Months after East Hampton Town announced it would take over responsibility for most 911 calls from East Hampton Village’s Emergency Communications Center, which had provided the service for decades, the transition is still unfolding.
Last Thursday, the town board approved new dispatch contracts for Sag Harbor Village and the Springs Fire Department. They’ll both begin receiving their fire and ambulance dispatch services from the East Hampton Town Police Department starting Feb. 1, 2026.
Sag Harbor will pay the town police $134,047 for the service, roughly half of what East Hampton Village had proposed. For the Springs Fire Department, the service will be free since its residents already pay town taxes that support police operations. Both contracts last until Dec. 31, 2030.
According to a press release put out by Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, Sag Harbor’s rates will rise “modestly through 2030.”
Sag Harbor had been set to stay with East Hampton Village, which dispatched calls for its sister village for decades. But Mayor Tom Gardella said the village was unwilling to commit by a May 1 deadline because of what he described as steep rate increases.
“We had a longstanding relationship with the village,” Mayor Gardella said. “I was more than willing to work things out, but the way they negotiated at first, I’ve never been approached like that. In the end they came back with a contract that I would have expected, but by then it was too late.”
Marcos Baladron, the East Hampton Village administrator, said he believed Sag Harbor was paying “about $250,000” before negotiations began.
Mayor Gardella and his board decided to explore their options. That included using Suffolk County or taking a bet on the new service being offered by the town. In the meantime, the East Hampton Village deadline of May 1 had long passed.
By the end of June, he said the decision was effectively made for him after he received a letter from East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, which said that since Sag Harbor had missed the deadline, East Hampton Village could no longer offer dispatch services to Sag Harbor when their contract ended on Jan. 31, 2026.
Negotiations at the town level were no easier according to a press release put out by the supervisor’s office.
The village offered the town a new five-year contract that would have cost over $1 million annually for a service the village had previously provided at no cost, at least for town residents, for decades.
“We said no to proposals that didn’t make sense for our taxpayers,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez wrote in her press release. “Public safety has always been handled as a shared responsibility in East Hampton — not a revenue stream. We intend to keep it that way.”
In a phone call, Mayor Larsen shot back, “I don’t think this rises to the level of a press release, but I guess any good news coming out of Town Hall is a change of pace. The village has been signing contracts and providing these services with these agencies for over 30 years with no fanfare.”
He argued that village residents had simply been subsidizing the town. Meanwhile, he said, village taxpayers have seen an outsize increase in their taxes, compared to town residents who live outside the village.
“Over the past two years, village residents have seen a 23-percent tax increase from Town Hall. In the town, rates have increased just 9.3 percent. Enough is enough. I’m not going to allow the supervisor to use village residents as a piggy bank.”
“Friday’s press release is the second unprovoked attack at the village by the town,” Mr. Baladron said in an email. “Here’s the truth: Negotiations were moving forward smoothly, and our relationship with the supervisor was fine, until their chief building inspector announced he wanted to work at the village. The town then shifted course and targeted the village’s dispatch service contracts by purposefully underbidding us, knowing their dispatch facility and staff are not equipped yet to handle these types of calls.”
Since April, the town has been rushing to build its dispatch capabilities.
While the Town Police Department has handled its own police calls, it has never dispatched fire and ambulance from its headquarters. The shift requires additional staff, new software, more training, and upgraded facilities.
In April, the town board hired five new dispatchers for $58,129 annually each, not including benefits. In early July, it authorized a $1.5 million bond issue for improvements to its dispatch room.
“We look forward to expanding the dispatch and call-taking services we provide,” East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said in the town press release, “and continuing to partner with our local fire and E.M.S. providers to ensure professional, reliable, and efficient 911 dispatching for the citizens of East Hampton.”
In a separate email, he said that bids for the construction are expected to be returned this week, meaning construction could begin in October.
“We want to reiterate, there is not going to be any interruption in service or other issues with the rollover of 911 call answering, as the entire radio room will be set up in our training room while construction is underway,” he wrote.
According to the town press release, the transition is expected to save more than $2.5 million over the next decade, while maintaining uninterrupted service and improving coordination among first responders.
Mayor Larsen was skeptical.
“They’ve already spent $500,000 on personnel and now $1.5 million in upgrades. They’re being disingenuous on what they’re throwing out there. The whole idea is that the town is taking on a monster job that they’ve never dealt with before in their existence. Village taxpayers were taking that burden on at no cost.”
“For the town to target and attempt to dismantle our longstanding contracts simply because of a personnel matter is a retaliatory act and playing games with public safety,” Mr. Baladron said. “It sets a dangerous precedent locally, where personal grievances drive policy decisions instead of the community’s best interests. But they broke it, so they own it now.”