The entity behind the recent series of blistering print and social media advertisements targeting members of the East Hampton Town Board relative to the proposed privatization of the town airport, has been identified as a recently formed not-for-profit organization calling itself Political Transparency, Inc., but in charging the board with a lack of transparency, the group has raised numerous unanswered questions about its own transparency.
None of its members are identified in the ads or in the organization’s incorporation papers.
Political Transparency has pulled no punches in decrying the town board’s attempts last year to transform the airport, built as a landing strip in 1937 and owned by the town ever since, from a public facility to a private one, still owned by the town but with new restrictions in place.
“The East Hampton Town Board lied,” says the group’s website, stopthetownboard.com. “Their privatization scheme to close the airport might violate the law and keep the airport from ever opening again, costing us jobs and leaving us stranded in emergencies.”
“We want answers,” it continues, without identifying who “we” might be.
“Who is the town board really working for?” it asks. “Not the residents of East Hampton.” Whether any actual East Hampton residents are behind the ads is not known.
“It’s a shadowy organization,” said Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, whose sullen-faced photograph is prominently featured in one of the attack ads.
“I think the motives are obviously not completely transparent,” he said, adding, however, that it was “safe to say” that the organization wants to “influence local politics,” and that it is “clearly an outside organization, an outside entity.” Its backers are trying to “manipulate town government,” said the supervisor, and “subvert the will of the town.”
Mr. Van Scoyoc is up for re-election this year. Councilman David Lys, who has also come under fire in the full-page advertisements, said in an interview that as much as he wasn’t prepared for the onslaught, he would continue to work on behalf of the town. He too is up for re-election this year; both he and Mr. Van Scoyoc are registered Democrats.
So who is behind these ads and the website?
For starters, it’s not the organization East Hampton Community Alliance, which has opposed the town board’s proposed shift from a public airport to a town-owned private one.
“Personal attack ads hiding behind newly created entities are not only classless but also counterproductive,” said that organization in a statement to The Star this week, adding that the community alliance “remains committed to creating awareness about the economic and life-saving importance of the East Hampton Airport. E.H.C.A. firmly believes that the best way to ensure a bright future for the airport is through respectful and meaningful dialogue with the Town of East Hampton and its residents.”
Political Transparency, Inc. has put a New York City law firm between itself and questions about its membership.
According to the New York State Department of State, Political Transparency, Inc. was incorporated in July 2022 as a domestic not-for-profit corporation. Its registered address is 1211 Avenue of the Americas, 40th floor, New York City. That is the address of the law firm Stein & Harris, identified in online incorporation documents as the New York Department of State’s “process agent” for Political Transparency, Inc.
A “process agent,” according to online resources, essentially acts as a middleman between a corporation and the jurisdiction where the entity is incorporated, in this case New York State. A process agent can receive and deliver court documents for its client, and might be appointed in a situation where a client has business in an out-of-state jurisdiction.
The incorporation document on file with the New York Department of State makes no mention of any corporate officers or directors of Political Transparency, Inc., beyond the law firm itself.
The July filing identifies the law firm as the “process agent” and its Midtown Manhattan address as “the Post Office address to which the Secretary of State shall mail a copy of any process against the corporation served upon the Secretary of State by personal delivery.”
A space where the group’s chief executive officer’s name and address would normally be included is blank on the online document, as is the space for “entity primary location name and address.”
The document does confirm, with a check in the “No” box, that the not-for-profit is not a “farm corporation.”
State law specifies that the not-for-profit category under which Political Transparency was created — Section 402 — should include both the name of the corporation and “the names and addresses of the initial directors.” The incorporation document identifies Stein & Harris as the organization’s “Directors/Officers.”
Does that mean that Stein & Harris is responsible for the anti-town board campaign launched late last year?
No one at the firm would confirm that Political Transparency, Inc. is even a client, let alone address a question about whether the firm itself is responsible for the attack ads.
“I can neither confirm nor deny representing any particular client,” said the attorney Lance Harris by email this week, in response to questions sent by The Star, “including identifying any one member or supporter by name.”
