GOP Chief: Williams to campaign on money, transparency

Money will matter in the upcoming election for town supervisor.

And Republican candidate Art Williams can win on pocketbook issues, said Island GOP Chairman Bob DeStefano Jr.

Challenging Supervisor Jim Dougherty this November, Mr. Williams, former supervisor and currently a partner in the accounting firm of A & A Williams and president of the Chamber of Commerce, will work a strategy of challenging Mr. Dougherty’s budget decisions and “the financial security of the town,” Mr. DeStefano said.

“Art’s a CPA, he’s done this before and when he left office we had a strong fund balance and were in a great financial position.”

Mr. Williams was elected supervisor in 2001 and 2003 before losing to Alfred Kilb Jr. in 2005.

The town, according to Mr. DeStefano, has been weakened by Mr. Dougherty’s budget decisions “by dipping into the fund balance. It’s down substantially.”

He added that Mr. Dougherty, who will run on keeping taxes low, is merely borrowing on the future by going into the fund balance. “We’re getting close to the danger line,” Mr. DeStefano said.

Will a Williams’ administration raise taxes?

“I don’t know what the year’s numbers look like,” Mr. DeStefano answered. “Obviously we want to keep taxes down. [Raising taxes] is everyone’s last resort.”

Mr. Dougherty has been a fiscal hawk in Town Hall for eight years, and is proud of balancing budgets. In fact, in some departments he has under spent what was allocated in the budgets.

The town needs hard information when it comes to the issue of deer and the ticks that spreadLyme  disease, Mr. DeStefano said, and that will be an issue Mr. Williams will campaign on.

“We have a lot of stuff we don’t know,” Mr. DeStefano said. “To this day we don’t have any indication of what all the programs have done to the ultimate issue, which is the incidence of Lyme disease.”

It’s key to get an actual count of the deer herd. “It’s Art’s position that we have to understand more and get hard facts,” Mr. DeStefano added.

Mr. Dougherty has been a strong advocate of the 4-poster program —feeding stands deployed around the Island that brush deer with a chemical, permethrin, that kills ticks — and has lobbied Albany successfully over the years to fund the program.

The other major issue this election season is the quality of the Island’s ground and surface water. Mr. De Stefano said the GOP’s candidate for supervisor would take the same tack against Mr. Dougherty as the deer problem — demanding more facts about water.

“Getting information to take on the worst-case scenario and protect what we have” should be the priority, Mr. DeStefano said.

The two Republican candidates for Town Board, incumbent Councilman Paul Shepherd and Planning Board member Emory Breiner, are strong personalities with ideas that will resonate with voters, Mr. DeStefano said.

Running for a seat on the Town Board on the Democratic line is Jim Colligan, president of the Silver Beach Association and vice president of the Shelter Island Association. Mr. Colligan is also a member of the town Deer & Tick Committee.

“Paul Shepherd is the great, independent voice on the board,” the Republican chairman said. “He’s the citizen’s voice, an outsider even though he’s up there, and that’s a characteristic to keep on the board.”

Mr. Breiner has a deep understanding of the town code and “he’s been around town government for 15 years,” Mr. DeStefano said. “He knows all the personalities involved.”

Shelter Island politics is almost completely retail, Mr. DeStefano said, so the strategy is to get out and meet voters individually and work the phones. There will be small events scheduled and sometime next month there will be a “meet the candidates” event,” Mr. DeStefano said.