Candidates Argue About Airport, Disagree on Affordable Housing

East Hampton Republicans argued on Sunday during a forum in Montauk that the current Democrat-dominated town board had been run with insufficient openness.

In an event hosted by Concerned Citizens of Montauk at the hamlet's firehouse, Tom Knobel, the Republican Committee chairman and its candidate for supervisor, said several times that the town board had worked too often on new laws behind closed doors and held too many executive sessions. He also faulted the town board for taking too long to complete work in several areas.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, who is seeking re-election, said the board had been responsive to public concerns and that many of the challenges facing the town were complex and would take time to solve. He said that community preservation fund land purchases and matters involving the town's workforce of about 300 often made closed-door sessions necessary.

The afternoon's sharpest exchange concerned the East Hampton Town Airport. "Airport noise is affecting many people. We have made a concerted effort to rein that in," Mr. Cantwell said. "Helicopter companies are contributing 75 percent of the funds to our Republican opponents, who want to challenge what we are doing," he said.

Mr. Knobel said the helicopter operators believe the town has been operating in bad faith. He said that while the town's legal expenses in defending a lawsuit brought by a coalition of commercial users and aviation industry groups were paid for from airport revenue, using that money for litigation was diverting it from necessary maintenance.

Responding to a question from the audience about more helicopter flights going to Montauk as a result of the town's noise-control measures, Mr. Cantwell said that the town would commission an analysis. Mr. Knobel said that it was "very important" that East Hampton talk to the helicopter interests to seek voluntary measures to reduce the impact of flights on residents below.

"For the most part, you are dealing with commercial companies. It's not like they didn't see this coming," Mr. Cantwell said. "We did not force this fight; they chose not to make this better."

Mr. Knobel criticized the board for what he saw as delays on "signature issues" -- beach erosion, rental registration, and work-truck parking in residential areas. "We have to perform faster and better," he said. "It amounts to a lack of transparency to keep hearings hanging," he said.

"To the contrary, I think the town has been very efficient and very effective," Mr. Cantwell said. "You want the public's input. The rental registry is a whole new system that affects the entire Town of East Hampton; to move slowly, to accommodate public comment, I think that is a good thing," he said.

"When I took office in 2014, we were replacing a town board that had become dysfunctional with political bickering and fighting. The public was being treated with disrespect. We changed that, for the positive," Mr. Cantwell countered. "If we don't work together as a town board, as a community, we won't be able to take the tough issues on," he said.

Following the general exchange, there were questions from the audience. Martin Drew, a Springs resident who has launched a write-in campaign for supervisor, asked Mr. Knobel about the town's discontinued leaf-pickup program. "I don't support it. It's a public benefit for private parties," Mr. Knobel said. 

In response to another audience question, Mr. Knobel offered qualified support for a recommendation from a town consultant for a downtown Montauk sewage treatment project. Mr. Cantwell said that a proposed sewage district would require a great deal of public support and that it would be very expensive for those taking part. "I would not support it if it were seen as a tool to increase development," he said.

Following the supervisors' exchange, the forum was turned over to four candidates for town board: Sylvia Overby, Margaret Turner, Lisa Mulhern-Larsen, and Peter Van Scoyoc. Ms. Overby, who is completing her first four-year term as a town councilwoman, cited her "proven record of accomplishments."

Ms. Turner described a "crushing need for affordable housing, but the board has badly neglected this responsibility."

"There are a lot of issues. In the last two years we have made a great deal of headway to dealing with them," Mr. Van Scoyoc said.

Ms. Mulhern-Larsen said she was concerned about summertime chaos in Montauk, and that she worries about her college-age children. "I felt it was an unsafe environment," she said. "The problems are not fixed. Taxis rules are not being enforced; are there convicted felons driving taxis? Convicted sex offenders? You don't know."

Taking an audience question, Ms. Turner said the town's affordable housing program needed to be changed. "We need to sit down with applicants, learn what worked and what didn't work," she said. She criticized an overlay zoning change that she said removed the possibility of additional housing at a specific site in East Hampton.

A short time later when she returned to the microphone, Ms. Overby said the story about additional housing was not quite how her opponents described it and criticized the East Hampton Business Alliance, from which Ms. Turner stepped down to run for town board, for not helping promote second-floor apartments over commercial spaces, for example. Regarding the overlay zoning issue, Ms. Overby responded, "The Republicans didn't say boo when that was taken off." 

Returning toward the end of the forum to issues surrounding the East Hampton Airport, Mr. Knobel said he would seek a dialogue: "Airport interests are not monolithic. They say that they have been rebuffed. There is enormous distrust between both parties; I have an open mind."

Taking a last shot, Mr. Cantwell said, "Tom has an open mind about the airport, with $115,000 of campaign donations."