While only about 10 members of the community turned out for a debate Sunday at the Sts. Anargyroi, Taxiarchis and Gerasimos Greek Orthodox Church in Greenport, the questions they asked sparked some heated discourse.
All the candidates gave opening statements, much as they did at Saturday’s debate at Poquatuck Hall in Orient. See previous story, which outlines the candidates’ stances, here.
Justice court under fire
Members of the audience quickly got straight to the issue on their minds, with one resident asking Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell about a former town justice clerk who stole over $200,000 due to “lack of oversight.”
Incumbent Soutold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, who is running for another term, said the town had an employee “who was trusted and heavily relied upon by the judges. She acted badly. She lied to the judges, to the town board, to the auditor. Sometimes you can’t stop people from acting badly,” he said.
Russell said when red flags arose, “We brought them to the judge and he assured us that changes would be made.” Important to note, Russell said, is that “she stole little bits of money over many years,” during which there had been both Republicans and Democrats on the town board. “It becomes much more difficult to detect,” he said, adding that if the justice court had acted on the red flags raised by the auditor, it’s “possible it could have been caught sooner.”
Another member of the public asked why the clerk, Christine Stulsky, served no jail time; Russell reminded that in fact, she was sentenced to six months in jail and five years probation and is now back home, paying restitution to the court.
Another question centered on whether or not government employees are properly vetted. “How does someone sneak in?” one resident asked.
Russell said Stulsky was hired many years ago. “I don’t think she came to town government with intent to steal,” he said.
Addressing cries of political party patronage and applicants getting jobs due to who they know, Russell said none of it is true. “Almost everyone hired is off the civil service list,” he said. While a few hires are discretionary, Russell said new hires are dictated by civil service law. “We’ve got some wonderful people, and sometimes, not so much. It’s like any company.”
Russell then said his opponent, Democratic nominee Damon Rallis, said the town needs to be run as a business. “That’s not true,” Russell said. “Southold isn’t a business. Southold isn’t there to make money of the backs of the taxpayers. It needs to be run like a household that lives off its means.”
Rallis countered, “I don’t mean that we make money off of taxpayers. What I mean is we do play games with the civil service list. We do play party politics inside Town Hall. We don’t need to do that. I’m a candidate with no strings attached, no hidden agendas.”
On the issue of the theft from justice court, Rallis said, “The justice court issue has come up a lot during this campaign season. Frankly, Scott’s right: You can’t vet these people out. I don’t think that woman came and said, ‘I’m going to steal money.’ 99.9 percent of people that work in Town Hall are very good people. However, sometimes, they need a little direction. Sometimes, there are people that veer off the path, and if they won’t go on the right path, we need to ask them to leave.”
Rallis said he believes in a strong system of checks and balances.
A number of the candidates mentioned either their roots or ties to the Greek community.
The audience said the Greek community was happy to be recognized. “It’s about time,” one woman said. “We’e been paying taxes all these years.”
Another issue raised was about why there aren’t more Greek businesses.
Assessor candidates
Speaking for the first time at this debate in public were candidates for assessor, Democrat Linda Sledjeski Goldsmith and GOP incumbent Richard Caggiano. The pair have not been asked to speak at previous debates.
Goldmsith said she believes she has the “energy and intelligence to do as good a job, if not better, than those in office.”
A member of the Oysterponds Board of Education for 26 years, Goldsmith is also former Orient-East Marion park district commissioner; she’s proud of her work there to establish a capital reserve fund for Truman’s Beach. Goldsmith has also helped to manage the $30 million budget of the East End Health plan, where she was the secretary, she said. She teaches religion at St. Agnes in Greenport and is a member of the Columbiettes and was the former president of the Greenport men’s softball league.
Her grandfather was a bayman, her father, an Orient potato farmer, she said. Her husband had a mason and construction business; they ran a timber farm in Virginia and she graduated from Long Island University summa cum laude at the age of 50.
Caggiano, who took over the post as assessor two years ago when Darlene Duffy retired, said he’s been married for 43 years and has grown children. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, he attended St. John’s College. His father, he said, “instilled in us kids: Never forget where you came from. When you get to where you are going, never forget those who helped you.”
Caggiano started out as a teacher, moved to California, where he lived and worked for 13 years, earning an MBA, then moved to the North Fork to raise his family. He’s served on the Southold school board. As an assessor, he said the job is administrative, not legislative, but he strives for accessibility, greeting residents in person without an appointment at the front desk, offering Saturday and evening hours, and visiting the Mattituck senior center and the homebound. “Long story short: I really enjoy what I do,” he said.
Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski
Also present at Sunday’s debate was Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski, who is running for re-election in the race. He said he served as a Southold Town Trustee for 20 years, elected in 1985; he was elected to the Southold town board in 2005 and served as deputy supervisor. He detailed his work on the Suffolk County Legislature, including serving as the chair of the public works and energy committee, working on the planning and agricultural committee, the soil and water conservation district, the farmland protection board, the sewer infrastructure committee, the sewer agency, and also working with veterans and seniors.
Much of his work, he said, is focused on water quality issues on the East End and other important issues facing constituents on the North and South Forks. He also works on transportation and dredging issues, with both the county and state, to find solutions.
Of critical importance, he said, are alternative wastewater treatment systems currently being studied in a pilot program on the county level; one was just installed this week at a lottery winner’s home in Mattituck.
“My goal has been to make sure the East End is represented,” he said.
Town justice candidate Brian Hughes
Also speaking at his first debate was candidate for justice on the Democratic ticket Brian Hughes.
His opponent, Bill Goggins, a GOP candidate who recently won a three-way primary, was not present, but the two did speak at Monday’s forum presented by the Mattituck and North Fork Chambers of Commerce at the North Fork Country Club.
Hughes said he was born in Astoria and has worked for 45 years in the criminal justice system, both in the courtroom and in the back office, and in the special investigations unit for the criminal justice system in New York City. He is also a firefighter.
After attending law school, he said he served as an assistant attorney general for New York State investigating corruption in New York City’s court system and later, worked for the department of investigations in New York City, uncovering “criminal or civil wrongdoings, like stealing the public’s money.”
Hughes also said under his watch, he’d like to see a greater percentage of bail money retained by Southold Town and not given to the county or state. Currently, he said, the town retains 35 percent while in Southampton and East Hampton, that number is 65 percent.
Hughes brought the discussion back to Stulsky. “Most employees are good and don’t want to steal or do something wrong. There are meat eaters and what eaters. Our justice clerk was a wheat eater, but we gave her the opportunity. A wheat eater sees something laying around. A meat eat goes into work to steal.”
Hughes said he decided to run because of something he’d heard Russell say, that the clerk had caused “irreparable harm” to the town residents, and faith must be restored. “That’s what threw the switch,” he said.
Southold’s justice court reputation, he added, “is not that good,” pointing to articles in law journals about the issues and stating his experience makes him qualified in knowing “how the system works.”
He said the town needed to take “responsibility” and added that Stulsky was never “suspended or fired. She was allowed to resign on a retroactive date,” meaning the town no longer had control over the employee, as they would have if she had been suspended. “
He said a monthly justice court report is signed by judges. “So if this situation with the bail money was going on for all these years, who’s been filing these reports, saying everything is fine, and why haven’t we addressed it?”
Hughes said he’s anxious to see the auditor’s report on the issue.
He alleged that the town hired a court officer who is receiving pension from another law enforcement agency.
Russell asked what the benefit would have been to suspend Stulsky, rather than accepting her resignation. By accepting her resignation, she would not longer get full insurance “on the taxpayer’s back,” he said, and to suspend her would be casting fate to the wind, rather than taking the resignation and ensuring that she would never get insurance from the town again, he said.
Hughes said by accepting her resignation, the town may have lost the chance to learn who else might have been involved or any other information for the district attorny.
“That’s not true. It’s a criminal charge. Suspension doesn’t bring any new pressure to bear. That’s ridiculous,” Russell said. He added that running the risk of paying her medical insurance for life was “fiscally irresponsible.”
Stulsky, he added, sued the town over the insurance, and lost. “We won,” he said.
