Heated exchanges, accusations, at Town Board meeting over affordable housing

For hardly the first time, fireworks erupted at Tuesday afternoon’s Town Board work session between members, Town Attorney Stephen Kiely and resident Bob Kohn.

Charges erupted from both sides accusing one another of lying.

Mr. Kohn complained that he has not been given the time to refute statements at Town Board meetings or hearings. He further denied that he ever made any statement telling people if they can’t afford to live on Shelter Island, they should  leave and find housing elsewhere.

Supervisor Gerry Siller used his time to question the veracity of statements contained in advertisements in recent Reporter issues addressing pending plans for affordable housing. In the past, Mr. Siller said, those who had opinions about issues or questions would raise them at meetings or hearings, not pay for advertisements to state their cases.

The problem with the advertisements wasn’t that they express opinions differing with the Town Board’s view about needs for affordable housing, but information that is “not true,” Mr. Siller said.

Three minutes to respond at meetings is insufficient, Mr. Kohn said, defending why his group, Friends of Shelter Island, has purchased advertisements.

“I don’t know what people think is our motive,” Mr. Siller said. The advertisements “don’t tell the truth,” he reiterated.

When Mr. Kohn charged his removal from the Community Housing Board in June 2021 demonstrated the Town Board didn’t want to hear opposing views, Mr. Siller replied, “You lied to us to get on that Board.”

‘Every time you do this, it makes me upset as any resident should be upset by a supervisor who doesn’t even follow laws, accusing people like me on the front page of the Reporter of being a liar,” Mr. Kohn replied.

With that, Mr. Kohn turned his attention to Mr. Kiely, charging that he was failing to enforce the Open Meetings Law as updated in April. Mr. Kohn questioned Mr. Kiely over the failure of the Town Board to post an agenda for the regular Town Board meeting scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday evening.

The agenda that should have been posted by 6 p.m., Monday wasn’t posted until minutes before the 3 p.m. work session started Tuesday. Mr. Kohn said the agenda he saw failed to include the resolutions to be discussed at the 6 p.m. meeting and said they were only added during the afternoon meeting.

An agenda copied by the Reporter from the Town’s website as soon as it was posted on Tuesday included the resolutions Mr. Kohn said were not online.

Mr. Kiely said the lateness of posting the agenda resulted because of illness among staff in the Town Clerk’s office. The Town Attorney noted the revised Open Meetings Law that was amended in April requires posting 24 hours in advance “to the extent practicable.”

The two men squabbled over the version of the law with Mr. Kohn insisting the April version of the Open Meetings Law failed to include those words. Despite that, copies he sent to the Town Board and the media did show those words in the April revision to the law.

On Wednesday, Mr. Kohn said he was referring to the words in the phrase “as determined by the Town Board” and pointing out those words had been eliminated in the updated law.

Councilman Jim Colligan — who revealed for the first time what had been speculated that when his term ends in 17 months he would not be seeking re-election — joined the discussion with an effort to calm the waters, appealing to Mr. Kohn to give affordable housing a chance to succeed.

“Be part of the solution,” he said. At the same time, he said Mr. Kohn fails to understand the Shelter Island community and the value of what has been its economic and ethnic diversity. The councilman has lived on the Island for 16 years and said if he wanted to live in a gated community, he and his wife would have moved to Florida.

He further took issue with a statement in a recent advertisement that stated the town currently has enough volunteer firefighters and emergency medical services personnel to meet its needs, pointing to the need to pay paramedics to provide lifesaving procedures since the retirement last year of volunteer Phil Power, who for years provided such services as a volunteer.

At the same time, he said many current EMS volunteers and firefighters are aging and younger people are needed to fill their places now.

Mr. Kohn’s group have paid for  advertisements in favor of providing affordable housing to volunteers, while maintaining the need is not current.

Councilwoman BJ Ianfolla said it bothers her that Mr. Kohn thinks the Town Board and committee members are “such evil people.” She further said she doesn’t know where Mr. Kohn or others imagined the community housing plan would be advocating multi-story complexes. While the plan is still being developed, she ensured that efforts would be wedded to smart growth principles to meet environmental and community needs.

Deputy Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams said she wants time to review the advertisements more closely, but noted that to imply that 160 acres of land would prompt building a multitude of houses, as advertisements have indicated, is wrong.

The Town Board wants to hear from the public on the subject and values input, Ms. Brach-Williams said.

“Let’s do this so we’re working together and not against each other,” she said.