EAST HAMPTON: Would-Be Town Trustees Agree More Power Would Be Nice

If philosophy is what distinguishes electoral candidates and their parties, then the 10 nonincumbent candidates for East Hampton Town trustee interviewed last week - four Republicans and five Democrats - could easily form a party of their own, so similar were their views.

The Trustees of the Freeholders and Commonalty of East Hampton were described, by Republicans and Democrats alike, as the town's bedrock governing body; nevertheless, the candidates said, the trustees need to communicate better with the East Hampton Town Board and town agencies, as well as with the people of East Hampton.

Candidates from both parties said they would like to see the trustees expand their responsibilities.

"Trustees have to maintain their historic duties in areas they govern and own. Don't give them up to the town," said Lynn V. Mendelman, a Republican candidate. She holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology, manages three marinas on Three Mile Harbor, and has worked on water-related issues with the Peconic Estuary Program.

Ms. Mendelman said she would like to see the trustees work more closely with the Town Natural Resources Department on aquaculture projects, a view shared by a fellow Democratic candidate, Capt. Norman Edwards Jr.

Ms. Mendelman said that if elected she would press to have the nine-member board share its resources with the town's municipal agencies. She wanted to know why the town's Web site explaining its new comprehensive plan had no link to the trustees, saying, "They have expertise that they don't have in the other boards."

The trustees own and manage, on behalf of the public, most of the bottomland, beaches, and shoreline in East Hampton Town, as well as some roads and trails. Speaking of adding to the trustees' agenda, Ms. Mendelman drew the line at getting involved with controlling road runoff, even though runoff affects the quality of the waters the trustees protect - "unless it becomes a legal issue." Runoff is now the responsibility of the Town Highway Department.

However, Ms. Men-delman raised the possibility that the board might add, to the town's inventory of public lands, "critical natural resource areas and groundwater recharge areas" - if Community Preservation Funds could be directed their way.

Tim Kromer, a Republican who was appointed to the chair vacated when Jim McCaffrey died in January, stressed the need for a better working relationship with the town board and with the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

He faulted the town board for what he said was a reluctance to work with the trustees. He reserved special criticism for Councilwoman Pat Mansir, the board's former liaison to the trustees, for failing to alert his board when issues important to the trustees were on the town board's agenda.

"Thank God for Larry Penny," Mr. Kromer said, referring to the head of the Town Natural Resources Department. Mr. Kromer said Mr. Penny had made it his business to facilitate trustee projects by obtaining grants and required state permits. Because the trustees do not recognize state authority over East Hampton's public lands, they have done business with the state through the Natural Resources Department.

Mr. Kromer said the trustees' harbor management committee, formed last year to include representatives from other parts of town government, was another step in the right direction. "It gives the trustees more of an edge," he said.

Norman C. Edwards Jr. said that if Mr. Penny, a candidate for town board, was elected, "the trustees would have an ally." Captain Edwards is a commercial fisherman who retired from the Coast Guard six years ago. He stressed the importance of protecting the town's natural resources, particularly its fish and shellfish populations, and said he would work to expand programs such as the trustees' flounder farming to help maintain fish populations.

"The trustees are more knowledgeable about the environment, dealing with the beach and waters. They have a bank of knowledge. They can advise the town board," he said. "They have to keep their authority. . . . Their authority has decayed over time, but they still have a major role."

He said the trustees' dealings with the town board should be more proactive. On the question of public access, Captain Edwards said it should be "preserved where there is access, and improved where it is not."

Francis Bock, another Republican candidate, is the brother of Tim Bock, an incumbent trustee now running for town assessor. He said the town board was "slowly eroding the power of the trustees."

If elected, Mr. Bock said, he would work to create a program to inform young people about the trustees' work. Ms. Mendelman seconded the idea of a trustees' "educational outreach program, and scholarships." Mr. Bock also suggested that the presiding officer's (clerk's) job be made a full-time position because of the trustees' growing list of responsibilities.

All the Republican candidates said they favored creating a trustees' environmental resources permit instead of the town zoning board of appeals' special permit, which is required for building projects in sensitive areas.

The TERP, as the trustees-issued permit has been called, would be for projects on trustee lands. The town board would need to delegate to the trustees, instead of the Z.B.A., the authority to give final approval on projects on public land.

William F. Taylor, East Hampton's waterways management supervisor and a Democratic candidate for trustee, echoed the primary theme of his Republican counterparts. "I don't think the trustees are interacting with other agencies even though they have common problems."

Mr. Taylor said a potentially powerful alliance, combining the town board's regulatory powers with the trustees' proprietary authority, was being squandered through lack of cooperation.

He said the trustees could do more to reach out to the State Department of Environmental Conservation on issues of erosion and beach nourishment, and to the Army Corps of Engineers regarding its erosion control policy. Mr. Taylor said he would like to see the trustees have more say in upland matters. "As adjacent landowners, they have the right to comment," he said.

As for TERP, Mr. Taylor had reservations. "The trustees are in the best position [to review coastal projects], but it would make a lot of waves. No one gives up power willingly," he said referring to the town board and Z.B.A.

Jacques Franey, a Democrat whose mother, Betty Franey, served as a trustee in the 1970s, described the trustee-town board relationship as "like butting heads."

"I don't want to see a realignment of power," he said, "but the trustees should go to the town board with a trustee point of view. Both are competing to be the regulatory authority."

"The trustees should exercise their proprietary powers," that is, as "owners" of public lands, he said. Mr. Franey said he would push for the trustees to make an arrangement with the State Parks Department so that East Hampton residents would be permitted to drive along the state park beach on Napeague. He said he would also work toward creating a new public access to Georgica Pond.

On the issue of public access, another Democrat, Arthur French, a Wainscott resident and retired Nassau County policeman, seemed to differ slightly from his fellow Democratic candidates. He said he would like to see "greater use of the town's resources," while Mr. Taylor said, "we want to keep it open, but avoid intrusion by too many people." Mr. Franey agreed.

"You can't put the genie back in the bottle," John Gosman Jr. of Montauk said in agreeing that trustees had to walk a fine line by providing access, but not too much.

Mr. Gosman also decried the relationship between the trustees and the town board. "Politics get in the way," he said, adding that the trustees needed more, nonpartisan "gumption." Although the trustees lost their authority over public lands in Montauk back in the 1800s, this Democratic candidate said that having a Montauk voice on the board was important.

The dredging - or lack of it - in the Montauk Harbor inlet, and greater protection of beaches were issues Montauk shared with the rest of East Hampton, he said.

On the subject of erosion control, Mr. Gosman said, "I don't want to see hard structures, but it gets dodgy. It's your castle even if it's a shack, and you'll fight tooth and nail for it."

"I don't believe in hard structures, but each should be reviewed on its own merits. There's too many variables," Mr. Gosman said.

If elected, the Montauker said he would steer the board toward creating an educational program for high-school-age kids, "to teach them respect for the beaches."

Bill Taylor said the patrolling in Montauk of the trustees' marine sewage pumpout boat was an example of how the trustees' oversight might be applied in Montauk. Regarding Mr. Gosman's candidacy, Mr. Taylor observed that Montauk's taxpayers paid for the trustees' budget, and elected them to office.

Mr. French said he too would stress "cooperation and communication" with the town board if he were elected.

Mr. Taylor said trustees should be more vocal on issues outside of East Hampton, for instance, the Broadwater project to place a natural gas storage depot in Long Island Sound, the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut, and the future use of Plum Island.

Like their Republican counterparts, Democratic candidates agreed that staggering the election of trustees was a good idea, with three members standing for election every two years. Mr. Taylor said this was especially important should the board take on more regulatory powers. "Wealthy landowners could get together and put five trustees in," Mr. Taylor warned.

"Most important of all is an all-out education program that will take every East Hampton student, scout style, into land, water, and marshlands they've never seen before," said Robert Tulp, another Democratic candidate. Mr. Tulp also stressed better communication with the town board.

Joe Peel and Brian Byrnes, two other Democratic candidates, will also appear on the ballot come Election Day, as well as five incumbent trustees, Thomas E. Knobel, William J. Mott, Diane E. McNally, and William A. Vorpahl, Republicans, and Stephen M. Lester, a Democrat.

"I've spent time overseas recently and have seen what goes on in fish farming, and restocking, and I'd like to see more of that here," said Mr. Peel, a Montauk resident.

"Fishermen become farmers. There's a hatchery here, and the trustees are raising fluke also. I would like to see fishermen fatten fish in floating pens. Get some new thinking in the fishing industry. Other ways of making a living from fish."