It was no surprise last week when East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen announced his candidacy for town supervisor in 2026 in an Instagram post.
Mr. Larsen is a registered Democrat, and his announcement came despite a win last week by the current supervisor and fellow Democrat, Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who ran unopposed for her second term.
According to unofficial results from the Suffolk County Board of Elections, she won 95.59 percent — or 4,853 — of the votes cast in the race, with 4.1 percent — 224 — going to write-ins. Looking at other races on the ballot, however, it appears many people chose not to vote at all for supervisor. (There were 6,580 votes tallied in the contested clerk’s race and 6,144 in the uncontested highway superintendent’s race.)
Mr. Larsen is betting that people are looking for an alternative, but Ms. Burke-Gonzalez has no plans of stepping down in 2026, meaning he will have to win a June primary if he wants to be the Democratic nominee. That’s assuming the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee doesn’t choose him as its candidate during the screening process this winter.
“I am going to screen with the Democratic Committee, but I already know they’re going to choose Kathee, because that’s what Anna Skrenta, their chair, told The Star in September,” Mr. Larsen said. “I’m focused on the primary.”
So, it’s Kathee versus Jerry. Expect lawn signs for Christmas.
On Sunday, Mr. Larsen sent an additional email announcing a Nov. 29 campaign kickoff party at the Clubhouse in Wainscott. A champagne toast, open bar, and live music are planned.
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So where does he stand on some town issues?
For one, he would like to roll back the zoning code amendments passed last winter. The legislation reduced maximum house size and altered the dimensional table that links house size and lot size. Before the changes, a house’s square footage could max out at 10 percent of its lot area plus 1,600 square feet. The board reduced that equation to 7 percent and 1,500.
“I would be in favor of changing to something more like the village. I think 7 percent is too small,” he said.
In fact, village code for houses on lots up to about half an acre is tighter. The village formula is 10 percent of the lot area plus 1,000 square feet, or 20,000 square feet, whichever is less.
For example, on a quarter-acre lot, roughly 11,000 square feet, village code allows for a 2,100-square-foot house; town code allows for a 2,270-square-foot house. On a half-acre lot, those numbers are 3,178 and 3,027 respectively.
Further reducing village house sizes, village code counts every square foot of an attached garage. There is no free 600 square feet as there is in the town.
However, village code allows more square footage in the basement. One of the first laws Mayor Larsen changed when elected in 2021 increased the maximum depth of village basements to 15 feet and allowed them to expand 25 percent beyond the footprint of the house. In the town, basements cannot extend past the house’s footprint. However, as with an attached garage, the first 600 feet of a finished basement is not included in overall square footage.
The current town board has been vocal in its efforts to increase affordable housing, enacting code changes to allow for more density, using community housing funds to help first-time homeowners, and allowing more accessory dwelling units, or A.D.U.s.
“I like the A.D.U. idea,” said Mr. Larsen. “If we want to encourage them, we should write into law that we’re going to waive building permit fees for them. We should also expedite the permit process. I also like the idea of helping with down payments for first-time homebuyers. That’s a good program.”
However, he found fault with a stalled town project for the 16 affordable housing units at Cantwell Court. “Bids went out last December. They all came in too high. The bid took too long. Now the town supervisor is rushing to get a new state grant. What have they been doing while waiting for the bids to come in?”
That example, along with the senior center morass, highlighted what he characterized as “the incompetence of this administration”
“I find it offensive how she takes $1.3 million, throws it out the window, and now tries to spin it into a good thing. ‘We’re going to reimagine the project and listen to residents,’ she says. “Wouldn’t it have been a good idea to listen to residents before? I think they should have gone through their boards and followed their own laws. If we put a picnic bench on public property in the village we don’t go through our boards, but this was a major project. The more voices, the better.”
Once again, he says incompetence is on display with the way the town is taking over 911 dispatching, a service the village has provided since the 1990s.
“They’re promising $2.5 million in savings, but I’m saying it’s going to end up being a $3 million hit on town taxpayers. That’s a $5 million mistake.”
While he agrees consolidating the dispatches under one roof is a good idea, he thinks the town should have taken baby steps to get there, instead of taking all the police calls and a large portion of fire and emergency medical service calls at the same time, starting Jan. 1.
He believes the East Hampton Town Airport should remain open “with reasonable restrictions,” such as prohibiting nighttime and early morning operations. “Certain aircraft should be restricted more,” he said.
For residents he envisioned “a beach permit situation” to use the airport, so they could come and go more frequently than “Uber helicopters.”
He said the town botched attempts to restrict airport use and was reprimanded by a judge because it didn’t work in the guidelines of the Federal Aviation Administration. “That’s nonsense. That’s just taxpayer money you’re throwing away.”
The woes of the town’s Building Department have been well documented. “You have a department head that leaves in April, and you don’t fill the position until October, that’s ridiculous. It’s one of the most important departments in the town,” he said.
The recent hires were all suggested years ago by Joseph Palermo, now the principal building inspector in the village, and the turmoil and delays could have been avoided if the town board had listened better, the mayor asserts.
A common complaint across the East End is a lack of enforcement, whether for gas-powered leaf-blower violations, off-leash dogs on the beach, or speeding drivers. Mayor Larsen says more enforcement officers are needed. “You have to deal with it with part-time personnel. In the village I started hiring part-time police constables. They have the same authority as a police officer, but they’re paid $40 an hour as opposed to a full police salary. You could put one or two cars in each hamlet.”
“I don’t think any of this can’t be solved,” he said. “It’s been neglected for so long it just seems overwhelming.”
He also promised to eliminate the positions of town administrator, held by Rebecca Hansen, and public information officer, held by Patrick Derenze, taking on those responsibilities directly “to increase accountability and transparency.”
There’s some history there: Ms. Hansen worked for the village for seven years until Mr. Larsen became mayor in 2020.
In an email, Ms. Hansen highlighted her 25 years in municipal government and said, “I am focused on serving the residents of East Hampton and supporting the work of the town board. The town’s 2025 budget of $103.9 million supports services across 70 square miles. For perspective, East Hampton Village’s 2025-26 budget of $30.1 million supports services across four square miles.” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez defended her employees.
“It was apparent when running for supervisor in 2023 that we needed to improve communication and the flow of information between Town Hall and the public,” she wrote in a text. “So, we redefined the role of executive assistant in the supervisor’s office and created the public information officer position. While we started off 2024 with two new titles, we did not add new positions to the town budget.”
“What I find ironic,” she continued, “is that Mr. Larsen is proposing to eliminate a position that has existed for decades in East Hampton Village and currently pays their village administrator $200,887 for a 30-hour workweek and comes with a car.”
“The mayor’s job is a part-time position,” said Mr. Larsen. “Town supervisor is full time. I don’t see why you need a town administrator when you have a full-time supervisor.” As for the 30-hour workweek, he said, the village administrator is on constant call.
It was a splashy start to what will likely be an aggressive primary season.
