In April, the East Hampton Town Board heralded the arrival of Martin Culloton as the new director of code enforcement. On Tuesday, it fired him.
A resolution at the town board's work session Tuesday, read by Councilwoman Cate Rogers, listed his last day of employment as Wednesday, Sept. 17.
Word began to circulate late last week that Mr. Culloton had been involved in a minor altercation with another employee about the use of "flex-time" in his department.
Phone calls by The Star last Thursday and Friday asking for Mr. Culloton went unreturned.
According to two sources who were in the room, Mr. Culloton grabbed the collar of an employee to move him out of his way; the incident was reported to the Human Resources Department. The employee whose collar was grabbed was not involved in the flex-time argument, the sources said.
A freedom of information request made to the Human Resources Department regarding "disciplinary actions" taken by the town against Mr. Culloton had not been answered by press time.
According to the town's press release from April, before joining East Hampton, Mr. Culloton served as a town investigator in the Code Enforcement Department for the Town of Southampton.
The town has had its share of staffing challenges, specifically losing a number of department heads since the summer of 2024, starting with the departure of Jeremy Samuelson, the town planning director, last August. By the winter of 2025, Eric Schantz, the head of Housing and Community Development, Joseph Palermo, the chief building inspector, Robert Connelly, the town attorney, and Kevin Cooper, the director of Code Enforcement before Mr. Culloton, had all departed.
It was only last week that Mr. Schantz and Mr. Palermo were replaced, highlighting the difficulty of hiring. In fact, on Tuesday, Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, speaking about the potential of a Long Island Rail Road strike, said two dozen town employees use the train to commute to work.
Another employee in the Code Enforcement Department, Aaron Arkinson, submitted a letter of resignation to the town board this week. He has been hired by East Hampton Village and will be a code enforcement officer in its Building Department, a move that will be announced at the village board's Sept. 26 meeting.
