Ex-WHB Attorney Demands Library President Resign

Hermon Bishop

Hermon Bishop, former attorney for Westhampton Beach, has demanded that WH Library president Joan Levan resign because she has violated her post by circulating nominating petitions for the WHB Village board.

The library’s charter prohibits library directors from participating in political campaigns and Levan did that by circulating petitions at the library, he said.

Her actions could result in revocation of the library’s federal tax exemption, he writes in a letter to be published Oct. 8 in the Southampton Press. The letter was reported today in the paper’s web version, 27east.com.

Bishop says the library board is a “closed corporation” where five self-appointed members have complete control and Levan has the final say.

“There should be democracy in the selection of trustees,” he writes. “The voters of the school district should have the same right as they do for the budget when it comes to voting for the trustees. All it would require is a small amendment. Ms. Levan has to give up her iron grip.”

Bishop was the WHB attorney for four years until his resignation in June 2010.

Employee Claims Improper Firing

Library employee Sabina Trager claims she was improperly fired June 23 by Levan, board VP Karen Andrews and treasurer June Sellin.

The New York State Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board ruled Aug. 31 that Trager did not deserve to be fired. The library board had fought her application for unemployment benefits.

Levan told 27east.com that the library board is reviewing its options. “We have nothing to hide but need all the facts in front of us to make an informed decision,” she said.

Although Trager has asked for three months in writing for the library board to hold its meetings in the evening so that more people can attend, the board has refused to make that change.

The next meeting is set for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14.

O’Dwyer Barred from WHB Agenda Thursday

A request that this reporter be on the agenda for the Thursday meeting of the trustees of WHB has been turned down by Mayor Maria Moore. She said we may only speak in the “Public Comment” section at the end of the meeting. Comments are limited to five minutes, she told the last meeting.

We spoke for ten minutes at that meeting despite shouts by WHB outside attorney Stephen Angel to “Address the board” and confine remarks to subjects of interest to the board. The videotape of Angel shouting at me as at 1:11 of the tape.

We noted that Brian Sokoloff, another outside attorney for WHB, had been allowed to speak uninterrupted for 35 minutes about eruv litigation and then took questions for another 20 minutes.

We had asked for “equal time” to rebut what Sokoloff had said because he failed to mention that no court decision on Jewish religious boundaries called eruvim has ever taken into consideration the fact that such barriers are now highly visible on Synagogue and Google websites.

The decisions allowing eruvim, some of them dating back as far as 1971, mostly declare that since the lechi markers on utility poles are hard to see or even “invisible,” they do not constitute violation of the Constitution which calls for separation of church and state.

We have asked Moore and Angel to let us speak without interruption on Thursday. We want to address not only the board but also the people in the room and the video camera since there will be a permanent record of the meeting available on the WHB website and on the O’Dwyer website and local municipal meeting Channel 22.

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