Recreation fees: Town moves to legalize what it’s been doing for years

After backing off on an attempt five years ago to revise town code to conform it to actual practice where beach fees are concerned, the town board is taking a different tack: taking the fee amounts out of the code altogether, so the board can simply set the fees by resolution.

That’s something the town board has been doing for years anyway — since at least 2006 — imposing by resolution beach sticker and 4×4 permit fees that are higher than amounts provided by town code — by as much as 50 percent.

Chapter 48 of the town code sets the annual fee for a resident parking permit — the annual sticker required in order to park a vehicle at town beaches — at $10. But the town board by resolution has been setting that fee at $15 per year. Similarly, the fee for a permit to drive on the beach is set by local law at $35. But the town board by resolution has been setting that fee at $45.

That’s a problem, because a town board can’t legally change a local law by any means other than by adopting a new local law to amend it.

“You can’t change a local law by resolution,” said former Riverhead town attorney Patricia Moore, who has a private practice in Southold. “You can only change a local law by local law.”

Under state law, that requires a public hearing, properly noticed in an official newspaper, followed by the adoption of the local law, which also must be noticed with the publication of a notice of adoption. The process is governed by the New York State General Municipal Law, she said. “The town can’t just ignore that.”

However, that’s exactly what the town’s done for at least a decade.

“We’ve been adopting those blanket resolutions for many years,” Supervisor Sean Walter said, “since before my time in office.”

The town sells about 4,000 beach stickers per year at $15 each and between 450 and 500 4×4 permits at $45 each, according to records provided by the Riverhead Recreation Department, netting about $25,000 per year more in fee revenues than authorized by statute.

Asked if the cash-strapped town would be issuing refunds to residents for the overcharges, Walter laughed. “No, I don’t think so.”

The town board had a public hearing in 2011 on a code change that would have conformed the code to what was actually being charged by the recreation department for beach parking stickers and 4×4 permits, but it never adopted the code amendment. During that public hearing, other inconsistencies were brought up by residents and the supervisor said the town would review the code to see what needed to be corrected.

The “blanket resolutions” that have been adopted each year by the town board also impose a whole host of fees for use of town facilities.

Among the fees included in the annual resolution is a “boat ramps permit” for $15/year. One of the proposed code changes would put that permit requirement — called a boat launch permit — right in the code. The recreation department has been selling 250 to 200 boat ramps permits annually to residents at $15 per year.

Prudenti said she does not believe the town board needs specific legislative authority to set the fees, but it makes sense to include that grant of authority in the code, which is what the proposed code amendments would do.

The code changes now proposed will take all fee amounts out of the law altogether and specifically authorize the town board to set the fees by resolution.

Inconsistencies in the town code, things that should be in the code but aren’t and things that are in the code but don’t need to be, motivated the town board to “go forward with a comprehensive update of the town code,” Walter said. “We’ve been doing that through General Code Publishers. It’s been a long process. This is just another example of the things that need fixing,” the supervisor said.

The code changes are set for public hearing on Tuesday, March 15, beginning at 7:05 p.m. The board moved the start time for Tuesday’s hearing up to 6:30 p.m. — a half-hour earlier than usual — because of a long agenda that evening.