Letters

Residents should be asking: Why is Village Hall working so hard to hide a publicly funded report?

During my tenure as mayor, Southampton Village secured funding for a reconnaissance study to evaluate our historic district. The goal was to gather facts and allow residents to weigh in openly on any proposal that might affect their homes.

Today, that same report, paid for with public funds and prepared by the consultant Preservation Studios, is being withheld not only from the public but also from the trustees who funded it.

Last week, The Southampton Press awarded Village Hall a “dunce cap” [“Gold Stars and Dunce Caps,” Editorial, November 27], urging Bill Manger to release the study. The Press said that the village’s claim that a “draft” report is exempt from disclosure has no basis in New York State’s Freedom of Information Law.

Instead of following Article 6 of New York Public Officers Law, the village denied multiple FOIL requests, claiming the report “does not exist” — a statement contradicted by the village’s own public admissions.

Residents should be concerned that their government responded to lawful information requests with an assertion so demonstrably false. The New York State Committee on Open Government has issued numerous written opinions making clear that the village’s legal position is untenable.

Historic district status carries significant and costly restrictions. For example, the Lake Agawam Conservancy is now being required to retroactively appear before the Architectural Review Board for plantings that altered the viewshed — an action that their president protested.

At the same meeting, Trustee Roy Stevenson asked, “Does that mean residents need ARB approval to plant hydrangeas?” No, it does not.

But if a trustee who has been circulating in village government for nearly 20 years still has this level of uncertainty, imagine how homeowners — many of whom rely on their home as their primary investment — might feel if their properties were quietly added to an expanded district that they never asked to join.

What began as a good-faith study has now become an exclusionary process that undermines public trust. Unfortunately, by hiding this report in violation of state law, the village has all but guaranteed that residents will view its findings with skepticism.

As the former village FOIL appeals officer, I would release this report immediately. Perhaps it is clear now why, in 2023, then-Trustees Bill Manger, Robin Brown and their circle used a 4-1 vote to change village law, taking this important responsibility out of the mayor’s office and placing it in the hands of their political loyalists instead.

Jesse Warren

Southampton Village

Warren is a former mayor of Southampton Village — Ed.