A public hearing on a housing code amendment proposed by Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith grew heated at last night’s town board meeting, after Riverhead resident Stephanie Ranghelli, speaking on behalf of a new community group called Riverhead Town Association of Concerned Citizens, took the podium to angrily complain that the town’s code enforcement is “lacking,” negatively affecting taxpayers’ property values and causing a crisis in Riverhead public schools.
Ranghelli got into a back-and-forth with Jens-Smith, who tried to interrupt her to say that the proposed code is intended to do exactly what the resident was demanding.
“Don’t shush me — I’m a community member,” Ranghelli shot back, accusing the supervisor of making a political campaign speech.
The exchange led to a long, contentious discussion among board members about code enforcement staffing and the town attorney’s approach to prosecuting cases.
Councilman Tim Hubbard said the supervisor’s tentative budget did not have sufficient appropriations to adequately staff the code enforcement division and town attorney’s office.
Jens-Smith, who filed a $100,390,400 operating budget with the town clerk on Sept. 30, said she put out her tentative budget by the Sept. 30 statutory deadline “and town board members didn’t put in any requests” for changes.
The board has not had any public discussion of the supervisor’s proposed spending plan and last night voted unanimously to schedule a Nov. 6 public hearing on the supervisor’s budget, without any amendments.
Councilwoman Catherine Kent said last night “it’s about time” the town attorney’s office goes to Supreme Court for injunctions rather than prosecute violations in the Riverhead Town Justice Court, which has no power to issue injunctions. Kent said that approach is the preference of Deputy Town Attorney Erik Howard, who was hired in June 2017 to focus on code enforcement.
“You can talk to your son-in-law,” Kent told Hubbard, referring to Howard, “because we should be going to Supreme Court.”
Hubbard said the town attorney’s office is understaffed. “Years back we had an attorney to handle just Supreme Court actions. We don’t now. This budget does not address that,” he said.
Jens-Smith said she increased its code enforcement staff in 2019, coordinated its approach and increased the number of violations issued. Additional code enforcement staff is proposed in her 2020 budget, she said.
Her opponent in the upcoming election followed Ranghelli to the podium to accuse the supervisor of a “lack of transparency,” though she did not cite specific examples.
“This kumbaya is because you’re running for re-election,” Republican supervisor candidate Yvette Aguiar said.
“There has not been one Supreme Court action since you’ve been supervisor,” Aguiar said.
Jens-Smith said that was at the recommendation of Howard, the deputy town attorney assigned to code enforcement. She asked town attorney Robert Kozakiewicz to “back me up on this.”
Kozakiewicz demurred. “We’re way off-topic here,” he said.
“Please answer the question,” Jens-Smith told him.
“Supreme Court takes much longer unless you’re fortunate enough to get a TRO or preliminary injunction,” Kozakiewicz said. “We need an attorney focusing on that solely,” he said, as well as support staff.
But the town attorney’s budget request for 2020 did not include funding for an additional full-time staff attorney, according to data contained in a budget supplement report provided by the supervisor and posted on the town website.
The department head’s request for full-time salaries sought an increase for 2020 of $36,700 more than the $587,000 budgeted in 2019. The supervisor’s tentative budget funded that line at $618,700, $5,000 less than the department head’s requested amount. Part-time salary appropriations in the town attorney’s office — $20,000 — remain at the 2019 level for 2020 in both the department head’s request and the supervisor’s tentative budget.
The code enforcement division’s full-time salary line was increased in the supervisor’s budget to $366,700 in 2020, up from $289,000 in 2019 — and over $40,000 more than what was requested by the department head, Kozakiewicz, who sought $325,600 in that line in the coming fiscal year.
Councilwoman Jodi Giglio reiterated her position that the proposed housing code revision was not ready for a public hearing. She said there were internal inconsistencies in the draft and inconsistencies with the state code.
“This whole discussion should have happened at a work session,” Giglio said.
The councilwoman also complained that the supervisor had deputy town attorney Ann Marie Prudenti draft the revision without the participation of Kozakiewicz or Howard. She said they didn’t even get to see the draft until the day before a work session when it was on the agenda for discussion.
“Yes I was very frustrated,” Jens-Smith replied. “I’ve been sitting with them [in meetings]for six months with no relief. I was sick and tired of it. So, yeah, I did ask the deputy town attorney to draft this,” she said.
Kozakiewicz interjected that he did know Prudenti was working on this. “She did come to me the Friday before to say she was working on it,” he said.
Councilman James Wooten reminded board members and the public that “this is a public hearing” not a code adoption. “That’s were we have to go back and interject all of this,” he said. “Let’s get this thing straightened out.”
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