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Mark Epley
Jesse Warren
With one of his political rivals set to purchase the home in which he rents an apartment, Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren is concerned that he could lose the apartment — and that the scenario could have implications on his position, which requires him to live in the village.
On June 17, his father, Richard Warren, an attorney with the Brooklyn-based law firm Warren & Warren, which specializes in child welfare law, wrote attorney David Gilmartin of Water Mill with a query about the lease for the apartment in the property on David Whites Lane.
Mr. Gilmartin represents the Epley family — including former Mayor Mark Epley and his son, Zach Epley, who is a current candidate for Village Board. The Epleys are in contract to purchase the property.
“My client, Jesse Warren is a tenant at that property with a lease expiring October 15, 2020. Mr. Warren would like to know if your clients intend to renew his lease for the property for an additional one-year term,” the letter states.
“As you and your clients are undoubtedly aware, Mr. Warren is a public official within the Village of Southampton, which requires that he reside within the village. If your client is not amenable, then he will begin to make alternate arrangements so that his residency in the village remains uninterrupted.”
Twelve days later, on July 3, the elder Mr. Warren, after being reassured that the Epleys, once they closed on the property, planned to negotiate a lease renewal, wrote Mr. Gilmartin again. “Good to know your client would be amenable to a lease renewal,” it said.
But on July 25, articles in The New York Post and Newsday reported the mayor’s fear that he would be evicted by his political foes.
Asked on Tuesday, July 28, whether his father neglected to tell him his soon to be landlords were not planning to evict him, Mr. Warren said he was glad the public pressure exerted by the two articles worked.
Reached for comment on Saturday, Mark Epley repeated the phrase “I don’t care,” more than a dozen times. He said he doesn’t care who the tenant is, so long as the rent is paid on time and the property is maintained. He said he doesn’t care if Mr. Warren thinks Mr. Epley and his family would buy a $1.5 million home for the express purpose of ousting him and forcing him to leave his post as mayor.
“The reality is, his father reached out to our attorney to talk about a lease and we said we’re not opposed, but it’s not appropriate to discuss it because we’re not the owners yet,” Mr. Epley explained.
Mr. Epley and his wife Marianne have been bidding on and buying properties in the area for investment purposes, he said, with a long-term goal of providing housing for their family. His four children and 11 grandchildren all live in the village.
They own the home next door to Mayor Warren’s rental, which, said former Mayor Epley is one of the few legal multifamily houses in the village. He said the family has bid on another house in the neighborhood as well. His three sons own the house next door and also put a bid in on the one on the other side of Mayor Warren’s house, Mr. Epley said.
“My wife and I are looking at 20 years down the road to do a real estate investment for our family,” he said. “This was never about Jesse. He can believe what he wants, but this was never bought with the intention of kicking him out … He’s trying to make it into a ‘poor me’ and it has nothing to do with him.”
Taking aim at the younger Epley this week, Mr. Warren wondered about the ramifications, should Zach Epley win a seat on the Village Board.
“Can he be on the Board of Trustees and also be my landlord?” he asked, suggesting his future landlord could use his home to penalize him for political reasons. He mentioned the lease allows the landlord to inspect the premises if 24 hours notice is given.
To the notion of using the landlord position to spy on the mayor, Mark Epley said, “Nothing could be further from the truth. We don’t care. We own a lot of other properties, we don’t go in there. … I don’t care what he thinks. I don’t care what he does. This is a real estate investment for the future of my family … He thought he could embarrass me and my family and create a story that doesn’t exist.”
Mr. Warren said his landlord told him of plans to sell the house, which has two apartments, to an “anonymous LLC.” He said the landlord told him the anonymous LLC approached him to acquire the house and he was “surprised” to be offered more than market value for the house, and “could not say no.”
“I asked him to look into who the LLC was, and he told me it was 18 DW LLC. After doing a public search we learned Mr. Gilmartin was the attorney for the LLC,” the mayor said.
Mr. Gilmartin is “the Epleys’ personal attorney,” he said, adding, “They admitted they owned the LLC when The Post and Newsday called them … it took almost nine months for them to acknowledge that.”
At the same time, the mayor recalled, “Mark sent me a threatening voicemail.” The voicemail from October 2019 excoriates Mr. Warren for having ousted Zach Epley from the Village Planning Board. Concurrently, Marianne Epley sent him a letter calling him “deplorable.”
“I was completely shocked by that letter,” the mayor said, adding that after his failure to appoint Mr. Epley, the new appointment of Anthony Piazza to the position enjoyed a 5-0 favorable vote.
He said his father wrote the LLC to inform them he was a village official “just to inform them of the situation.”
After that letter, he said, “we have no information, and I’m hoping that the public pressure will cause them not to evict me. I’m hoping that people are outraged.”
According to a copy of the lease provided to The Press by the Epleys, the lease is set to expire in October and the tenant must let the landlord know of his intentions by July 15. Apprised he could have signed a lease renewal and returned it for the same $33,000 per year rate he’s been paying, Mr. Warren said, “that’s not true.” Shown a copy of the lease, he said, “This is not my lease. I don’t have this lease. This is not my lease.”
When it was pointed out that the document was a renewal he needed to sign, he continued, apparently dismissing word from his father July 3 that the new landlords were amenable to renewing the lease, “This is good news. Public pressure worked. But that’s not my lease.”
Zach Epley refuted the contention as “another lie.”
“The closing price is $1,500,000,” the elder Mr. Epley wrote in an email refuting Mr. Warren’s contention that the family offered above market value for the house. “I believe we started around $1.4 and they were over $1.5 mil. We settled on $1.5 mil. As you can see from Zillow, the price we are paying is actually less than the worth on Zillow.” Zillow, the realty listing site, names a price of $1,565,681 for the property.
In an email, Zach Epley wrote, “This whole thing is ridiculous. It’s just a desperate attempt to deflect the attention away from a failing politician. His victim routine is becoming quite obvious to everyone in this community. It’s a poor attempt at trying to smear our name.”
