Politics & Government

Leaked Email Suggest Republican Access to Agendas

While the Democrats are up in arms, Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson says he still holds the agendas close to his vest.

Accusations are flying amongst East Hampton's political parties after an email from the Republican committee secretary surfaced that insituates the committee may have had access to, or influence over, the town board's agenda while the Democrats did not.

In a Feb. 13 email to core members of the East Hampton Republican committee, Carole Campolo listed agenda items, including the controversial and the , one day before the work session.

"As per the resolution voted on at our committee meeting on Wednesday February 8, please find listed below the agenda for Tuesday's Town Board work session," she wrote. "If other items are added to the agenda, I will send those along to you."

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Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, re-elected on the Republican ticket last year, sets the agendas for work sessions, making them available to the public at the start of the meetings. Democrat town board members, from both the current administration and the previous one during Wilkinson's first two years in office, have complained publicly to the supervisor about not having the agenda of work sessions until the last minute.

But Wilkinson denied that the Republicans have a say in the town board's agenda items. "Everybody knew that Scavenger Waste was on the agenda. I saw it more as, 'Here are some agenda items, show up for support,'" he said. "There are no quid pro quos."

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Campolo, a retiree, said she was mearly trying to gather support for the town board members who she said "are under constant assault."

"I don't know who would tell Bill Wilkinson what to do quite frankly," she said.

But leaders of the two other political parties didn't see it that way.

Jeanne Frankl, chairwoman of the East Hampton Democratic committee, said "The more serious problem is that decisions are being made before the agenda is published and the public doesn't have a chance to ask informed questions," she said, adding the planning surrounding the controversial Scavenger Waste Plant as a prime example. 

Frankl also lambasted Compolo for claiming in the email that the elected Democrats had no interest in doing what was right for taxpayers. "What they and others want is for their special interest environmental zealots and unions to be amply rewarded by a public boondoggle this is surely to become if the site is not handled by professionals," the email read.

"Our local government should not be run as a branch of national ideological politics," Frankl said.

"I find it disgusting," said Elaine Jones, the Independence Party chairwoman who has been involved in local politics for 30 years. She said the agenda talk was not only inappropriate, but so were the jabs at Stanzione, who was endorsed by the Independence Party when he was elected three years ago.

"Dominick has opinions and he has a right to them," Jones said. "Town board members should listen to the public, not the Republican committee. Once elected they shouldn't be playing politics."

Campolo, who said she and her husband, zoning board member Don Cirillo, worked hard to get Stanzione elected, was expressing her personal views in the email. "I really did go off the reservation," she said.

Wilkinson said that he and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley attended a Republican committee meeting in early February — one of three he said he has attended in the past six months — and discussed what he sees as the Republican town board members being under fire.

"The entire Democratic assault on the current government is orchestrated, from the appearance of people in the audience to the questioning from the people in the audience to the answering," he said.

"In a certain sense, it's a compliment to us," Frankl said. "We're doing our best to crack the wall of secrecy that the board maintains about their agenda." She said the supervisor's comments were revealing. "What's wrong with being prepared?" she said. "They are seeing it only in their battledress."


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