Left to right: Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook), Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce president Jen Dzvonar, Santa Claus, New York State Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), Mrs. Claus, and PJSTCC community liaison Joan Nickeson.
Dozens of community members, performers, business leaders and public officials gathered at the Train Car Park in Port Jefferson Station Dec. 8, continuing a lasting holiday custom.
The Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce has hosted this event for decades, perennially reuniting the various facets of the community amid festive cheer. Guests were greeted with hot chocolate under a tent, with some chamber members tabling inside.
The stars of the event, Santa and Mrs. Claus, arrived in a stylish fire rescue vehicle supplied by the Terryville Fire Department. Along with them was chamber president Jen Dzvonar, New York State Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) and Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook).
Santa and Mrs. Claus spent quality time with the children, sitting for photographs and taking requests for Christmas. Vocalists from the School of Rock performed Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs. Dancers from the Port Jefferson Station-based Backstage Studio of Dance jived to the musical beats of several tunes.
“We try to rally the entire community for a great community event,” Dzvonar said. She responded to the sizable turnout and talented performers by saying, “I think it’s so heartwarming. It’s like a true holiday festival, celebratory and inviting.”
The laughter and fun of the evening were just another positive development in a string of forward momentum for the community this year. Kornreich described the spectacle as exemplifying the area’s distinctiveness and charm.
“By my reckoning, I think this is reason number 74 for why Port Jeff Station is one of the best places to live in Suffolk County,” he said. “This town is changing so quickly, and there are just so many fun things going on here all the time,” adding, “I’m just really happy to be here with everyone from the community on yet another happy occasion in our new park.”
Englebright outlined some of the historical contexts behind this event. The assemblyman regarded the gradual development of the area and the Train Car Park as the product of decades of joint efforts between community groups, governmental entities and engaged residents.
“To see all of the young people here, and Santa and Mrs. Claus … it is showing us all the direction that this holiday is meant to be in,” the assemblyman said. “It’s very heartening to see the very talented kids, the dancers and the fire department. The whole community is here, and it’s just amazing.”
Gwenn Capodieci is the executive director of the Backstage dance studio. She said her dance groups have performed during this event for the past three years and frequently coordinate with PJSTCC. For her, the evening is a unique opportunity for the dancers to perform before their peers and community members.
“After all, this is a performing art,” she said. “Performing is a big part of it, so to get an opportunity to show that is really great.”
Nicole Terlizzo, artistic director and teacher at the dance studio, said the performances were the product of two months of preparation, with the rehearsals ranging from jazz techniques to hip-hop, tap, ballet and others.
“The girls practiced really hard and really came together,” Terlizzo said. “They have a lot of fun doing it, and it’s a fun way to get them out of the studio and in front of the community.”
Paul Perrone, vice president of PJSTCC, summed up why the chamber continues this tradition annually: “It gives people an opportunity to get out of their house and enjoy the community park,” he said. “It helps people feel that Comsewogue — Port Jefferson Station/Terryville — has something to offer everybody.”
Joan Nickeson, the chamber’s community liaison, offered her take as well, citing the tree lighting event as an annual tradition that highlights the area’s continued growth and support.
“It’s an annual Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce tradition, and we’re so fortunate to have a great Santa, support from our electeds, residents and the business community,” she said.
Pictured above, Lisa Di Santo and Town of Brookhaven Councilman Kevin LaValle (R-Selden). Left from Di Santo’s Facebook page; right from the town website
In a race to fill former Brookhaven Town Clerk Donna Lent’s (I) seat, Town of Brookhaven Councilman Kevin LaValle (R-Selden) will square off against community advocate Lisa Di Santo, of East Patchogue.
Both candidates were chosen unanimously by their respective parties during separate nominating conferences last week. In phone interviews with TBR News Media, the candidates discussed their professional backgrounds, reasons for pursuing the office of clerk and plans for the future.
Before entering elected office, LaValle, a lifelong Brookhaven resident, owned a title agency, assisting prospective homebuyers with vital records, such as liens, deeds and similar documents. He then transitioned into the mortgage business, where he still works today.
In 2013, LaValle campaigned successfully to represent Brookhaven’s 3rd Council District, an office he has held ever since.
“Why I’m making this run for town clerk, I think it’s [because] we see in the paper every day with what just happened with Suffolk County, the hack that happened,” he said. “You can see very clearly that that’s something we don’t want to happen in Brookhaven. Managing people’s personal records is critical to our county and our township.”
Di Santo is a 50-year resident of Brookhaven whose background is in community advocacy. Before running for office, she was a social studies teacher, served as vice president of the Bellport Area Community Action Committee, and for over a decade was a trustee on the South Country Central School District Board of Education.
In her interview, she emphasized the need for citizens to have a stake in their local government and connect to the democratic process.
“When looking at the way the town functions, the town clerk plays a very important role in the accessibility of good government, accountability of good government and the security that’s necessary in good government,” she said. “In all of those three areas, I currently see that the town fails miserably.”
The Democratic candidate added, “I’m running because I do believe wholeheartedly that the town clerk, especially now, needs to be an independent person and an independent voice to be certain that there is truly open government in Brookhaven Town.”
For LaValle, the protection of residents’ sensitive information is paramount. Like Di Santo’s proposal, he said he intends to promote efficiency and expand resident access to their records and to the office of clerk.
“We have to make sure records are secure, but we want to increase access,” the town councilman said. “We want to be able to have people with disabilities not have to come up to Town Hall to get handicap parking passes, and what have you.”
He added, “We have to increase our internet capabilities to be able to service residents’ needs without making them have to come to Town Hall. And certainly, we have to work to increase the transparency within the government.”
LaValle contends that town clerk is a technically demanding position to learn and to hold. However, he maintains that his professional training within the public and private sector have prepared him in unique ways for the demands of the office.
“I believe that I have the ability and the experience to be able to do this job effectively, managing an over-30-person staff, and making sure residents are taken care of as we move forward,” he said.
On the whole, Di Santo viewed Brookhaven as failing in its obligations to promote open government. She cited the Freedom of Information Law request process as needing reform.
“You’d be hard to find an individual who has taken the time to participate in Brookhaven Town government who would tell you that the FOIL process is one of accessibility and accountability, and there’s a serious problem there,” she said. “If a citizen, a taxpayer, can’t access information, then how can the government represent those people?”
Di Santo said her campaign rests on the notion that quality governance requires informed and engaged citizenship. Given her advocacy background, she considered herself uniquely suited to this task.
If elected, Di Santo said she intends to begin by reforming the scheduling of open meetings to bolster public participation.
“When government continues to schedule meetings that are inaccessible to people, they’re sending a message that they do not want to have a democracy,” she said. “You can’t have a democracy without the participation of the people.”
Brookhaven residents will get the final word on these two candidates during a townwide special election on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
The Village of Port Jefferson is in a complicated permit dispute with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation over its solid waste landfill at Harbor Hills.
The Port Jefferson Village Clean Solid Waste Landfill, a 1.9-acre kettle hole located on the Port Jefferson Country Club property, has been historically operated to facilitate branch and leaf removal services in the village. In 2017, the small landfill was impacted by changes in state regulations, throwing the future of these services into question.
In an exclusive interview, Mayor Margot Garant summarized the nature of the permit dispute between the village and DEC. For decades, the government has renewed its DEC permit every five years to continue operating the landfill. With its permit set to expire on Dec. 11, the village reapplied but met unforeseen resistance.
“Unbeknownst to us in 2017, there were changes in some of the regulations concerning landfills throughout New York state, and they became much more strict,” Garant said. “We got a letter that we weren’t meeting the needs of the new statutory regulations for landfills.” She added, “They basically had classified our little kettle hole to be regulated like a landfill equivalent to the Town of Brookhaven [landfill].”
Garant referred to the pre-2017 regulations as manageable for the village, requiring breakdown and transport of the debris, among other workable conditions. The new rules, however, will “be impossible for us to comply with,” the mayor said.
An unusual landfill
David Tonjes is a research associate professor at Stony Brook University’s Department of Technology and Society. His research focuses on solid waste management and the environmental impacts of landfills.
While the Port Jefferson site is officially listed as a landfill regulated under the Long Island Landfill Law, Tonjes described it as distinct from other landfills throughout the area.
“It’s unusual because it doesn’t have a liner system, which is required for all landfills on Long Island,” he said. “As far as I know, it doesn’t have any landfilling functions, which is to take things in, cover them up, and manage the gas and leachate [that are] generated when you do that sort of thing.”
Garant agreed that the landfill does not fit neatly into a conventional classification category, given its prior use. Consequently, the village government is considering entering into negotiations with DEC to reclassify the landfill as a transfer station.
Garant said a change of classification could enable the village to continue using the site. “We realized we were managing this more like a transfer station than we were a landfill, and that’s going to be our approach with the DEC,” the mayor said. “As a transfer station, it means that [branches and leaves] are held here on a temporary basis, broken down and relocated, just like we were doing.”
She added, “If we have to abandon the kettle hole, we then have to put a barrier down, backfill it with clean fill, bring up the grade, and that’s going to cost us approximately $500,000 to do that, to abandon it.”
Tonjes said the Port Jeff landfill seems to fit some of the conditions for a transfer station. However, he noted that DEC guidelines for transfer stations are generally restrictive.
“Typically, a transfer station is a site where waste comes in and is kept under a roof for a period of time, and then it’s moved out to either a reuse point or disposal point,” he said. Depending on the materials stored, that temporary window of time could be as small as 24 hours.
An uncertain future
‘It calls for a degree of technical oversight and awareness that may be too expensive for the village to do.’
— David Tonjes
Conflicts with DEC over the long-term storage of branches and brush are not unique to Port Jefferson. Tonjes said several towns along the East End had met stiff opposition from DEC due to accumulations of storm debris.
Such materials, if processed promptly, could have been reused. “When they grind it up, they end up with a pile of wood chips that no one really wants,” the associate professor said. “They’re really low-value material, they end up with stuff that should have been reused.”
Tonjes suggests Port Jeff is entangled within a broader conflict within New York state over the reuse of organic waste. By cracking down on the long-term storage of organic waste, DEC aims to reuse these materials before their reuse value diminishes.
While municipalities have historically been responsible for waste disposal functions, this may soon change. Given the ballooning costs associated with managing solid waste, Tonjes suggests these may soon be too burdensome for a small municipality such as the village.
“With the village being such a small entity and trying to run its own — in a sense — disposal facility, it calls for a degree of technical oversight and awareness that may be too expensive for the village to do,” he said.
Further complicating matters is the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. This 2019 law mandates New York to reduce economywide greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and no less than 85 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels.
Enforcing these standards, Tonjes said, would require the complete overhaul of the state’s waste management apparatus.
Under this law, “all government actions have to comply with the notion of minimizing greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “Almost all solid waste activities involve greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s clear that solid waste management will have to change dramatically to account for this new law.”
Meanwhile, Garant admitted that the changes in state law blindsided the village. For her, the permit controversy with DEC offers a window into the challenges small municipalities encounter when interfacing with higher levels of government.
“When large government makes change to a section of the code, they really don’t know the trickle-down impacts that they are making,” she said. “Wanting to be in full compliance, making an application six months ahead of time, now I’m in a situation where I’m in the middle of branch and leaf pickup, and I’m going to have a permit expiring.”
Tonjes said conversations surrounding solid waste management are only getting started. He suggests that finding a workable solution to these complex problems requires significant coordination between all levels of government.
“The future is going to get very interesting in terms of regulating how the state manages its garbage,” he said.
Di Santo was selected unanimously during a telephonic convention of the Suffolk County Democratic Committee on Friday, Nov. 25.
Di Santo will face off against Town of Brookhaven Councilman Kevin LaValle (R-Selden), the Brookhaven Republican Committee’s nominee.
“To be given the chance to be our next town clerk is nothing short of humbling, and I will give this opportunity nothing less than my very best,” Di Santo said.
Special election to be held Tuesday, Jan. 17, following former Town Clerk Donna Lent's (I) retirement
File photo by Kyle Barr
The following is a press release from the Brookhaven Town Republican Committee:
Jesse Garcia, chair of the Suffolk County and Brookhaven Town Republican Committees, announced Tuesday, Nov. 22, that Town of Brookhaven Councilman Kevin LaValle (R-Selden) will be the Republican and Conservative Party’s nominee for Brookhaven Town Clerk. LaValle was nominated to the position unanimously during a convention of Brookhaven Republicans held in Medford.
The position of town clerk opened following the retirement of Donna Lent (I) on Nov. 14. [See story, “Brookhaven’s town clerk retires from public service.“] A special election to fill the vacancy will take place Tuesday, Jan. 17, to serve out the unexpired term through December 31, 2025.
“I am proud to accept the Republican and Conservative nominations to run for Brookhaven Town Clerk,” LaValle said. “I am excited to get this campaign started, and I look forward to getting out and talking to residents about my vision for the future of our clerk’s office.”
Kevin LaValle was elected as town councilman in 2013, representing Council District 3, where he has served until now.
Coastal erosion endangers the Village of Port Jefferson's property atop the East Beach bluff. Formerly the place of wedding receptions, the gazebo pictured above was obliterated by the most recent landslide last year. File photo by Raymond Janis
The Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees met on Monday, Nov. 21, for a business meeting covering a range of pressing public business.
Mayor Margot Garant presented the cost estimates for the proposed upper wall to fortify the East Beach bluff, presenting figures ranging from $3.32 million to $4.52 million depending on the scope of the projects, such as add-ons to accommodate racket sports amenities. [See story, “Port Jeff … trustees debate erosion mitigation strategy at village country club.]
After presenting these cost estimates, Garant recommended that the board reject these bids. “I don’t think we should take any action on the upper wall, the steel wall, at this point,” she said.
The plans for the upper wall were delayed for a variety of factors, according to Garant. In a text message, she maintained that the delay was not a change of posture but rather a change in the timeline for final approval, given the weather and the pending completion of the lower wall.
“My position hasn’t changed,” she said. “Something has to be done, but the timeline for the lower wall to be completed, with the upland restoration and plantings not occurring now to the spring, is pushing this from being done within the next six to eight months, so we cannot approve the bid.”
The board also debated an ongoing permit dispute between the village and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation regarding the Port Jefferson Village Clean Solid Waste Landfill. This kettle hole, which facilitates branch and leaf pickup services within the village, was affected by changes to state regulations in 2017.
The purpose of the deliberations was to decide whether to enable P.W. Grosser Consulting, a Bohemia-based environmental firm, to negotiate with the DEC to work out a permit agreement.
“We would like to get our permit back to what the state regs were prior to them changing them, which means we can put branches and leaves in there,” Garant said. “The challenge has become Mother Nature, really, with the large trees.”
The mayor added, “Branch pickup, honestly, I don’t know if it’s sustainable for us in this community.”
With a looming Dec. 11 deadline, the future of the landfill and branch pickup in PJV hangs in the balance. After some debate, the board agreed to table the matter for a later meeting.
In her report, Deputy Mayor Kathianne Snaden detailed the results of a recent survey conducted to determine the name of Station Street, a one-way corridor opening in Upper Port. Out of 134 submissions, “Station Street” was the highest vote-getter.
Trustee Rebecca Kassay reported on an event she has been coordinating with other sponsors called Walk Safe with a Doc. The event will be held sometime this spring topromote the physical benefits of walking and the importance of pedestrian safety.
Trustee Lauren Sheprow reported two upcoming meetings, one with the Country Club Social/Hospitality Task Force and the other with the newly reestablished Parks and Recreation Advisory Council. The PRAC will assign roles and designate committee chairs at its next meeting.
The board of trustees will reconvene Monday, Dec. 12, at 5 p.m., the same day as the upcoming bond vote in Port Jefferson School District.
Pictured above, the PJSTCA executive board. File photo by Raymond Janis
The Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association gathered at Comsewogue Public Library on Tuesday, Nov. 15, for its monthly general meeting.
Representing the Comsewogue School District, students Kylie and Max delivered a string of reports on various upcoming events within the district. Kylie referred to the high school’s recent annual Trick-or-Treat Street as “a huge success.”
Max reported parent-teacher conferences would take place on Monday, Nov. 21, from 5 to 8 p.m. and Wednesday, Nov. 23, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Community members are welcome to attend Spanish Heritage Night on Dec. 9 from 7-9 p.m. in the high school cafeteria.
Ed Garboski, president of PJSTCA, announced that the area had received a grant for streetlights along Route 112. Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) facilitated the funding, according to the civic’s leadership.
These funds, combined with money made available to the community through the new Nissan dealership, should cover lights for the entire strip. The body passed a resolution to draft a letter thanking the councilmember and his staff for their efforts to illuminate the corridor.
PJSTCA vice president Sal Pitti announced a recent “huge arrest” related to catalytic converter theft, a crime trend throughout the region. Pitti reported that law enforcement arrested 21 individuals in a multistate initiative, charging 13, two of whom were from Suffolk County.
“This was a Department of Justice operation that was done with multiple agencies across multiple states,” he said. “Mind you, this does not mean it stops. They got a lot of people that we assume are the main people, but they might not be.” He added, “Arrests are being made on it, but we don’t know where it will go from there.”
Garboski discussed spring plans for the community garden near the middle school. “If anyone has ideas, wants to volunteer or help get it moving for the spring, please let us know,” he said.
The members also discussed a 5-acre, 40-unit planned retirement community to be developed on the corner of Terryville and Old Town roads. Civic member Lou Antoniello, who was involved in the 2008 Comsewogue Hamlet Comprehensive Plan, described the historical background behind this local development discussion.
“Back in 2008, the people who owned that [parcel] were the people who owned the shopping center adjacent to it,” he said. “During the hamlet study, they made it known that they wanted to build a shopping center next to the one they already owned.” He added, “The people who lived in that community said they didn’t want it.”
Through a series of compromises made during the time of the hamlet study, the community and the property owners agreed upon zoning that property for a small retirement community. Since then, the Town of Brookhaven has rezoned that land to PRC Residence District.
Civic member Ira Costell suggested the community take a greater interest in that development as the process works through the Brookhaven Planning Board.
“That owner has an as-of-use right to develop that property in that fashion,” he said. “It’s going to be important that we pay attention to the site plan review process at the Planning Board level to decide if we want to influence how that development proceeds.”
Later this month, the civic’s executive team will meet with town officials and Planning Board members. Asking the members how to represent the interests of the community, Pitti offered that it would be wise if he and others pressed the town to limit all new development to residential rather than commercial.
Inquiring about the coming transition process for the civic leadership, Costell proposed beginning those procedures now.
“Perhaps we can start to talk about a transition group or committee that can join in on some of these conversations and shape where things go in the next several months,” he said. “I think we really need to have a coalition that we can build here so that we can move forward given the changing tenor of the times here.”
Responding, Pitti suggested that he and Garboski intend to finish this year as usual and begin working with possible successors starting in 2023. However, he stated that bringing other members to the upcoming meeting on the Terryville Road PRC development would be unwise.
Costell’s concerns centered less around any one meeting and more around the overall transition process. “I’m trying to indicate that we don’t want to throw somebody into the deep end of the pool next year,” he said. “I’m looking for a principle, an idea, for how we can incorporate some of the people who want to shape this community beyond your time here.”
Finding some common ground, Garboski said members must decide who will fill these top positions given the demands and constraints. “Amongst yourselves, first figure out who wants to take this over,” he said.
Resolving the matter, Costell offered that the organization is working toward a resolution. “You’re making the perfect point that some sort of transition is an ideal circumstance,” he said. “If you’re comfortable with how that’s happening, and the group is as well, that’s fine by me.”
The civic will reconvene Tuesday, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m
The Port Jefferson Village Board of Trustees convened at Village Hall Monday, Nov. 7, for an evening packed with pressing public business.
East Beach bluff
Mayor Margot Garant reported developments from the East Beach bluff construction site, stating buildout of the lower toe wall “has been moving along very nicely.”
“The steel wall is in, the concrete cap is about 100% in, there’s a lot of concrete rebar in there, and now they’re putting in the anchors through the wall and pinning the wall into the cliffside,” she said.
At the upland, the village must soon decide the fate of the clubhouse at Port Jefferson Country Club. The mayor said she has been gathering information from the village’s hired engineers and will provide the board with their findings later this month.
During the public comments, village resident Myrna Gordon inquired about Garant’s recent announcement regarding forthcoming informational meetings on the upland proposals. [See “A message from Mayor Margot Garant: A candid discussion about East Beach bluff,” The Port Times Record, Nov. 3.]
Responding to Gordon, the mayor said more information would be made available following the meeting later this month.
“I’m still getting information from the engineers, looking at some of the drainage plans and alternative solutions for the upland project,” she said. “We put the [upper] wall out to bid. The engineer just got back to us with an analysis of the bid, so it’s coming together for the board to review with me.”
She added, “Then, we’ll be setting a date and either making a presentation at the next board meeting or a special town hall, depending on which way the board thinks we need to go.”
Public safety
Representing the Suffolk County Police Department was police officer Sergio Möller. He stressed the need for drivers to lock their cars and take their keys with them when exiting their vehicles.
“Fifty percent of the cars that get stolen within the 6th Precinct are vehicles that were already running with their keys in it, and that’s a problem,” he said. “Please take your keys with you. Shut the vehicle off. It [takes] only two seconds.”
Code enforcement chief Fred Leute underscored reasons for driving slowly on village roads. “It’s getting dark earlier now,” he said. “We have club and student athletes leaving the school late. It’s already dark, so just drive slow.”
Multiple residents pressed the board on pedestrian safety and walkability. Ana Hozyainova, who ran for trustee earlier this year, asked whether the board is considering a villagewide assessment to promote walkability, bikeability and pedestrian safety.
Responding on behalf of the board, trustee Rebecca Kassay reported she, Deputy Mayor Kathianne Snaden and village staff are exploring the possibility of conducting a study.
“We were pointed toward firms who would do a study, a villagewide study to look at what are the big issues in the village, and how in our particular village can we achieve the goals we want to, both with speed reduction and pedestrian safety,” Kassay said.
Snaden added there might be grant opportunities to subsidize the cost of the study. “It’s expensive, so we have to figure out a way to pay for it,” she said.
Information technology
Kevin Wood, the village’s parking administrator, director of economic development and communications committee head, delivered a presentation on the importance of securing the village’s information technology systems.
Wood’s report comes in the wake of a recent cyberattack against the Suffolk County government. He said municipalities are susceptible to ransomware and other hostile online events due to underfunding, understaffing and outdated systems.
Based on meetings with Island Tech Services, the village’s network partner based out of Ronkonkoma, Wood said he is working to curtail these concerns.
“I live this every day,” Wood said. “I try to be ahead of the curve on this, of what our vulnerabilities are. I have met with ITS in person, and we think we’re on top of it in a lot of different ways.”
He added, “If you look at my past reports, you’ll see why we’re ahead of the curve, but we still have to go forward and think about all of the ways we may be vulnerable.”
The village began enforcing two-factor authentication earlier this month, requiring village employees to pass through a second layer of verification to log into government accounts.
“You cannot sign onto your email with Google without having a way of authenticating [your identity], either through an authenticating app or through your cellphone,” Wood said. “It’s a little bit of a [pain], but we have to get through this because there’s been an indication that that’s how [hackers] are getting in.”
Wood also advocated the village upgrade to Municity 5, a multiplatform, cloud-computing municipal software program. He said this upgrade could make the Building Department “much more efficient and amazing.”
“Because of understaffing and other items, we have not gotten this done,” he said. “I just wanted to report that we have got to get this done.”
Wood further addressed how new technologies will affect parking. Namely, an automated license plate recognition system is already used to enforce parking limits on Main and East Main. This system, Wood said, is gradually supplanting the previous parking enforcement method.
Wood concluded his presentation by noting a villagewide software audit is ongoing to assess other vulnerabilities in the village’s various tech spheres.
Tax code
The night also included a public hearing to amend a section of the tax code. Explaining the measure, village attorney Brian Egan said the New York State Legislature sporadically changes its property tax exemptions for senior citizens.
These changes, according to Egan, often do not correspond to the village’s tax schedule, creating an inconsistency between the state and the village’s tax laws. The motivation for the amendment was to automatically update the village tax code according to changes in state law.
“Instead of us missing that updated income, so a senior citizen can still qualify if that income level went up … we’re going to now set it automatically to whatever the state has,” he said.
Following the public hearing, the board approved the amendment unanimously.
Rental property code
Also on the agenda were two items to put out for public hearing amendments to the village’s rental property code. Kassay, who operates an inn, has helped inform the board of potential code changes, notably affecting Airbnb rentals.
Trustee Lauren Sheprow questioned this process. “I’m still unclear as to how — and I’m going to put out this disclaimer without malice — how a trustee can participate in creating a code and informing the board about a code that has direct impact on a business that she is vested in,” she said.
Sheprow added, “I think there are guidelines and regs in [the New York Conference of Mayors] that say this has a perception or could be perceived as a conflict of interest.”
Responding to Sheprow’s concern, Garant suggested delineating a potential conflict of interest is complicated given how the code affects all board members in their capacity as residents.
“How I feel about this is everything we vote on impacts us because we’re all residents,” the mayor said.
However, she expressed uncertainty regarding enforcing the code change, saying, “I think we need to figure out how we want to, as a board, grasp these issues from an enforcement perspective.”
On the ethics question, Kassay offered that she would recuse herself from any future vote related to this matter. Her intended role was to inform the board, given her professional expertise.
“We all have expertise,” she said. “I gave my expertise and perspective because there’s a lot that seems strange and weird, and it’s an odd industry. For me, whatever comes of it comes of it.” The trustee added, “If you’re looking at it, it’s creating more competition. The way it’s written, for my personal business, there’s no benefit.”
Responding, Sheprow said: “Regardless of what you are telling us right now, your involvement in this process is a conflict.”
The board agreed to table the two items pending an ethics review from the New York Conference of Mayors.
To watch the full general meeting, including trustee reports and public comments, click here.
Check out results from the state, federal and local North Shore races as they come in on election night. All results are courtesy of the New York State Board of Elections.
The village's website will undergo significant revision in the coming months. Screenshot from portjeff.com
The Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees and staff members convened for a work session on Friday, Oct. 28, tackling the various features of the local government’s communications network.
Mayor Margot Garant called the meeting as part of an ongoing effort within her administration to enhance communications between the various entities interfacing with the village government. She set the meeting’s objective. “I want us to create some priorities as a team and then find out where we’re going from here,” she said. “I want the outcomes of this meeting to be defining our priorities for the next six months.”
Centralizing the message
For Garant, effective communication starts with communicating with the general public but goes further than that end alone. She maintained the village could carry out exchanges more efficiently by modifying the existing communications framework in all its facets.
“Communication goes beyond just communicating to the residents and the public,” Garant said. “It goes to communicating internally to staff and everything else.”
Garant said she sees regular communications meetings as essential. Through these dialogues, the team can establish a basis for deciding upon important stories, producing the content and then broadcasting its message.
Deputy Mayor Kathianne Snaden identified some of her priorities. While she said the village has a highly competent staff, greater coordination between these individual units could better advance a common end.
“We have fantastic pieces and parts,” she said, yet “each one is in a silo, somewhat. There’s obviously crossover, but I think … it’s just getting them to work efficiently and overlap.”
Trustee Lauren Sheprow, the village’s communications commissioner, referred to this overlapping method as “the cascading effect — create once, publish everywhere.”
The mayor offered her agreement: “We’ve been completely disconnected, and no one knows who’s driving the bus and where the bus is going.”
Garant also discussed the need for a central chain of command, with the communications team controlling how messages get out. She stressed the need for all parties to go through this decision-making body.
“It’s directing traffic,” the mayor said. “And it’s also creating a very clear line on who they should be talking to and who is giving them the direction.”
Sheprow pitched the potential value of implementing a “global event calendar” and a “content management calendar” within the village government, enabling better organization and tracking of upcoming deadlines.
Garant also identified the need to promptly formulate a plan for circulating emergency information.
“We have the winter season coming up, and that’s usually when we have emergency-type situations,” she said. “You’re going to have a different team at the table when it comes to that. You’re going to have the fire marshal, [code enforcement] chief [Fred] Leute, the ambulance company … you have different threads, different protocols, different everything.”
A website overhaul
In the coming months, a focal point for this administration will be modernizing the village’s website. Garant explained some of the difficulties she experienced using the existing web format.
The current website has several inefficiencies, some of which were identified during the meeting. The future overhaul of the website will emphasize user-friendliness.
“The most important tool we have is our website, and right now I can’t find things on it,” Garant said. “I think that [a revamped website] will have a tremendous impact on how we operate.”
Regarding the website, Kevin Wood, the village’s director of economic development, highlighted some areas for revision. He indicated the existing platform provides too many search results, which clutter the page and overwhelm the user.
“The problems with the website are plentiful,” he said. “One of the things that drives everybody insane is that if you search for just about any topic, you’ll get [results from] 2011, 2012,” adding, “we have to change that.”
Getting the message across
Another discussion point was the matter of producing press releases. Garant argued that generating content can help spotlight prominent stories within the community.
While producing more frequent press releases can help the village get its message out, Wood added that press releases are not limited to a written format. “We should be doing 1-minute video press releases,” he said.
The director of economic development added that compiling information for press releases requires coordination between the various entities involved in a story. For example, a press release spotlighting a particular aspect of village history may require commentary from local historians, public officials and other stakeholders.
“It’s not as simple as taking an email and writing a press release,” he said. “The idea of a press release has to be collaborative.”
As the meeting ended, Garant expressed satisfaction with how much the communications team had accomplished to date. While the village continues to implement its vision for more effective internal and external communication, she expressed confidence in the group assembled. Garant said the committee is headed up by Wood and Charmaine Famularo, a staff member, with trustees Snaden and Sheprow.
“I feel confident that we have the right team, and I think it’s going to be good,” the mayor concluded.
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