East Hampton Village Mayor Richard Lawler plans to appoint Ray Harden to a seat on the village board on Friday, he said in an interview on Wednesday.
Mr. Harden, a co-owner of the Ben Krupinski building company and the vice chairman of the zoning board of appeals, will fill the seat that has been vacant since January when Mr. Lawler, the former deputy mayor, was promoted by his fellow board members to fill out the final six months of the term of former mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., who resigned from office on December 31.
Mr. Lawler and Mr. Harden are both vying, as Elms Party running mates, for the two open board seats that will be up for vote in the upcoming election, which was scheduled to be held on June 16, but, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, has been postponed until Sept. 15. Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, is the party's mayoral candidate.
Mr. Lawler said he had decided against making an appointment in January because the election would have been less than six months away, but given the ongoing pandemic, he thought the village government should be at full strength.
"I didn't feel that it was right to leave it open due to the coronavirus threat," he said. "Suppose one of the other trustees became ill?"
The proposed appointment has elicited accusations of cronyism from Arthur Graham, a board member who is running for mayor on the Fish Hooks Party line, and Jerry Larsen, the New Town Party's mayoral candidate.
"I told Rick Lawler this is political suicide," said Mr. Graham. "This is an Elms Party power play. I think they're stacking the deck, and I think most people in the village will be in a stink about this." If Mr. Harden is appointed, he said, Elms Party officials will have a "veto-proof vote on the board, in an election year."
Both he and Rose Brown, his colleague on the board and in the Fish Hooks Party, plan to express their disapproval about the appointment at Friday's board meeting, he said. "This is not about Ray, it's about the process," said Ms. Brown.
Shortly before Mr. Rickenbach resigned, he said in an interview with the East Hampton Press newspaper that Mr. Lawler would take over the mayoral duties, and that Mr. Harden would likely be appointed to fill the open seat.
At the time, Mr. Larsen, a former East Hampton Village police chief, accused the then-mayor of dirty politicking. In a Facebook post, he said Mr. Rickenbach was attempting to give an unfair advantage to his preferred candidates. “This unethical tactic that attempts to control the outcome of an election has been used by other jurisdictions on Long Island that have been plagued by corruption for many years,” Mr. Larsen said.
His view on the matter has not changed, he said on Wednesday. "He's trying to pull a fast one," he said of Mayor Lawler.
