Pataki Vetoes - State Bill To Exempt Libraries, Tumult on board over its president's role

Gov. George E. Pataki on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have allowed the East Hampton Library to expand without a special permit and eliminated the village zoning board of appeals from the review process.

"My faith in government has been restored," East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said yesterday.

The bill, sponsored by State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle and passed by both houses of the State Legislature on June 21, drew heated criticism from the East Hampton Village Board, the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials, and the Suffolk County Village Officials Association, who charged that it would undermine home rule and trample on the village's zoning powers.

Supporters of the measure, including Mr. LaValle, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., and Tom Twomey, the president of the library's board of managers, said it would instead level the playing field for "free association" libraries like the East Hampton Library by allowing them just one of the zoning exemptions enjoyed by public school district libraries.

The bill was aimed only at free association libraries in Suffolk County that are in historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and only at those that have amended their charters in the last five years to add two or more school districts to their service area. The East Hampton Library and the Port Jefferson Free Library are the only two libraries that fit that description.

Because the bill was so specific, the mayor and others suggested that Mr. LaValle had drafted it as a favor to Mr. Twomey. Mr. LaValle is of counsel to Mr. Twomey's law firm, Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin, Reale, and Quartararo.

One of the firm's partners, Ed Reale, has been working pro bono on the library's expansion application. At a special board of managers meeting yesterday that was called by three library board members, Henrika Conner, Patricia Mercer, and Lawrence Randolph, board members were clearly frustrated with the turmoil caused by the proposed legislation.

Mr. Randolph called for a motion to remove Mr. Reale and the firm as legal counsel to the board. The motion was defeated 14-to-7.

Another board member, Suzanne Dayton, called for Mr. Twomey to step down as president and resign from the board. When that motion was defeated by the same margin, Ms. Dayton, Mr. Randolph, Ms. Conner, Ms. Mercer, and Eleanor Ratsep all resigned from the board of managers and walked out of the meeting.

The state bill had started as one that would have affected all free association libraries in the state, but was amended at the Assembly's urging.

Had it become law, the East Hampton and Port Jefferson Libraries would have been able to expand by 8,000 square feet or less without a special use or similar permit, as long as the expansion complied with other zoning requirements and had been approved by the village's design review board.

"That kind of clarification with regards to how zoning is applied to libraries is something I would like to see statewide," Mr. Thiele said last week.

Removing the zoning board from the review process might have made things much easier for the library, whose plans for a 10,000-square-foot children's wing received conceptual approval from the design review board in 2003, but faced considerable opposition from the zoning board.

The zoning board asked the library to scale back its proposal, and the library whittled away at the plans, bringing the children's wing down to 6,800 square feet of usable space, with 3,545 square feet on the ground floor. That was still not enough for the board, which suggested 900 square feet might be more appropriate for a project at the busy Buell Lane-Route 27 intersection.

The board asked the library to prepare an environmental impact statement last September. According to Mr. Twomey, that study should be complete in the next few weeks.

With the bill awaiting the governor's signature, the mayor, the state council of mayors, and the county village officials association, along with a number of residents, called and wrote Mr. Pataki to express their opposition.

When Mr. Pataki visited Montauk on Saturday for a press conference on the state-county-town acquisition of Amsterdam Beach, Mr. Rickenbach said, he "spent a few moments" explaining to the governor that "it was bad legislation for all the right reasons."

The governor had until Tuesday to sign or veto the bill. His office did not return phone calls by press time.

"I'm just glad he put good planning above bad politics," said Jeffrey Bragman, a lawyer who represents over 100 people who are opposed to the library's expansion. "I'm grateful to the village for standing strong on local control and strict on environmental review. Nobody should be exempt."