Angry words, accusations, bitter discourse over moorings at Town Board meeting

What started calmly enough at Tuesday afternoon’s Town Board work session as setting the agenda for Monday night’s Waterways Management Advisory Council (WMAC), exploded into an angry encounter.

Former WMAC member Bert Waife demanded to be heard on his charge that Mike Anglin, former owner of Jack’s Marine and a WMAC member, was guilty of selling his influence to customers.

Mr. Waife raised the accusation at the Jan. 28 Board meeting, saying Mr. Anglin should not be reappointed to the WMAC because he was charging $500 to customers seeking moorings to fill their applications, telling them he would ensure positive action because he sat on WMAC.

Mr. Anglin arrived almost at the end of the three-hour meeting to say he wanted to speak “about being thrown under the bus” by Mr. Waife who had left the session earlier.

As former owner of Jack’s, Mr. Anglin sold gear for moorings and installed them, but also charged a fee to customers who wanted him to fill their applications. He told the Board he had identified himself as a WMAC member, telling customers he could fill their applications because he was aware of what WMAC members wanted. At the same time, he religiously recused himself from discussions and voting on any matters affecting his customers.

If anyone questions how he has conducted himself, he said he would cease to process applications.

Earlier in the meeting, when Mr. Waife repeated his charges against Mr. Anglin, he refused to yield to Supervisor Gerry Siller, who said the discussion should wait until Monday night’s WMAC meeting.

“I’m going to speak,” Mr. Waife told Mr. Siller, refusing to hold his comments.

“You’re unbelievable,” Mr. Siller responded.

“I’m unbelievable? I’m unbelievable?” Mr. Waife said, shouting above the supervisor while charging that Mr. Anglin and member James Eklund weren’t entitled to sit as members of the WMAC because their terms expired Tuesday and they had not been reappointed.

There is precedent for allowing members with expired terms to serve on committees until reappointed or replaced with the necessary paperwork in place and a vote by the Town Board to reappoint them or accept their resignations.

Mr. Siller said he would discuss Mr. Waife’s charges about Mr. Anglin with new Town Attorney Stephen Kiely and the WMAC. But Mr. Waife was not willing to bow to the request to delay the discussion. Nor would he listen to other Board members who appealed to him. He continued loudly making his case until Mr. Siller threatened to have him removed from the Town Hall meeting room.

“I don’t want to do this, but I’ll ask the court officer to escort you out,” Mr. Siller said.

That didn’t happen, but Mr. Waife didn’t quit speaking, repeating his charges that as a contractor, Mr. Anglin had an advantage, creating a perception that “if you want to get a mooring, go see Mike.”

Finally, Councilman Jim Colligan said, “Let the supervisor look into it. Let’s calm down — we’re all adults here,” which seemed to end the encounter.

Mr. Colligan said when Mr. Waife was taken off the WMAC, it was to reduce it to a more manageable number. Two of the shell fisherman didn’t ask for reappointment. Mr. Waife did, but has not been added. Mr. Colligan said in making committee appointments, it’s important that members work together to reach consensus.

Mr. Waife said after the meeting he had disagreed with other members about how to handle applications, with the others giving advantages to businesses seeking commercial moorings, while he, as a commercial fisherman, had difficulty securing a single mooring for his use.

Other issues concern the Town Board about WMAC operations, and part of Monday night’s agenda is expected to raise more issues, including the revision of mooring applications, which clearly annoyed Town Clerk Dorothy Ogar. She demanded to know why changes in the procedure were being made public before she’d been consulted. She said she has been handling the permit process effectively for years and simply needed more help.

Mr. Siller said he’s working on that, but the decision has been made that instead of Ms. Ogar’s office accepting applications and processing them, the Town Clerk would receive the applications, but turn them over to the WMAC, and only after an application was approved, have the Town Clerk issue a permit.

Martin Majdisova gets major appointments

Kristina Martin Majdisova, who has served as a clerk for a number of Town committees and also functioned as a media consultant, got a boost in salary to $84,000 as she is tapped for some new assignments and several former posts.

The Town Board unanimously approved her appointment as Town Board Administrator at a salary of $22,500; Administrative Assistant to the Supervisor at a salary of $22,500; Media Department operations at a salary of $15,000; Aide to the Town Attorney at a salary of $10,000; and clerk of three committees — the Water Advisory Committee for which she will earn $6,000 and the Waterways Management Advisory Council and Community Preservation Fund, receiving $4,000 for each of those assignments.

Ms. Martin Majdisova had run on the Democratic ticket for Town Clerk last November, losing to long-time Town Clerk Dorothy Ogar.