Kevin VerbeseyKevin Verbesey

Kevin Verbesey, a leading proponent of press freedom as judge in the annual awards of the Long Island Fair Media Council, will address the board of the Westhampton Library at its Oct. 30 meeting.

Critics of the library have been demanding the resignation of board president Joan Levan and the replacement of the appointed board with an elected board.

Making the switch to an elected board is expected to be a topic addressed by Verbesey, who is director of the Suffolk Cooperative Library System, a group of more than 60 libraries.

Another topic might be the time at which the WH library board holds its meetings.

Hermon Bishop, former town attorney for WHB, told 27east.com Oct. 14 that the board is violating open meeting laws by meeting in the morning when most residents can’t attend. He has also called on Levan to resign because she violated the rule against library trustees circulating petitions.

Library Board Sticks to A.M. Meetings

Despite at least three months of pleas by residents, the library board continues to hold its meeting at 9:30 a.m.

Suffolk Cooperative Library SystemThe meeting set for yesterday was cancelled at 9 p.m. the night before, resulting in more than a dozen residents, including Bishop and 27east.com reporter Greg Wehner showing up at 9:30 a.m. only to find there was no meeting.

Library director Danielle Waskiewicz told Wehner that she only learned of the cancellation late Tuesday night when she got an email from Levan.

The postponed meeting will take place Oct. 30 rather than Oct. 21 because that is when Verbesey can attend, Waskiewicz told Wehner.

Library employees of more than four years said they have never known the board to skip its meeting on the second Wednesday of the month.

Verbesey Lauds Role of Reporters

Fair Media CouncilVerbesey, named a judge for the Fair Media Council’s annual Folio Awards program, said: “The media plays an important role in our region, local communities and civic life and honoring the best work of the work they do is both appropriate and meaningful. It was heartening to see the quality of work that was focused on Long Island residents and local issues.”

FMC CEO Jaci Clement praised Verbesey for taking part in the judging, saying, “We are honored to have such exemplary community leaders serve as Folio judges and make this program possible.”

Since Verbsey is such a fan of reporters’ function and rights, we have asked him to look into the press-evading and press interference tactics of the WH library as well as libraries in Southampton, Quogue and Hampton Bays.

Emails of none of the boards of the libraries are available to the public or press. The only contact is via the paid library director.

The Suffolk Cooperative Library System has the same policy for its eight board members. All communications must filter through Verbesey.

None of the library boards or directors ever has a press conference.

WH Library and WHB Boards Limit Press

Both the WH library and the Westhampton Beach boards limit this writer to five minutes of speaking during the “Public Comment” section of the meetings. Board members, asked questions at the meeting, refuse to answer them. New York State law backs them up. Directors can listen but are not required to answer questions at their meetings.

We have sent Verbesey the link to the video of the Sept. 3 board meeting of WHB at which outside attorney Stephen Angel repeatedly interrupted our five minutes at the mike with shouts of “Address the board, address the board,” and other phrases.

Our attempted speech was an effort to fill holes in 55-minute talk by WHB lawyer Brian Sokoloff on the subject of the eruv litigation that he said could cost WHB more than $1 million in fines and legal costs.

We don’t dispute that but Sokoloff failed to mention that none of the court decisions favoring eruvim acknowledges that they are highly visible on Synagogue and Google websites. The court decisions rest on the assumption that eruvim markers are either hard to see or “invisible” and should be of no concern to the public. They are not “signs” because no one can see them, said the June 30 decision by New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti.

Sokoloff also mentioned the Aug. 25 agreement by Southampton to allow eruv markers as long as the East End Eruv Assn. promises not to seek legal costs and damages. But he failed to mention that the SH Council passed that in the last few seconds of the meeting with no discussion allowed by either Council members or the public.

We hope Verbesey and the Fair Media Council will look into the anti-press policies and practices of the four libraries and the WHB trustees. The slogan of FMC is that it “advocates for quality local news and works to create a media savvy society…it was created to represent the voice of the news consumer—the public—on how the local media was doing its job.”

The 30-year-old organization says it is “regarded as one of the oldest and most effective media watchdog organizations in the country.”