Laid Off Town Worker: Why Do You Have To Get Rid of Me?

Before the East Hampton Town voted on a resolution that would lay him off, highway department worker Stephen Lester told the board to think twice.

"I don’t understand how you can hire cops who make 10 times as much money as I do and the East Hampton Town Highway Department has a surplus. Why do you have to get rid of me?," Lester, a heavy equipment operator, asked the board. "I’m a lousy $40,000-a-year, plus insurance. It’s unbelievable. I’ve lived here for 45 years  -- and if you do this to me tonight, there will be repercussions. It is an election year, and I have a lot of friends."

The town board did move forward in abolishing a senior scale-house operator position and a heavy equipment operator position within the sanitation department later in the meeting on Thursday. On Monday, Pat Breen, of the Human Resources Department, said that while Lester's position was not the one eliminated, he was laid off because, under the union contract, the heavy equipment operator employee in the sanitation department had seniority and was licensed to perform a lesser position.

Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, who is facing re-election, had warned there would be a few layoffs as a result of closing the town dump on Wednesdays at a savings of $200,000.

Breen said the town board is one appointing authority and the fact that Lester worked for a different department didn't matter.

"If you ever catch me making a decision based on an election, throw me out -- throw me out right away," Wilkinson told the audience. "You can throw me out, but it’s going to be based on a business decision, based on what I thought was appropriate for the Town of East Hampton," he said. 

Wilkinson and Councilman Dominick Stanzione, who spoke during a small break, later asked the board if they would agree to extend health benefits to the people being laid off for three months. Wilkinson said they would have to negotiate that with the union.

Wilkinson reminded the crowd, which had come out to the meeting on Thursday night , that he had said at the beginning of the year, "we still had to get smaller and think smarter."

"I’ve inherited the biggest debt in the history of any town in New York," he said of the $27 million deficit.

Since the 2010 state incentive to retire early and recurring job freezes, the town has lost about 50 positions since Wilkinson took office.

But, Elaine Jones of Amagansett, whose late husband worked for the town questioned the board about what she called the first layoffs in town history: "... and they consist of one single mom trying to send her kid to college and one young fisherman who went to work for the town to support his children, and by the way, one of our former trustees who will be running again this year," she said referring to Lester.

Wilkinson said he would not provide the name of the other employee.

Jones also took exception that the two employees had not been notified before it was mentioned briefly at a televised town board work session on Tuesday.

Lester told the board he only found out he was getting a pink slip on Wednesday at noon.

Councilwoman Julia Prince said, "I would apologize for that; I don’t think that’s right."

Jones said that during the 2009 election, Wilkinson had indicated to the union and to the screening committee that layoffs would not be necessary thanks to retirement incentives and job freezes. "During the last year, employees have been fearful of layoffs but I defended you and told many, Bill, that they didn’t have to worry -- that you had promised," she said. 

She brought up an article circulated during the campaign about how Disney, where Wilkinson was an executive, had sent a letter to its employees suggesting they retire or face layoffs.

Jones wanted to know why the sanitation workers had not been given more notice. "Isn’t anyone entitled to at least two weeks notice – not one day. Is this how Disney does it?"

Prince asked the board to give the workers two weeks before losing their jobs, to which the board agreed, although Wilkinson said they would have followed the rules laid out in the union contract.

Breen said on Monday that there is no notice requirement in the contract or under Suffolk County Civil Service law.

Insinuating that some workers had been protected from layoffs, she asked, ". . . why not last hired, first to go?"

Councilwoman Theresa Quigley told Lester and Jones, "There’s nothing personal in the decision to cut back a budget." Next year's budget, she said, would increase $4 million "without us touching anything." All but $1 million of that estimate is attributed to the deficit financing.

However, Jones said she heard Quigley wanted to put money behind the Media Advisory Committee, a group that is charged with finding ways to attract more television and film production to East Hampton.

"We’re talking about $200 on media advisory," Quigley said.

"It’s not incongruous to do something in one area and cut in another area – to invest in areas and build in areas and seek revenue in areas and to cut in areas," Wilkinson said. "That’s what businesses do everyday, Elaine."