Why do our village regulatory boards make so many decisions that appear developer-biased to our village residents?
One reason is the fact that neither the members of our regulatory boards nor the several lawyers paid by our village taxes have a clear idea of their responsibilities.
All the lawyers and all the volunteers manning our regulatory boards are responsible to Southampton Village. The lawyers are not responsible to the boards they counsel, except to keep them from violating laws. The board members are not responsible to the applicants. The administration’s lawyers are not responsible to the Board of Trustees. They are not responsible to whoever signs their contract or appointment.
Lawyers and board members are responsible to Southampton Village.
Their “corporate” responsibility may become more clear from corporate management consulting experience, and from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, produced early in the 2000s in response to the Enron scandal. That law clearly defines responsibility of lawyers, accountants, corporate executives, and, by extension, the responsibility of their counterparts in the government of our incorporated Village of Southampton.
As a management consultant (substitute lawyer, accountant, etc.), I am usually hired by the CEO or president of the corporation. Does that mean that I am responsible to the CEO? No, my responsibility is to the corporation.
Thus, if I find that the CEO is violating laws or procedures threatening fair play to one constituency or other (i.e. shareholders), then I should give him an opportunity to correct his ways. If he does not, then I am obligated to “report up the ladder,” meaning to the corporate board of directors. If they fail to correct the illegal behavior within a legally appropriate time, then I am mandated to report the violation to the government agency in charge of enforcing the law governing this behavior: the Securities and Exchange Commission, the attorney general, the district attorney.
In our village, this means that regulatory board violations should be reported first of all to the Board of Trustees. If it does not correct the violations, the obligation is to inform the residents of this village, probably through the village’s official newspaper, and, thereafter, to the state agency in charge of the law that is being violated.
When lawyers for the regulatory boards act as enablers (violations of SEQRA, restrictive covenants, or violating state laws protecting subdivision property owners, etc.), they are violating their responsibility to the village (and taking compensation under false pretenses).
Some members of the offending board may be aware of the violations and chose to “go along with the crowd.” Herd instinct too often triumphs over the urge to do right. Shared ignorance is more often the culprit.
Evelyn Konrad
Attorney at law
Southampton
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