Letters

Mary Pazan [“Misguided Alliance,” Letters, August 15] claims that my letter [“New Low,” Letters, August 8] “whined about a perceived slight,” and that I am “off-base, angry” — stunningly hypocritical, as is her lamentation that “Publicly trashing community members because of a perceived difference of opinion on the matter of downtown development is unwarranted. Doing so because of a perceived personal slight or rude comment by someone, somewhere, at some point is nonsense.”

While she refuses to acknowledge the “someone, somewhere, at some point” who committed this “perceived personal slight or rude comment,” my letter squarely identified the culprit as Gayle Lombardi of the Hampton Bays Civic Association.

Lombardi did not engage in mere personal slights or rude comments. She accused me of age discrimination, claiming that my public comments were prejudicial against and disparaging of senior citizens. Her objective was to disgrace. A Bronx-born Italian myself, I am embarrassed for Lombardi. Describing herself to anyone who will listen as a “tough Italian girl from Brooklyn,” she lacked the guts to name me personally but gave a description of the speaker that was undeniably me.

Pazan can convince herself all she wants that these comments are the mere pokes and jabs one expects in the hustle and bustle on the subways of public discourse, but words have meaning and resist erasure through dialectical witchcraft — and, anyway, Lombardi’s other conduct provides circumstantial proof of her intent.

Lombardi and others have advocated my removal from the Southampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals to punish speech that favors Hampton Bays downtown revitalization. Feigning concern for public trust in governmental institutions, censorship is the true intention.

In return, I requested an advisory opinion from the Southampton Town Ethics Board, which rendered Advisory Opinion 102-2024, finding no prohibited conflict of interest arising from my dual roles as a member of the ZBA and director of the alliance. As I have always said, the remedy is recusal from “acting in my official capacity on any matter affecting the alliance.”

Lombardi also bullied the board of trustees of the Hampton Bays Public Library recently, to no avail, demanding that the library shut down our meetings, claiming that we are Alfred Caiola’s financial partner in a profit-making venture.

Her position is hogwash, intended only to censor what the Hampton Bays community is allowed to hear about downtown revitalization and to ensure our residents are only exposed to the Civic’s myopic, anti-development blathering. Kudos to the library’s board of trustees for rejecting the Civic’s anti-democratic attempts at censorship and for upholding the library’s mission and commitment to free speech and community education and engagement on issues of vital importance to our residents.

John J. Leonard

President

Hampton Bays Alliance