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Southampton Village Police Department. BRENDAN J. O'REILLY
The president of the Southampton Village Police Benevolent Association claims he was removed from the East End Drug Task Force as retaliation for his union activities, but Mayor Jesse Warren says suspending the village’s participation in the task force came at the recommendation of a consultant.
Last month, Detective Michael Horstman filed an improper practice charge against the village with the New York State Public Employment Relations Board, and he asked the state agency to prevent the village from reassigning him while the charge is outstanding. Though PERB did not intervene before he was reassigned on November 1, Horstman is continuing to seek reinstatement to the task force.
Horstman insists he was reassigned in retaliation for his leadership role in the PBA’s opposition to Warren’s reelection campaign. He wrote in an affidavit submitted to PERB that this is clear because in February, Village Board member Gina Arresta told him the PBA president should not be in the task force, and in September, at Chief Thomas Cummings’s retirement ceremony, Warren told him that the PBA’s treatment of him in the press had ruined his life.
Warren said that Arresta had explained in an affidavit that she believes the PBA president should not serve on the task force because leading the PBA is a very public role, while the task force engages in undercover work.
In his affidavit, Horstman detailed the rift between the PBA and Warren. On August 2020, the PBA took a “vote of no confidence” with respect to Warren’s role as police commissioner and asked that he be removed from the post. Horstman penned a letter to the Village Board informing them of the PBA’s vote and stating that Warren “has consistently shown a lack of support and leadership for the Department and my members.” In 2021, the PBA actively campaigned against Warren’s reelection, Horstman wrote. “The PBA’s support of Warren’s opponent and campaigning furthered the rift and animosity between the PBA and Warren,” he added.
Warren won reelection in June. On October 1, acting Chief Suzanne Hurteau informed Horstman that, at the direction of Warren and Arresta, he was being reassigned to the Village Police Department’s detective division effective November 1 and his schedule was being updated.
Horstman was assigned to the Suffolk County district attorney’s East End Drug Task Force in 2017 and became PBA president at the start of 2018. In March 2019, after his time in the task force exceeded 18 months, he was automatically promoted to detective, per civil service rules.
His affidavit states that he recalls no instances of detectives being removed from the task force without their approval and that the new schedule means he will have to work most weekends and cancel weekend prior commitments.
“The reassignment has caused me to second guess whether to speak out on PBA issues, how vociferously to represent my members, and when to engage in protected and concerted activities,” Horstman wrote. “Now, before I speak out or voice my opposition to the actions of the Mayor and the Village, I consider the possibility the Village could take further punitive employment action against me.”
Reached Monday, Horstman said he had no comment because he fears further retaliation. He referred questions to the PBA’s law firm, Davis & Ferber, which did not respond to an inquiry prior to press time.
Warren said on Thursday, November 4, that Horstman was removed from the task force because it was the recommendation of the Hartnett Report, an operational analysis of the police department conducted early this year. “This was crystal clear in the Hartnett Report,” he said.
Prepared by the consulting firm Edmund Hartnett Risk Management, the report stated that having a village officer on the East End Drug Task Force had “no tangible impact on drug or crime conditions” in the village and that it comes at a high cost. The report recommended that unless the district attorney’s office agrees to financially support having a village officer on the task force, the village should consider pulling the officer out.
“He also incurred upwards of $82,000 of overtime in one year,” Warren said of Horstman.
The mayor said no village officer will replace Horstman on the task force until Suffolk County offers compensation to the village. If that time comes, he doesn’t intend to put Horstman back in. “It is time to give other good officers a chance,” he said.
