Code enforcement, town facilities, water quality, fiscal stewardship, wildlife management, traffic safety, helicopter noise and plastic bags were the topics of discussion at a debate last night at the Peconic Landing community center in Greenport.
In the first session of the evening incumbent Republican town board members Bill Ruland and Jill Doherty faced off with Democratic challengers Albie de Kerillis and Debbie O’Kane.
Incumbent Supervisor Scott Russell (R) then went head-to-head with challenger Damon Rallis (D).
The candidates fielded questions posed by moderators Grant Parpan and Joe Pinciaro, editors at The Suffolk Times, which sponsored the debates. Several of the questions were submitted by readers.
There was not a whole lot of disagreement among the town board candidates on the issues queried by the moderators.
de Kerillis was the more aggressive of the two Democrats seeking to unseat the Republican incumbents. Referencing a state comptroller’s audit report, he criticized the the town for “improper bidding” of contracts, some “to the tune of $300,000.”
“There was nothing fraudulent in the audit report,” Doherty countered.
Ruland defended the administration’s fiscal policy, which he called sound and prudent. He pointed to the recent upgrading of the town’s municipal bond rating by Moody’s Investor Services from Aa2 to Aa1.
“That’s huge,” Ruland said. “It saves the people thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years of a bond’s life.” The upgrade was a nod to the town’s sound fiscal management, he said.
The town board, Ruland said, goes through the supervisor’s tentative budget line by line with the town’s department heads.
O’Kane commended the town board for keeping the budget increase to “an absolute minimum.” She said her background in managing nonprofit organizations equips her to understand and oversee municipal operations.
When de Kerillis, who said he used to enjoy clamming in local waters when he first moved to Southold, lamented the closing of 41 bays and creeks in the town and called on the town to be “start being proactive instead of reactive,” Doherty and Ruland came to the town government’s defense.
“The creeks were closed because the DEC doesn’t have manpower to collect the water samples and when they do, DEC has the only lab on the island certified to do the tests,” Doherty said. “So they just close the creeks instead of testing the water.”
Ruland agreed with his colleague, adding: “The town board has filed suit against the DEC to force them to enforce their own rules and test the water.”
When the supervisor candidates took the stage, the discussion was immediately more lively.
Rallis came out swinging from the start, criticizing the incumbent’s leadership abilities and what he characterized as Russell’s failure to address important issues.
Rallis criticized the time management systems used to monitor town employees and linked their alleged weakness to the money stolen from the justice court’s coffers by a former clerk. Despite the purchase of a $156,000 time management system for town hall, “We work on the honor system,” Rallis said. “You know what happens when you use the honor system? $256,000 gets stolen from justice court.”
The theft had nothing to do with the time management system, Russell countered. State auditors found “no discrepancies” with time records, he said.
Both candidates agreed that the town needs to do something about its current justice court facilities. The court sits in the Town Hall meeting room. Russell said justice court should be the town’s next capital project priority. Rallis called the court “a zoo” that’s so unsafe, a court officer quit his job. He said the incumbent, running for office in 2009, said making justice court safer was a priority.
“Fast forward to 2014 and a guy quits because he doesn’t feel safe. It’s Groundhog Day all over again,” Rallis said. “When it takes six years to address a priority, we have a problem.”
Russell told Rallis he was forgetting that 2010 was “a buzz saw” and the town has been recovering from a severe recession.
“We couldn’t pay for anything,” Russell recalled. “The letter of resignation was a point well taken and we’ve taken steps.”
Rallis blamed the supervisor’s “lack of leadership” for the town’s lack of a viable affordable housing program.
“The number one problem we have here in Southold Town is a serious lack of affordable housing. We have 350 applicants on the town’s affordable housing list. These are vital community members. These are firefighters, these are EMTs, these are nurses and teachers. Three terms in office and this administration has failed to put forth a reasonable affordable housing solution. Other communities across Long Island…have answered the call to create attainable housing for their workforce. In my opinion it comes down to a lack of leadership.”
Russell said he’s glad Rallis is “embracing” affordable housing because it’s important. “He has never come to an affordable housing committee meeting. He hasn’t put forth a single idea.”
Russell said his opponent was forgetting that the Cottages at Mattituck affordable housing development was built during his tenure and he said the board changed the code “to make apartments easy to have in existing homes.”
“We’ve issued RFPs so that developers would come in to build apartments, which is where the real critical need is,” Russell said. “We are trying to move the ball forward.”
Rallis defended his community commitment and involvement and accused Russell of “trying to bait” him to attend town board meetings so they can become “political theater.”
“I’ve spent a lot of time volunteering with my church, spending time with my own involved in my Cub Scout pack, my Boy Scout pack… The measure of someone’s involvement in the community is not how many town board meetings they attend,” he said.
The pair had different points of view on a proposal being discussed that would ban single-use plastic bags in Southold, with Rallis in support of a ban and Russell opposed.
“The business community is having a hard time competing with the corporate giants to the west,” Russell said. The ban would make it even harder, he said. There are new products coming onto the market that are going to address the problem, he said. Russell has also said if the county and Riverhead signed on to a ban, the playing field would be leveled.
In his closing remarks, Rallis said he and Russell “agree on most things.” He said they agree that helicopter noise is “an issue” and that plastic bags “should go away.”
He pitched himself as a candidate who will “bring balance” to Town Hall.
Russell dismissed attacks by his opponent on his leadership and fiscal management.
“I’ve been here for 10 years,” the supervisor said in his closing statement. “This is my record. This is what I’d like to continue to do. I’ve provided very tight fiscal leadership. We’ve adopted great environmental laws. I’ve been endorsed by both the N.Y. League of Conservation Voters and the L.I. Environmental Voters Forum. I’m a pragmatic problem solver. I know some people are saying we need change. Change into what?”
