Tempers exploded at a Greenport Village Board meeting Tuesday that resulted in Mayor David Nyce threatening to call the police if a member of the public did not leave.
Residents took to the podium to ask the board about a recent vote by the village board on sewer fees for Peconic Landing’s expansion which sparked controversy as one trustee candidate said the village charged $720,000 less than it could have.
Doug Roberts, who is running for a trustee seat in the coming election, urged the board to “rethink” the Peconic Landing decision. “This is about the future of Greenport. We don’t want to give away a chunk of our capacity to people who are not paying taxes in the village. Have you asked Peconic Landing to consider other options, or to consider building their own sewer?”
Roberts asked why the decision was “rushed to a vote”.
Bill Swiskey, who is also running for one of two open trustee seats in the next election, once again asked about the village’s calculations in regard to the fees. At the very least, Swiskey said the village lost $420,000, and at the most, $740,000; he demanded an explanation.
Nyce said no decisions were made suddenly. He said negotiations with Peconic Landing had been ongoing for well over a year. Hospital rooms take a certain flow, as do continuing care rooms, he said. He said the Peconic Landing hookup fees cannot be confused with a monthly fee. “A one time hookup fee is calculated by the capacity they will be taking up.”
When Swiskey tried to interject and ask a question about the numbers, Nyce banged his gavel. “Please do not interrupt. You’e out of order. Mr. Swiskey, shut up,” he said.
Swiskey continued to ask questions and Nyce said, “You can leave now.”
Nyce said the capital worth of the sewer system is divided by the number of people, equating to the capital buy in and the fee for outside sewer hookup. The final number, he said, comes to $15,000 per hookup per 300 gallons of flow.
Swiskey said he had a copy of a prior agreement with Peconic Landing; Nyce said he had seen it. “Bill, it’s okay for you to be wrong,” Nyce said.
Nyce added that the amount of capacity that Peconic Landing would take up is “negligible” and would not impact the long term sustainability of the village. “An amount this small does not adversely affect our ability to grow into the future,” Nyce said.
Local business owner Perry Angelson stood up after Nyce’s comments, stating that the amount in question was a “tremendous amount of money. No one knew about this until last week.”
Nyce repeated that the issue had been in negotiations for over a year and said to Angelson, “You’re out of order.” The mayor stated that if Angelson continued to speak — Nyce said Angelson was out of order since he was talking after the official public comment period — he’d be asked to leave or police would be called.
“Call the police, have me arrested — gavel me,” Angelson said. “This is how you behave?”
Angelson said the issue was voted on at a work session, in a “private meeting” where the public is not allowed to speak.
Nyce said there is no guarantee at any meeting other than a public hearing where the public is allowed to speak.
According to Bob Freeman of the Committee on Open Government, the Open Meetings Law “is silent with respect to the public’s right to speak during meetings. A board may choose to permit public participation during a meeting, but it is not required to do so. In contrast, a public hearing is held for the purpose of enabling members of the public to express their points of view.”
“Is this really how you’re going to treat your public?” Angelson asked.
‘That’s how I’m going to treat you, sir,” Nyce said.
“You still didn’t answer my question,” Angelson said.
Nyce said the police should be called and “Mr. Angelson removed”. Angelson said not to bother calling the police and left the meeting.
Deputy Mayor George Hubbard, who is running for mayor in the coming election, said this issue has been negotiated for a long time and discussed the 2000 agreement, which gave a price of $9,194 per unit.
Hubbard spoke directly to Swiskey, explaining that the initial agreement was for 253 units but is now for 48; $720,000, he added, is one quarter what Peconic paid last time for one-fifth the amount of units. “That figure has changed because they cut the expansion in half. We got more per unit now than what we did then.”
Hubbard also said ongoing negotiations were “held up” because an attorney for Peconic Landing asked that they “pay less,” according to their calculations. “We said ‘no'”, he said.
“Setting aside the argument about the numbers, the problem with the Peconic Landing sewer deal is not the math,” Roberts said in an email after the meeting. “The problem is that this board worked under the assumption that they need to negotiate with Peconic Landing, as if it was Peconic Landing, and not the village and its taxpayers who hold the leverage in the negotiation. We have the only sewer system east of Riverhead, and we are the envy of other communities because we take care of our sewage in the most environmentally-friendly and cost-effective way possible. Peconic Landing’s choices are to hook up to our sewer or build their own. The prices are not regulated. We could charge them $50,000 per hookup if we like. We have all the leverage, which is everything in a negotiation.”
Last week, Swiskey had issues with the agreement. “By the village’s own calculations using the information provided by Peconic Landing, the daily sewer flow from the expansion would be 13,000 gallons per day. That figure would be translated into what we call units,” he said. “If you used the village’s definition of what a unit is based on their own rate structure, it’s 130 gallons a day, The minimum charge on a sewer bill is for 4000 gallons per month. 4000 divided by 30 days = 130 GPD what = 1 unit. 130 divided into 13,000= 100 units The village’s upfront fee for hooking up a unit outside the village is set by there own sewer code at $15,000 per unit, so 100 x 15,000= $1,500,000, the he believes should have been paid to the village.
“My question is why the village board with crumbling infrastructure thinks its resident should subsidize a multi-million dollar corporation.”
Greeport Village Administrator Paul Pallas gave SoutholdLOCAL the calculations used by the village: “The $720,000 connection fee was derived using Suffolk County Department of Health data for sewage flow from each of the type of units proposed at Peconic Landing. The total derived from this is divided by a typical single family residence of 300 gallons per day (gpd) to determine an equivalent number of units. We charge $15,000 per connection for a single family residence outside the village. Therefore, the equivalent number of units is multiplied by $15,000 to determine the total connection fee. Below is the breakdown of this calculation.”
Pallas said 16 nursing home units x 150 gpd = 2400 gpd; 16 assisted living units x 110 gpd = 1760 gpd; and 46 apartments x 225 gpg = 10,350 gpd. That would mean a total of 14,510 gpd; equivalent units = 14,510 /300 = 48 equivalent units. And, he said 48 units x $15,000 = $720,000.
“Once again, Bill Swiskey is incorrect and using his own logic and math. We used the accepted and correct calculation,” Nyce said.
Hubbard said the village used the county formula. Suffolk County Health Services, he said, uses different calculations for skilled nursing facilities.
No other facility on the North Fork has the density of Peconic Landing, he added.
“I think the bigger story is that we collected three quarters of a million dollars that we can invest back into the system to take care of the pump station,” Hubbard said, adding that the village did not want to borrow money or bond. The village has now upgraded the sewer plant and has three quarters of a million that they don’t have to bond or borrow for. “We’re all ratepayers,” he said. “None o us would intentionally leave three quarters of a million on the table. If we could have gotten it we would have pushed for it, but we would have been sued for overcharging. This is all based on the going rate countywide.”
Robert Syron, CEO for Peconic Landing, was not immediately available for comment.
