Walter, citing progress, declares the three main goals of his administration are now within reach

Supervisor Sean Walter gave his sixth “State of the Town” speech last night in Polish Town, addressing, as has been a Riverhead tradition for decades, a joint meeting of the town’s three service clubs, Riverhead Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary.

It wasn’t the first time he took the podium as an embattled town supervisor at the outset of a local election year,  but he seemed more cognizant of the fact that it may be the last.

At the beginning of the approximately 35-minute speech, Walter reflected on his job, saying he considers  the supervisor position a “ministry,” a ”calling” by God as a way to help others.

A man at odds with his own party leadership and already facing a challenge for the Republican nomination for supervisor by an incumbent council member, Jodi Giglio, Walter reiterated his belief that his fate is in God’s hands.

“It is not something that is engrained in me that I have to be the Town Supervisor,” he said. “I truly believe it is a calling by God and I want each and every one of you to understand this as I go through the journey over the next nine months in a quest for re-election.

“However the voters’ decide, I will be fine, as it was God who called me to serve the residents of Riverhead,” he said somberly.

As he has in his five previous annual addresses, Walter focused his speech on three themes: the town’s fiscal condition, the development of EPCAL and downtown revitalization. (Read full text of speech here.)
This year, he said, the town is near to attaining the goals he set out in each of the three areas when he took office in 2010.

Riverhead’s finances are “on the right path,” Walter said.

“When we took office in 2010 we were 2, 10 and 25 years behind in our financial audits. We had deficits of $5.5 million,” he said. The town is caught up with its audited financial statements. Its operating deficit, which Walter blames on the town’s landfill debt burden, has been reduced to $1.5 million as of 2016, he said.

To help close that gap, the supervisor is calling for the elimination of the elected positions of tax receiver and assessors as an expense-saving measure he says will save the town $150,000 per year. 

Walter proposes replacing the elected board of assessors with an appointed assessor and an appointed deputy and making the tax receiver position an appointed position in the town clerk’s office. He said he will ask the town board to adopt local laws implementing those changes.

The supervisor predicted his proposal for the tax receiver and assessor positions will “be met with an uproar” because government and some elected officials are sometimes self-serving.

“Government doesn’t always serve the people. Change is hard. I am not afraid of the challenge,” he said.

“We can do this consolidation and not one taxpayer will be impacted. Not one taxpayer will see any change. We can create efficiencies that will save the town $150,000 per year, each and every year.”

Three members of the town board attended last night’s dinner meeting and they had a mixed reaction to the idea, though all said the proposal would have to be discussed in detail by the board.

“I don’t think it’s going to save the taxpayers money and I think we’re going to be removing services,” said Councilwoman Jodi Giglio. The town clerk’s office would need additional staff to handle the additional duties, she said. Giglio also questioned whether Riverhead, as a town of the second class under state law, could make the proposed changes.

Councilman James Wooten said even if a majority of the town board thinks it’s a good idea — “We’re all Republicans and we’re always looking to reduce government,” he said — the questions should be put to a referendum of the town’s voters.

“The Town of Riverhead has always had an elected board of assessors and an elected tax receiver and I think that’s something that identifies us as a community. I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one making that decision,” Wooten said. “I think if we’re seriously thinking of going that way we should put it out to a vote,” Wooten said. “Let the people speak.”

Councilman George Gabrielsen said he had not yet formed an opinion on the matter and looked forward to the board discussing it.

None of the elected officials whose jobs would be affected by the proposal attended last night’s dinner meeting, held at the Birchwood of Polish Town.

Walter is also calling for the town and state to combine the Riverhead Highway Department, the Municipal Garage, the Buildings and Grounds Division and the New York State Department of Transportation yard located on Route 58 into a single facility built at EPCAL. That move will save the town another $150,000 per year, he said.

“I will be reaching out to Governor Cuomo and our other elected state representatives to work through a proposal that will combine all of those facilities into one facility located at EPCAL,” the supervisor said.

Walter addressed the looming deficit the town faces because it “borrowed too much money” for land preservation, leveraging against future Community Preservation Fund transfer tax revenue that did not materialize as anticipated in a flagging real estate market following the 2008 crash.

“Our [CPF] debt service is about $5.8 million dollars a year and we are bringing in approximately $2 million to $2.5 million dollars a year,” Walter said. The difference has been paid out of the CPF reserve, which will be depleted after next year.

Riverhead will seek to refinance its existing Community Preservation Fund debt through the state Environmental Facilities Corporation, which will not affect the town’s bond rating. It needs state legislation to do so, but with a proposal to extend the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund another 20 years now being drafted in Albany, Walter said he is confident legislative authorization for Riverhead’s CPF refinance will be forthcoming.

The town has kept its budgets within the 2-percent tax levy cap and has reduced its workforce from 330 employees to 289 employees to help accomplish that —— through retirements, attrition and layoffs.

EPCAL, according to Walter, is “almost done.” The town is nearing the completion of the state environmental quality review process and has the new zoning ordinances ”largely written,” he said. Public hearings will be held on the proposed zoning code and the revised urban renewal plan.

“We will be open for business,” Walter said. “It will not be a ‘coming soon’ sign for election purposes.”

The completion of the EPCAL subdivision “means we are in a position to create good, high-paying jobs for the residents of Riverhead,” Walter said. The EPCAL subdivision is a “high-tech industrial subdivision” that will produce “high-tech jobs, industrial jobs, jobs tied to the medical field, as well as jobs tied to science and research,” taking advantage of the site proximity to Brookhaven National Lab, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories and Stony Brook University, he said.

“I have often joked around that our ship will come in. Well, the ship is in the harbor, but how we act as a town board over the next year will determine if that ship docks or moves on,” Walter said.

Main Street, which the supervisor said had an 80-percent vacancy rate when he took office is “on its way” today.

“It will not be denied,” he said. “I wish that every store was full now, but I know in the not-too-distant future, every store will be full. Main Street’s future is looking bright.”

Citing downtown accomplishments such as the reopening of the Suffolk Theater, the opening of the Hyatt Place hotel, Summerwind Square, and Woolworth Revitalization, among other developments downtown, Walter said, “All you have to do is feel the excitement of Patchogue to know what’s happening now and eventually coming to Riverhead.”