The East Hampton Group for Good Government, a nonpartisan organization that promotes awareness of local issues through public discussions of ideas, will host a first debate between candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor and town board on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the East Hampton Library.
Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, and Councilman David Lys will debate David Gruber, candidate for supervisor, and Elizabeth Bambrick and Bonnie Brady, candidates for town board. All candidates will be on the debate stage throughout the event.
Each candidate will make an opening statement and will answer a series of questions posed by members of the Group for Good Government or suggested by members of the audience. The candidate asked to answer first will rotate so that all candidates are afforded an opportunity to be the first and last to answer some questions. Responses to questions will be limited to one minute. Candidates will each make a closing statement, also limited to one minute.
The Group for Good Government shared three questions with the candidates in advance of the debate. They pertain to offshore wind energy, noise related to operations at East Hampton Airport, and a property tax reassessment.
The incumbent candidates are all Democrats. Their challengers are among the candidates who have banded together under the EH Fusion Party banner, a coalition of Democratic, Republican, Independence, and unaffiliated candidates, though they will not appear on that party’s line on the ballot.
Mr. Van Scoyoc, elected in 2017 after twice being elected to the town board and serving on the town’s zoning board of appeals, is seeking re-election on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines. Mr. Gruber, the Independence and Libertarian Party candidate, is a leader of the EH Fusion Party and the East Hampton Reform Democrats, which he describes as a caucus within the Democratic Party.
Ms. Overby was elected in 2011 and re-elected in 2015. She is seeking a third term. Mr. Lys was appointed to the board in January 2018 to complete the unexpired term of Mr. Van Scoyoc upon his election to supervisor. He then won a special election last November, and is now seeking re-election for a full four-year term. Both are running on the Democratic and Working Families Party tickets.
Ms. Bambrick, who is known as Betsy, was head of the town’s ordinance enforcement from 2010 through 2017. Ms. Brady is executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. Both will appear on the Independence, Libertarian, and Conservative Party ballots.
Election Day is Nov. 5.