Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor: March 6, 2025
Use of Political Influence
To the Editor:
I would like to correct the misrepresentation of my motives for resigning from the Democratic Committee as reported in the Feb. 20, 2025, Reporter article “Dispute in Democratic Committee leads to shakeup.” The article failed to include my statements explaining my reasons for leaving, which I would like to clarify.
My resignation was not simply due to being on the losing side of a vote, as Ms. Brigham’s comment might suggest. Rather, it was prompted by what I perceived as a concerning use of political influence. Based on conversations with community members, I believed the decision to introduce an alternative candidate to Ken Lewis as Highway Superintendent was vindictively motivated by a small group of the Bowditch Road neighbors who seem to have a disproportionate influence over some members of the Democratic Committee and Town Board.
The Committee majority has argued that it is their mission to represent Democrats and ensure that voters have choices. This is certainly true, and it serves as an excuse for them to ignore inconvenient considerations. However, I fear that Islanders will see this act as a quid-pro-quo use of political power for personal vengeance. Even if this is not the case, the circumstances suggest impropriety, and I do not wish to be associated with such practices.
In my opinion, voting to cross endorse Mr. Lewis or to not endorse anyone would have demonstrated a rejection of cronyism and revenge politics and a championing of the best interests of the larger Shelter Island community.
So, while I resigned because of that vote, it was not simply because I was outvoted by other Committee members. I chose to resign because of what that vote implies.
MARK MOBIUS, Shelter Island
Matters of Trust
To the Editor:
On the matter of raising the assessed valuation to 100% market value from 68% (Prose & Comments, Feb. 13, “Councilman Questions Reassessments,” Feb. 6) the issue is, can we trust the full market valuation printed on our tax bills in the absence of a recent market sale.
Using well water as an example, on an island with five houses with water wells at 68% each, the tax burden to fill 3 bottles of water (tax) falls equally to each of the 5 houses (20% tax share). Suppose the well of one house falls to zero, but the tax burden is still three bottles of water. In this case the burden to fill three bottles now falls on the shoulders of four houses (25% tax share). It doesn’t matter what the well capacity is (68% or 100%) as long as the capacity (e.g. assessed valuation) stays constant.
Adding houses helps to spread the tax burden, while reducing valuation has the opposite effect. Disruption can occur if a valuation suddenly changes. When a Dering Harbor house with over $10 million in assessed valuation was demolished in 2022, the disruption was a 3% tax increase to each resident two years later. (My 2024 Village tax shows a 5% increase from 2023 — 3% disruption plus 2% budget increase.) It took two years for the assessed valuation to catch up to the tax allocation.
Can experts determine what our market value is without doing individual appraisals? My January 2025 professional appraisal shows a market valuation 21% below the “Full Market Value” as shown on my 2024-25 Town tax statement. As I described earlier, the difficulty is not what the valuation is — it is already printed on our tax bills — but whether we can trust revised market values determined by experts.
JOHN T. COLBY JR., The writer is a former mayor, ARB chair and ZBA chair of the Village of Dering Harbor.
Calling On Rep. Nick LaLota
To the Editor:
The administration’s move to defund the U.S. Agency for International Development risks both a humanitarian catastrophe in some of the poorest places in the world and grave damage to American national security for a minuscule reduction in the federal budget.
USAID programs have saved millions of lives, helping to achieve, to take one example, a 70% decline in malaria-related deaths among children in sub-Saharan Africa in the years from 2000 to 2015. It is immoral for the richest country on Earth to cease this assistance in the face of so much needless death and suffering.
Apart from simple human compassion, the sudden cessation of this aid will contribute to instability in that part of the world, endangering America’s reputation and interests.
It is essential that Congress restore this funding and resist the reckless, thoughtless assault on government programs led by Elon Musk. We call on Rep. Nick LaLota to support the Protect U.S. National Security Act and withhold approval of any federal budget that does not fully restore USAID as an independent agency.
JEROME ADLER, BETH LEBOWITZ, Mattituck
Never a Good Idea
To the Editor:
In “Highway Chief Objects to Dems’ Comments” (Feb. 27, 2025), a curious observation was included that somehow linked the Highway Superintendent’s defense of his controversial actions to the Shelter Island Democratic Committee’s selection of its own candidate for the Highway Superintendent’s position in the upcoming election.
I’m not sure how that computes. Shouldn’t the Democratic Committee pick Democrats for office? (Interestingly, although the Democratic Committee has cross endorsed candidates in the past, the Republican Committee usually does not.)
Cross endorsing candidates is never a good idea. Among other things, it indicates that a party doesn’t have a very deep bench. On a political level, it dilutes the party’s message — what it stands for in promoting its particular programs. A political party should compete for votes based on this agenda. Otherwise, when I step into the voting booth, what am I voting for when a candidate is listed across the board under several party lines on the ballot?
In the current climate of voter apathy, in which voters ask, “Why should I vote at all?” cross endorsements only serve to dilute a party’s effectiveness in delivering its message. Some good government groups have even commented that this practice just smacks of “backroom deals.” For example, if you endorse my candidate, I won’t run a candidate against you in another district or another election.
New York is only one of eight states that permits cross endorsements. To me, this indicates that the trend is moving toward banning the practice (15 states do permit cross endorsements, but candidates can only run on one party line on the ballot, so in effect, this constitutes a ban).
Cross endorsements really undermine voter choice, which is not healthy in a democracy in which the franchise is considered an important element.
CATHY KENNY, Treasurer, A Better Island for All
Democratic Candidate Responds
To the Editor:
I’m Michael Reiter, the Democratic candidate for Highway Superintendent, born and raised on Shelter Island.
I’ve worked for the Highway Department for 20 years. I started my career working road maintenance in Dering Harbor as a teenager and served as shop steward for the Bricklayers Union #29, managing teams of workers for 10 years before returning home to work for the Town and help my parents with the family restaurant, Bob’s Fish Market.
I’ve been a volunteer fireman for 20 years. I was elected Shelter Island Fire Commissioner in 2023.
Running for Highway Superintendent has been a goal of mine for a long time. We have a good group of workers in our department who are dedicated to their jobs. I plan to work closely with each of them to organize the Highway Department and Recycling Center to benefit everyone.
Some of the projects I think are important include: carefully managing expenses, income, assets, and grants to keep our taxes low; improving town landings, making them safer; improving fire truck access and managing water runoff to protect our waterways; widening roads for walking and biking safety; managing work schedules for road maintenance and improvement; improving the Recycling Center’s waste management, hazmat and landfill services; creating safe accessibility to all areas of the Recycling Center to help residents recycle and reuse; and working to generate more income from recycling services.
I’m here for the Island, for the people. Shelter Island is a special place for all of us and my family. I have grandchildren that are 4th-generation Shelter Islanders. I plan to help preserve our Island for my grandchildren and yours.
Thank you, I look forward to speaking and listening to all of you.
ROBERT MICHAEL REITER, Candidate for Highway Superintendent
Life Before Vaccines
To the Editor:
I was born in 1953 to parents who were able to provide food, housing, and medical care. They couldn’t vaccinate me for measles and other contagious diseases because vaccines weren’t available. Measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox — I had them all.
Measles made me so ill at age 8 that I still remember it and how jealous I was when my younger brother was able to be vaccinated. My mother, who had seen the devastating effects of polio on friends and family, cried tears of joy when she took us to get vaccinated.
In the early 1970’s, as a young Adelphi University nursing student, my pediatric nursing class spent a day caring for children with profound brain and physical dysfunction. The children in the ward had suffered devastating complications from measles in infancy or been exposed to rubella in utero. The teen-aged boy I cared for was blind, deaf, and profoundly retarded because of measles. He had to be restrained 24/7 to prevent self-mutilation. The children I saw that day have stayed with me ever since.
Vaccine skepticism is commonplace and caused an outbreak in Texas that has taken a child’s life. Twenty patients are hospitalized with pneumonia — hopefully there will be no more deaths or devastating complications.
I shared my story because personal stories help reach people with vaccine hesitancy. Vaccines go through rigorous testing and are safe for most people. Vaccines are released because the risk of the disease is higher than the risk of side effects.
If you have been “anti-vax” but are questioning your stance, speak to your doctor and visit the web site “Back to the Vax” — started by two women who were formerly anti-vax. If you are trying to convince someone you love to get vaccinated the website “Jitsuvax” may help you with the conversation.
BARBARA WASILAUSKY, Southold
