Southampton Town Trustees Win Right To Control Finances

A State Supreme appeals court reversed course this week, deciding that the Southampton Town Trustees are a separate government entity from the Southampton Town Board, a decision which will allow the Trustees to maintain control over their own finances.

According to the State Supreme Court Appellate decision, the Trustees are not required to turn over their revenues to the custody of the Southampton Town Board, as was mandated by a January 2014 court decision labeling them a division of the Southampton Town government. With the successful appeal from the Trustees, the agency will not be subject to certain statutes that apply to the Town Board.

The decision maintains some of the rights of the board of Trustees, saying they have the right to control their own income which, primarily, derives from permits and dock fees, and money collected from selling dredged sand.

“They will not have to turn over their finances,” Richard Cahn, attorney for the Trustees said of the decision on Friday. “They do not have to report to the Town Board, they do not have to follow the board’s instructions, they have complete autonomy.”

An injunction was issued in February 2014 freezing the Trustees’ bank accounts after a group of residents of West Hampton Dunes—several of which were embroiled in another suit against the Trustees—won a January 2014 decision that said the Trustees were not an autonomous board and that the Trustees violated state law when they failed to give their financial gains to the town as part of the official town budget.

The decision this week overturns the January decision, and makes it clear the Trustees board has the authority to handle its own financial decisions.

At the time the suit was filed, the Trustees maintained nine bank accounts containing close to $1 million. It is unclear how much is in the accounts now.

The lawsuit was painted by the Trustees as an attempt to rob them of the funding necessary to continue fighting other legal battles with West Hampton Dunes. If the 2014 decision had stood, the Trustees would have had to ask the Town Board’s permission before spending any money, and would need the board to allocate funds to fight several lawsuits the Trustees are embroiled in.