As the summer season draws closer every day, East Hampton Town’s new director of the Ordinance Enforcement Department is urging residents to remember the words “assurance” and “patience” when registering complaints about code violations, be they noise violations, overclearing of vegetation, garbage, or overcrowded rental houses.
Martin Culloton, previously an investigator in Southampton Town’s Code Enforcement Department, has been making the rounds of hamlets’ citizens advisory committees, addressing those of Wainscott on Saturday and Montauk earlier this week. He will speak to the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday.
There are eight ordinance enforcement officers, Mr. Culloton told Montauk’s advisory committee, and “starting Memorial Day weekend, we’ll have officers on staff during the weekends until midnight. Actually, they have authorization to work overtime” if complaints are called in beyond that time. “So we will be staffed, and we are seven days a week.”
Complaints about violations can now be reported online by clicking the “code enforcement” link on the homepage of the town’s website, ehamptonny.gov. “And if you’re not comfortable with that, we have people on staff 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. to answer the phone,” Mr. Culloton said. “And if you don’t get someone, the phone actually will send us an email.”
Councilman David Lys, the town board’s liaison to the Montauk committee, added that the police nonemergency number, 631-537-7575, can be called for late-night complaints.
“Every complaint and every concern you have, I want to assure you that we are going to take it seriously,” Mr. Culloton told the Montauk committee. “Every concern, every code violation that you bring to our attention, we’re going to investigate, we’re going to look into, we’re going to give it a very thorough investigation. . . . There’s no serious and nonserious complaint.”
But that goes hand in hand with the patience he asks. As an example, he recalled an investigation of debris on the side of a Southampton house that “turned into 116 charges,” he told the Wainscott committee. Property owners must be respected, he said, and may be unaware that they are committing a code violation. “It’s understandable how someone can misinterpret code. Our job is to understand. We don’t come in with guns blazing, ‘You’re going to court, you did something wrong!’ “
Some investigations “do take time,” he said in Montauk. “It is a slow process.” A violator’s willingness to cooperate with the town will also determine the time frame for a resolution. “Unfortunately, sometimes people don’t listen to our warnings . . . and we do have to bring them to court. That’s where it takes a little more time. That’s where the process goes a little longer, and that’s where I ask for the patience.”
Mr. Culloton fielded questions about matters including overclearing, leaf blowers, lighting, short-term rentals, and unsafe conditions. The town code prohibits use of gas or diesel-powered leaf blowers from May 20 to Sept. 20 and restricts their use, based on time of day and day of the week, during the rest of the year.
With respect to overclearing, residents were advised to call the Ordinance Enforcement Department or file a complaint online, and to be patient. The department works in partnership with the Natural Resources Department, which will assess the property.
A construction site in Wainscott was illuminated well past midnight, Mr. Culloton was told, and even post-construction the property is often illuminated throughout the night by motion-activated lighting. “It was literally filling my entire house, my neighbor’s entire house,” he was told.
One officer is a light specialist, he replied, “so please let us know where those locations are. He will go investigate those lighting complaints, because we do want to take those seriously, because that is a nuisance.”
The Ordinance Enforcement Department should also be alerted to unsafe conditions, including overcrowding, Mr. Culloton said. “Housing concerns are definitely our number-one concern. . . . I have extensive experience in dealing with rentals where people are living in conditions that are unsafe and informing those tenants that they have rights, that the landlord has an obligation to take care of those houses. . . . There’s a hundred stories I could talk about” in which negligent landlords were responsible for fires that resulted in death. “Unfortunately, it’s usually the young, innocent people who end up suffering from those situations.”
“A lot of the team here are fantastic investigators,” Mr. Culloton said, “and I will try to do my best to encourage them to go after the rental violators.”
There will always be residents and businesses “who think they’re above the law” and will “push the limits,” he told the Montauk committee. “I will be friendly. I will be kind. I’ll smile when I give them the ticket.”
