Transparency and Public Lands in East Hampton

By Jeremy Samuelson

"Transparency is a fake word." That was Town Board Member Theresa Quigley's response to a request for a public hearing on the sale of public park land. To make matters even worse, Mrs. Quigley, Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and fellow Board Member Dominick Stanzione, refuses to hold a public forum explaining how proceeds from land sales will be used. With less than one-minute of discussion, no public hearing and no notice, Quigley, Wilkinson and Stanzione agreed to list for sale 3.9 acres of public parkland which the Town bought in 2003 for both "passive and active recreation" use.

Simply put, your land is being sold without notice, without a public hearing and they wont even tell you how the money is going to be used.

The most recent attempt to sell public land came when the Board's majority approved a last-minute resolution that was never listed on any agenda, never discussed in a work session, or even shared with fellow Town Board members - never mind the public or any of the dozen community groups, education programs or non-profits, including the Boy Scouts and Montauk Schools, that use the property.

This proposed sale is only the tip of the iceberg. Quigley, Wilkinson and Stanzione have promised to continue selling open space and parkland from across East Hampton using exactly the same procedures and without public hearings.

A "fake word" indeed.

Mrs. Quigley explained the majority's view of governmental accountability in response to a formal request by Group for the East End and the Concerned Citizens of Montauk to hold a public hearing.

Unfortunately, the Board's rush to sell the Fort Pond House looks a lot like their recent attempts to sell the Town's commercial fishing docks. In that case too, the board refused to hold a public hearing and claimed the sales were necessary to fix the Town's finances, only to be confronted with State laws designed to prevent public resources from being sold to the highest bidder.

New York State law prohibits the sale of public park land without an act of the State Legislature and possibly a public referendum. Rather than acknowledge the serious concerns over whether the Town even has the legal authority to sell the park land in this manner, Mrs. Quigley and her two counterparts insist that neither State law nor good faith can compel them to hear from the public on the sale of publicly-owned parks.