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East Hampton Town Board Appoints Three New Planning Board Members

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Samuel Kramer was appointed to the East Hampton Town Planning Board on Thursday, and will serve as the board's chairman. MICHAEL WRIGHT

Samuel Kramer was appointed to the East Hampton Town Planning Board on Thursday, and will serve as the board's chairman. MICHAEL WRIGHT

Councilman David Lys was sworn in on Thursday to a one-year term on the Town Board. MICHAEL WRIGHT

Councilman David Lys was sworn in on Thursday to a one-year term on the Town Board. MICHAEL WRIGHT

author on Jan 4, 2019

The East Hampton Town Planning Board got three new members on Thursday, January 3, after two veteran members resigned from the panel and the Town Board ousted a third.

The Town Board voted unanimously on Thursday morning to appoint Sam Kramer, an attorney and town Zoning Board of Appeals member, to take the lone seat on the board that was up for a full-term appointment. That seat had been held by Nancy Keeshan, a real estate broker from Montauk who had been on the board since 2010.

The board also lost members Patti Leber and its chairman, Job Potter, who both informed the Town Board that they were resigning with multiple years remaining on their terms.

Lou Cortese, a Montauk resident and longtime member of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee, was appointed to fill Ms. Leber’s post through 2022, and Sharon McCobb, a former ZBA member, was appointed to fill Mr. Potter’s seat until 2020.

The board also unanimously voted to make Mr. Kramer, who served on the Planning Board from 2008 to 2010 and was the town’s representative on the Suffolk County Planning Commission from 2014 to 2018, the Planning Board’s chairman. Kathy Cunningham was appointed to be vice chair.

Ms. Keeshan’s removal leaves only one member of the town’s three regulatory boards who was appointed by the Republican-controlled Town Board of 2009 to 2013—and that one member, Planning Board member Ian Calder-Piedmonte, is a registered Democrat.

“The board appreciates Nancy’s many years of service, but I think after eight years it’s good to get fresh faces on there,” said Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, himself a former chairman of the Planning Board.

“Sam was on the Planning Board when I was there and then went on to the Suffolk County Planning Commission, and then the ZBA. So, with the chair stepping down, we felt that he was a good candidate for leading that board forward.”

Ms. Keeshan could not be reached for comment.

Also on Thursday, Councilman David Lys was sworn in to a one-year term on the Town Board, his first elected term. He was appointed to the board last January, won last fall’s special election and will have to run again for a full, four-year term next fall.

Mr. Van Scoyoc offered a joke about Thursday’s “annual swearing-in of David Lys.”

Tim Brenneman was reappointed to another five-year term on the ZBA, and John Whelan was reappointed to serve as that board’s chairman.

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