Letters

A recent article from 27east.com reported that Nelson Pope Voorhis promised, in a $200,000 contract with Southampton Town, to perform engineering and consulting services to assist the town’s Department of Land Management with revising the Hampton Bays Downtown Overlay District’s environmental review of the overlay district legislation [“‘Regrettable’ Contract Passage Seeks To Discredit Opponents Of Hampton Bays Overlay District,” 27east.com, August 24]. It was reported that the court had previously struck down the plan because the environmental review was deficient.

The contract stated: “As we go through the process of meeting with the community and various stakeholders, we will be able to clarify any of the opposition’s hot-button issues. We will seek to neutralize this by having them appear as traditional NIMBYs who consistently present misinformation to promote their own limited agenda and present a positive message through community leaders.”

Supervisor Jay Schneiderman publicly apologized for the inclusion of this, saying that he had missed it and would have asked it to be stricken had he noticed. No surprise, that, since it potentially implicates him and the Town Board in a bald-faced plan to suppress public input.

Nelson Pope Voorhis is being used by our own Sag Harbor Village government in regard to the projects being spearheaded by Adam Potter et al. In light of this above-mentioned behavior, I believe this should disqualify NPV from continuing to be used. Public trust is already being strained to the breaking point by lack of shared information and public input.

April Gornik

Sag Harbor