Investigate, Now
The East Hampton Housing Authority alternately limped, panted, and stumbled through too many years of planning its Accabonac Highway affordable apartment complex. Finally, though, just as its board, which had been appointed in times of Democratic control, pulled together the construction approvals and financing for the $5.6 million project, the new Republican Town Board majority got to appoint two members of its own.
The new members said they would rein in costs and keep a close eye on construction. These are laudable and necessary efforts, but their attempts, which appeared driven at first by a desire to prove the Democrats incompetent or worse, have gotten nowhere.
The Authority has been in a state of crisis management all year. Although Robert Brach is the Authority's chairman, he does not seem able to take the lead. Furthermore, the Authority has been less than accessible to the public. When it recently decided to fire the Accabonac project's architect, Bill Clemency of the Garden City firm of Tast and Clemency, it did so at a Sunday meeting that was called with just one day's notice and on the weekend of Rosh Hashanah.
The Authority has been in the habit, in fact, of holding "special" meetings on just a few hours' notice, or with no notice at all, which is legal only in cases of true emergency. Last week, it switched the location of a meeting to one member's office a half-hour before the session was to start, leaving a resident with something to tell the board waiting at Town Hall.
The Authority gave several reasons for its decision to fire Mr. Clemency. He was accused of profiting from the removal of topsoil from the Accabonac site, of trying to cover up engineering problems, of allowing the project to go to bid illegally several years ago, and of failing to indicate town requirements for a scenic easement in final plans, which resulted in overclearing. Mr. Clemency's departure raised old doubts about whether his firm should have been chosen to begin with.
In the past, East Hampton Republicans were quick to criticize the former chairwoman, Margaret deRouleaux, the architectural firm, and the Authority's efforts, while the Democrats were quick to leap to their defense. However, no one on either side has been able to promise taxpayers' that their multimillion-dollar investment in affordable housing is safe.
Although the Authority is largely independent, the Town Board had to co-sign for the $3 million it has borrowed for its projects so far, and has pledged the town's credit worthiness for up to $6 million. With these loans due to be rolled over in two months and construction on Accabonac Highway at a standstill, the Town Board must act immediately to commission an independent investigation, unhampered by political bias, into what has been going wrong.