Quogue Village Hires Attorneys Over Eruv

The Quogue Village Board on Friday agreed to spend up to $20,000 on private attorneys, asking them to investigate whether or not a non-profit interested in creating a symbolic Jewish religious boundary can legally do so without securing village approval.

The Village Board’s decision to hire Manhattan attorney Marci A. Hamilton, at a special meeting on Friday, comes little more than a week after the Westhampton Beach Village Board hired Riverhead attorney Anthony Tohill to represent them in the same dispute over the boundary, more commonly known as an eruv. The decision also comes less than a month after a lawyer representing Verzion informed Quogue Village that attorneys representing the East End Eruv Association, the group seeking the religious boundary, does not think they need village approval to create the eruv.

On Friday, Quogue Village trustees said they asked Ms. Hamilton to respond to inquiries from Verizon over the symbolic religious boundary that, if created, would encompass all of Westhampton Beach Village and Quiogue, and include parts of Quogue Village and the hamlet of Westhampton. Specifically, Quogue trustees want Ms. Hamilton to craft a letter asking Verizon whether or not the affixing of markers, known as “lechis,” to utility poles throughout the municipality can be allowed if they violate village code.

In September, Quogue Village received a query from Verizon after the East End Eruv Association secured tentative permission from the utility company, as well as the Long Island Power Authority, to attach the lechis to utility poles in the village. These markings are needed to designate the boundaries of the eruv. Within this religious boundary, Orthodox Jews can carry and push certain objects, activities usually prohibited outside, on the Sabbath.

Quogue Mayor Peter Sartorius said Ms. Hamilton, who is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in Manhattan, was selected by his board to respond because of her familiarity with religious issues. She was previously hired by the Alliance for the Separation of Church and State for the Greater Westhampton Area, a group opposed to the 2008 eruv application filed by the Hampton Synagogue with Westhampton Beach Village and later withdrawn. The leaders of the East End Eruv Association have said that their application is not related to the Sunset Avenue synagogue’s 2008 request for an eruv.

Mr. Sartorius said Ms. Hamilton would respond to Verizon’s letter no later than Monday, November 22.

In addition to tapping Ms. Hamilton, Quogue Village will also be hiring the law firm Esseks, Hefter & Angel, LLP, which has offices in Riverhead and Water Mill, to assist Ms. Hamilton if the East End Eruv Association sues the village over the eruv.

“With something like this, you want to get a legal team,” said Mr. Sartorius, adding that the board has not yet reached a decision on the proposed eruv. “We have our counsel.”

After stating on Friday that he wants to keep the cost of hiring outside counsel “down to a dull roar,” Mr. Sartorius motioned for the board to transfer $20,000 to pay the village’s potential legal fees over the eruv. The resolution was approved by Mr. Sartorius and fellow board members Kimberley Payne and Jeanette Obser. Board members Randy Cardo and Ted Necarsulmer were not present at the meeting.

On Friday, Mr. Sartorius said he could not speculate on how Ms. Hamilton would word the village’s response letter to Verizon. He did note, however, that he had written the company in early September, stating that it would be illegal for any organization to affix markers to the village’s utility and telephone poles without board approval.

In that letter, Mr. Sartorius wrote that Chapter 158 of the Quogue Village code “prohibits any encroachments or projections in any public right of way. Thus, any attachment of a non-utility device to any utility pole located in the right of way would be prohibited,” he wrote.

In a letter dated October 26, William J. Balcerski, assistant general counsel for Verizon, told the mayor that the company had received a letter from an attorney representing the East End Eruv Association, indicating that village permission was not needed to attach the markers to utility poles in Quogue. The group’s lawyers also told Verizon that attaching lechis to existing utility poles does not qualify as an “encroachment,” as defined under village code, according to the same letter.

Marvin Tenzer of Westhampton Beach, the president of the East End Eruv Association, did not return calls this week regarding Quogue Village’s decision to hire counsel. In a previous interview, Mr. Tenzer said his non-profit would not seek permission from either Westhampton Beach or Quogue villages to create the eruv, and is asking only that they not break civil rights laws by opposing the boundary’s establishment.

Though their elected representatives have, so far, declined to say where they stand on the eruv, some Quogue residents said this week that they would not mind if their homes were included within its boundaries.

“I think people have the right to express their religion, as long as it’s not disrespectful,” said Quogue resident Lisa Di. “I’m a Buddhist and I walk into places and see Buddha [statues] all the time.”

Theresa Fontana, who owns The Lily Pad consignment shop in Quogue, said the face of Quogue has evolved over the past 20 years she has lived and worked there. She said that residents should embrace change.

“Although Quogue does not like change, Quogue is changing,” said Ms. Fontana, noting that she sells both Hanukkah and Christmas decorations in her store. “There are new families and an influx of different religions. As a shopkeeper, I welcome all people into Quogue. It’s important that Quogue does not shun any people.”

Jay Sears, whose family settled in Quogue more than a century ago, said all people should feel welcome in the village. The former architect leads the Mission of Kindness, a nonprofit he founded in 1996 that assists the needy and homeless.

“How can we have a menorah next to a Christmas tree in our Christmas display and say ‘no’?” said Mr. Sears, adding that he often speaks about religious tolerance to various congregations, including members of the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach. “Everyone has the right to be who they are,” he said.

According to Mr. Sartorius, his office has received about 25 letters from village residents expressing their opposition to the symbolic boundary.