“I don’t feel like anybody can put me in a box,” said J.P Foster, the sole Republican candidate for East Hampton Town Board this year. “I don’t feel like I fit in a Democrat or a Republican box. I fit in an East Hampton box. If there was an independent box, that’s where I’d be.”
Still, Mr. Foster has been a Republican since the 1980s, aside from a small window of time when he registered as a Democrat until switching his affiliation back to the G.O.P. in January.
“I don’t think it matters, especially on a local level,” he said.
Yet, for better or worse, the East End has been increasingly affected by national politics.
Whether it’s the threat of immigration agents showing up, the current government shutdown affecting funding for libraries or museums, or the Trump administration’s cancellation of funding for offshore wind projects, affiliation has become harder to ignore.
“I have no extreme ideas,” Mr. Foster said. “I’m not a January 6 guy.”
However, when asked whom he voted for as president, he demurred. “I had to look at the best of two choices, and I’ll leave you with that,” he said.
“I’m not here to solve immigration or abortion,” he continued. “I want to focus on the basic East Hampton issues. I’m very much in the middle. Given a choice, do I lean to the right? Yes. Am I a right-wing person? No. I think the wings on both sides are a big part of our problem. Angry people get nothing done. I’ve been taught leadership skills, and I think I can bring that to the town board and work with them to make their board better.”
“If there’s one thing I’d like to emphasize, it’s my fairness. I pride myself on not being mean. I may not like what you have to say, but it’s your right to say it and I need to listen to it, because that’s my job,” he said.
Mr. Foster, 54, a father of two, has dedicated his life to serving the East Hampton community.
In 1989, he graduated from Pierson High School and a year later, he took a job as a public safety dispatcher with East Hampton Village. He held that job for 35 years, until retiring last month, serving as chief dispatcher since 2017.
He has been a member of the East Hampton School Board for 13 years, and its president for the past 12. He served on the town planning board for a year and was on the board of LTV for nearly four years before becoming its chairman in July.
“Basic function with leadership is the number-one concern for East Hampton. Everything else will fall into place, but you need to have basic leadership, and that’s something I can speak to,” he said.
The East Hampton School District has more full-time employees (375) than the town (which has 300 in the off-season, but close to twice that during the summer) and faces many of the same issues, he said. However, he argued, the school does a better job managing and retaining employees.
“The town says the problem is lack of housing and Civil Service rules, but we have the same issues at the school. The commute is no different. You have to have leadership, and you have to cultivate from within,” he said. “You have to have succession planning and create an environment where people are attracted to come to work. I think it falls on the board, and Kathee has to take ownership because she’s the C.E.O. of the board. I have nothing personal against any of these folks, but something is not working.”
Indeed, the town has had well-publicized struggles with staffing in the last year, losing many department heads. The Building Department lost its principal building inspector last March and is backlogged. In August, it cut public-facing hours, closing Wednesdays to focus on processing applications. (Richard Normoyle was hired as the new principal building inspector in September.)
“I’d like to see that department back to being open five days a week,” said Mr. Foster. “I’d also like a building inspector to be on hand for the public during all business hours. Being closed for four hours out of an eight-hour day is just not acceptable.”
Mr. Foster also criticized several recent town board decisions.
Regarding the senior citizens center to be built on Abraham’s Path, which is stalled as the town-hired architects fight over the details of their joint venture in court, he said:
“The senior center was built on fancy, not function. The seniors want function. At this point, they want anything. I haven’t met anyone yet that was excited about the senior center. The whole project needs a pause,” he said. “The town should reconsider rebuilding the current center where it’s located.”
He also didn’t like the town board vote last winter to implement tighter building codes that decreased the maximum house size, tying it to lot size, while removing loopholes that were being abused. The board discussed the law for nearly two years, 22 months. Still, Mr. Foster said not enough voices were heard.
“I don’t like the way the process worked,” he said. “The process was very limited in who had input into the overall presentation that was given to the town, you had to be a town employee.” (The zoning code amendment working group consisted of only town employees but met multiple times with an outside group of building industry professionals.)
“Was each hamlet represented?” he asked. “Springs was most affected by the code changes. I’m not opposed to the overall concept, but did they achieve their overall goal? Small lots are all that’s left for people to buy. If code changes were meant to benefit the environment, I’d ask what we’re doing for our environment now when you can’t get a building permit? People are going to build anyway, without a permit, and we’ll be untangling that mess for decades.”
The law went into effect only on July 1, so its impact remains to be seen.
Another criticism: The town’s decision and manner in which it plans to take over emergency dispatch services from the village.
Starting in January, all 911 calls — police, fire, and emergency medical — within the town (outside East Hampton Village) will be dispatched from East Hampton Town police headquarters in Wainscott. For the last three decades, that service has been provided by the village.
“In my opinion, the town should have taken the step to take 911 calls, then pause a little and get proficient at that before picking up the fire and E.M.S.,” he said.
“If they want it under one roof eventually, I’m not opposed to them doing it, but the process has been rushed and wrong. I know their people will give it their best, and I feel a bit bad for them. They’re the ones who have to deal with it. But if you think you’re going to flip a switch and say ‘We’re E.M.D. [Emergency Medical Dispatch] proficient!’ you’re out of your mind.”
Apart from his criticisms, drawing from his experience on the school board, Mr. Foster offered a proposal that could benefit schools and the local police force.
“I want an entire squad of school resource officers,” he said, suggesting four more. “It’s a classic shared service. For 10 months of the year, the school district covers the cost, so we always have somebody in the building. For the two months of the summer, July and August, those S.R.O. officers can work for the town police, helping with enforcement issues.”
Mr. Foster will face the Democratic incumbents Ian Calder-Piedmonte and Cate Rogers in the Nov. 4 election. Mr. Calder-Piedmonte was profiled last week; Ms. Rogers will be profiled in next week’s issue.
