‘Private roads’ dispute between highway supe and town board mushrooms

Highway Superintendent George Woodson’s dispute with the town board over taking over as “highways by use” private roads in a Baiting Hollow Soundfront community has expanded into a dispute over responsibility for the highway chief’s legal fees.

Woodson wants to challenge in court the town board’s decision to incorporate private roads in the Oak Hills community in Baiting Hollow as “highways by use.”

He says the town is by law responsible for his legal fees and wants to hire Mineola attorney Peter Bee to represent him in a legal action challenging the town board’s decision.

Woodson submitted a resolution which would authorize payment of his legal fees in connection with that lawsuit. But in a split vote Tuesday, the town board rejected Woodson’s request.

Board members voted 3-2 against the resolution, without comment. Council members John Dunleavy and Jodi Giglio supported the resolution while Supervisor Sean Walter and council members James Wooten and Tim Hubbard voted “no.”

“By law they’re supposed to pay for my attorney,” Woodson said Wednesday. He said Bee, who is the lawyer for the Suffolk County Highway Superintendent’s Association, advised him accordingly.

Woodson said that opinion was backed up by the Cornell University representative who teaches highway law classes for the state highway association.

“I’m not spending highway district funds on private roads,” Woodson said. “That violates state law.”

What’s next? Woodson said he would have to appeal the board’s rejection of funding the lawsuit he wants to bring against the board over the “highways by use” designation for Oak Hills.

But that will require hiring a lawyer — and paying legal fees — which will require a town board resolution authorizing payment.

What if a majority of the town board rejects a resolution authorizing payment of legal fees to challenge a town board decision designating the public highways? Where does it end?

Woodson said he needs to speak with his attorney about that.

“I see it as a waste of taxpayer’s money. It’s all politics,” Woodson said.

The highway superintendent says the town supervisor was politically motivated in his determination to take the Oak Hills roads as public highways in the first place. Walter denies that and says the decision was the right thing to do.

The acceptance of the roads as public highways was discussed by the town board in executive session as part of a proposed settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Oak Hills homeowners association against the town, which had originally decided to incorporate the roads as “highways by use” for the limited purpose of snow-clearing.  The settlement discussion behind closed doors took place without the highway superintendent, according to both Woodson and Giglio. When the resolution was brought to the floor at a subsequent town board meeting, Woodson took the podium to state his objection publicly and announce he would not spend highway funds on private roads. The board passed that resolution over his objection, but it has not yet voted to authorize any settlement of the Oak Hills lawsuit.