The victory of challengers Brian Tymann and Rob Rubio over incumbents Patricia DiBendetto and Hank Tucker June 19 in Westhampton Beach is a rebuke to the tight-lipped administration of Mayor Marie Moore.

The decisive losses of eight-year trustee Tucker and six-year trustee DiBenedetto to the two newcomers sends a message of disapproval of Moore, who was elected last year to a two-year term.

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Tymann garnered 248 votes and Rubio 240 to the 161 votes and 142 votes for Tucker and DiBenedetto.

Boosting the drive of the winners was their statement in the last week of the campaign that they oppose giving the East End Eruv Assn. and Verizon the perpetual right to put Jewish religious symbols called lechis on 47 utility poles, as described in the Feb. 24, 2015 conference called by Judge Kathleen Tomlinson.

Tymann/Rubio said they “strongly oppose granting any waiver or exemption from any present or future WHB ordinance, regulation or requirement to Verizon or EEEA.”

Tymann added: “I personally do not support the general concept of religious demarcations on public property.” The patch.com local news blog picked up their statement.

Tucker and DiBenedetto were asked for their views on the eruv issue but did not respond. Answering lawsuits by Verizon, Long Island Lighting and EEEA demanding acceptance of the eruv has cost WHB, Southampton, Quogue and JPOE more than $1 million in fees to law firms so far. SH has complained of high internal costs and noted it has no insurance for this litigation.

JPOE and Others Boost Tymann/Rubio

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Jewish People Opposed to the Eruv, a group of nearly 300 local residents who have fought erection of an eruv in WHB since 2008, actively campaigned for the two winners.

JPOE emailed to members the following statement, urging that it be forwarded to Moore:

“I strongly oppose the granting of any waiver or exemption from present or future WHB ordinance, regulation or requirement to Verizon or EEEA. Further, I oppose the granting of any permission for Verizon to make a licensing agreement with EEEA for the erection of lechis on utility poles in WHB or for the EEEA to erect lechis on said poles.”

We Catch up to Moore (Finally)

This reporter went to the WHB village hall shortly after the polls closed at nine on election night and met Moore for the first time.

Although we are a tax-paying homeowner and a registered WHB voter, we have been unable to meet with her or talk to her on the telephone since January, despite many efforts to do so. Brief answers were obtained to two emails but numerous others were ignored.

We told Moore the defeat of DiBenedetto and Tucker was a repudiation of her stone-walling ways. We asked that she put on the WHB website the 6,000-word transcript of the Feb. 24, 2015 Judge Tomlinson conference, which is available not only on this website but on the Court website Latest entry on the WHB site under “Eruv Litigation” is about six months ago--Dec. 22, 2014.

We again asked to meet with her in her office so numerous questions could be presented such as why doesn't she publicly say WHB will not grant permanent permission for an eruv to the EEEA and Verizon as they are demanding?

She replied she does oppose what EEEA and Verizon want. We said that with a $9.9 million budget, WHB should have a dedicated person to deal with the press 24/7. Reporters work on weekends to have copy ready for Monday a.m.

After several minutes of an attempted conversation with Moore, she left the room accompanied by several men who did not identify themselves.

Sewers, Health Plans Also Issues

nypostAlso issues in the election, but by no means as important as the eruv, were the proposal for a sewer for Main st. that could cost $15-$25 million, and healthcare insurance for WHB employees.

The sewer proposal has been on the table since 2008. Opposing it won election that year for former Mayor Conrad Teller. He says that bringing back the large number of visitors that crowded WHB in the 1960s and 70s might support more restaurants and businesses on Main st. but that he is not sure residents would relax the rules that bar unrelated people from renting houses. "Groupie" houses were common in WHB in the 60s and 70s.

Because of rules against unrelated tenants, dozens of restaurants and night clubs have closed in the Hamptons since the 1980s. The Dec. 15, 2014 Southampton Press headlined, “Hamptons Party Scene Dead.” WHB was the site of Club Marakesh, known as the “hottest night spot” on Long Island. It closed in 1996, resulting in a New York Times article saying that East Hampton had become a more popular Hamptons destination.

WHB Healthcare Cost: $1.22 Million

Rubio and Tymann, noting that hospital and medical insurance costs are budgeted at $1.22 million of a $9.8M budget, are against lifetime benefits for trustees after ten years as provided by the current law.

Tucker, 54, who has served eight years, would have received lifetime benefits if he had won another two-year term. Family plans cost $25,000 and more yearly.

Said Tymann: “If all five trustees took medical benefits, the packages would total $150,000. We would eliminate $100,000 of that and adjust salaries to total $100,000 among the five trustees.”

He sees a net savings of $50,000 a year.

Rubio heads, 49, heads Rubio Premier Motors. Tymann, 39, heads BGT Consulting and the Hampton Cigar Co.

Dean Settlement Embarrasses

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Pension and other benefits available to WHB employees are a hot button issue with residents because of the notoriety of the pension package to former Police Chief Ray Dean who retired last year.

“Charge this cop with robbery,” headlined the New York Post Aug. 16, 2014 in describing the “bag of cash” Police Chief Ray Dean retired with that included $403,714 for 531 days of unused sick, vacation and personal time accumulated over 15 years.

Dean, then 53, has a pension estimated at $142,000 yearly. His pay in the last year was $226,236 for supervising a force of 11. New York Post noted this was more than New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is paid for supervising 34,000 cops.

The laws that allowed that for Dean and other employees is still on the WHB books.

“Twin Police Chiefs” Riled Citizens

A record turnout of 62 residents came to a board meeting Feb. 5 to protest creation of a “police commissioner” who would sit over police chief Trevor Gonce at a total cost of about $350,000.

Virtually all those present shot up their hands when it came time for public comment. It was the biggest meeting since the 1960s, said local blogger Dean Speir who hosts www.whbqt.info.

WHB trustees since 2010 have rejected attempts to merge the police department with Southampton’s. SH supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, responding to a New York State directive urging the merger of smaller departments into larger ones, had proposed a merger of police depts. of WHB, Quogue, Sag Harbor and Southampton. This was met with "collective disinterest," 27east.com reported.

Our take on this is that the twin chiefs idea was a ruse to distract citizens from the real problem—the eruv lawsuits that are costly to defend and result in WHB being slammed in law suits and the press as anti-Semitic. A New York Post editorial Jan. 9, headlined “Making room for Jews,” accused WHB residents of “bigotry.”

Jewish law requires approval of the local community before an eruv can be considered legitimate. It is not getting that in WHB, as this election has shown.

Rob Rubio and Brian Tymann will take office at a board meeting Monday, July 6 at 7 p.m.