In papers filed with Suffolk County Supreme Court on Jan. 2, East Hampton Village attorney Lisa Perillo said a petition filed by the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association claiming that the village had improperly transferred an ambulance service certificate away from the association, an independent nonprofit, and taken over its bank account, was a “slapdash effort” and a “frivolous filing” that shouldn’t be heard by the court.
Teresa Bertha filed the petition in November as the newly elected president of the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association.
What may ostensibly be a case about who has the responsibility to operate the ambulance and control a bank account that as of May 31 had a balance of $386,717, has exposed an identity crisis within the ranks of the ambulance association. The village accuses Ms. Bertha of falsely representing the organization, but at the same time, at a May 15 meeting (not recognized by the village) 27 members of the association cast a vote of no-confidence against Mary Mott, who the village says is the true chief of the association. In April, Ms. Mott also became chief of the newly created Department of Emergency Medical Service. She declined to comment.
“This proceeding is a nullity,” Ms. Perillo wrote in the 14-page affirmation of opposition. “It has purportedly been commenced in the name of the E.H.V.A.A., but in point of fact, the proceeding has improperly and invalidly been caused to be filed solely by a single individual, Teresa Bertha, who lacks authority to act on behalf of the association. Simply put, the association has not authorized the commencement of this proceeding and, in fact, rejects and disavows its central premise and the relief sought by the invalid and authorized petition, wrongfully brought in its name.”
“We couldn’t care less if the village recognizes the E.H.V.A.A.; we’re incorporated,” Joel Ziegler, the attorney representing the association, said by phone.
“Teresa Bertha, who verified the petition, is not the ‘newly elected president of the E.H.V.A.A.,’ as erroneously alleged by the unauthorized petition,” wrote Ms. Perillo. “Rather, Chief Mott was elected president on Nov. 29, 2022, and was re-elected as president on Nov. 28, 2023, and thus, she was, and she remains president of the association.”
“I am president of the association,” Ms. Bertha countered in a text. “I was never kicked out of the association; I was terminated from the department.”
“The village’s misunderstanding of who is president stems from the fact that the village mayor informed Brad Pinsky, a Syracuse, New York, attorney, who was retained by the village, that the Ambulance Service Certificate (A.S.C.) issued by the New York State Department of Health and which is required in order to operate an ambulance service in the state, was issued to the village and not to E.H.V.A.A., which he believed did not exist when the A.S.C. was first issued,” Mr. Ziegler wrote to the court on Jan. 4.
“The mayor was demonstrably wrong in the information he provided to the village’s outside counsel,” wrote Mr. Ziegler. “But the State Department of Health, without further proof offered by Mr. Pinsky, issued a new A.S.C. to the village.”
In a phone call, Mr. Ziegler alleged that Mr. Pinsky “has connections with the State Department of Health” and that the A.S.C. was simply signed over to the village by an employee, Joseph Farrell, after Mr. Pinsky emailed him on July 26, 2022. “They got a transfer of the certificate without having to pay the $10,000 fee that was paid by the E.H.V.A.A.” he said. “Then they simply took over the corporate checkbook from an independent corporation.”
Philip Cammann, who has been involved with E.M.S. for 43 years and serves as the public information officer for the Suffolk County Regional Emergency Medical Services Council, said there is a process for transferring ambulance certificates, and that they must go through REMSCO. He said the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Emergency Medical Services was investigating the way the certificate was transferred.
“There is nothing in our records that shows transfer to or from the village or the association,” he said by phone.
“We have a Zoom meeting scheduled for tomorrow with the Suffolk County E.M.S. to discuss this very topic,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said on Tuesday. The town contracts with East Hampton Village for ambulance services in the Northwest Fire Protection District.
The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association was founded in 1975, when Vince Grabowski, father of Ann, who was chief until November 2022, registered it with the state. The association applied for and held the A.S.C. which was renewed every two years, the last time in November 2021.
“The administration thinks they have the authority to proclaim that the E.H.V.A.A. is not fulfilling our mandate, yet they meet in our name and use our funds for the annual dinner, which none of the exempt members were invited to,” Ms. Bertha wrote in a text. “We are trying legally to fight the theft of our certificate and the use of our funds by an officer of the E.M.S. Department (Mary Mott). That is where we are now.”
“There is no shortage or holding up of the emergency 9-11 care in East Hampton,” said Mr. Cammann, who also serves as the REMSCO representative of the East End Ambulance Coalition. “Regardless of how long or how this plays out, the process will not interfere with the day-to-day operations of the ambulance. The community needs to feel comfortable with that.”
