Fisherman Lambaste Town Board Over Spending Cuts

East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson's proposed $63.3 million 2011 budget has fishermen and those concerned about human services livid over cuts that include nixing a fishery lobbyist and slashing family and youth services.

Many of them came out to decry the cuts at a three-hour hearing on Thursday night. 

Arnold Leo, the fishing consultant to the town whose $55,000 position would be cut, told the board that without a lobbyist Montauk's interests for relief from various regulations ould not be represented at the countless regulatory meetings.

"If you're not there, you don't count," he said before the 40 or so residents at the meeting.

Facing a $28 million deficit that the supervisor inherited from the previous administration, Wilkinson has proposed an 11 percent cut over the 2010 budget and a 17 percent tax decrease. 

Carl Darenberg, a fishing captain who owns the Montauk Marine Basin, home to many charter boats, said that the Marine Fisheries and Departmetnt of Environmental Conservation rules and regulations put forth on fishermen will drive them out of business. "Do a good job for us," he pleaded.

Norm Edwards, a commercial fisherman, said, "This is a huge economy in this town. ... What happens when you lose a fishery? You lose the infrastructure. Once you lose the infrastructure, you're not getting it back."

Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said he knows the industry's significance in the community and said he has been lobbying for them since taking office. Cutting the lobbyist salary, "It no way bears any resemblance to the fashion or the needs to respond to the industry or the crisis." He said, "This in no way discouraged me from visiting Schumer in his office to push for these disruptive and, as far as I'm concerned, out-of-whack regulations."

But, Bonnie Brady, the executive director of Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said the new administration would not be supporting the fishing industries by cutting the lobbyist. "For telling us you're being our friends, you're shanking us at noon in the parking lot." She handed Wilkinson a large binder filled with information on meetings that the lobbyist would have attended. "You're going to the meetings now." 

Brady continued, "To say that the town [board] has a mandate because they were elected to cut the budget. ... Mickey Mouse could have been elected," adding that the election was more of a mandate against the former administration. When Wilkinson took exception to being called "a Mickey Mouse administration," Brady explained she was merely playing off the fact that he had been an executive at Disney.

Steven Grossman, an attorney who spoke to the board about cuts to the Homework Club and East Hampton Learning Day Care Center, said "Everybody in this town has taken a hit, except for the people I'm looking at. Take 10, 15 percent off your salary, you can fund those programs."

The supervisor objected. "Don't say that the board hasn't sacrificed." He and Theresa Quigley have both opted out of taking health care benefits that the town offers them.

A few people supported the majority Republican board. Patrick Schutte told the board, "Stick to your guns and keep cutting." He said he supported suspending the leaf pick-up program. "Let's get the $30 million deficit down and maybe we'll get this service back."

Sue Avedon, a licensed psychotherapist who volunteers at the Human Services Department, said, "The cuts in the 2011 budget will all but decimate that department."

The staff of seven at the Senior Citizen Nutrition Center will be reduced to four, who will be responsible for cooking, serving and washing dishes for the 65 to 90 seniors who each lunch each day, she said.

"There's nothing budgeted next year for youth services." The Homework Club had already been cut late last month. Free Family and Youth Counseling services are also diminished o only one case manager. "There are some  people who simply cannot afford these mental health services that are so vital for their family."

Maria Nordone, whose mother visits the town-run Adult Day Care Center, asked the board to address the rumors that the program would be ending. She said they had caused "a lot of fear and anxiety." She added, "I want to make sure that the board is aware that there is no private alternative on the East End for this type of custodial day care."

Wilkinson said the seniors will be taken care of in the 2011 budget. 

Some of the most tense moments in the meeting came when Brad Lowen and Debra Foster, two former town board members took to the podium.

Lowen said he wondered why the new administration, after being elected, had eliminated the parking fees that brought in $400,000 in revenue, but raised dockage fees in Three Mile Harbor. "I don't think that's fair. The largest boats down there are paying somewhere around $4,000 a year," he said.

"OK – everybody's got to contribute. We're broke. But here's the thing that bothered me: At the airport, the largest aircraft down there … They land about 10 times a year. Their cost for landing is $4,000 a year." The amenities at the airport, he said: security, fuel service, long-term parking. "At the dock, they get an electrical outlet and a box to pee in. That isn't fair. In the weird and wonderful world you guys live in maybe that's rational, but that isn't fair."

Foster said that while she appreciated the board lowering the budget, "I'm asking all five of you to consider an alternate or a correction to this budget that will give a $6,240,000 cut. You proposed $8 million."

"After you realized, to your credit, that you could cut two, five, seven million. When did somebody say, 'That's not enough.?'" She said, "I'm asking you to back off a little," and add back in the leaf removal program and human services. "Thank you for the tax cut, but I'm asking you to be compassionate about it."

She called the cuts draconian and punitive. Wilkinson's response: "No, what was draconian was the gross overspending," $18 million in three years, he said, while Foster and Lowen were on the board.

Later, Foster added, "You've done a good job. I'm asking for a little bit of heart. I think we all can afford it." She received a round of applause.

Quigley said she took exception with being called "uncompassionate, punitive, lacking in humanity, and lacking in heart," throughout the night. "I don't take those word lightly," she said. "However, in this process it is tantamount to an ad hominem attack. The reason I say that is because our jobs are to look out for all the citizens of this town." She said people needed to understand that the 60-percent of the budget were contracted salaries, employee benefits, and debt-service on the $30 million loan to make up for the $28 million deficit.

Pete Hammerle, whom the East Hampton Democrats were looking for to rail against the budget, said he was inclined to vote in favor of the budget with a few changes. Julia Prince, another sitting Democrat, agreed that "small amounts need to be added back in."

Hammerle wants to add money for the fishing lobbyist back in the budget -- $25,000 that he said would be money well-spent, which was followed by a round of applause.

The public hearing was closed, and the board will now hash out the details of the budget during its meeting on Tuesday at the Montauk Fire Department at 10 a.m.