Seas of Change

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
-John Kenneth Galbraith

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
-Groucho Marx

The Town of Southampton's most interesting political struggles involve a few positions that have not really been challenged for the last decade.
The Supervisor race has really been a dog and pony show since Heaney and Connuscio squared off over the cell phone tower imbroglio -- and the Feds were wiring both of them to try to get a conviction for the "sale" of influence on the Town Board. The "informer" walked on that conviction and it was back to business as usual subsequent to that -- with Hal Ross hired by the Republicans to threaten anyone who wanted to run against Heaney. No wonder Ross was one of the only "Democrats" who became a paid consultant to Heaney's Republican administration.

But this year, the last possible run for Heaney as Supervisor (unless he pulls a Chavez trick and cancels term limits), finds Linda Kabot challenging him in a primary contest. As a Town Council member, her reasons for running were publicized in the local news but the truth is probably easier to find by "throwing the cards" or consulting a ouija board while sipping Margarita's at the Driver's Seat - than by reading that Republican house organ, the Southampton Press. If you're really adventurous you could also pick up Suffolk Life which is about as newsworthy as the circulars for backyard sheds or garage extensions (its life span having more to do with Free Speech compliments of the courts than independent reporting), -- and is about as relevant to current political thought.

In addition to Kabot for Supervisor, one of the candidates for Judge in this country's busiest Justice Court is Andrea Schiavoni. She's running against Eddy Burke, one of the East End's best known jurists and Republican Party insider. He is well connected and he is, well, well connected. He's not a bad lawyer and his family moniker is about at the same par with the Gilmartins. Southampton is really a small town in that regard. People are still warned to leave town at sundown in subtle ways - it's just done differently from the days when Clint Eastwood was still making spaghetti westerns.

Eddy Burke's son is a Town Attorney in Southampton. Gilmartin was Town Attorney and Village Attorney.

If you want to get things done in this Town, or Village, you get to know who matters.

Or, you just don't get things done.

It's really not PC to be a New Yorker, a Democrat, a Jew, a Black or a Latino.

In other words, New Yorkers cannot vote for what's done with the property tax money that pays for the local government; Democrats don't inherit any political power; Jews are supposed to stick to buying vacation homes; Blacks are told to keep quiet, and, Latinos - well, they're just supposed to work hard and watch out that they don't get shot at for not speaking English. And hope that they are not going to be forced out of their homes by Steve Frano, Code Enforcement One (yes, that is his title), and his storm troopers. Especially, if Heaney decides to target the property owners or the Spanish speaking tenants - and then sics Frano on them. Targeting political rivals or vocal opponents is a favorite tactic of Heaney and his new kemosave, Chris Nuzzi, an "associate" who was imported from Crookhaven after some nasty political dirt erupted there. Both of them campaigned on the issue of creating a new rental housing law, among other tactics, to deal with politically unpopular inaction by Bush at the national level - to "solve" the illegal immigration problem. Together, they molded a proposed law that took aim at all of the "undesirables."
So, what did they do?

Heaney and Nuzzi decided to expand the presently unconstitutional "summer share house law" which was intended to do the work of code enforcement people who were too uneducated and/or incompetent to enforce the laws already on the books without violating everyone's rights (i.e., garbage, noise, parking, tenancy violations) - and so they decided to lump the Latinos into that mix - and add some REALLY good criminal sanctions.

And, to help out the economy and their buddies, they targeted homeowners and property owners who have the gall to rent to these undesirables. Why?

Because affordable housing in the Hamptons is a joke.

And, because it is easier to issue a criminal summons than it is to enforce rational, unbiased laws. If you are smart you advise people to make changes.

If you're stupid, you pull a gun on them and bully them.

That's the Town of Southampton way - under Heaney.

You can't have your hands in those property-owner tax payer's pockets if you cannot threaten them with criminal summonses. They might get pissed off at not having the ability to vote you out of office if you can't target them when they complain.

Heaney & Co. has no intention of offending local developers or their attorneys, nor does he have any intention of introducing zoning rules that will give local residents the ability to afford a house - so he and Nuzzi want the voters to be angry at the Latinos and property owners who don't fill their campaign coffers. That's the ticket: Heaney and Nuzzi. Heaney now, Nuzzi in two years. Heaney goes and Nuzzi escapes the smell from Brookhaven and takes over Southampton in two years.

According to the June article in Suffolk Life, Nuzzi is quoted as saying, there is "presumptive evidence" of illegal occupancy if the Code Enforcement people don't like what they see at someone's house. Instead of having to issue a warning, to serve a homeowner if they live out of town, we're going to allow the owner to be served by advising the Town Clerk. Gee, that's really giving someone notices of a problem.

So, in other words, folks, if we think we don't like something, we're just going to give the notice to one of our people - and, you've served. We'll mail a letter to ourselves. Isn't that neat -- and illegal -- don't you think?

How's that for legal process - or, constitutional law?


Back to Andrea Schiavoni. She is a very business-like attorney who suffers from only a few tragic flaws in Southampton: she's smart and she's experienced.

And, Burke suffers from only one major flaw. He's, well, Burke.

Aside from being part of the old boy network and needs to find a new sinecure after Pataki bit the dust, Burke and Burke and Burke are similar to Gilmartin and Gilmartin and Gilmartin.

The inbred problem seems to be good for local business but it is does not bode well for the concept of political or economic reform.

It's not always necessary for malevolent charges of unethical or immoral, or even illegal behavior - for the public to say, we need a change.

The cobwebs of connections in a small but very rich community sometimes speak for themselves.

Andrea Schiavoni is highly experienced and would augment a Justice Court bench where the level of Republican control of legal decisions is only too obvious.

Court Officers, Code Enforcement Officers, Town Police, County Police, Village Police, Town Attorneys, Village Attorneys, Assistant District Attorneys - all glare at and subtly threaten Judges to "do the right thing" in these small local Village and Town courts.

Andrea Andrea Schiavoni is no pale flower and is not someone who would easily be influenced to rule by anything but "the rule of law." She is not an insider but she is also not an outsider. She is a Sag Harbor resident and would be a real addition and instrument of change for that court.

Linda Kabot, member of the Town Council, had been an associate of "Skip" Heaney but has recently ruptured with the Republican hierarchy, as has Nancy Graboski.

Graboski, a Town Board member ruptured ties with the Republican Party over the Zizzi flap. While the Southampton Press has been careful to not step on Kabot or too heavily on Graboski, it is clear that they are siding with the Southampton Town Republican Party majority who feed them business and information. It's one reason why you will never find a key Republican in their police blotter - they would be shut out of information and advertising.

Kabot is respected by the local populace and is not sitting on a several hundred thousand dollar campaign chest as Heaney is - but is challenging Heaney nevertheless. She is also one of several candidates supported by the new reform-minded Integrity Party - whose leaders include Darren Johnson and Bob Olson.

Both Johnson and Olson are a breed of political leaders that work outside of the box; if you are a reform-minded candidate seeking to improve the political process, they want to talk to you. In the cross-endorsement era of Suffolk politics, they are more interested in improving politics than controlling political power for local voters.

In response to Kabot's declaration of independence, of course, Heaney felt it was his "obligation" to report a conflict of interest issue regarding a piece of land that relatives in Kabot's family owned - NEXT TO a parcel that was being developed. No profit or income to Kabot or her family, of course, and no benefit to them.

This is Conflict of interest?

Now, Conflict of Interest is as common a concept in the Heaney administration - or in Southampton Town politics up to this point - as are unconstitutional local laws. You know, those laws that are intended to harass people out of their homes and prevent young people from sharing a house in the summer? With a handful of code enforcement officers who like to issue "Criminal Summonses" rather than simply send warning letters to homeowners; with a set of laws that seek to criminalize homeowners for not having a house number affixed to their doors; with the "Target your enemies" attitude in the one real income producing business in the Hamptons (real estate) - you have a Town owned and operated by people who look up to Storm Troopers - and who have the same attitude as their WWII counterparts towards Blacks, Jews, Latinos and New Yorkers.

Zizzi was a builder who sat on the Zoning Appeals Committee and who voted on variance applications for people who were going to build locally. (Talk about Conflict of Interest) And, it was this odorous connection in the Town that got Graboski upset - causing the rift among the Republicans.

Masterson runs the Highway Department and gives out contracts for paving and is one of the biggest fundraisers for the Republican Party. (No conflict here)

Heaney decides which parcels are bought with Peconic Transfer Tax money, which sub Rosa repays political favors. (You see any conflict here?)

Kabot is guilty of Conflict of Interest when a relative owned property next to a parcel that received a variance?

Did Heaney see fit to report the bag of cash on the front seat of the vehicle when he and Cannuscio were sparring - or, did the Feds mention that to him first?

And, what about the campaign contributions discrepancies that has been investigated and reported in the East Hampton Star?

The Kabot flap is so weak that it only points out to all observers that Heaney has obviously been weakened. Why has he decided just now to make this an issue? She has been serving on the Town Board for how many years now?

James Henry has been the target of the Republicans as well. The most recent shot across the bow has been the Heaney "leaks" involving marital antagonism with Henry's former wife.

His bona fides are well respected and impressive. He's a graduate of Harvard and has credentials as an investigative reporter. He's even spent time in Noriega's Panama, which helped bring down the deposed dictator.

Henry is running for Supervisor against Heaney - on the Democratic line.

Rich Schaeffer, the head "cross-endorsement" Chair of the Suffolk County Democratic Party has already had his "Fireside chat" with Henry.

Apparently, the fact that Schaeffer is buddies with Fred Thiele, the Assemblyman and new Sag Harbor judge, seems to have enabled Henry get some unpleasant opinions of his candidacy.

Thiele is buddies with Heaney, Thiele is buddies with Schaeffer, and Schaeffer is not buddies with his own Democratic candidate.

What is that about? I think we can all guess. It used to be called political corruption. Now it's called cross-endorsement.
All very chummy, isn't it?

We'll keep you posted on these unfolding election year games.