping the apartments affordable and not used for vacation rentals. “We do check Airbnb,” he said.

He suggested that the town board consider allowing for flexibility on size requirements for apartments. Right now, the maximum square footage is 600 feet, but some existing apartments, many believed to have been put in basements without town permission, could well total more than that.

“We know there are plenty of illegal apartments in this town. Many of them are not safe,” Mr. Potter told the board. “We would like people with illegal apartments to come forward and get legal.”

Supervisor Larry Cantwell agreed. “If they can conform, then we want them to go through the process without penalty,” he said. “We need to find a way to encourage more of these. What you are proposing gives us more flexibility.”

The committee did not suggest exceeding the town’s cap of 100 apartments, 20 per school district. “I don’t see that as a townwide growth issue,” Mr. Cantwell said.

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee is holding a fund-raising rally  for its candidates from 6:30 to 9:30 tonight at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett.

The cocktail hour, with a cash bar, will be followed by dinner and entertainment, with guest singing groups performing classic oldies and top 40 songs. Tickets are $35 per person.

Though reservations were requested by Tuesday, tickets may still be available. Anna Maria Villa can be reached at 516-578-8780 for more information.