East Hampton Town’s 2023 budget continued to take shape this week, a week after it was unveiled in tentative form.
Since the $90.36 million tentative budget’s introduction at the town board’s Oct. 4 meeting, several “minor tweaks” have been suggested and comments received, Rebecca Hansen, the town’s budget director, told the board on Tuesday.
These include a request for $5,000 for the Neopolitical Cowgirls as an additional community organization to receive funding, Ms. Hansen said. The town’s auditor has also sent word of new year-end reporting requirements pertaining to leases, which will add $10,000 to the town’s expenditures, not including additional staff time. Another $10,000 has been added to part-time salaries in the town clerk’s office, she said.
The Marine Patrol Department has requested additional money for anticipated boat repairs “due to their aging fleet,” Ms. Hansen said, and also needs a software update, for which an additional $15,000 is needed. Another $10,000 has been added for the Land Acquisition and Management Department. The Police Department must absorb a 2-percent increase in its 911 maintenance contract, she said, and a Wi-Fi project to be completed next year will also require additional funding.
Balancing these additional expenditures, some employees will reduce their hours in 2023, Ms. Hansen said, and merit pay for two employees had been calculated on a monthly instead of an annual basis. The result will be a budget that falls under the New York State-mandated 2-percent tax levy cap by around $18,000, instead of the $8,182 initially calculated, she said.
Board members had their own revisions to request. Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said that private citizens have been funding the dirt placed on the infield on the town’s Little League fields, and it has been requested that the town assume that responsibility, an approximately $1,000 expenditure. Councilman David Lys spoke of a request from the Highway Department. That will be budget-neutral, Ms. Hansen said, as the department offered to reduce an expenditure line. Councilwoman Sylvia Overby asked that the town be able to use an arborist, for which East Hampton Village pays around $70 per hour. She asked that the Highway Department be given up to $1,000 to pay an arborist.
As detailed last week, the tentative budget called for the Ordinance Enforcement Department to gain another officer, two inspectors, and an animal control officer. Members of the board debated the appropriateness of that plan, with Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez suggesting that one code enforcement officer be added, along with an additional Marine Patrol officer and a public information officer. More people are holding events on the beaches, she said, and there is more commercial activity there as well. “We know how stressed Marine Patrol is,” she said.
Mr. Van Scoyoc disagreed. Most of the activity Marine Patrol polices happens in the summer, he said, and the town has a robust part-time summer staff for the department. “There has been a lot of demand for year-round code enforcement,” he said, dealing with all manner of land-use issues, though he added that he would not object to removing one new code enforcement staffer in favor of another Marine Patrol officer “if the board feels strongly” about it.
Code enforcement is “always the thing” that the hamlets’ citizens advisory committees “want to see more of,” Ms. Overby said. “They’re usually pretty vocal.”
Mr. Van Scoyoc agreed that public sentiment is in favor of more code enforcement officers, and said that he was skeptical of the idea of a public information officer, albeit acknowledging that it is “constantly a battle” to get information to the public. If there are too many events held on the beaches, the board ought to reconsider how many permits are issued for such events, he said. The special events committee will discuss that next month, Councilwoman Cate Rogers said.
The board will adopt a resolution next Thursday to publish a notice of public hearing in The Star’s Oct. 27 issue, Ms. Hansen said. The hearing is scheduled for Nov. 3, and the board is to vote to adopt the budget on Nov. 17.
