Balk At 'Gathering' Law
A pair of laws that would regulate gatherings, large and small, were sharply criticized Friday in hearings before the East Hampton Town Board.
Local craftsmen said one of them, which would set standards for charity events, was out of step with their businesses. Parents charged the other, the loitering law, was out of step with their teenagers.
Councilman Thomas Knobel sponsored the first law, to insure events were truly for charity and restricted the money-makers to commercial properties. Councilman Peter Hammerle sponsored the second, which would allow police to ticket sidewalk rowdies.
Response To Complaints
Each law was proposed in response to complaints from business owners. Antiques dealers and other shopkeepers, who said their livelihoods were threatened by last summer's aborted ABC Home & Carpet tent sale, spurred the mass gatherings law, and shopkeepers in downtown Montauk, who said groups of youths were scaring away their customers, pushed for the loitering law.
The latter, which would be the first of its kind here, prohibits impeding foot or vehicle traffic, harassing, cursing, or threatening harm to passers-by, and otherwise disturbing the peace. A first conviction would carry a $50 fine; subsequent convictions, double that.
At the start of the back-to-back hearings, Mr. Hammerle said he had already received letters opposing the loitering law, calling it a way to "target kids and prevent them from hanging out."
Critics Speak Out
"I don't see this as any kind of Big Brother tactic," the Councilman said.
But Bengt Hokanson, a 1987 graduate of East Hampton High School, called the law "disgraceful" and predicted it "will be enforced indiscriminately against people the police don't like."
"The loitering laws in this country have traditionally been used as a prejudicial tool," said Mr. Hokanson, adding that "East Hampton is not a dangerous town." Local police need do no more than ask rowdies to behave themselves or move along, he said.
However, Capt. Todd Sarris said the only option when someone refuses is to make a disorderly conduct arrest, which could result in "significant fines and up to 15 days in jail." He said a ticket for loitering would "send a message" that was less harsh but still effective.
Police Point Of View
In Town Justice Court at least, the maximum penalty for disorderly conduct is rarely invoked.
Captain Sarris told the Town Board he hoped the department would be hiring more seasonal officers next summer, and would be able as a result to step up foot patrols of the downtown areas and create the town's first bicycle patrol as well.
Mr. Hokanson criticized the loitering law further, saying European cities have public squares where citizens can meet, drink coffee, or do nothing at all. The "message" from the new law, in contrast, would "tell this community we should be ashamed of ourselves," he said.
Wrong Place And Time
"East Hampton has already been boutique-ized. I don't want to have to buy something every time I come to town," Mr. Hokanson said.
"There is nothing in this law that prevents anyone from hanging out anywhere," countered Mr. Hammerle.
Another speaker, Paula Brannon, agreed with Mr. Hokanson that the law was not needed. Summer visitors
'Isn't it odd? The kids are loitering, the adults are gathering.'
She also criticized the board for holding the hearing when the citizens who would be most affected, the teenagers, were required to be in school.
The hearing should have been held instead at the high school, she said, or at least at a time when her teenager could attend. "My daughter will be of legal voting age in 10 days. Teach her to vote responsibly," Ms. Brannon said.
Three In Favor
The board agreed to accept written comments on the law until Friday, Nov. 1, rather than adjourn the hearing to some other place and time.
Three residents spoke in favor of it. As a member of the Town Anti-Bias Task Force, Phyllis Estey said she rode with police and saw first-hand that "we need protection." She asserted there was "screaming, yelling, and vandalism going on every weekend" where she lives, in Amagansett.
James Daunt, an owner of two motels in downtown Montauk, said the lack of any loitering law now was letting "a lot of people off easy."
State law now prohibits loitering only when the intent is to commit a crime, such as selling drugs, and police have complained that is difficult to prove. A section of the state law that prohibited loitering without an apparent purpose was struck down by the courts years ago as unconstitutional.
Montaukers Comment
Joseph Capri, a retired New York City police officer and now a Montauk resident, recalled that judges would throw out his cases based on the old loitering law, "so we stopped chasing the kids."
"We lost the city because we didn't have a viable law. . . You have to control behavior. That's what civilization is about," he said.
Marshal Helfand, who also lives in Montauk, sympathized with Mr. Daunt and other business owners who have had trouble with petty criminals but said that on the other hand, even youths who roughhouse are exhibiting "normal behavior."
"They're just getting together to grow up," he said.
Parental Consequences
Mr. Helfand said the town had spent untold millions on managing garbage and environmental conservation - "protecting the three-legged nerd," is what he actually said - but "for some reason, has never been able to address where we're supposed to move the kids to."
He agreed police should arrest juvenile delinquents and anyone else caught breaking the law, and recommended any new law contain consequences for their parents as well. He took umbrage, though, with Mr. Hammerle's version, which cited causing "annoyance, inconvenience, or alarm" among the justifications for a ticket.
"The summer people who come here seem always to be annoyed or inconvenienced," he said.
Calling it "interesting" that the loitering and mass-gatherings laws were going to hearings on the same day, Mr. Helfand continued: "Isn't it odd? The kids are loitering, the adults are gathering." He was answered with laughter and applause.
Craftsmen Opposed
Councilman Knobel's proposed regulation of mass gatherings of 50 or more people was also met with criticism.
Several residents who attended were craftsmen who claimed the regulations would hamper their ability to sell their wares.
Nancy Robbins, president of the South Fork Craftsmen's Guild, said the group was "trying to keep the tradition of handcraft alive."
Nine members of the audience stood up and later applauded when she said craft fairs enhanced the town's rural ambiance and should, as a result, be exempt from the law.
Antiques Fairs
Sarah Butler, who makes jewelry, read a letter from Peggy Joyce, head of the Montauk Historical Society, which said no goods may be sold at the society's fairs unless they were made entirely by the exhibitor.
Sue Phaleris said 80 percent of her income comes from open-air fairs and shows, and John Bruno, a show promoter, said organizers "go out of our way" to have the events also benefit local restaurants, motels, and other established businesses.
Mr. Knobel said he had received a petition signed by about 50 antiques dealers and shopowners, asking the town to curtail the number of antiques and crafts fairs. About a dozen fairs are held in East Hampton each year, he said.
ABC Suit
He said his law was not meant to question "the validity of craft fairs" but to control "the great, huge benefits" and sales whose "predominant purpose is pecuniary gain."
There are no criteria on the books now for deciding whether an event merits a permit, though the town has for years been issuing permits and setting standards for parking, music, lighting, garbage collections, and more.
ABC Carpet's $3 million lawsuit, filed earlier this year after the town revoked its permit for the tent sale, underscored for officials the need for a legislative framework, though a deputy town attorney, Richard Whalen, said he had been working on it since spring.
In cases where an event revolves around the sale of goods, including flea markets and crafts fairs, the law would require permit applicants to estimate how much of the profits would go to charity.
Ms. Robbins said such disclosure was "an invasion" of privacy.
An event deemed a money-maker would be restricted to commercial zones under the proposed law. The most popular venues for such gatherings have traditionally been in residential zones, such as Dune Alpin Farm, East Hampton, where the ABC tent sale was to have taken place.
ABC's permit was revoked by the Town Board after officials learned that just $20,000 from the sale of millions in furniture and housewares would go to a town shelter for troubled teenagers.
Three Weeks' Notice
"We are artists. We are not ABC . . . We celebrate creativity, not corporate profit," said John Todaro, a photographer who sells his pictures at crafts fairs.
Mr. Knobel attempted to assure the craftspeople that the law would not restrict their fairs but only regulate them. "Otherwise, you could set up anywhere," he said.
The law would require applications to be handed in at least three weeks before the event, to give officials time to review them. The Hamptons International Film Festival, for example, handed its application in on Oct. 4, 11 days before it opened, Mr. Knobel said.
Though her husband, noted Ms. Estey, calls her "the ultimate consumer," she said she was nonetheless fed up with all the traffic-generating events in Amagansett each summer.
"It has become intolerable . . . Amagansett Square, Miss Amelia's Cottage, the American Legion, the Amagansett School. We're locked in," she said.
Off Limits?
Mr. Knobel said an earlier version of the law had included a limit on the number of events a venue may host each year but it was decided that would be seen as "arbitrary," unless there was an actual conflict.
But the traditional locations for crafts fairs - the American Legion, Second House Museum in Montauk, Ashawagh Hall in Springs, among others - would be "off limits," observed Councilman Hammerle.
"You have to give these people some assurance" they would not be put out of business," said the Councilman, adding that the wording of the law would "put too much trust in the person administering it."
Mr. Capri, who is commander of the American Legion, asked whether the Legion Hall could continue to host fairs under the new law. Mr. Whalen told him it could; though the building is zoned residential, it is improved as a business.
"They are beautiful things that add color to our community," said the Legion commander.