Susan Galardi
DAN'S PAPERS, June 19, 2009 Page 21 www.danshamptons.com
The master plan, under construction ...
Timetable East Hampton Indictments Could Leave No One to Run the Shop By Dan Rattiner “When I left office in East Hampton Town we had money in the bank. McGintee says he succeeded me in office and found a secret deficit? Let me put it this way. During all the years I was in office, we had two dog control officers. Now we have five. But the number of dogs didn’t change.” — Jay Schneiderman, County Legislator, June 2007. What is most shocking about the arrest in handcuffs of Ted Holts, Bill McGintee’s budget officer, last week and what will apparently be the arrest very shortly of McGintee himself, is the timeline of events leading up to today. The timeline speaks for itself, and here it is. In November 2003, McGintee wins the election to become the next supervisor of East Hampton to replace Republican Jay Schneiderman who announces that he intends to run for County
office. The books for the Town show a surplus of $11 million. Schneiderman has left office with all good wishes and wins his County challenge against a sitting incumbent. Between November 2003 and 2005, McGintee engages in a wide variety of projects all over Town designed to improve the quality of life here. For example, from where I sit looking over Three Mile Harbor, I now look over a beautiful new town marina bulkhead and boardwalk with new park benches and a newly landscaped park facility at the south end. Everybody loves McGintee. How did he do it? November 2005, McGintee is re-elected to another two-year term in a landslide. In December of 2006, while shopping at Macy’s in Hampton Bays, Ted Hults, who is McGintee’s long time Town Budget officer, receives a phone call from McGintee telling him that the Town
cannot make the town payroll that week. There is just no money in any of the accounts. Whether Hults thought of this or McGintee did is going to come out in a courtroom, but by the end of the call it had been decided that what they should do is write a check from one specially held Town account — the account that holds the proceeds of the CPF tax, the 2% that is charged by the Town for every single real estate transaction in the community. The fund is bursting with money, but the money has been collected only to be used for the purchase of open farmland and open space. McGintee and Hults agreed that as soon as possible, this money should be returned to this account. This is only a stop gap measure. A few days later, the Town Attorney, learning of the plan, says that to use this money for any purpose (continued on next page)
RUDE SOCIAL STUDIES LESSON IN EAST HAMPTON By Susan M. Galardi and David Lion Rattiner They say education begins at home. But what about what happens on the drive to school? At the East Hampton railroad station last Monday, just around the corner from John Marshall Elementary School, illegal immigration protestor Tom Wedell and another man, who did not want to be identified but described himself as a “man whose grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico,” were holding signs protesting the Latino labor force that waits at the train station looking for a day’s work. (Earlier in the morning, there was a third protestor as well.)
The signs included the provocative message all drivers who enter the Hamptons see at the 7-11 in Southampton that reads “When they jumped the fence they broke the law” — a sign proudly and relentlessly held by Wedell. But two new signs were added to the mix. One seemed to cross the line between freedom of speech and racial slur. It read: “Call 1-800Adios.” The other, held by the third man, read “DEPORT SWINE HUND,” based perhaps on the faulty logic that solving the illegal immigrant situation would end swine flu. The men were eyed by a policeman in a marked car who was there, perhaps, to guard against the situation turning into a physical
confrontation. “Why are my tax dollars paying for that police officer to watch over us?” yelled the man of Mexican heritage, seemingly unaware of the tension between him and the Latinos who stood no more than 50 feet away. Just a few blocks away is John Marshall. At this point in time, that school of Kindergarten through fifth graders is close to 50% Hispanic. For unknowing parents driving their children to school that morning, the protestors and police car were a rude awakening that likely prompted many questions from very young children of every race, very young children who (continued on page 38)