From microbeads to methoprene, and being sandbagged by wrongheaded policy: 2015 in the county legislature

2015 marked the 45th year for the Suffolk County Legislature — and it continued, as has been its tradition, to pass pioneering laws. Through the years the legislature has regularly approved what were first-in-the-state and even first-in-the-nation measures.

The Suffolk Legislature replaced the centuries-old Suffolk County Board of Supervisors in 1970. The board consisted of the supervisors of each of Suffolk’s 10 towns. It came to an end as a result of a lawsuit citing the one-person, one-vote court decisions of the 1960s. On the board historically, a supervisor of a relatively lightly-populated East End town had the same vote as a supervisor of a highly-populated western Suffolk town.

I’m the only journalist still around who covered both the board and the legislature, and the board had some advantages. Its members, the town supervisors, were able to draw from what for most was extensive experience in government.

Giants of the Suffolk Board of Supervisors in my time were Shelter Island Supervisor Evans K. Griffing and Smithtown Supervisor John V. N. Klein, both chairmen of the body. With the prospective advent of the Suffolk Legislature, Mr. Klein left his supervisory spot, ran for a legislative seat and became presiding officer of the new body — providing an important connection between Suffolk County’s two governing panels.

But on the other hand, many if not most members of the legislature through the years have been new to elected office and have been able to provide a fresh prospective — thus the innovative lawmaking for which the 18-member legislature has become known.

A pioneering law enacted by the Suffolk Legislature in 2015 was Legislator Kara Hahn’s bill banning the sale in Suffolk of personal care products containing microbeads, tiny plastic balls a few millimeters in size. Over the past decade they have been placed by manufacturers as “scrubbing components” in face soaps, body washes, even toothpaste.

Too small to be filtered out by most wastewater treatment systems, the microbeads pick up toxins as they flow in their being discharged. Upon hitting water where there is marine life, the microbeads are mistaken for food by fish and other species — and the contamination doesn’t stop there. People who eat the contaminated fish and other marine species are impacted.

Ms. Hahn pointed to microbeads being found in Suffolk waters and said: “My legislation will protect our environment, protect our health and protect our fishing and tourism industries.”

The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in recent weeks both passed legislation to ban microbeads on the federal level and President Obama is expected to sign it into U.S. law.

Meanwhile, also in 2015, taking effect in Suffolk was a measure of the Suffolk Legislature—the first in the nation by a municipality — banning the sale of powdered caffeine to minors. It was authored by the panel’s presiding officer DuWayne Gregory.

The Suffolk Legislature has long been in the forefront statewide and nationally of measures to restrict smoking and in 2015 it passed a measure authored by Legislator Monica Martinez banning smoking in common areas — including halls, lobbies, courtyards, stairs, parking garages, laundry rooms, eating areas and meeting rooms—of “any property containing 10 or more dwelling units.” This includes condominiums, senior and assisted living facilities, long-term health care facilities and apartment buildings.

Speaking of the difference between the Suffolk Legislature and the Suffolk County Board of Supervisors, there was never a woman member of the board in its more than two centuries. Judith Hope was elected town supervisor of East Hampton in 1973, becoming the first female town supervisor in Suffolk history, but that was too late for her to be a member of the Board of Supervisors.

Also, there was never an African-American (Mr. Gregory is African-American) or an Hispanic (as is Ms. Martinez) on the Board of Supervisors.

There is diversity, finally, on Suffolk’s governing body mirroring the county’s people – in gender (two women, Sondra Bachety and Maxine Postal were its presiding officers) and in regard to African-Americans and Latinos, both substantial percentages now of Suffolk’s population.

The activities of the Suffolk Legislature in 2015 were not all good. A great mistake it made was again letting itself be bamboozled by the county’s Division of Vector Control to let it spray the dangerous pesticide methoprene to kill mosquitoes. In the process, methoprene also kills “non-target” insects and other life, notes Kevin McAllister, founder and president of the Sag Harbor-based organization Defend H2O. States including neighboring Connecticut and municipalities all over the U.S. have banned the use of methoprene. “Suffolk County in the 1960s led the way nationally in banning the use of DDT,” notes Mr. McAllister. It like methoprene was sprayed widely by the Suffolk County Mosquito Control Commission, replaced by the county Department of Public Works’ Division of Vector Control. Says Mr. McAllister: “Relative to methoprene now, Suffolk County has really lost its way.”

Another serious legislative mistake in 2015 was its voting for — all but Legislator Al Krupski— county involvement in a $8.9 million project, now underway, to place sand-filled “geotubes” along the shore in Montauk. Under the bill passed by the legislature— with Mr. Krupski a minority-of-one against it— all county taxpayers will be responsible for paying for “operation and maintenance” of the field of sandbags.

“I am very familiar with the processes of coastal erosion and the dynamics of the shoreline,” said Mr. Krupski, whose district includes Riverhead and Southold Towns, in a letter to his colleagues. For 20 years he was a member — 14 years president — of the Southold Town Board of Trustees which oversees the shores and adjoining waters of Southold Town. “I believe Suffolk County should not endorse a project that hardens the shoreline,” he said. “This is a project that, one, is sure to fail and cause accelerated erosion to adjacent properties, and two, puts the maintenance on the shoulders of the entire county.”

Unfortunately, the other members of the legislature, and County Executive Steve Bellone who signed the measure, didn’t listen to Mr. Krupski. His forecast that the scheme will fail awaits confirmation in coming years— with now all county taxpayers holding the bag for the sandbags.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. Grossman and his wife Janet live in Sag Harbor.

Suffolk Closeup is a syndicated opinion column on issues of concern to Suffolk County residents.