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Dering Harbor moorings stir tempest: Waterways commissioner resigns

A request for a mooring in Dering Harbor has set off a political scuffle and caused a Village Board member to resign her posts.

In addition to being a trustee, Clora Kelly has been serving as Waterways Commissioner. When a resident asked for a mooring, Ms. Kelly said, she identified several sites, including one in front of her home. Her husband objected to that placement, she disclosed at the Board’s monthly meeting on April 10.

In order to comply with Village precedent and be transparent, she said, she sought advice from the Village Board and the Town Waterways Commission. She said, in a subsequent email to residents, that there was a traditional mooring spot available that she thought would be an acceptable alternative.

“I realized that there had always been … an informal village mooring policy: buoys for non-waterfront properties and waterfront properties facing Greenport are placed by the Julia Dodd Culvert which is a large mooring field,” Ms. Kelly wrote. “It is a beautiful spot close to SIYC [Shelter Island Yacht Club] and Piccozzi slip access. What’s more, there are no harbor front homeowners to object. This is widely considered to be the most desirable mooring site in the harbor as it has least current and chop, with little wind.”

Ms. Kelly went on to write that, following the Board meeting, Mayor Patrick Parcells emailed her to urge her to grant the resident’s mooring request. She quoted the mayor’s email: “I am sure that you will appreciate that your denial of the [applicant’s] request based on grounds or reasons that do not exist isn’t a good look. Making it worse is that it might appear that you have a personal interest in the outcome.”

Ms. Kelly concluded her email to residents by resigning both of her positions, saying “I find it difficult to continue as a trustee or Waterways Commissioner after my integrity and independence is questioned.”

Some members of the Board asked her to reconsider and praised the work she had done in both roles for the Village. The mayor responded, “To be clear, neither your integrity nor independence was questioned or is in question. You were elected for a trustee that term ends in a couple of months. I hope that you will see it through.”

There have been previous instances where members of the Village government had questions about conflicts of interest and whether they need to recuse themselves from decisions or even preliminary discussions. It can be especially challenging in a small village where a limited number of volunteers fill leadership roles.

Village Attorney Wayne Bruyn has stated that his role is to advise the Board, not individual members, and they need to decide the best course of action for themselves. Mayor Parcells has said it would be helpful for the board to participate in an ethics course, and he recently reiterated that he’s planning for that to happen.

Contacted by the Reporter for further comment, Ms. Kelly declined to discuss the issue further, saying in an email “I think the best thing is if I hang up my cap quietly now.”

When asked for comments, Mayor Parcells focused on a lack of clarity in the Village’s regulations, rather than Ms. Kelly, calling it a “defective code.” The Board has in recent years overhauled several provisions of the Village’s code to clarify, streamline and make more transparent the rules affecting everything from construction noise to setbacks to tree removal.

Because of overlap between the jurisdictions of the Village and the Town of Shelter Island, the two governments had begun working on a joint approach to the waters of Dering Harbor. Those efforts had been inconclusive, the mayor said, and had not progressed further due to the change in town administrations from Supervisor Gary Gerth to Gerry Siller.

Mr. Parcells said the Board would hold a special meeting on April 26, anticipating acceptance of Ms. Kelly’s resignation, and that he would appoint a new Waterways Commissioner.