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The June 15, 2021, Southampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals meeting.
The Southampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals virtual meeting on Tuesday night ended with a 36-year board member telling the chairman and two other board members that they should resign, and the chairman attempting to have the meeting’s broadcast and recording cut off while the member was speaking.
The member, Kevin Guidera, was expressing his dissatisfaction over a matter reported in The Southampton Press last week: An attorney had accused the chairman and two other members of engaging in a conspiracy to recruit a village trustee to appeal a decision of the building inspector. The attorney, David Gilmartin, said that recruiting someone to bring a case before them — a case that they had already taken a position on — meant they had lost all impartiality.
“Three members of this board crossed a line to coerce someone to file an application,” Mr. Guidera said.
Chairman Mark Greenwald interrupted, suggesting that the public meeting end.
“I’d like the public to hear this,” Mr. Guidera said.
Mr. Greenwald said he disagrees and asked that the web broadcast be cut.
“I believe the three of you should resign,” Mr. Guidera said as Mr. Greenwald continued to request the feed be cut. “There should be three resignations in the mayor’s mailbox by tomorrow.”
“This is political,” Mr. Greenwald said. “It’s not subject to a public hearing.”
“It’s not political,” Mr. Guidera retorted. “You crossed the line. You went out, and two others, and you encouraged someone to file an application. We don’t do that. We listen to applications. We don’t encourage applications to come before us. I don’t know where you got the idea that you could do that. I just don’t understand. It appalled me to read that article. What are these three people thinking of? I could go out and encourage someone to file an application, but it’s not my job.”
Mr. Greenwald posed a question to Mr. Guidera: “Kevin, are you aware that the village code has a provision in it that provides for any village official to bring an appeal?”
The village official in this case is Trustee Joe McLoughlin, who filed the appeal earlier this year of the building inspector’s decision concerning 365 and 385 South Main Street, but withdrew it on June 3. An application had been before the ZBA for five or six months to clarify that the two lots, which were undersized and on the same deed, had not merged. However, before the board members could cast a vote, the building inspector rendered a decision that the two lots were indeed single and separate.
Mr. McLoughlin said last week that after learning more about the reasoning for the building inspector’s decision, and learning that his appeal could result in the village being sued, he decided it would be best to withdraw his application.
“Joe can bring an appeal all he wants,” Mr. Guidera said, “but you don’t go out and encourage Joe to bring an appeal. That crosses the line.”
Mr. Greenwald asked, “Why do you think that the village code has that provision that provides any village official with the authority to make an appeal?”
Mr. Guidera replied that he is not arguing about whether a trustee can make an appeal. “It’s what the three of you did,” he said.
“What did we do, Kevin?” Mr. Greenwald said. “Did we force him to do that?”
Mr. Guidera repeated that the three members — Mr. Greenwald, Susan Stevenson and Julia McCormack — crossed the line by encouraging someone to make an application. “That’s wrong,” he said. “I can never recall anybody on this board doing that before. It’s embarrassing to me. It’s embarrassing to all the fine people I served with in the past.”
“Well I think you should get your facts straight, Kevin,” Ms. Stevenson said.
“Is the story in The Press straight?” Mr. Guidera asked. “Did you encourage Joe to file an application?”
“No,” Ms. Stevenson said. “I did not, and I don’t want to discuss it on camera.”
As reported last week, Mr. McLoughlin told The Press that he was contacted by Mr. Greenwald about an appeal, and that he also discussed it with Mayor Jesse Warren and Trustee Gina Arresta.
Additionally, text messages between Ms. Stevenson and Mr. McLoughlin revealed that she asked him for an update on the progress of filing the appeal and told him, “I am just happy we have an appeal.” Text messages between Ms. Stevenson and Ms. McCormack show they also discussed the appeal and wondered why it was not being filed sooner.
Mr. Gilmartin, who is representing the new owner of 365 and 385 South Main Street, uncovered those text messages through a Freedom of Information request. Though Ms. Stevenson and Mr. McLoughlin complied, Mr. Greenwald, Ms. McCormack, Mr. Warren and Ms. Arresta did not answer the request.
After Ms. Stevenson said she did not wish to have the discussion publicly, the attorney to the ZBA, Jeffery Blinkoff, broke in to say that it is not a matter before the board that evening and there is no application before the board to consider.
Ms. Greenwald agreed, and he reiterated his request to have the cameras turned off. Ms. Stevenson moved that the meeting be closed.
Mr. Guidera voted “nay” to closing the meeting. The fifth member, Dan Guzewicz, was absent.
The YouTube live broadcast and the recording were both shut off. Afterward, Mr. Blinkoff explained that the board would then discuss two legal matters with him, their counsel, as they are legally allowed to do privately.
