Companion bills in the New York State Legislature that would stagger the terms of office for the nine-member East Hampton Town Trustees and increase the trustees' terms from two to four years passed in the State Senate and Assembly last week.
Should Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo sign it into law, the legislation would also provide that, starting with the 2023 election, the five candidates receiving the most votes would hold a four-year term, and the remaining four winning candidates would hold office for two years. Thereafter, elections would continue on a biennial basis, but with fewer candidates up for re-election and all elected trustees serving a four-year term.
The governor has until the end of 2021 to sign the bill into law.
During the current board's term, several trustees have complained about the instability and lack of continuity resulting from two-year terms, and the cumbersome nature of an election campaign that routinely includes 18 candidates vying for the nine seats. They debated changing the term length to four or even six years before settling on the plan for staggered four-year terms.
Francis Bock, the trustees' clerk, had said upon his re-election in 2019 that introducing staggered terms would be a priority.
Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. co-sponsored the bill in the Assembly, and Senator Anthony Palumbo was its sponsor in the Senate. "It has now passed in both houses and will be forwarded to the governor for his consideration," Mr. Palumbo wrote to Susan McGraw Keber, who served on a committee to see the proposal through the legislative process with her colleagues Jim Grimes and Bill Taylor.
Ms. McGraw Keber told her colleagues during the trustees' virtual meeting on Monday that Mr. Thiele had encouraged them to write to the governor to convey the legislation's importance.
In a special meeting last month, the town board unanimously passed a resolution in support of the home rule request.
