Dowd named as town's representative on preservation fund advisory panel

Shelter Island Town Supervisor Jim Dougherty has named Town Attorney Laurie Dowd to be the town’s representative on the new Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund Advisory Opinions Bureau, the creation of which was recently announced by two East End state legislators.

The supervisor made the appointment in response to a September 7 letter from Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who established the panel along with State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle. Both legislators were architects of the original state law that, in 1998, authorized each of the five East End towns to establish a Community Preservation Fund to be supported by revenues derived from a town-by-town 2-percent tax on most real estate transactions.

The money is for funding the acquisition of land for preservation as well as some of the administrative and maintenance costs of the program.

The 11-member Advisory Burea’s function will be to provide legal opinions and interpretations about the proper use of Community Preservation Fund money and properties. Since 2008, when news broke that the town of East Hampton had “borrowed” from its CPF funds to pay municipal operating costs, Mr. Thiele and Mr. LaValle have worked to clarify the original legislation’s rules and to provide mechanisms through which questions can be answered about proper procedures.