Port Jefferson Village trustees meeting. File photo
By Lynn Hallarman
During the April 10 Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees workgroup meeting, Treasurer Stephen Gaffga presented the modified tentative budget for fiscal year 2024-25, highlighting the steps the new administration is taking to stay within the New York State 2% tax cap.
Gaffga divided the presentation into four sections:
• Overview of operational challenges and strategic initiatives
• Breakdown of the village’s funding sources
• Allocation of taxpayer dollars across services and obligations
• Explanation of the impact on resident taxes.
Operational challenges and strategic initiatives
Gaffga provided a detailed breakdown of a $541,000 rise in nondiscretionary spending for fiscal year 2024-25. This increase in spending is mostly due to contractual obligations, including employee health insurance, dental insurance, retirement and workers compensation. Notably, there is a large uptick in municipal insurance costs amounting to $131,000, signifying a 50% increase over the previous year.
Another challenge area is the gradual reduction over time in taxes collected from the Long Island Power Authority under the “glide path” agreement. This year, the village saw a decrease in LIPA’s tax contribution to the property tax base by $135,990. Gaffga noted a roughly $570,000 decline in the assessed valuation of LIPA properties, reflecting their reduced worth. “That decrease has an effect on the tax rate ultimately down the road,” he said.
Gaffga indicated that the village exceeded the state tax cap eight times in the last nine years. However, he asserted that will not be the case this year.
According to him, “spending under our control” — or discretionary spending — will decrease in the 2024-25 budget “by more than $260,000.” This decrease is due mainly to eliminating the managerial parking position and redistributing those duties over several departments.
“This operational change will result in a $190,000 decrease in spending, which will be passed on to the taxpayer,” he said.
Gaffga reported that the “deep dive” into the capital fund audit by specialized CPA firm PKF O’Connor Davies of Hauppauge continues. “They’re getting far along in that process. By the end of the fiscal year, we’ll have some idea of the results of that deep dive,” he said.
The treasurer stressed, “It is important that any changes made to this budget are made by the board and they’re done in full view of the public so that everybody understands that the board controls this budget.”
Funding sources
Property taxes account for 60% of the total revenues collected for the village’s general fund, which supports the operational aspects of the village’s budget. Other significant funding comes from managed parking, tax agreements with utilities and recreation fees.
Expenses
Employee benefits are the most significant expenditure at 23%, or $2.6 million, of the general fund. General governmental support, which includes funding the treasurer’s office, attorney support, the clerk’s office and the justice court, amounts to roughly $2.4 million.
Other village services funded by the general fund include public safety — fire marshals, building inspectors and code enforcement; culture, parks and recreation, including the Village Center programs; transportation, including sidewalk repaving; and home community services such as the building and planning department and street cleaning.
“The large majority of our spending [nondiscretionary] we do not have control over,” Gaffga said. There is a total village spending increase of 5%.
Tax impacts
The general fund appropriations in the modified tentative 2024-25 budget are projected at $11,458,475 ($11,371,826), an increase of 0.76%. In addition, the Port Jefferson Country Club budget is shown at $3,550,000 ($2,904,882), an increase of 22.21% that is paid for by raising dues and fees according to Gaffga.
Total amount of taxes levied by the village for the fiscal year are shown at roughly $6.8 million, about a 2% increase from last year. “New York State establishes the 2% tax cap to ensure local governments don’t grow their tax base beyond what is necessary. The village is coming under what the New York State allows,” Gaffga confirmed.
Residential individual taxpayers could see a tax increase of $1.45 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Residents can view the modified tentative budget on the village website. Public comments are open until 5 p.m. April 20. Comments should be directed to Sylvia Pirillo, the village clerk, at [email protected].
The Board of Trustees will meet again on Wednesday, April 24, at 6 p.m.
Further destruction of terracing and plantings on the East Beach bluff after recent rainstorms. Photo by Lynn Hallarman
Recent setbacks in East Beach bluff stabilization project have officials and residents on edge
By Lynn Hallarman
East Beach is a village-owned strip of sandy shoreline situated between the northern front of the Long Island Sound and the base — or toe — of a steeply set bluff, roughly 100 feet high.
A jetty opens into Mount Sinai Harbor eastward of the bluff. To the west, the shore stretches past a series of private properties, then past the village of Belle Terre, and finally curves inward, reconfiguring as Port Jefferson Harbor.
For decades, the village-owned Port Jefferson Country Club, perched near the crest of the bluff, was invisible to beachgoers below, shielded by a thick tangle of greenery clinging to the bluff’s north front.
But in recent years, a series of intense rainstorms, combined with sea rise and pressures from human-made alterations in the landscape above the bluff, have set in motion deforestation and scouring, denuding the bluff of vegetation and accelerating erosion in the direction of the country club’s foundation. The club has become precariously close to the bluff’s edge. Without a plan, there was no doubt it would slide down the bluff onto the shoreline below within a few years.
To make matters worse, the bluff stabilization project, whose aim is to stabilize the position of the club, has been beset with complications in the wake of a series of recent storms unraveling costly work completed just last summer as part of Phase I of the project.
As communities across Long Island are confronting relentless coastal erosion, TBR News Media focuses on the obstacles facing the bluff stabilization project at East Beach, exploring the complexities, costs and alternative solutions to rescuing the country club.
The big picture
Bluffs change naturally over time, feeding sand to the beach and replenishing the shoreline. They respond to the force of winds, waves and tides, creating new states of equilibrium with the beach below and the landscapes above. The Long Island shoreline has been reshaping for thousands of years, sometimes imperceptibly and sometimes in dramatic fits of landslip — that is, chunks of shoreline abruptly falling into the sea.
East Beach and its bluff are inseparable from the adjacent coastline — they move as the coastline moves. When humans make changes in the shorelines by adding bulkheads, jetties and other rigid structures, the effects resonate laterally, affecting the movement of sand and ocean from beach to beach along the shoreline.
“Port Jefferson’s experience with bluff restoration is a microcosm of what has been happening all over Long Island,” said Chuck Hamilton, a marine biologist and former regional natural resource supervisor for the state Department of Environmental Conservation for some 33 years.
“For a long time, farmers on Long Island had their farms right on top of the bluff, and shoreline erosion happened naturally,” he said. But now those same areas are being subdivided and developed, adding weight and impermeable surfaces abutting the shoreline. “And guess what? Now we need to stabilize.”
For decades, Port Jefferson Country Club was invisible to the beachgoers, shielded by a thick tangle of greenery clinging to the bluff. Undated photo courtesy Port Jeff historian Chris Ryon
The project
When Port Jefferson’s mayor, Lauren Sheprow, took office in July 2023, the bluff stabilization project was already in motion. Sheprow, a former public relations professional, had campaigned on a platform of two core values: financial transparency and safeguarding of village assets. However, the realities of rescuing the country club — purchased in 1978 when her father, Harold Sheprow, was village mayor — while keeping project costs under control have proven to be complex and demanding.
Most of Phase I of the project happened before the current mayor took office. This work included the installation of a 454-foot rigid wall at the base, terracing and native grass plantings on the bluff face. With Phase II now under her purview, Sheprow believes it is her responsibility to see the project to completion: the installation of a wall system along the bluff’s crest, directly seaward of the imperiled country club.
“I swore to protect and preserve the property owned by the Village of Port Jefferson, and therefore the residents. Preserving and protecting is not ignoring an erosion issue,” the mayor said.
Phase I, costing approximately $5 million, relied on local taxpayer dollars financed through a bond repayable over time. Phase II, estimated at $4.8 million, will be financed mostly by federal taxpayer dollars by a FEMA grant of $3.75 million.
Financing the endeavor has been rife with holdups and stymied by a six-year-long permitting process. It has been almost a year since Phase I was completed. Final signoffs related to the FEMA funding for Phase II are still pending, preventing the village from seeking bids for construction of the upper wall. However, the village treasurer, Stephen Gaffga, said he hopes to see the signoffs come through this month.
By many accounts, questions about the project’s funding have rankled residents for years. The prevailing sentiment is that the village pushed through a $10 million bond for the stabilization project (phases I and II combined) without a community vote through a bond resolution.
“When I am asked about my position about the bluff restoration, I never saw the arguments on all sides of the project flushed out,” said Ana Hozyainova, president of Port Jefferson Civic Association. “Village officials took the position from the beginning that the building must be saved, no matter what. That imperative has limited the discussions about options.”
Complications
The uncertainty surrounding the cost and timing of needed repairs because of winter storm damage to the bluff faces further complications in Phase II. “Negotiations are ongoing” between the village and the contractor about who is responsible for absorbing these additional expenses, Gaffga said.
Drainage issues at the bluff’s crest are also hampering progress, and likely contributed to the recent collapse of the newly-installed terracing along the western part of the bluff, below the tennis courts. “There are huge puddles sitting at the crest, after heavy [recent] rainstorms,” Sheprow said. The strategy and cost related to addressing the drainage issues have not yet been determined, she added.
Although the project was divided into two phases because of funding constraints, “its ultimate success,” according to Laura Schwanof, senior ecologist at GEI Consultants of Huntington Station, “hinges on both walls working together to curtail erosion and prevent the club slipping down the slope.”
GEI has been involved with village erosion mitigation projects since 2009. The two-wall system for the bluff stabilization was their design. “The problem with this project is protection number two — the upper wall — has not been installed,” Schwanof said. When asked how long the wall system might hold up, she couldn’t say.
“What does happen, and has been seen across the Northeast, is that as we get more frequent storms, higher wave energy, higher rainfall events, rigid wall structures may work in the short term. But if you look 50 years down the road, they may not be as effective,” she said.
“Hard erosion protection structures such as revetments or bulkheads can be costly, only partially effective over time and may even deflect wave energy onto adjacent properties.” Jeff Wernick, a DEC representative, wrote in an email.The DEC, he said, permitted the East Beach project based solely on “the immediate threat to significant infrastructure.”
Completion of Phase I in spring 2023, before winter storms unravel work on the bluff face. Photo from the PJ Village website
Retreat?
When Steve Englebright, 5th District county legislator (D-Setauket) and geologist, was asked about the stabilization project, he started with a lesson about glacial formations dating back 17,000 years. Englebright scrutinized photographs of the bluff during an interview with TBR News conducted after the recent storms.
“When the bluff, which is partially made of clay, is overweighted it behaves like squeezed toothpaste,” he said. “You can see toothpaste-like extrusions on the beach.”
Missing from the conversation, according to Englebright, is a reckoning of what is happening along the entire Long Island coast. “People don’t understand the overall dynamics,” he said. “That’s why I’m trying to give you the big picture — that the entire North Shore is unstable.”
“Trying to defend a single property is human folly,” he added. “You can buy some time, but how much are we paying? I don’t believe it’s realistic because you can’t stop the overall dynamic. The village should celebrate the fact that they have the ability to retreat and use that ability. Right? The bind is if you don’t have land, but they have the land. Strategically retreat, rebuild the building.”
Stan Loucks, a village trustee and a former country club liaison, was asked to put together a retreat plan by former Mayor Margot Garant — confirmed by her to TBR News. “I did a plan A — proceed with the restoration project — or plan B, retreat —about three years ago,” Loucks said. “I got prices for the demolition of the country club, moving the tennis courts and an architectural rendering of a new club further inland.”
“The drawings had a huge deck on this side overlooking the Sound, and the huge deck on this side overlooking the golf course. I would have loved to take that plan to the end,” he added.
Loucks’s retreat plan was never vetted publicly. Sheprow told TBR she never saw a retreat plan.
Loucks remembers when tennis court No. 5 went in a landslide a few years ago. “It was massive and happened overnight,” he said. “And the slide took the gazebo, too.”
Village board hires financial firm to untangle information gaps in capital fund record keeping
Capital project funds asphalt walkway, replacing crushed bluestone at the Harborfront Park for $249,000. Photo by Lynn Hallarman
By Lynn Hallarman
Concerns were raised by newly-appointed village treasurer Stephen Gaffga about the bookkeeping practices that track the village’s capital project fund, prompting a call for a full accounting of the fund’s financial records going back at least seven years.
Gaffga was recently the treasurer for the Village of Greenport. He was hired this past summer by Port Jefferson Village, replacing Denise Mordente who served as treasurer for the previous administration.
During the Nov. 20 meeting of the Port Jefferson Village Board of Trustees, Gaffga described the capital fund’s bookkeeping as having a “severe information gap” in the fund’s ledger. Standard financial procedures “were not followed as best practice,” according to Gaffga.
“I came into Port Jefferson in September, and I saw a negative balance with the capital fund,” the treasurer said. “I tried to figure out how that came to be.”
Gaffga explained at the meeting that capital projects were approved and money was spent, but all these expenses were recorded as a “running tally on the ledger.” This accounting method makes it seem like there is a negative balance for all these projects.
“That’s not the case — we borrowed money, got grant funding, transferred money from the general fund, but the trail is very difficult to follow,” he said.
Gaffga recommended the board hire an outside specialized CPA firm, PKF O’Connor Davies of Hauppauge, to receive assistance in analyzing the record keeping of the capital fund going back in time. As stated at the trustees meeting, the cost of the lookback should not exceed $4,500 per year analyzed. The goal of the analysis is to uncover the financial history of each capital project and “establish a clean slate,” Gaffga said.
“It is entirely possible that everything is OK dollarwise, and it is just a mess on the books,” he told TBR News Media.
Former village Mayor Margot Garant, objected to Gaffga’s characterization of the records. “We did a lot in 14 years, and we used our money very carefully,” she said in an interview, adding, “The documents in place are pretty easy to follow. I don’t know what their issue is.”
The New York State Office of the State Comptroller requires municipalities to undergo an annual audit of financial records. According to the 2022 audit done by the independent accounting firm Cullen & Danowski of Port Jefferson Station, the village had areas for improvement.
Firstly, the village neglected to properly inventory its capital “hard” assets, according to Chris Reino, who represented the auditor at the August trustees business meeting.
The village has no running list of assets like trucks, buildings, computer equipment and furniture, for example, since “at least 2014,” Reino said.
As a consequence, if something goes missing or “there is a catastrophe, it will be hard [for the village] to make a claim to an insurance company to replace it,” Mayor Lauren Sheprow noted.
Secondly, the report indicated that the “village did not maintain adequate accounting records” of the capital project fund.
Cullen & Danowski did not respond to email and phone requests for comment for this story.
Capital project fund
The capital project fund financed a range of projects over time for the village, such as restoring the East Beach bluff, repaving walkways at Harborfront Park, creating the Barnum Street parking lot, building bathrooms at Rocketship Park, digitizing records and more.
The trail of money for a project should be easy to follow by a citizen, according to the state Comptroller’s Office. Bookkeeping for the capital fund should tell the complete story of how taxpayer dollars are appropriated and spent for each project to prevent overspending or leaving financial holes in the funding for essential village improvements.
“I want this board to be educated about this process, so we are all aware of where the money’s coming from and how it’s being spent,” the mayor said at the November board meeting.
Financial transparency
At the August board meeting, Sheprow complained that members of the previous board “never saw the 2022 audit.”
“I don’t recall specifically, but I know I had a discussion with [the trustees] and the treasurer that [the audit report] was in, and I believe that was January,” Garant told TBR News Media.
While financial audits should be posted, along with other yearly financial records on the village website after the Board of Trustees reviews them according to OSC best practice, the 2022 audit submitted to the village administration in January this year was not posted to the village website until this past week, shortly after TBR News Media requested to review the audit report (see portjeff.com/fiscalyear2022auditdocuments).
Mordente did not respond to requests for comment for this story about the village’s 2022 auditing process.
Moving forward, Sheprow said she wants to remedy this perceived gap in transparency.
Gaffga said at the November board meeting the village wants to establish a clean slate so there are no “skeletons bookkeeping-wise that could hold the village back.”
From left, Village of Port Jefferson trustees Bob Juliano and Drew Biondo, Mayor Lauren Sheprow and Deputy Mayor Rebecca Kassay. Photo by Raymond Janis
Public business picked up at Port Jeff Village Hall on Monday, Oct. 2, as the village board of trustees tackled ethics policy, village finances and forthcoming branch pickup services.
Trustee reports
Trustee Drew Biondo updated the public on the board’s ongoing efforts to introduce a Code of Ethics. During his report, he alleged multiple past ethical violations, emphasizing the need for such a policy within the village government.
“I hope that each of you will come when this [Code of Ethics] is presented and ready to go and listen to what’s going on,” he said. “I think what I’m also going to do is present resolutions calling out the old behavior, resolving never to do it again and making sure that every employee of this government understands what’s expected of them because I don’t think they did.”
Trustee Bob Juliano reported on upcoming branch pickup services. West side branch pickup — from the Setauket line to the west side of Main Street — will take place from Oct. 23 to 27. Midtown branch pickup from the east side of Main to the west side of Belle Terre Road will occur from Oct. 30 through Nov. 3. Services for all residents east of Belle Terre Road will occur from Nov. 6 through 13.
Staff reports
Village treasurer Stephen Gaffga reported that in his review of the village’s recent 2022 audit the village’s capital fund has a negative fund balance. “Basically, it means that more money has been spent than has been put into it,” he said. “The big problem with that is that that has an effect on your other funds.”
To alleviate these fiscal pressures, Gaffga advised the board to consider “severely cutting back on its discretionary capital spending,” tapping into the capital fund only for projects entirely subsidized through grants or deemed critical. “There needs to be a rebuilding of the fund balance,” he added.
Village clerk Sylvia Pirillo reported her office’s ongoing efforts to make agendas for public meetings more comprehensive and accessible. Among the new provisions within the agenda are attachments and numbered resolutions.
Pirillo said the village has also added complete Request for Proposal and Request for Quotation packages to the village website, which may include drawings, specifications and schematics.
“This eliminates the need for a potential proposer to actually come into Village Hall and pick up hard copy documents at a fee,” the clerk said.
More information
The board will reconvene Monday, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m. To watch the entire recent meeting, including the public safety report, board resolutions and general comments, please see the video above.
The Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees was back before the public Monday night, Sept. 18, for a business meeting spanning roughly two hours and covering a range of local matters.
Parking pilot program
With Deputy Mayor Rebecca Kassay as the lone dissenter, the board passed an amended resolution 4-1 enabling the issuance of parking permits for Belle Terre residents to park in metered spaces.
In this pilot program, which will last for the remainder of the 2023 calendar year, parking passes for Belle Terre residents will be offered at a prorated expense of $25. This parking pass does not confer access to the PJV resident lot on Arden Place.
Mayor Lauren Sheprow read an email into the record from Village of Belle Terre Mayor Bob Sandak, who characterized the parking pass initiative as mutually beneficial to both municipalities.
“For many years, the residents of Belle Terre have said that they would spend much more time in the village of Port Jefferson if they could have a simple and inexpensive way to park,” the email read. “Any solution you choose to adopt would be much appreciated by the residents of Belle Terre and would, I am sure, prove to be a financial benefit to the businesses of Port Jefferson.”
Outlining reasons for the program, Sheprow said the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District unanimously supported the proposal.
Trustee Drew Biondo considered the parking pass program “cost-neutral and revenue-producing.”
In supporting the motion, trustee Bob Juliano suggested that the pilot program offers 11 weeks to test and evaluate the program: “It doesn’t mean I’m going to approve it going forward, but let’s try it for the 11 weeks and let’s see what it produces,” he said.
Explaining her “no” vote, Kassay indicated that parking accommodations for village employees remain unresolved.
“For years, I’ve heard consistent requests from Port Jefferson business owners asking the village to consider making parking passes available to their employees who are spending $1.50 per hour to go to work,” the deputy mayor said in a subsequent email. “A solution for this concept, as well as the concept of parking permits for nonresident visitors, deserves a great deal of time and discussion from the village board, staff and community at large.”
She added, “I hope the 2024 paid parking season in PJV will begin with a convenient, comprehensive parking permit program for recreational visitors and local employees alike.”
QR code scam
Parking and mobility administrator Kevin Wood updated the board of a recent scam targeting some of the village’s metered parking signs.
“Some group of people or person — most likely this weekend — placed perfectly square, fraudulent QR codes over the existing QR code on some of the signs,” Wood told the board.
Those who scanned the fraudulent code “were offered a flat fee parking rate of $20,” Wood said, adding, “We don’t know exactly how many people were defrauded, but I will tell you we caught it very early Saturday night.”
Wood estimated approximately 12-15 parking signs had been tampered with, maintaining that all fake QR codes had been removed. He added that a detailed report on the incident was sent to the Suffolk County Police Department.
Proposed schedule change
The board debated a proposal to move its regular meetings from Monday to Thursday.
Village clerk Sylvia Pirillo said the existing meeting schedule often conflicts with holidays, adding that there are other logistical challenges for village staff.
“We’re recommending instead the second and final Thursday of each month” for board of trustees meetings, Pirillo said. “We also feel that for staff and for work product that this would be a more consistent schedule. We now have warrants that are once a month, and this would help with the processing.”
Biondo supported the schedule change, saying, “It’s good to try something new. If it doesn’t work, we can caucus and decide to go back.”
Kassay referred to the logic for changing the schedule as “sound.” However, she asked the board to consider public feedback before adopting the change.
“I, as a trustee, have learned that making large, sweeping decisions like this without giving the public a chance to have their voices heard is often greeted quite negatively,” the deputy mayor said.
The board did not hold a vote on the change of schedule.
New treasurer
The village’s new treasurer, Stephen Gaffga, attended his first board meeting Monday night, delivering a brief report on his plans for the office.
Moving forward, Gaffga said he would present monthly financials, including fund balance information, expenses and revenues, also budget transfers. He proposed some changes to office procedures.
“I want to be able to tighten up the procurement procedures here a little bit to be able to allow for more transparency in how the money is being spent — taxpayer money, country club money, capital funds — and to also allow more clarity when it comes to the warrants,” he said. “I think the more information there is, the better.”
To watch the entire meeting, including trustee reports, please see the video above.
