Southampton PressThe Westhampton, N.Y., library board, faced with shouts of “Resign!” at its meeting April 13 because board members insulted citizens by calling them “minions” and “rancorous,” faces the same angry citizens Wednesday at 7 p.m.

The unruly "sparks fly" meeting drew front page coverage in the Southampton Press by Erin McKinley.

Maria MooreMaria Moore

This embarrassment to one of the wealthiest (per capita) towns in the U.S. must cease and the way out is clear. Library board president Tom Moore, husband of Westhampton Beach Mayor Maria Moore (yes!), must step down. His wife should do the same or announce she is not running for mayor again in the June election.

Citizens placed an ad in the Southampton Press calling for defeat of the $2.7 million library budget May 17. Our bet is the budget will be defeated, a further embarrassment to library board and village. Four of the five library trustees quit last year under pressure but the new board has been no better.

The tight-lipped lawyer duo that sits atop the WHB and library boards has not done well by citizens of WHB and Westhampton (the unincorporated hamlet).

Tom Moore is telling citizens the library board cannot switch to elected status because lawsuits might result.

Meeting Could Be Televised Live

Arguing over elected vs. non-elected status is important but that argument could go on for many months. Lawyers love to argue, as we read In The Court of Public Opinion by James Haggerty.

Vote NoAn odd angle is that the Wednesday night meeting of the library board could be televised live since that is what the Southampton Town board does each month for its public meetings. The WHB trustee meetings are videotaped and posted a week later.

Currently, there is not even an audiotape of the library board meetings although citizen interest in them is high. There is plenty of money for this. The library had $4.1 million in cash/savings as of June 30, 2015 and $6.5M in net assets.

Action Needed on Two Fronts

The Wi-Fi in the library should be shut down immediately. The mayor of Haifa, Israel, presented with evidence of ill health caused by Wi-Fi, cellphones, computers, cell towers and other sources of powerful, pulsed radiation, shut down Wi-Fi in the schools pending an investigation.

The huge Public Library of Paris went totally wired in 2008. That’s how far the U.S. is behind in recognizing the dangers of pulsed radiation from numerous sources.

Millions of U.S. students are sitting in classrooms all day long bombarded by pulsed radiation from industrial-strength routers.

Cecelia Doucette, a volunteer with the Ashland, Mass., library, has done an informative 23-minute YouTube video on how to mitigate sources of unhealthy radiation in the average home after measuring it with an Acoustimeter.

EEEA Must Be Told Off

Another pressing issue that demands action is answering the threat of millions of dollars in fines and legal costs that the East End Eruv Assn. says WHB will have to pay if it does not sign permanent permission for the EEEA to erect Jewish religious symbols on 48 utility poles.

This assault on the Constitution, which promises separation of church and state, should be met head-on by WHB which has dissembled on it for years. Call the bluff of the EEEA and see if it will really seek millions from the village. The publicity would be worldwide. Is this how a religion should behave is the question?

Bryan Tymann and Rob Rubio were elected WHB trustees last year on the promise that no such agreement would ever be signed. Permanent religious symbols on public property is an insult to the U.S. Constitution and a black eye for the Orthodox community that is pushing it.

Mayor with Open Style Needed

The reclusive style of Mayor Moore needs to be replaced by an open-style administration that will hold “town halls” on key subjects like removing Wi-Fi from the schools and library; letting people speak out about the eruv situation and learn all aspects of it, and attacking the economic malaise that afflicts WHB and has led to a dozen of its restaurants and nightclubs closing and the closing of four of its six gas stations. Large swaths of the town are empty lots.

The draconian laws against singles contributed to this shrinking of the local economy. They have also been driven from the other Hamptons which have seen more than 20 restaurants and clubs close in recent years.

Westhampton residents are not in the best mood these days. They have been without a supermarket since last October when Waldbaum’s sold out to Best Yet Market. Best Yet may not even open in late May if it can’t get needed building permits from local officials. Union leaders last fall were urging local citizens not to patronize Best Yet because it does not allow unions. More than 3,000 signatures were collected from people using Waldbaum’s.

The closing of the supermarket is but more fallout from chasing singles from WHB. They were noisy and caused over-crowding but kept a lot of businesses thriving. WHB, with its Club Marakesh, was once the most popular spot in the East End.

Input from Citizens is Needed

Some thought might be given to relaxing the rules against unrelated people renting a home. WHB might even put out some kind of welcoming mat to the singles. The current policy of catering to families has not stopped the erosion of the local economy.

The singles are still there. Latest reports are that they have been driven to Montauk, the Jersey Shore and Cape Cod.

These and other subjects should be thrashed out at town hall meetings that take place in the library or the high school auditorium. The village room where the trustees meet in open session once a month only seats about 60 people.

The meetings, dominated by consideration of renewals of permits and other housekeeping items, with public comment held to the end, are not conducive to public discussion. There should be meetings where the public comes first, not last.

Moore Avoids Press

Mayor Moore has refused to meet with this reporter or talk to us on the phone for more than a year and a half. She provides no reason for this. She has never held a press conference.

She will not put us on the “agenda” for the monthly meetings in town hall with the result that the lawyer for WHB cuts us off after five minutes. Should we look at people in the room other than the board, we are told to “Address the board, address the board” by the WHB lawyer.

So not only is our free speech limited, but we are harassed while trying to speak.

Several items show the reclusive style of the mayor. We saw her at the church service last Aug. 20 for Joe Milo, popular local restaurant owner who died in a plane crash Aug. 16.

But we did not see her at a brunch and reception that followed the church service and to which the entire town was invited and which lasted about two hours. She should have expressed WHB’s official sympathies at the reception and mingled with the gathering but we did not see her there at all.

Moore marched at the head of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in March but was not identified. We pointed her out to people we were standing near and they did not know her. She did not stay around after completing her parade march.

The WHB election that took place June 19, 2015 was not on the calendar of the village. It’s as though the administration did not want people to know about the election or vote in it.

It’s about time free speech, free inquiry, and respect for the Constitution came to WHB.