Supervisor, at odds with two council members, accuses them of working to undermine her to serve their own political ambitions

A disagreement over the handling of battery energy storage uses in Riverhead has opened up a chasm on the Town Board, where two members have been quietly but increasingly at odds with the town supervisor for nearly a year.

Things came to a head in the past week after the town supervisor accused two council members of conspiring against her because, she says, they want her job.

Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said in an interview Saturday that council members Tim Hubbard and Ken Rothwell both want to run for the position she now holds and are working to undermine her. The supervisor and all four councilpersons are members of the Republican party.

Both Hubbard and Rothwell adamantly deny working against Aguiar — but only one of them denies an interest in running for the job.

“I’m considering it,” Hubbard said in an interview Monday. “I’m not ready to make any big announcements, but I am considering it,” he said.

“If Tim should run, I would fully support him,” Rothwell said Monday. “The reason being is that it should be so much easier to do the things that we’re trying to do here. And Yvette just puts hurdles in front of things and obstacles that are completely unnecessary,” he said.

Both described unpleasant interactions with a supervisor whose behavior they each described, in separate interviews, as “paranoid,” bullying and narcissistic.

Rothwell said the supervisor wants to keep close tabs on everything the council members are doing, demanding to know who they are meeting with and why — even when there’s an advisory committee meeting in the Town Hall meeting room.

“I take it with a grain of salt — what she does or what she says. We’re doing some great things, and we’re gonna get there, with or without her,” Rothwell said.

In an hour-long, wide-ranging phone conversation Saturday morning, one of Aguiar’s main complaints was being excluded by fellow board members, who she said are part of a larger “good old boys system” in Riverhead that includes attorneys, developers and town employees. It’s a system she said marginalizes her because she’s a woman and a newcomer to politics.

Aguiar said the two council members were “in cahoots” with Building and Planning Administrator Jefferson Murphree on the battery storage code and “pushing” the application to site a facility on Mill Road — an application Aguiar said she knew nothing about until she saw it on the Planning Board’s Aug. 18 agenda.

Included in the group working behind the scenes to craft the code, according to Aguiar, is attorney Steven Losquadro. She said she is certain that he was working with the planning department to write the code, based on information she was given by a person she did not identify. Aguiar offered as proof of his involvement two letters Losquadro filed with the town clerk, offering his comments on the proposed code after the public hearing — during an open period for written comments on the legislation. According to Aguiar, Losquadro submitted the public letters to cover up the fact that he was involved in drafting the code in the first place.

“They’re all drinking buddies,” Aguiar said of Hubbard, Rothwell, Murphree and Losquadro.

“I’ve never had a drink with Jeff Murphree,” Rothwell responded, laughing. Losquadro attended a political fundraiser for Rothwell which the councilman held at Jamesport Farm Brewery last year, he said.

Hubbard also laughed off the allegation, chalking it up to the supervisor’s wrong-headed perceptions about political enemies. He recalled Aguiar being upset about Rothwell allegedly getting signatures on petitions to run for supervisor in the next election. Hubbard said she called him to say she saw this during a recent Alive on 25 event.

“Okay, well, there are no petitions out now, but whatever,” he said.

Petitions can only be circulated during a prescribed period of time, set by the state. Rothwell was signing people up to make donations to the wounded warriors horse ranch in Baiting Hollow, where his wife is a volunteer, Hubbard said.

Losquadro said in a phone call Monday evening he saw the battery storage code for the first time when it was posted online on the town’s website.

“I offered public comment after seeing the code for the first time after it was posted publicly. I looked at it. And I offered comments. By the way, the comments are a matter of public record,” Losquadro said.

Murphree declined comment on Aguiar’s statements, including statements made in an email to Muprhree provided by Aguiar to RiverheadLOCAL.

“I carry out my duties as the Town Building and Planning Administrator,” he said in an email. “I will not respond to ad hominem attacks,” Murphree said.

Aguiar said Saturday she has not decided whether to seek election to a third term of office because of the politics at play, which she said are aimed at defeating her. Again, she cited Hubbard and Rothwell as plotters who are out to orchestrate her political demise.

Another example of this, Aguiar said, was them meeting with the Riverhead CSEA, the union that represents most civilian town employees, and negotiating a a new collective bargaining agreement without her knowledge.

“The union sent out a letter [saying] ‘Thank you to the entire board. We’re getting 6% raises and we’ll get it retro and it’s great to work with management,’” Aguiar said. “And I write up this letter to them [saying] ‘First of all, I’m the CFO of this organization. You never contacted the financial administrator.’ So they met individually — the two people who are running — and they made this agreement and then — I have the letter from the CSEA. They never included me and somebody forwarded to me,” Aguiar said.

“So we filed a PERB [labor law complaint] with the state,” she said, “because they have given up the town because they want to run. They don’t care. They have to stop — you have no idea what we deal with,” she said.

“So I went to the [town’s labor law] attorney and he says that’s bad faith negotiation, and you doing the budget and all three contracts are up. They’ve been trying to rape this town once we got the [American Recovery Act] money. Oh my God,” Aguiar said. “It was a money grab. They told me I have to pierce the [2% tax] cap,” Aguiar said, adding they want her budget to pierce the cap to make her re-election even harder.

Both Hubbard and Rothwell denied these allegations also.

“There is absolutely no truth to that whatsoever,” Hubbard said.

Riverhead CSEA Unit President Terri DeFilippis also disputed the supervisor’s account.

“CSEA did not circumvent the negotiation process, DeFilippis said. She said she reached out to the entire town board to advocate for her members.

CSEA union members are suffering from the devaluation of the dollar just as nonunion employees are, DeFilippis said, noting that nonunion employees received a pay increase at the start of the year to hedge against rising inflation.

“I’m hopeful that the Town Board and the supervisor sympathize with the rank and file and appreciate our worth to the town,” DeFilippis said. The union sought to being negotiations earlier this year, in June, well in advance of the time when the 2023 budget is being prepared, she said.

The town has scheduled the first negotiating session for Sept. 25, just before the supervisor’s statutory budget deadline on Sept. 30, DeFillipis said.

“I stay positive that we will have a successful, mutually beneficial contract negotiation with Riverhead,” she said.