Westhampton Beach trustees meet at 7 p.m. tonight to discuss appointing a "police commissioner" to assist the police chief. The New York Post called it "having two sheriffs for a one-horse town." Local blogger Dean Speir said, "It stinks."
The New York Times noted that previous police chief Ray Dean retired last year with a payout of $403,714 for 513 days of unused sick, vacation and personal time. His pay of $226,236, for supervising ten cops, was more than the pay of New York Chief Bill Bratton who supervises 30,000+ officers.
There is "almost no serious crime" in WHB, NYP noted. Only 46 incidents are noted on the police blotter in 2013, it said. The village has 1,700 permanent residents. Dean, 53, also gets a pension of $142,000 yearly.
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Mayor Maria Moore and trustees have proposed adding a "police commissioner" who would assist Police Chief Trevor Gonce in the administration of the department.
WHB is a part of Southampton which has been trying to assume administration of the WHB police dept. for at least four years. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a program that encourages small state departments to merge with larger ones as a cost-saving measure. WHB trustees this year turned down such proposals.
Local blogger Speir said that "The creation of the police commissioner fully eviscerates the duties and command prerogatives of the police chief!"
He also faulted the village board for not providing sufficient notice of tonight’s meeting. It is not listed on the website of the village. The law was satisfied by a notice posted seven days ago in Newsday and the Southampton Press.
"Why even have a police chief in WHB?" Speir asks.
Trustee Ralph Urban told 27east.com that trustees have unanimously approved the new commissioner and the meeting tonight is to hammer out details. The combined pay packages of the two police administrators would be about $350,000.
WHB Faces Eruv Lawsuits
The village is also facing costs of dealing with at least three Federal lawsuits in its battle to prevent erection of the Orthodox Jewish boundary called an "eruv" on telephone poles that are on village property.
Answering lawsuits of the East End Eruv Assn. has cost it $125,118 so far. It also faces paying legal costs of EEEA as well as "damages."
An eruv went up in WHB last August according to the EEEA and the Hampton Synagogue but residents have been unable to find any of the required "lechis" (plastic strips from the bottom to the tops of the poles) on any pole in WHB.
No one connected with the erection of the alleged eruv—WHB, Hampton Synagogue, Verizon and PSEG/LIPA—will say where the lechis are. Verizon and PSEG/LIPA sued WHB when the village would not agree to allow lechis on utility poles.
Husch Blackwell Strategies has added FleishmanHillard alum Michael Slatin as a principal in its public affairs group.
Rory Cooper, a veteran Republican operative and policy specialist, has joined Teneo’s Washington office as senior managing director in its strategy & communications practice.
Brian Fallon, who served as national press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run, is signing on next month as Vice President’s Kamala Harris’ campaign communications director.
TikTok is nothing more than a Chinese propaganda tool that poses “a grave threat to America’s national security and, in particular, impressionable children and young adults,” say two Congressmen who want the platform registered as a foreign agent.
Public Strategies Washington has added Abbie Sorrendino, a former aide to now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
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