A world apart on issues: Dougherty, Williams running for supervisor

The two men who want to be Shelter Island Town Supervisor — incumbent Jim Dougherty and former supervisor Art Williams — couldn’t be more distant from one another in their attitudes about how the government should function fiscally.

Mr. Dougherty has been outspoken that in his eight years in office he’s been a fiscal hawk, unwilling to allocate money to any ongoing maintenance fund when he thinks there’s sufficient money in the town’s two fund balances.

Highway Superintendent Jay Card Jr., a fellow Democrat, and Town Engineer John Cronin argued last fall that the town needs to establish a separate fund to cope with ongoing maintenance and replacement of town-owned assets.

But no one on the Town Board was willing to go along with the idea.

Mr. Williams, who was elected supervisor in 2001 and 2003 before losing to Alfred Kilb Jr. in 2005, sides with Mr. Card and Mr. Cronin. Fund balances are insufficient to meet ongoing needs in a responsible way, he said.

“Budgeting year to year is irresponsible at any level,” Mr. Williams said.

It’s not consistent with advice from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, he added.

He also accuses Mr. Dougherty of failing to present an initial budget to the members of the Town Board in the years he has been supervisor.

“I disagree completely,” Mr. Dougherty said. At the end of September of every year he has been supervisor, he said he has submitted a budget draft to the members of the Town Board that represents his philosophy and recommendations.

DEER & TICK ISSUES
Another area where the two men disagree is on efforts to tackle the deer and tick issue on Shelter Island.

“I think we’ve been terribly successful,” Mr. Dougherty said. He has secured grants to offset the costs of deploying and servicing 4-poster units — feeding stands that coat deer necks with a tickicide as they eat — and said the town’s Deer & Tick Committee during his administration has taken positive steps to increase incentives for hunters to reduce the deer herd.

At a recent committee meeting he told members that other communities struggling with the problem are looking to Shelter Island for leadership.
“This health menace isn’t going to go away overnight,” Mr. Dougherty said.

But Mr. Williams described Mr. Dougherty’s efforts as “sort of benign.”

The former supervisor said when he was in office, he was able to secure many grants for Shelter Island, but thinks Mr. Dougherty could do more to engage the community in debate on how to best solve the problem.

That’s an issue that has plagued Deer & Tick Committee members who continue to look for ways to involve the community.

“I’ve had success in filling rooms in the past,” Mr. Williams said.

One way to do that is to let it be known that if a sufficient reduction in the deer herd can’t be achieved by local hunters, the town would be open to hiring professional hunters, he said.

The committee put that on the table a few months ago and then took it off, indicating they thought Islanders had no appetite to hire outside sharpshooters.

But just last week, there was action toward requesting a larger budget for deer culls and seeking a local hunter or hunters to get wildlife control licenses and be compensated for leading the effort at deer management.

IRRIGATION
The revised irrigation law is another area where the two candidates part company.

Mr. Dougherty saw a need to revisit the law that was approved in 2003, but not scheduled to be implemented until 2013. Technology changed through the years and it was important to take that into consideration, Mr. Dougherty said about the appointment of a committee to re-study the issue.

He describes the new law as “very much a work in progress” that will change as circumstances dictate.

Mr. Williams thinks the ban that would have taken effect in September 2013 should have been implemented. He disagrees with current board discussions to “start earmarking fragile zones” with different restrictions from the rest of the Island. Doing so, Mr. Williams fears, will create issues about property values.

“The irrigation rules should be across the board,” he added.

In the future, Mr. Dougherty said he wants to be a part of a new Town Board that he expects will appoint someone to fill Councilman Ed Brown’s post in January.

After the November election, Mr. Dougherty said he favors running an ad to try to attract some new talent. The decision on a new appointee to the board must be made on ability and not politics.

“After the election, there are no more Democrats and Republicans, just Shelter Islanders,” he said.

If there’s one area on which the two men agree, it’s their attitude about the opportunity to serve.

“I enjoy the job and working with the folks in Town Hall and I get a lot of satisfaction and delight in doing it,” Mr. Dougherty said.

“I’m feeling very excited about this,” Mr. Williams said about his decision to run. He hadn’t considered running until Republican Committee members asked him to do so because “apparently there was no other candidate,” he said. “There should be a choice.”