An Aquebogue resident criticizing the town’s proposed budget during a public hearing on the budget was ejected from yesterday’s Riverhead Town Board meeting under police escort.
Ron Hariri was escorted out of the Town Hall meeting room after he refused to leave the podium following a hostile interchange with Supervisor Tim Hubbard, during which he was criticizing the Town Board’s proposed budget and called Supervisor Tim Hubbard “an absolute disgrace to this town.”
Hariri, an attorney whose public comments at meetings, on Facebook and during the morning show on a local radio station are often caustic, has gotten into arguments during board meetings with the current supervisor and his immediate predecessor, Yvette Aguiar.
The town in the past has muted his microphone during comments made via Zoom at town meetings, when he engaged in a back-and-forth debates with town officials that also grew contentious.
At yesterday’s meeting, the supervisor ordered the livestream of the meeting shut down as he directed police to remove Hariri from the room after the resident refused to leave the podium.
Video recorded while town’s livestream was shut down
Before gaveling the meeting to a close — more than four hours after it started — Hubbard said he promised during his inaugural speech that “the Town Board meetings were not going to be circus acts any more. And if you come in here and you decide to act like a clown, and make it a circus, you will be removed.”
Hubbard continued: “I made that very clear, if you can’t come, and it’s not just the Town Board, it’s any of our boards, if you can’t come to the microphone and be respectful and civil, stay home. You won’t be allowed in, you will be removed from the building.”
The supervisor said disruptive behavior “won’t be tolerated.”
Listen to RiverheadLOCAL audio recording (below)
Hubbard called yesterday’s turn of events “sad” and Hariri’s ejection from the meeting “unfortunate.”
Hariri called it a violation of his civil rights and “per se defamatory.”
In an emailed statement last night, he said he plans to file a lawsuit against the town for its “blatant violation of my constitutional rights” and expects to “seek substantial compensatory and punitive damages against Hubbard, the officers involved as well as the Town and Police Department.”
Hubbard said in a text message last night he ordered the audio and video shut down “because I was trying to save the embarrassment of Hairini being removed from the meeting.” Asked whose embarrassment he was referring to, Hubbard replied, “To save his embarrassment. As an officer of the court, he should know better,” alluding to Hariri’s status as a licensed attorney.
Hariri’s emailed statement cast Hubbard’s actions as “retaliation” for his “successful representation” of a veteran Riverhead Town public safety dispatcher, who in 2020 filed a $10 million lawsuit against Riverhead police and town officials alleging violations of federal and state law for a “pervasive pattern of intimidation, retaliation and discrimination.”
The survived a motion to dismiss in the trial court and the appellate division affirmed the trial court’s decision earlier this year. The case remains pending.
Hariri said he was “not surprised” by Hubbard’s reaction to his criticism, but “as a longstanding taxpayer, senior citizen and 911 cancer survivor, I have a First Amendment right to express my views in a public forum.”
Hubbard: ‘We don’t entertain clowns at the podium’
The Town Board’s adopted rules of procedure for meetings include a rule about meeting decorum. “No member of the public shall engage in any disruptive demonstration or otherwise disrupt the formality of a Town Board meeting,” the rules state.
Yesterday, Hariri made an infrequent in-person appearance for the Town Board hearing on a local law authorizing the town to pierce the state-imposed tax levy limit and the board’s proposed 2025 budget, which includes a 7.55% tax rate increase. The budget also proposes pay raises for elected officials, including the supervisor and council members.
Hariri was one of several residents who spoke during the budget hearing yesterday, but the only one whose criticism drew a reaction. (Editor’s note: A separate budget hearing story will follow.)
He wasted no time getting under the supervisor’s skin when he took the podium yesterday, opening his comments with a jab at the costume Hubbard wore during the Town Board work session that took place on Halloween.
“Mr. Supervisor, it’s interesting you’re not wearing your leprechaun outfit today, nothing really inspires my confidence in the town’s chief financial officer as that leprechaun costume,” Hariri said.
“I’m glad you liked it,” Hubbard replied.
“…But the reality of it is, you, sir, have been on the board for about a decade, and it has been a decade of poor decisions and bad judgments on the town’s prior budgets that you never objected to during your entire tenure,” Hariri said.
“My question is, did you expect that you’d be able to plug the budget deficit in addition to raping the town’s reserve with your lucky charms?”
Hariri said the town has wasted “millions of dollars” during Hubbard’s time on the board, which includes eight years as a council member and one so far as supervisor.
“They include your town square that is going nowhere with an unvetted master developer,”” Hariri said. “As your counsel will tell you, I’ve made requests for the financials. I’ve yet to receive them. You have an IDA that has given benefits to one developer fined millions of dollars by the Attorney General for fleecing its employees, and another developer that is engaged, according to reports in Newsday and —”
That rankled the supervisor, who interrupted him. “Mr. Hariri, stick to the budget,” he said.
“I am sticking to the budget —”
“IDA has nothing to do with it,” the supervisor said, as Hariri grew louder and spoke over him. “I know you don’t want to hear —”
“IDA has nothing to do with it. Stick to what we’re talking about,” Hubbard interrupted again.
“IDA’s members are appointed by you,” Hariri continued, “and the budget deficit is attributed, is attributable —”
“Mr. Hariri, I warn you,” Hubbard said sternly, his voice rising. “It has nothing to do with the budget —”
“I’m not scared [of] you,” Hariri shot back, cutting the supervisor off.
“No, I’m sure you’re not,” Hubbard answered.
“You’re an absolute disgrace to this town,” Hariri said. “You’ve created an irresponsible —”
“At this point in time, can we cut the microphone off please,” Hubbard said, apparently directing the IT employee in the control booth to mute the podium microphone.
But before Hubbard even asked, the meeting’s audio feed was apparently already apparently disabled, according to the video of the meeting uploaded by the town to its website after the meeting ended. The last thing heard on the recording is the supervisor saying, “At this point in time…” then the audio cuts out. The video recording shows Hariri continuing to speak for a few seconds before the video feed goes black. The black screen is, within seconds, replaced with a blue screen showing the town seal and the words “Technical Difficulties. Please stand by.”
“I’m happy to speak without a microphone,” Hariri continued.
“At this point in time, I’m going to ask you to leave the podium and you will be escorted out of here,” the supervisor told him.
“You think I’m scared? You think I’m scared—”
“If you can’t speak civil when you come up here, you’re not going to be allowed to speak,” Hubbard told him.
“Sir, sir —I’m happy to continue my speech. You’ve wasted millions of dollars on a hockey rink used by nine people from Riverhead. EPCAL is dormant because you found—” Hariri said.
At that point Riverhead Police Captain Danielle Willsey approached the podium.
“Goodbye, Mr. Hariri,” Hubbard said.
“Are you denying me my right — Are you denying me my right to express, to express my views pursuant to the First Amendment, sir?”
“Goodbye, goodbye,” Hubbard said.
A second police officer and Deputy Supervisor Devon Higgins approached the podium as Hariri protested his ejection.
“Let’s go, sir,” Higgins told him, pointing to the exit.
“If you can’t be civil, you’re not welcome to come to a town meeting,” Hubbard said from the dais, as the captain, now at the podium, asked Hariri to leave.
“Make sure you have this on tape,” Hariri said in the direction of the back of the meeting room, where his partner Colleen O’Brien had been seated.
“The tape is stopped, sir. We don’t entertain clowns at the podium,” Hubbard told him.
“Because I’m sure it’ll be going to the human rights commission,” Hariri said.
“I’m sure the bar association would like to hear the behavior of an attorney,” Hubbard told him. “Good day Mr. Hariri.”
After police escorted Hariri out of the room, Hubbard said, “OK we can start filming again, please.”
The video feed resumed two minutes after it was shut down, and the budget hearing continued.
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