Supervisor candidates trade barbs at News-Review debate
Mr. Coates, you were a paid advisor to the supervisor for several years. Yet now you are criticizing Mr. Walter, saying he and Ms. Giglio have been driving the town in the wrong direction for the past six years. Is it fair to say that you bear some responsibility from the town’s current state?
Anthony Coates: “I haven’t sat on the Town Board. I wrote a lot of good words for both of these folks. I’ve been greatly disappointed that they haven’t been translated into good deeds. I was excited when they took the oath of office and they said they put the town on firm footing. We have the lowest bond rating of any town in Suffolk County, and the worst credit rating. They said they were fiscal conservatives. We have the highest taxes of any town on the East End. They said they would hold the line on taxes. We have a 5 percent tax increase coming this year. So, I feel I gave advice and I feel that it didn’t wind up in tangible action that works for the people of Riverhead. Sean is been a friend, I’ve interacted with Jodi over the years. I didn’t take the stuff lately but I’m greatly disappointed.”
Ms. Giglio, you have been on the Town Board since 2010. And while you have criticized the supervisor for some of his fiscal policy, you have also had the opportunity to make amendments to the budget by gathering two or more votes. Why have you been unable to do that?
Jodi Giglio: “For the last six years that I have been on the board, I voted no on millions of dollars in spending, so I have held the line on spending. I feel I have been fiscally prudent and fiscally responsible. And so, I’m proud of that record. When it comes to garnering votes to make revisions to the budget, it’s much easier to put out a budget as a supervisor than it is as a councilperson to try and get two of the votes to change the budget. In the beginning I thought I had three votes. I had George Gabrielsen and my fellow councilman supporting a change to the budget to eliminate spending and replace the fire marshal. Fire Marshall is a matter of public safety and I though it was very important to keep the fire marshal position. So, I couldn’t support the budget. I couldn’t garner the three votes. My fellow board members felt that the town, the sponge was wrung and it was dry and there was nothing left in the budget to be cut. So I did my job over the years to vote no on spending items and to find ways to save the taxpayers money. To save you money by insisting that we put our garbage contract out to bid rather than extending the contract, witch some of my fellow board members including the supervisor wanted to do. They said you don’t want to mess with the garbage, because people will be standing outside town hall, lined up outside of town hall. I insisted we put up a bid, that we that we revise the code, and and it saves taxpayers — you — $200,000 to $300,000 on your tax bill for the residential houses. I also audited and analyzed several of the aspects of town government and spending and found ways to cut back on that spending, by putting more efficient policies in place.”
Mr. Walter, last year you said you put your entire political career on the 2015 budget. Now it appears over $700,000 budgeted for revenue at EPCAL will not come through, as well as another $600K from the county. You have proposed piercing the tax cap this year. Why should taxpayers trust you to craft the 2017 and 2018 budget?
Sean Walter: “Grant that’s a good question. The bottom line is this. There are three ways to correct the town budget. I’ve listened to a lot of stuff about garbage contracts that I wasn’t gonna vote for. That had expired and we had to rebid the garbage contract. I’ve heard Mr. Coates say that we’re crafting the formulation to solve the towns budgetary woes and now he’s running away from it. There are three ways to fix the budget. That’s it. You grow your way out, you tax your way out and you save your way out. We employed all three. We grew the economy of this town as fast as we possibly could. Some of you are running against Route 58. We are the fastest growing town in Suffolk County, but for East Hampton last year, and maybe the year before as well. This is because of the growth on Route 58. We came into office with a 12 percent budget deficit. $5.7 million. We cut the government by 10 to 12 percent. It’s a little tough to cut any further than that, but we cut it. And the final thing is, unfortunately, we raised taxes to the end of the tax cap. Now you going to hear a lot about ‘we’re the highest taxed and the highest indebted town.’ That’s not true. Just because Mr. Coates says it over and over again, it’s not true. What we did, we employed all three mechanisms and we got to the other line and the bottom line is this: for a mere seven dollars a month, you’re going to retain all your services and the budget is balanced. And I’m proud of that.”
Does Riverhead have a traffic problem, and what if anything can you do about it as supervisor?
Coates: “We absolutely have a traffic problem and most of it is due to poor planning. I don’t think anyone…you’re in the news business. How many accidents do you cover a week? How many accidents take place, fender benders, that we didn’t have a while ago? I heard the debate for the Council candidates earlier. We were told that Route 58 was gonna solve our economic woes. We built Route 58 and we were told that we were going to be on easy street. Instead, what’s happening? We are the most indebted town in the county. We are the highest taxed town on the East End. Route 58, while it’s made us some money, it’s also cost us a great deal. And I think that’s resulted in traffic… It’s a poorly planned place and as far as what you can do about it, you can revisit the Master Plan. Some of it, in the future, we can get a handle on it. We are building shopping centers within shopping centers. That isn’t smart practice. The planning board has approved project after project because we we haven’t revisited the master plan to come up with a different vision for this town. In downtown, the lack of parking there is putting pressure on other roads. There’s a number of different ways you can do it. But first you have to recognize the problem.”
Giglio: “I think the traffic on Route 58 is horrendous and I avoid it at all cost. But It was the master plan that was done in 2004 and the zoning that was adopted with it. I like the master plan though, I think the Master Plan is working. I like that we have a commercial districts clustered in one area on Route 58. I voted no to extend that shopping district west of of the Long Island Expressway for a project that was proposed across him Splish Splash. And I voted no to extend high density housing to the east. So I think that, I drive around Riverhead and I look at the farm fields and I look at all the preserved lands we have in the Town of Riverhead. Those lands, when we preserve them, they come off the tax rolls. We like the farmlands. We like to be able to drive down Sound Avenue and look at the vistas. And I think that makes Riverhead special. But in order to do that, and to preserve those farmlands, these developers that are building on Route 58 are buying transfer of development rights credits. They are buying farm credits in order to preserve the farms and have the high density development on Route 58 between the Long Island Expressway and Route 105. So I think the way the Master Plan was done, with the transfer of development rights in order to get increased density, is working, and I think that as long as we continue to keep our areas rural that are supposed to be rural in the MasterPlan, rather than going out and studying and spending, which is something my opponent has said he’s against but yet he’s proposing another moratorium. Which cost money. This has been operating at a town and operating at a 4 1/2 million dollar deficit and I think it’s time I don’t think it’s time to be talking about spending.”
Walter: “This is where having the sage advice and years of living in the town, as Mr. Wooten and Mr. Hubbard have, makes the difference. You folks just got here, so I’m gonna say something that you don’t understand. When Joe Janoski was in office, you couldn’t attract anybody to Riverhead. Nobody wanted to come here. We had years and years where there was potential negative assessed valuation, which meant your gross national product of the town was going down. Denise Civiletti sat on that board. It was a major problem for the town. So they came up with a plan. And the plan was Route 58. And they did what they could to attract businesses. Do you know what happened? It worked. I’m not saying Route 58 is the panacea that solves all the problems. But it does pay 16 percent of your tax bill and without it, your taxes would be 16 percent higher. Is the traffic as good as it could be? Absolutely not. But the bottom line is, we planned for this growth. I agree with Miss Giglio, it starts at the expressway and stops at Route 105. It wasn’t a bad thing, folks and the people of this town enjoy it. It’s not like you have to go to Port Jefferson to go to Home Depot anymore.”
Coates: “Mr. Supervisor, don’t pick on my teammates. They’ve offered ideas and they’ve been activists in this community. They may not have come over on the Mayflower, but I really don’t see what that has to do with anything. Yes, Route 58 is what it is. But on the other hand, if we didn’t have all that activity, how much would we not have spent. Believe me, the town was in much better financial shape than it is now.”
Walter: “That is the most ludicrous thing that I’ve heard and you know it. You know it’s true. The town was in debt, the general fund was $5.7 million out of budget (when I took office) and this year it is balanced. Route 58 made its difference. Do you know what we have so much so many senior communities and do you know why they are where they are? Because they love being close to the shopping on Route 58 and they love being able to go to the farm fields and enjoy the vistas in the Town of Riverhead. It’s not a bad thing. We can’t build up this town by tearing it down, Mr. Coates.”
Giglio: “I’d like to say that traffic did become a problem. When the county proposed widening Route 58 and not doing acceleration and deceleration lanes, I reached out to Legislator Krupski who is our liaison to the department of public works in the county. I reached across party lines and I worked with my legislator to have the Suffolk County Department of Public Works review site plans and require cross access easements and acceleration and deceleration lanes. We weren’t getting any comments back from the Department of Public Works when we were sending them site plans on Route 58. So that’s what you need, a leader to reach across party lines.”
