Stanzione Under Fire
An e-mail sent by Carole Campolo, secretary of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, to committee members and circulated outside of the group, expresses frustration with Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione, who was elected on the Republican ticket in 2010.
At town board meetings, Ms. Campolo said, Republican Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and his other running mate, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, “are pretty much alone,” and “are the only two standing up for the principles that we as Republicans believe in.”
Mr. Stanzione, she said, is “turning his back” on the other members of the Republican majority, as well as on the party. “I am also sad to say, as someone that worked very hard to get Councilman Stanzione elected as part of the Wilkinson team,” she wrote, “that he will likely throw his lot in with the Democrats.”
While the majority members had often voted as a bloc, Mr. Stanzione has this year staked out independent territory, differing with the opinions of Mr. Wilkinson and Ms. Quigley on both minor issues and key items, such as the future of the town’s scavenger waste treatment plant.
The supervisor and Ms. Quigley both wanted to accept an offer to purchase the plant from a company that submitted the sole response to a request for proposals to privatize the facility, but Mr. Stanzione, along with the two Democratic board members, disagreed. With a 3-2 split, a vote to make a deal with the company could not succeed.
Mr. Stanzione is working with Councilwoman Sylvia Overby to organize a community forum on the waste plant decision, which could have long-reaching consequences, raising environmental, economic, traffic, and other concerns.
Along with Ms. Overby and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, he has endorsed the idea of developing an overall waste management plan for the town.
Councilman Stanzione declined this week to comment on Ms. Campolo’s assertions.
In her e-mail, Ms. Campolo charged that, as far as the scavenger waste plant, the two Democratic board members “have absolutely no interest in doing what is right for the taxpayers.”
“What they and others want is for their special interest environmental zealots and unions to be amply rewarded by a public boondoggle this is surely to become if the site is not handled by professionals,” she wrote.
She called on those who could attend the next day’s board meeting to do so, “to support our supervisor and councilwoman.”
The e-mail, which was sent to the Republican Committee members at midday on Feb. 13, a day before a town board work session, also sets forth the agenda items for the next day’s meeting. “As per the resolution voted on at our committee meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 8, please find listed below the agenda for Tuesday’s town board work session. . . .” it says. Democrats have pointed to that statement as an indication that the Republican Committee is involved in setting agendas for town board meetings. Agendas are prepared and distributed by Mr. Wilkinson.
At several recent board meetings, both Ms. Overby and Mr. Van Scoyoc have raised the issue of a lack of advance notice about items to be discussed at a particular meeting.