Hampton Tidbits

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
-- Henry Kissinger, New York Times, Oct. 28, 1973

Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.
-- Dan Quayle

While Cheryl Kraft’s Code Enforcement boys and girls are busy breaking and entering into local houses with a Justice Court warrant, guns drawn and badges flashing at 5 a.m. to check for smoke detectors, the Southampton Village Police department is conducting its own version of the Spanish Inquisition.
The criminalization of landlords marches forward along with the search for immigrants who would rather sleep in a bed rather than in the woods with their children. The Republicans have shown their humanistic side once again. They would like to institutionalize the Hamptons Witch Hunt to satisfy the bigoted faction of the local electorate and the Conservative wing of the party. Town Investigator David Betts (placed on probation by Supervisor Linda Kabot for the raid against her aunt) aided by Town Attorney Sendlenski have given Public Safety Chief Cheryl Kraft the shot in the arm she needed to give all 5 Code Enforcement officers that carte blanche to terrorize landlords and Latinos like Dirty Harry in a spaghetti western. The new rental law is widely known as the Hamptons Anti-Latino law. It is recognized as pure racism, sanctioned by the Republicans and supported by the Town Board. In addition to racism it is extortion.
All property owners in the Hamptons are now subjected to huge fines unless they rent to those people whom the Town wants. Otherwise, they find violations in your home and try to arrest you. It’s Pay, or we arrest you.

That’s the message to New Yorkers.

And, this week a few more Village police officers were forced to bite the dust in Southampton. That story is still unwinding and it’s not a pretty one.
The favors and corruption go deeper than people want to believe.
Officer Gallo was suspended as was dispatcher Ottati.
Aside from the tickets-to-ride – or, rather 1900 tickets to walk away from – there was also the issue of a D.A.’s investigation about the fact that Wilson was working security at Polo while on the books doing police work for the Village. All those recordings of people asking for tickets to disappear are starting to irritate people in Archives.
Apparently, the retaliation is still virulent.

It’s been an interesting week in this best of all possible world resorts.

We understand that Nancy Graboski is living up to her reputation as a reformer – or, is still so pissed off at her treatment by the Republican Party during the last election – that she is calling for an audit of the Town’s books. With the reportedly serious amounts of cash lying around – still available from the last budget – she’s wondering why this year’s budget needs to be increased. All kinds of rumors about Masterson’s Highway Department solicitations for contracts and Republican Party coffers have been making the rounds. An audit sounds like a really good idea.


The Quogue dynasty, with Chief Judge Kitrick Motz who is married to Mayor George Motz, there is a rumor that a Mr. Traeger is interested in challenging the indicted Mayor in the next election.
There is also word that there will be a separation of powers once the court proceedings get underway.
Makes you wonder why Linda Kabot, the new Supervisor of the Town of Southampton lives in Quogue. Although, we hear that while she is “local,” not many of the small businesses in that village see her in their shops.

There may be a challenge to Westhampton Beach Mayor Conrad Teller in the next election. The Village Board may also see some changes. The business community has been less than pleased with the fact that while many other Villages and Hamlets in the Hamptons have seen a surge in activity even during the winter months – Westhampton Beach looks like the Dust Bowl during the 1930’s. There is no plan to aid or increase business with people-friendly events and the current level of government stimulation towards progress is likely to include little more than sweeping the Tumbleweed off Main Street. The fake bricks edging the sidewalk don’t give visitors the sense that Tiffany will be opening up there soon either. That problem, the fake bricks, supposedly was brought in to the Village because a prior contractor did such a bad job that there were too many “trip and fall” lawsuits. So much for the concept of beautification.

The most expensive high-end rentals have already been taken in Easthampton while in this Village, 45 minutes closer to Manhattan, most of the businesses close up during the Winter due to lack of any activity. The real estate brokers have been able to count the number of transactions on one hand.
And, crime is up. The Police Department has been grappling with a series of masked-men breaking into local businesses. The burglars have been successfully robbing the businesses, which have chosen to remain open during the winter for the benefit of the Village – and the thieves, who have never been caught, have managed to carry away a substantial portion of what little income that the Village sees. It’s not a good combination. Is it Mayberry, here we come, minus the law enforcement? This is with a Mayor who was the Chief of Police before he was elected. What does that tell you?