The reshuffling continues in the Sag Harbor Municipal Building, where on Tuesday, the Village Board named Kate Locascio, who has served as the village tax clerk, to replace Beth Kamper as village clerk-administrator. Ms. Kamper will retire on Thursday, September 23.
In announcing the change, Mayor Jim Larocca said that Ms. Kamper had forbidden the board from “making too big a production out of her departure,” but he said she would be sorely missed.
“All I want to say to her tonight is this village owes you an enormous debt of gratitude,” he said. “I think very few people who are not directly involved in village government know how much work goes on in that building.”
Connie McGrath, who has been an office assistant, was promoted to the position of associate administrator, and Wendy Parent, who has announced her own retirement within the next year, will remain on as deputy clerk. Cristina Pilinko, who has been an account clerk/typist, has been promoted to new position of senior office manager.
The board also appointed Mike Cohen to the newly created position of assistant superintendent of public works. He will serve under the longtime superintendent, Dee Yardley.
In other personnel moves, Denise Schoen, has stepped down as Planning Board attorney. Ms. Schoen, who formerly served as village attorney, took on a reduced role last spring. Elizabeth Vail, who replaced Ms. Schoen as village attorney, will add the Planning Board to her list of duties.
With the delta variant of COVID-19 continuing to spread, the board met in the firehouse on Brick Kiln Road on Tuesday. Attendees were required to show proof of having been vaccinated and had to wear masks while sitting in widely spaced chairs.
Complaints about the village’s effort to run hybrid meetings that are both in-person and broadcast over YouTube have been made, and this week, members of Save Sag Harbor in a letter to the board said the current arrangement was unsatisfactory because of both audio and video shortcomings. The group asked the board to either return to Zoom meetings or work on a solution to provide a better hybrid version. The group even offered to help underwrite the cost of implementing a new system.
Mayor Larocca, who introduced a new mayor’s report at the top of the agenda, which is in addition to the traditional lineup of departmental reports, said the village is tracking COVID-19 closely and plans to hold meetings at the firehouse for the foreseeable future. He pointed out that the village does not have the luxury of having LTV as East Hampton does or SEA TV as Southampton does to broadcast its meetings. However, Trustee Aidan Corish agreed to explore the options for implementing a better setup in the coming months.
Stephen J. Kotz on Sep 15, 2021