With “great hope and expectations” at a time when East Hampton Town faces “many challenges,” Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez was sworn in at the town board’s organizational meeting on Tuesday and began to implement changes at Town Hall and to set priorities for the coming year.
“Over these last few years, we have been tested as a community,” Ms. BurkeGonzalez said, citing the Covid-19 pandemic that added to a year-round population that the 2020 census revealed had already grown by around one-third over the previous decade. That influx exacerbated an already “incredibly tight housing market, which just continues to tighten with housing getting even more expensive relative to income.” The labor pool has shrunk, she said, impacting businesses and the town, and traffic congestion “is the worst we have ever experienced, with our quiet neighborhoods turned into cut-throughs.” Despite the pandemic’s worst impacts seemingly in the past, “we face challenges that seem daunting and overwhelming,” she said.
A larger crisis looms in climate change — 2023 was the warmest year since record-keeping began and scientists asserted that it may have been the warmest in 125,000 years. Early in 2024, the town will adopt the 100-percent renewable energy road map, prepared with the help of a consulting and engineering firm, into the comprehensive plan, Ms. BurkeGonzalez said, and will continue to pursue energy benchmarking for municipal buildings, to increase and improve the fleet electrification plan, and to pursue a community choice aggregation program, which allows a local government to procure electricity and/or natural gas on behalf of its residents, businesses, and municipal accounts from a provider other than the incumbent utility.
“We will address climate change and sea level rise head-on by implementing a number of well-studied plans designed to build resiliency,” Supervisor Burke-Gonzalez said, including coordinating with the federal Army Corps of Engineers on the Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation project, which will see 450,000 cubic yards of sand dredged and pumped from an offshore site on Napeague and deposited on downtown Montauk’s ocean beach during this winter or early spring. The town will also use the $600,000 grant recently awarded by the New York State Regional Economic Development Councils to plan for the sustainable future of Montauk’s downtown, she said. The grant is to support an effort to develop community consensus around proactive measures to reduce coastal vulnerability and revitalize the area to protect the tourism industry and the town’s economy, and to support a resilient year-round community.
The town board has raised employee compensation in an effort to attract and retain staff, and on Tuesday Ms. Burke-Gonzalez pledged to support training and professional development, including compassionate leadership training to begin this year and fousing on collaborative relationships within and across departments.
Tuesday’s organizational meeting was attended by town department heads as well as Jim Bennett of the Civil Services Employees Association union; Stephen Blanchard, head of the town’s public safety dispatchers; Police Officer Joseph Izzo, president of the town’s Police Benevolent Association; Lt. Daniel Toia, president of the town’s Police Superior Officers Association, and Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo. “Our administration looks forward to becoming your trusted and reliable ally,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, “and please know that we are incredibly grateful for your support and commitment to each other and to our residents.”
The new administration, the supervisor said, is committed to “preserving our community, investing in our future, and modernizing how we conduct business.” It will expand the All Hands on Housing initiative announced in 2022 to create more affordable housing, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said. Sixty-six affordable housing units are to come online this year, including Cantwell Court, 16 detached houses on Pantigo Road in East Hampton that represent the second ownership opportunity offered by the town, and 40 rental units under construction on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton. Another 50-unit development on Route 114 in Wainscott is in the planning stages. The Community Housing Advisory Board will issue applications for grants and/or loans to fund property owners up to $125,000 for construction of residential accessory dwelling units, she said. The town will also update its zoning code “to address the incompatible overdevelopment, protect our natural resources, and retain our sense of place.”
In addition to addressing the climate crisis, the town will invest in the future by protecting water quality and preserving open space, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, using community preservation
fund money to acquire properties for shoreline protection, open space, recreation, historic preservation, and farmland, and address threats to ground and surface water. The town will continue to upgrade municipal facilities with low-nitrogen septic systems and install a stormwater abatement structure and native plantings at the Montauk Highway rest stop in Wainscott in conjunction with the State Department of Transportation, East Hampton Village, and the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation. The town will also retain a contractor to install the South Lake Park revitalization and stormwater management project in Montauk, she said.
The town will modernize operations to increase efficiency and improve residents’ experience when interacting with government,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez pledged. “We need to improve communication and the flow of information between Town Hall, the public, and the local business community.” This will include the appointment of Rebecca Hansen, the town’s budget officer, as town administrator, covered separately in this issue. Also appointed to a newly created position was Nina Rayburn Dec, who will be the town’s public information officer. “Most importantly,” the supervisor said, “in 2024 we will strive to listen more, as public participation is critical.”
Also sworn in on Tuesday were firsttime Councilman Tom Flight and incumbent Councilman David Lys. Ms. Burke-Gonzalez’s move from councilwoman to supervisor leaves a vacancy on the board and she told The Star after the meeting that she hoped to appoint a council member this month.
She and her colleagues on the board “have always been drawn to the human and compassionate side of public service as we see firsthand the difference we can make in people’s lives,” the new supervisor concluded, “which is why we are determined to do everything in our power to ensure that East Hampton remains a beautiful, healthy, and extraordinary place to live, work, and raise our families for generations to come.”
