Civiletti: How I’m voting in the Riverhead supervisor’s race and why

My choice: Sean Walter

Sean Walter is a man a lot of people love to hate. His personality gets in the way. He comes off as arrogant, even obnoxious. He has a temper and has shown himself capable of treating people badly. His public speaking skills leave a lot to be desired. His brash personality has alienated a lot of people — town employees both civilian and police, the town’s volunteer fire and emergency services, his own political party.

I was initially very skeptical about him, even suspicious. But he has been forthright and transparent and for the past six years I’ve watched him work hard to do the right thing. I appreciate that, even when I disagreed with his view of the right thing.

No doubt, it would have been better for the functioning of the town board and the morale of town government if he had run the show a bit differently the past six years. He might not be in the unenviable spot he’s in today if he had.

But he took office with a hostile running mate, a woman who sought the supervisor seat in the 2009 election and backed away from a primary in a deal with party bosses that put her on the ballot for the council slot. He had a hard time getting past that, I think. And it seemed like she did too.

Within a year, he had another councilman, Jim Wooten — a man with a “safe seat” who could run for the supervisor’s job without giving up the one he had — looking for their party’s nomination for supervisor.

The personalities on the board were certainly hard to manage on even the best of days, and Sean’s people skills leave much to be desired. Hence the bickering and occasional all-out slugfest.

Now, let’s examine the record.

Fiscal responsibility
The nonsense being plastered all over the place by the Suffolk County Police union’s Super PAC about how “Sean raised taxes $5 million” is just that— nonsense.

The town’s tax levy has risen by $5 million in the five years since the currently sitting town board has been in office. Personnel costs have driven the rise in expenses. Period.

This is something every business owner knows. The town has collective bargaining agreements by which it must abide. Contractual step increases and cost of living adjustments drove those costs up, as did the ever-rising cost of health insurance. End of story.

The town cut staff to reduce the increase in its expenses. Riverhead is not overstaffed, folks. Not by a long shot. More cuts, especially the steep cuts needed to bring the tax levy increase to zero, would shut down town government. Get real. The county police union — whatever their motive for running an attack campaign against the incumbent supervisor — is hurling cow chips.

This year is the first year in which the supervisor has proposed a budget that requires the tax levy to rise more than the state-imposed cap. To bring it in under the cap, the levy has to be reduced by $1.23 million. Supervisor candidate and incumbent Councilwoman Jodi Giglio says it can be done, but she’s not willing to discuss specifics. See story.

The only cuts I can see that would put a real dent in that $1.23 million is to zero out the town board’s salary and benefits. The four board members are currently each earning $50,000 per year for a job classified as part-time. Plus full payment on their health insurance — or if they get insurance from another source — a cash payment in lieu of coverage. Plus some sort of deferred income annuity.

If the board members volunteered their time to serve the town, in the spirit of public service, they’d save the town half a million bucks right there.

Downtown
Downtown is rebounding and Sean has worked hard to try and broker deals between interested businesses and recalcitrant landlords. I wish he’d get tougher with them — and with the slumlords that rent substandard housing in the blocks north of Main Street.

With only two code enforcement officers, that’s a tall order. The town needs to find a way to increase staff there. It needs to crack down on these slumlords.

But issuing more code violations by itself won’t do the trick. The town needs to be able to prosecute the violations in court — which requires attorneys, and that requires funding. The town is not replacing the attorney who handled those prosecutions; he left to work for Southold Town earlier this year.

EPCAL
Critics blame him for not getting the EPCAL subdivision done. The town is waiting for the completion of the environmental impact statement; the FEIS is, frankly, overdue.

Luminati Aerospace throws a monkey wrench into the subdivision plan, which calls for shortening the 10,000-foot runway and eliminating the 7,000-foot runway. Sean says he’s known about the Maynard’s negotiation with Luminati for months — and that’s why he was not pushing to finalize the subdivision map now on the table. That makes good fiscal sense.

Luminati is a good development for the town. Will it be the Big Thing Sean hopes, spinning off lots of other industrial users, businesses and jobs? That remains to be seen. They have a contract with a Fortune 250 company to build large unmanned aerial vehicles that would bring wifi to the planet from 65,000 feet. I don’t know the details but it sounds like it’s a pilot program. If so, and they ultimately win the production contract, this is certainly a home run not just for Riverhead, but for all of Long Island. Sean’s claims of credit for “bringing the aerospace industry back to EPCAL” are, it seems to me, rather overblown — typical for any pol.

Bottom line
Over the past six years, I’ve seen Sean work earnestly and diligently on things he believes are in the best interests of the town. He’s made hard decisions because he felt they were the right decisions. I know from personal experience, when an elected official does that, he or she makes enemies. Though I’m not always 100 percent certain his motives are always 100 percent pure, I believe that most of the time, anyway, they are.

Honestly, I don’t like Sean’s preachiness and his habit of reading from scripture during public meetings. And my views are diametrically opposed to his on innumerable social issues.

But at the end of the day, I think he’s done the heavy lifting needed to right a listing ship, to steer it away from that iceberg and into calmer waters.

• Why I’m not voting for Jodi Giglio
• Or Anthony Coates