Southampton Town works out departmental changes

The Southampton Town Board last month created the Department of Municipal Works, which will be led by Paul DeMaria, resolving a two-month-long debate begun in late November.

With the creation of the new department, newly elected Highway Superintendent Alex Gregor will retain the title of Commissioner of Public Works and will oversee the Highway Department, said then-Supervisor Linda Kabot during a phone interview in late December.

The change was enacted by a vote of 4-0 during a meeting on December 28. Councilman Chris Nuzzi abstained from the vote.

The Department of Municipal Works will oversee waste management operations, such as the town’s waste facility in North Sea and four transfer stations, and will also work on various capital and building projects, Mr. Nuzzi said. Waste management formerly was its own division within the Highway Department, overseen by former Highway Superintendent Bill Masterson.

Mr. Nuzzi first proposed these changes in the late fall during the 2010 budget process. At that time, Mr. Nuzzi proposed creating a Department of Public Works, which would have had all of the same responsibilities as the newly created Department of Municipal Works. The change, which was approved by a majority of the Town Board at the time, was proposed in order to save money and streamline operations, he explained Tuesday evening.

“It was just a change in organization that made sense from a practical perspective,” Mr. Nuzzi said, explaining that the change allows the highway superintendent to primarily focus on maintaining the town’s roads.

The resolution the Town Board adopted on December 28 maintains Mr. Nuzzi’s original changes, but ensures that Mr. Gregor keeps the title of Commissioner of Public Works.

Part of Mr. Nuzzi’s original changes took the title of Commissioner of Public Works away from Mr. Gregor. Mr. Gregor decried that decision and threatened the town with a lawsuit if the change were made permanent, explained outgoing Supervisor Linda Kabot.

Mr. Gregor claimed that New York State law mandated that elected highway superintendents also hold the title of Commissioner of Public Works. Mr. Nuzzi, however, said that he never saw a legal opinion stating such a law, and said that the Southampton Town attorney told him the Town Board had the authority to created a Department of Public Works as well as name a commissioner for the department.

Neither Mr. DeMaria nor Mr. Gregor returned calls on the reorganization before deadline.

Mr. Nuzzi did not say if he was upset with the changes made to the reorganization originally approved by the Town Board.

“I was content with the original reorganization approved and adopted by the majority of the Town Board on November 20,” Mr. Nuzzi said Tuesday evening.

As the town director of facilities management, Mr. DeMaria will work 40 hours per week. He also received a raise and now earns $107,100 per year. In his previous position as environmental facilities manager for waste management, Mr. DeMaria, an engineer by trade, earned $100,776, according to public information officer Ryan Horn.

Mr. DeMaria will oversee the operation of the North Sea facility and the transfer stations, as well capital projects. He and Mr. Gregor will coordinate on stormwater management issues, as Mr. Gregor holds the title of Drainage Coordinator, according to a flow chart of Mr. Gregor’s responsibilities.

V

ehicle Agreements

Forty town employees will have full-time vehicle privileges reinstated in 2010, according to former Supervisor Linda Kabot.

At a meeting in early December, then Supervisor-elect Anna Throne-Holst introduced a resolution restoring around-the-clock usage, including commutation in some cases, of 40 vehicles for the same number of town employees. Ms. Throne-Holst’s resolution was voted into law at the December 28 meeting by a vote of four to one, with Ms. Kabot as the lone dissenting vote.

Ms. Kabot explained that in the 2010 budget, she removed the driving privileges for 40 town employees in her budget process, instead allowing them to use the cars only on an as-needed basis. She said that removing those driving privileges saved the town approximately $40,000 for 2010.

“When the board saw the budget, they didn’t say ‘boo’ about it, and they knew full well I had reined in the vehicles,” she said after the meeting.

The driving privileges for the transportation manager, Community Preservation Fund director and a number of public safety officials were not funded.