Warren, Seeking Third Term, Will Need To Fend Off Challenge From Current Trustee Manger

Voters will head to the polls on Friday at the Southampton Cultural Center on Pond Lane to cast their ballots for mayor.

They will have the option of granting current Mayor Jesse Warren what would be his third two-year term, or awarding the mayorship to his challenger, current Trustee William Manger Jr., who is halfway through serving a two-year term he won last June, after unseating former Trustee Joe McLoughlin.

Manger, 58, previously served as a Southampton Village trustee more than 25 years ago, starting in 1997 in the Doug Murtha administration before being elected to a second term in 1999 under the Joe Romanowski administration.

In 2001, Manger chose not to run again, leaving Southampton Village to go work in Washington, D.C., taking a job with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Manger returned to Southampton Village in 2021 from Washington, where he ran the Paycheck Protection Program, which helped small businesses and nonprofits weather the storm financially during the pandemic.

Manger, who earned his MBA from Columbia, now works remotely as a managing director and partner for Manhattan-based Brock Capital. He also serves on the board of the Riot Relief Fund, which provides compensation to spouses and children of first responders who are killed in the line of duty.

In August 2021, Manger became the chairman of the steering committee to update the village’s Comprehensive Master Plan, which had last been updated in 2000, during his time as trustee.

When Manger announced in May 2022 that he would run for trustee, he cited his experience heading the steering committee for the master plan as his motivation.

“I want to ensure that the recommendations for the village are implemented once the plan is completed,” he said at the time.

Warren, 40, first served as mayor in 2019, when he unseated former mayor Michael Irving. He was a member of the village’s planning commission before becoming mayor. He also ran a write-in campaign for village trustee in 2017, falling short of winning a seat. He has been a small-business owner in the village for several years, running the retail clothing store Tenet on Main Street.

Manger threw his hat into the ring for the mayorship in the spring, after weeks of speculation by many in the village that he would challenge Warren for the role. He aligned himself with incumbent trustees Roy Stevenson and Robin Brown, who are each seeking second terms, under the “Better Together” banner.

Manger collected more than 300 qualifying petition signatures after stating his intention to run, saying he was motivated to do so to “bring civility, sound leadership, and unity back to Southampton Village.”

Civility and unity in particular have been in short supply at Village Hall over the last six months, with Warren and the rest of the board clashing over a number of issues.

Relations between the four trustees and Warren took a notable turn in December, when Warren cast the lone dissenting vote against the provisional hiring of Suffolk County Police Deputy Commissioner Anthony Carter as the new Southampton Village police chief. The village has been without a permanent chief since September 2021, after reaching a separation agreement with former chief Thomas Cummings. Captain Suzanne Hurteau — a longtime local who many residents support — has been serving as acting chief since then, and Warren said in a debate hosted by The Express News Group earlier this month that he would support hiring her as chief if she passes the police chief’s exam.

In the debate, Manger took Warren to task for voting against the hiring of Carter, and for expressing his opposition to the pick in a short speech he made at a special meeting that was held at the cultural center in December to announce Carter’s hiring, at which Carter was present, with his wife and children. Warren said he voted against the hiring because Carter had not yet passed the exam, and because he wanted to give stronger consideration to more locally known candidates.

The controversy led to Carter relinquishing the position shortly after the board voted 4-1 in favor of his provisional hiring, which sent the board back to the drawing board in the police chief search.

The trustees and mayor have disagreed — often in tense and acrimonious exchanges during public meetings — over a variety of issues since then, from whether to continue offering lifetime benefits to elected officials who serve at least five years in the village, to the awarding of contracts for village services, the appointment of village committee members, resolutions and policies related to transparency, disclosure of private information related to litigation against the village, the surpassing of the budgeted amount for legal expenditures, and more.

Manger and Warren do agree that certain issues and initiatives are a priority in the next term, such as moving forward with the creation of a sewer district and implementing the initiatives of the master plan. The sewer district has been a campaign issue for years, although when it comes to the finer points of how to get that done, particularly where to install a sewage treatment plant — which has proven to be the biggest hurdle in moving forward — they have clashed, with Warren insisting, during the debate, that he wants to continue pursuing a site located outside the village that Southampton Town officials have said is no longer a viable option.

Warren has touted what he says is “visible progress” of his effectiveness as mayor as a reason to support him for another term, including increased vibrancy and cleanliness of the downtown area, clean and pristine beaches, and the improvement of water quality in local water bodies, as well as the securing of a record amount of grant money to continue that effort.

He also cited improvements for residents like addressing traffic concerns, creating an arts and culture overlay district, the update of the master plan and of the emergency response system, and more, all while lowering property taxes over the last three years as reasons he should be elected to a third term.

He is also urging voters to show their support at the polls for newcomers Greg Centeno and Palmer Hudson, who are challenging Stevenson and Brown for seats on the board. Warren has cautioned that a vote for Manger, Brown and Stevenson would create a dangerous 5-0 “super-majority on the board,” while a vote for him, Centeno and Hudson — who are together under the “Unity Wave” banner — would lead to a more well-rounded board.

Polls will open at the Southampton Cultural Center at 9 a.m. on Friday, June 16, and will remain open until 9 p.m.