When the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jon Bon Jovi walked up to a microphone at a benefit concert at an East Hampton sports complex on Friday, he might not have imagined that he was also stepping into a potential ethics controversy.
Bon Jovi was the headliner for an event honoring pandemic frontline workers and raising money for East Hampton Meals on Wheels and Project MOST, an after-school program for kids, at the Clubhouse, near the East Hampton Airport. Tickets were not sold for the unadvertised dinner and show, to which the East Hampton Town Board and their spouses or dates were invited. The Clubhouse said it would make a $50,000 donation shared by the two organizations.
John Bongiovi Jr. was the force behind the JBJ Soul Kitchen Food Bank, which opened at the Clubhouse in early 2020 to provide a centralized location for delivery and distribution of food to local pantries. Admission to the Friday event was by invitation and with a suggested donation.
East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc's office put out a press release on Monday describing a proclamation he presented during the event to Scott and Holly Rubenstein, owners of the Clubhouse, and the JBJ Soul Foundation "for their crucial community contributions" during the pandemic. Mr. Van Scoyoc is seeking re-election this fall, but first he has to get past a primary challenge by Town Councilman Jeff Bragman. Mr. Bragman attended the Clubhouse benefit but left after a short time, concerned about the appearance of impropriety, he said. Mr. Bragman raised the issue of ethics in a letter to the editor in this week's Star as well as at Town Hall last week, he said.
Mr. Van Scoyoc said that the town ethics board had issued a letter last Thursday that said that his and the other town board members' attendance at the event would be permitted. The ethics board cautioned however, that public officials should not take a guest, as that could be a violation. "[A]cceptance of that offer would appear to serve no official purpose," read the letter, signed by the ethics board chairman, Hugh R. King.
Also among the guests were Town Councilman David Lys and his wife, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and her husband, and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, who took a friend. Mr. Bragman has said publicly since then that the town's ethics law bars officials from accepting gifts or services above $75 in value where it suggests that the gift was intended to gain influence or as a reward for any official action.
A letter to the town board described a four-course dinner with wine pairings and "top shelf open bar" from 6:30 p.m. Friday until Mr. Bon Jovi and his band began their performance at 9. The letter indicated that 20 frontline workers and the town board were invited as a way of saying thank you for their work during the Covid-19 pandemic, noting that "without your leadership, the JBJ Food Pantry as well as our community health and safety would not have been possible."
According to a post on the Clubhouse's Facebook page, Mr. Bon Jovi and his band played for an hour and a half.
In an interview, Mr. Van Scoyoc adamantly defended his attendance. "I understand that concerns might be raised, but this is a very small town and it would be impossible to attend any event in town," he said.
Mr. Bragman, he said, had several glasses of wine and then left early. As a result, he left Mr. Bragman's name off the subsequent press release about the town board proclamation.
Contentious Beginning
Mr. Rubenstein was one of five partners who decided in 2013 to seek the town's permission for a bowling alley at the East Hampton Indoor Tennis facility on Daniel's Hole Road. Among its nearest neighbors were the town airport and the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons pet adoption center. However other neighbors along South Breeze Drive, about a mile and a half north of East Hampton Indoor Tennis, were worried, mostly about increased traffic, and asked the Suffolk County Planning Commission to intercede. The town planning board rejected the commission's request for a study of what the new facility might mean in terms of additional vehicles on residential streets.
Mr. Bragman was the attorney representing five homeowners who sued the town planning board over approving the project. A state supreme court justice rejected the lawsuit in 2017, saying that the homeowners lived too far from East Hampton Indoor Tennis to conclusively determine that the new sports complex and restaurant would affect them. Separately, Mr. Bragman observed that the property was within a groundwater protection area, and that should have been taken into consideration by the town planning board.
At the time, Mr. Rubenstein downplayed its impact, saying that the restaurant and bar seating would be limited to 95 patrons indoors and 84 outside. The East Hampton Town Fire Marshals Office said this week that the Clubhouse's indoor capacity was 848 people.
The Clubhouse opened in 2018 with a 200-seat sports bar restaurant, 10 lanes for bowling, an arcade, a miniature golf course, outdoor bar and food service, and new bocce courts. It was an immediate hit.
The Clubhouse will host the East Hampton Democratic Committee's Campaign 2021 Kickoff Party next Thursday with a $25 door charge. Two days after that, the town Republican Committee is due there for an official fund-raiser, according to Manny Vilar, the committee's chairman.
Sal (the Voice) Valentinetti, who reached the finals of the television talent show, "America's Got Talent," will perform there on Saturday. An individual ticket for that concert, which includes dinner and drinks, is $150, or double the amount mentioned in the town ethics law.
According to the Clubhouse, a summer concert series is to be announced soon.
