East Hampton Town Board Work Session - 10/7/25

001Thank you, LTV. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the East Hampton Town Board work session of Tuesday, October 7th, 2025. Carol, if you could please read the roll call. >> Present. Present. >> Present. If we could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> So this morning we open with public portion. We ask you to please kindly keep your comments to three minutes. We have a very robust uh exe uh session today for for uh topics. We start with bids with Jeannie Corrosa. Then Becky Hansen will take us through the 2026 tenative budget. Heath Leeman from our IT department is going to take

002us through a presentation on scams, how to spot and avoid them. We're going to have a discussion with Jake Turner about chapter 102-14 building construction and certificate of occupancy. Then Kate is going to lead a discussion on the on short-term rentals here in the town of East Hampton. Ian's got a presentation on the Maid Maidstone Park playground. And then Eric Chance will be remoting in and we're going to have a post-hering discussion about affordable multiple residents. Then that's followed by liaison reports and resolutions. So, first we start with public portion. Carol, has anyone signed up? Okay, Gloria. Welcome, Gloria. >> Good morning. I'm Gloria Frezy and I just came to the gym, but I I did shower in between, so we're okay. We don't need to evacuate the building. Um, I was on the treadmill

003and got started talking with the woman next to me who actually happens to work at the gym and uh, I asked, "What's that construction over there?" And she said, "Oh, it's Kwell Court. That's where they're finally putting in some affordable housing." And I said, "Oh, that's where it is. That's really cool." And she said, "Yeah, we need more of that. It's great that they're doing this." And um, she has just changed apartments again. always because getting kicked out of one house and then another and then another. And then I was talking with my trainer as I was sweating and trying to talk. And um Melody actually just moved this past weekend with with her husband from one apartment to another because the first one became unaffordable. It's being renovated. It's being sold. You know, all

004of this stuff always happens here. And then that made me think of um a a worker I know at um he works both at Nick and Tony's and also at Amber Waves. His building is being sold. He cannot find another place to live that is in any way affordable. He's just looking for a room and it's it's crazy expensive. So this is someone who is local, has a couple of jobs, is also looking, okay, the winter season is going to be slower, which it happens around here. So he can't afford what he would pay in summertime year round. There are a lot of people coming in summertimes, short-term rentals, and it just makes it unaffordable for people. This is just like today people unbidden were talking to me about this. So it's a real need

005in the community to keep East Hampton livable for locals. We've got problems with uh with traffic. People are driving all over the place. I mean uh the Carolyn at the gym also said her friends who live in Monttok and work in Monttok they they don't know how much longer they can keep affording rent there and just the thought of driving from where up island to here and I know that the town is having issues also how can you find people to work for the town in a lot of these positions that are going unfil it's too expensive it is not sustainable for our town. Thank you. >> Thank you, Gloria. Would anyone else like to address the board? Okay, Jody, is there anyone on the line? >> Nope, there are no callers on the line.

006>> All right, so we're going to move over to topics then. So, first up is Jeannie Corrosa with bids. Welcome, Jeanie. >> Good morning. >> Things going on for today. Um the first is for um town hall windows and facade restoration. Ronald web builder is the apparent low bidder for the base bid total of $290,868 and that would um this includes the front windows and the east side and then we'll just continue from that point on. Um next is printing of sanitation permits and other forms. Concept Print is the apparent low bidder for that. And then we had another uh printing bid for miscellaneous forms and Rididgewood Press and EOCC Print are the apparent low biders for those. And a re couple of rejections. First is for a car carrier for the um Town Fleet

007Garage. The pricing came in very high. And next is the um Abraham's Path Park Comfort Station and Storage Building. and that will be revised and we'll be doing another bid at a later date. And lastly, um there'll be a notice for next week on October 16th for um the Justice Court interior painting. And that's all for today. Great. Any questions for Jeannie? >> No, but just a discussion on the Abraham's path conference station if you don't mind. Uh we looked into that. Uh the bids came in higher than anticipated. Uh we're looking to redesign for cost savings. Uh they're also working with engineering. Uh and then also potentially adding in the new pickup ball courts into discussion as far as construction during this potential next bid. There might be a cost start savings on the

008economy of scale and the build biders. So we still want to try to get that that done potentially by summer next year also. So I just want to explain everyone to that. That's why we did that. >> Thank you Genie for working with me on that. >> No problem. >> Genie, sorry. I do have just one question on the town hall windows facade just to be clear. So is that going from the town this building all the way to the far east one? the building right here. Um, so where uh Becky's office is upstairs and mine, those front windows, the front shingling and the east side of that building with the windows and the shingling. And then we have um there were several alternates on it, but the total came in with the alternates very

009high. So we're just doing the base bid that includes just those sections and then we're going to do it um peace meal after that. So it's restoration of the existing windows and replacement of the shingles. >> Exactly. Correct. So actually those windows will be used and they're going to, you know, the wooden frames and the sashes and all that will be back to the historic historic work. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Jeannie. Thank you. >> Okay. Next up is the town administrator, Becky Hansen, to talk about the 2026 tenative budget. Welcome, Becky. >> Good morning. Uh Becky Hansen, town administrator and budget officer, and I'm here to present the 2026 budget. Um I thought I would just briefly mention that uh the supervisor did something a little different this year as far as

010selecting the cover. I thought we should give a shout out. Um the supervisor sent out an email to uh all town employees asking them to please submit a picture of their favorite location within the town to be um considered for the cover. And we are happy to announce I don't know if LTV Andy Drake from our land management department had a picture of Amsterdam Beach that was selected. Um Andy, congratulations. You don't win anything great. Um other than my eternal thanks that I did not have to try to dig up a picture for this year's cover. >> He did get a photo credit. >> He did get photo credit. So for all of eternity, he will be on the uh budget documents for 2026. So again, I'm here to present the 2026 tenative budget. Um,

011I would first like to thank the supervisor, the town board, and the department heads for their time during this entire process. I'd also like to specifically thank staff from within the finance department, Niji Valera, our deputy budget officer, Alex Papagon, um, our senior accountant, and Gth Pacheo, one of our accountant trainees, um, who worked put in a lot of time and a lot of hours to actually have the document that's before you today. We began budget pres preparations back in June and performed internal work in the finance department in July and August. The supervisor, town board liaison, excuse me, townboard liaison and finance staff conducted a total of 29 meetings with department heads that concluded in mid August. From then until midepptember, additional meetings were held to refine refine and finalize the document that you

012have today. The 2026 tenative budget totals $ 109,910,500 in dollars. This is just over a $5.9 million increase from the current year and equates to a 5.76% increase. The tenative budget proposes to pierce the tax cap by levying a total amount of $7,90,762. And this is for the four townwide funds. This is an amount of $2.1 million over the tax cap. The tax cap was capped at 2% from the prior year, which is not a straight 2%, which is often people um misunderstand that, but it is a form. There is a formula and a calculation that we get from New York State that tells us how much the amount that we actually can levy. Our allowable amount from 2025 to 26 was only just over $2.2 million total. The town did receive a pension exclusion

013from the police and fire retirement because the proposed um rate increase and the contribution to the police fire retirement system was higher than the allowable amount under the law. So we did get a a small pension exclusion. It was just under $100,000 relating to PFRS. 63% of the total budgeted expenditures are related to salaries and benefits. Most unions within the town are receiving a contractual 4% increase. If we do a comparison between the 2025 adopted budget to the 2026 tenative budget of full-time salaries, this is alone is an 8.4% increase or just under $2.8 million. Um, and as I just said, the tax cap alone we were allowed only $2.2 million. Health insurance premiums, we've been budgeted with a 10% increase, even though we we never know this actual amount at the time the budget

014is adopted. We received the rates from NIH sometime in December and as we all know the budget has to be adopted by state law um by November 20th. We were fortunate that when we received the rates in December of 2024 for 25 they were much lower than we expected. So even though we budgeted a 10% increase that is based on the actual rates that we received in December of 24. So when we actually look at the budget as a whole, it's a 6% um budgeted expenditure increase within the budget document itself. This year we actually are paying um the cost for a family plan is $3,367 a month and a single plan is $1,479 a month. Retirement contributions are responsible for some of the larger spending increases in the tenative budget. For ERS, which is

015the employees retirement system, and PFRS, the police retirement system, we're budgeting increases of 23 and 14% respectively. This is based on rates that we have received from the comprollers's office a few weeks ago. And depending on the tier that you are within your retirement system, there are varying contribution rates. um for some of the um higher tiers which in PFRS would be tier two in ERS tier I think we have one employee who's a tier two and tier 4 um we are looking at some contribution rates of between 35 and 40% for some of those higher tiers for employees who have longer who have more longevity um you may have noticed that even though it's a small amount of savings in the 2026 budget there is the elimination of the MTA payroll tax um that

016was just over $134,000 within this year's budget and that's because the state legislature eliminated the payment of it by local governments during their budget uh this year. Um some of the other highlights within the budget uh specifically for beach personnel, there's an increase in spending for part-time salaries of $270,000. There also are a number of new positions within departments the police department, marine patrol, and buildings and grounds and parks for for groundskeepers. And I think it's interesting to note that the addition of one employee, including salaries and benefits, can easily cost over $100,000 alone. The town has worked hard to minimize the tax implications to property owners, especially since local governments have very few non-propy tax alternatives as far as revenues are concerned. For a home that has an assessed value of $4,000, which a

017market value would be $1.25 25 million. If you are living outside of a village, the tax impact proposed would be $8416 uh $84.16 increase from the current year. Um if you are within within a village, the tax increase would be $2744. When it comes to revenues, the town does continue to take a conservative approach but does adjust or increase or decrease um accordingly. We've realized in 2025 we have seen steady revenues within the building department um bank interest that collect we're collecting on all the bank accounts. So those are also reflected as some increases within the the 2026 budget. Um we also do uh we continue to monitor I think it is important to note that of what is going on at the federal level. A number of the town's human services and housing programs

018do receive federal funding. In 2024 that funding alone in revenue was over $1.4 million. So again, we are closely watching that. Hopefully that may that no funding is pulled or programs are cut back that where the town may have to step in and supplement some of that funding at some point. But again, it's just something that we continue to keep an eye on. Uh last week, New York State, the office of the comproller, released its annual fis fiscal stress designations based on our 2024 fiscal year. I'm happy to announce again that the town did receive a no designation. Um uh which is a good thing meaning that the town is not giving any indication of any fiscal or environmental stress. Um the state takes into a lot of factors when they are are calculating that

019amount such as your fund balances which compared to your cash ratio and also the amount of debt service um formula compared to the revenues that you are actually taking in. Uh the town this year also maintained its AAA rating from Moody's and when Moody's announced the rating this year that they took into account the town's conservative budgeting and sound fiscal management which has led the town to maintain very stable reserves. Um so the document since we've we've put it out last week internally we've we've identified just a handful of salary adjustments that are needed. Um in the A fund there's an additional $12,000 that's needed. In the B fund, we're looking at just over 5,000, but in the highway fund, there's actually decrease of just over $5,000. So, the gross total right now, adjustments needed

020are just over $12,000 across just those three funds. Um, so moving forward, what the schedule would be, uh, you know, after today's discussion, um, if there are any changes, I always say let me know by Friday of this week if there's anything that you need us to calculate, and I will be back at the next work session. On October 16th, the board will adopt two notices. One for the public hearing to pierce the tax cap and a second one to notice for the budget hearing. Both hearings will take place um on November 6th. The tax cap override local law does have to be adopted prior to the adop prior to the adoption of the budget under state law. That can can be done at the same meeting as long as the resolutions are or the

021tax cap is done before the budget. However, we would like to adopt the tax cap override at the work session meeting um earlier in the week and then adopt the budget on the 20th. So, I don't know if anyone has any questions. >> Great. Thank you for that introduction. >> That's great. >> Board members have questions or comments they want to make about the 2026 tenative budget. >> Um I I'll start off. I mean, I look firstly I I commend you, Becky, um on the job you do. it's, you know, it's effectively running the town on on a budget that's not actually dissimilar to what the high school budget is. Um, and we're covering a vast area of land um with, you know, limited resources. Um, when we hear from residents as to concerns they

022have with the operations, you know, the fix always involves people or money and often one and the same. Um, from your perspective though, just what we're looking at for the next year, where do you see the biggest risks to what we're budgeting in terms of the unknowns right now? Is it in the health benefit? It's in the insurance. >> I mean, it's a lot of it is the same stuff from year to year. I mean, again, the health insurance really is an unknown until we get that that bill from NICHIP in December. um you know usually a 10% is um a standard but again in December of 24 when the um uh a family plan increase was only 2% and a single plan was less than a half% increase I mean that was really huge

023for us but having that extra within the budget allows us that if we have have a project that's overrun and we do need additional funds to cover something um that we can you know uh move monies within the budget because I always say it is a fluid document It's a guideline. We never we really don't know what's going to hit us from one year to the next. That we're still able to use those monies without having to dip into a fund balance to cover maybe a project that went over or there wasn't enough funding for. Um again, so health insurance is always the biggest one. Uh the budget is pretty lean. I mean, quite honestly, there are it's basically funding what you have going on right now. Sure, there's additional funds within the the um

024the beach budget for $60,000 for a new lifeguard stand. uh there's additional funding to do um mailings on um um sustainable plantings for for town residents. So again unknown as far as the federal government is concerned with revenues. I mean a million dollars that we don't have budgeted you know could come in at any time. I mean a number of of our human services programs do receive federal funding on the revenue side. So um you know litigation is always an unknown. So there there are a lot of things that are unknowns but thankfully the town has again as Moody's noted a very stable reserve and is very liquid which can help um address any issues or concerns. I mean I think CO is a really great example that the town actually was you know um

025fortunate to be one of the local governments to actually realize surpluses during COVID. Um so the town I feel is is really prepared for anything that that might come its way. >> Thank you. No, I mean, look, I I share your concern with the health insurance and one of my fears is that, you know, given the relatively low increase that we saw than expected last year, we're actually going to get hit with something higher this year. And if anywhere that I would want to kind of be prudent with our strategy, it would would be in that realm. And maybe I would see a 12% potential increase versus the 10 just to cover any potential issues we might face there. >> Okay. >> So, I'll just keep working down if you don't mind. Uh, yeah. Thank

026uh madam supervisor well done on your budget again this year then too. I think what you've done here is uh pretty much uh maintained our our staffing levels increased in our public safety uh three police officers uh two marine patrol uh and buildings and grounds. We dedicate the town of East Hampton to public safety is one of the most important things we do and that's very important to make sure that those ranks are sustained then too. So I I do appreciate that. I did mention this to the Mont CAC last night and they were uh very happy about that also then too. Um when we start getting down to it, you know, Tom, you're correct. There are a lot of unknowns that are out here right now. But one of the things that we do

027know is that the town has retirement and the town has benefits as far as medical, sometimes better than anyone else can do in the private sector right now. And that's what makes town employment actually very attractive. But those numbers are going to go up. you saw it at 28.3 14% uh with you know from the from the police to town retirement uh and also the 4% which I think is a very very wellrespected contract that you negotiated also last year u madam supervisor on there too there's a couple things that are more unknown that make me a little bit nervous going forward um and one of them is uh sanitation Tom right we we've been talking about the cost of sanitation right now as much as our revenue numbers might be up in sanitation When

028it comes to uh revenue coming in, it's also costing a lot more to go out. >> One of the reason why more revenue is coming in with C and D construction debris because individuals don't want to take it as far north and paying the same amount of money, but it's costing more to get off of Long Island. We're going to continuously keep seeing that then too in sanitation. So, those are numbers we have to keep maintaining because we're a sole source uh recycler out here. Tom's doing a great job as far as the capital investments on there of aging infrastructure right now, but we need to do we need to continue to monitor. >> Right. And you actually have a budget modification on for today to um offset some of those increased hauling costs for

029this year. >> Correct. And we've been discussing this the last couple years and it's now going to start start getting there. >> Um I I do think that we're starting to see a little bit of the the revenues, some of the the fee schedule changes. Um, Council Member Rogers moved that forward when it came to a lot of the building permits, those revenues there to try to match the services that we're trying to provide as far as uh, individuals in the building department. Uh, qualified staff right now. Uh, we did it with paid parking in downtown Mtok, which is up >> 20 23%. >> Yeah, I think we've collected uh, over $230,000 so far this year. >> A lot of that turns back into community beautifification projects. So we I think we looked at that

030amply in early 2025 or even late 24. We might want to do it again here and there, but it it it it helps when you try to manage your budget. Um I want to salute you and your uh your team for your nightclass investment strategies. I believe it's nightclass. >> Yeah. >> Um we brought that in the last two years. You're starting to see those increase investments in double digits right now. having you know an effect on the more traditional banking institutions that we've been with too realizing that we are the town has been putting a lot of number money into NLCASS which is a municipal pool investment um that municipalities are allowed to use which provides a daily yield instead of a monthly yield on your investments um so a lot again a lot

031of our traditional banking opportunities know when the town is is moving money and are trying to be just as competitive as nightclass 2 so the town is the one that's benefiting from that >> and then just a couple couple Last last things on there is um uh we're the town is going to have to start looking into the Army Corps of Engineers project downtown Montalk which is called a project partnership agreement on there that's be being negotiated through and work through uh with other townships that have these projects. There is going to be long-term cost implications for that for replenishment of sand which the town's going to have to either budget for or find revenue streams for that then too. It's not a 2026 thing, but in 27, 28, and going forward for potentially decades

032right now, we're going to have to monitor that, find ways. So, that's something to put on everyone's radar. Um, going forward on there. Uh, but overall, uh, I only have one requested potential change if you don't mind. It's a small one. It goes back to the license plate readers and the and to the the budget for, uh, PD. Uh, I think we want might want to look about another $10,000 there. I'll get some of the quote numbers from the chief of police and that's just to cover some of the annual contract costs for those systems and programming and too uh we did that well but that wasn't put in there. That was a late request that I had have also for you but again that re the revenue stream on the parking paid parking uh

033parking enforcement will easily offset that in the end. But I think we need to monitor and budget that in into here also. Um I I again it is a lean budget. It's a lean budget that is balanced and focused a lot on keeping the town safe uh the employees uh paid paid well and then also keeping it beautified and too all things I think that we value. I think you're very humble and you might get into a little bit later. I'm so sorry for saying this madam supervisor. >> The the offsets of social services that that were very high. I think you maintain that budget very well Kathy to be honest. What you're not noticing and also there is project most it's another $75,000 to project most for uh for daycare and m talk Tom

034you fought hard for that you know excuse me fought is the wrong word you advocated for that and it was easy advocation because we all believe I think ch early childhood uh uh uh intervention and daycare is extremely important for the for the workers of East Hampton. I had all my kids there back in the day. I don't know if I could be here without it. >> But that is very important to try and maintain with the turbulence that we have in Washington right now then too. So all that moving forward, I commend you for what you did this time, Kathy. >> Thank you, David Kate. >> Yes. Um I'd like to point out a couple of things in the budget um when we're talking about piercing the cap because we don't do that lightly.

035Um and it is a very restrictive cap that I mean what was that 2% put in how many years ago? >> 14. Yeah. >> Yeah. 14 years ago, a cap was presented to us that is still the same exact number today, which doesn't reflect any cost of living increases or the instability that we're seeing because of tariffs and and rising costs across the board. So, um I just want to also note um and thank you and thank you Kathy for this budget which emphasizes um salaries and uh for town employees as 63% is devoted to that um and the amount of regrades and promotions um and I think when we talk about employment in in municipalities and what we spend on insurance etc. I think that this is a stability that folks will be looking

036for in the future as uh even uh um uh New York market insurance uh premiums go up higher and higher where uh someone working for the town benefits from um stability and health insurance that you can't find in the private sector today with the instability in all these markets. So spending our money on things like this I think is a good use of taxpayer funding. Um, and also, uh, as you state in your budget, the staff keeps the roads clear, responds to emergencies, maintains our beaches, supports family and youth. Um, and I don't think there's a number you can put on uh, uh, providing those services to our town. Um I also see that the budget funds an expansion of school resource officer program which I also think is another outreach for the town uh

037taxpayers to fund those uh officers trained police officers in our schools that teach DARE curriculum to fix uh fifth and sixth graders support classroom learning presentations in health and driver education and work closely with school staff on behavioral disciplinary and safety matters. They build strong relationships between young people and the police officers who serve our community. Again, I can't think of a better way for the town to actually outreach to another entity and uh and and be able to offer um expanded services in these areas. So, it doesn't go on your school taxes, although it does go on your town taxes. Um the community organizations that we support are vital uh in our community for what they offer to in services to our community. Um, so they also are another way to have a large

038group of people um, help people in our in our communities and by the grants that we give them, we're able to bring that money back to the community as well. So overall, the budget is really the return of services for the taxes that folks are paying. Um, and I and I think that's wonderful. The $590,000 to the YMC Rec Center that's serves residents of all ages is vital to keep those programs going. It's another way that taxpayers can see their money returned more than just coming to the town hall or going to our departments and 750,000 to LTV to maintain public access, which is uh one of the most important pillars that we have here for public engagement uh with the town government and school governments. So, I think the one of my um happiest

039things to see is the $30,000 to help educate residents on sustainable landscaping practices because in the end, these practices, if put into place, have an effect on the degradation that's happening on our water quality and our um natural resources. So in a way we if you are uh if you if you look for practices that don't cause the problems you're doing a better job than just trying to remediate the problems that happen. Uh so I think that's also a very good use of town taxes. And then I think there are ways that we can continue to conserve and reduce some of our costs by sustainable measurements. And one metric that I'll pull out is the fact that the town led first East Hampton Town compost program is up in three years to pulling out 13,400

040lb of food waste from our waist stream. Anything that goes out in our waist stream has a an effect, a budgetary effect. It cost us money. So we can still look for ways by promoting uh townwide sustainability across all uh the town to help reduce the cost as well. So, while we're budgeting and increasing budgeting, I think it's worthwhile to also look for ways that we can conserve. >> And that's it. >> Great. Thank you, Kate. And >> yeah, Becky, I don't have any questions. I would just like to reiterate previous comments and thank you that, you know, it's a ton of work that goes into this. I know. Um, and and not just you, but your your whole team. Um, I'm supportive of the budget. Uh, I think Dave's suggestion for license plate readers,

041I'm a big fan of of that technology as um as we look to do more efficient enforcement and just, you know, our parking lots fill up. So, those are important tools. I think it's been a really good program that that should be expanded upon. So, I'm supportive of that. Um, and otherwise, just yeah, thank you again for for all of your hard work. >> Becky, just one more thing. if we could talk just enlighten folks about the difference between the tenative the budget and capital projects which we bond for and the importance of that mood Moody rating. >> Sure. So um the town presents two spending plans for each fiscal year. One is the operating budget which you adopt by November 20th. Um and then as we get to the end of this year um

042my office we send out uh requests to department heads to adopt a capital plan which municipalities are required to have a multi-year capital plan adopted. And again, that's another guideline for equipment acquisitions, infrastructure upgrades, um annual programs like road paving, sidewalk maintenance, um police vehicle purchases, and the town board, we discussed that earlier early in in the new fiscal year and is adopted usually by early spring. A majority of that plan debt is issued for it because the projects are um much more expensive. And um however, the last couple of years, the town, you know, being fortunate to have h healthy fund balances in your major funds for smaller projects has accessed fund balance so as not to incur long-term debt on one-time smaller purchases or acquisitions um or projects. So, uh that will that

043process once this has been adopted, then right on the heels of adopting the operating budget is when the capital plan um process begins. And our rating provides us with an ability for low interest. >> Yes, absolutely. Um having a AAA rating um you know does save taxpayers probably hundreds of thousand dollars in the long run on um interest payments to re repay debt. The town does um have an annual debt sale in August where we um uh issue new debt and also retire existing or roll um current debt. So, we're continually trying to maximize um you know any opportunity that's going to benefit the taxpayer. >> Thank you. >> Just two additions. I'm sorry. I'll leave that for you. >> You had your chance. >> I know. I know. But I I want to get

044>> Council Member Lee, you had your chance. >> 42% increase in aquaculture sales. Come on. >> Doing good. Barley's doing good. >> See if scallops would be different, but aquaculture sales are 42% because every dime really counts. I think beating down to some of the numbers about the garbage removals, I don't know if you see that in the buildings and grounds just from the beach garbage removals is 65 tons a year, 150,000. The target is 130,000 uh uh pounds and then garbage removal throughout the township through our cans and such is nearly 475 tons is what's projected. >> And and you bring up a really interesting point. Um department heads hate this. Um but for the public's benefit and if anyone looks through the budget um uh the preface to any department is what we

045call key performance indicators which are stats for each individual department um actuals for the last two years projected for the current uh year end and then also targeted for 2026. And this is a way for the town to be really transparent to its residents and its taxpayers about what some of these departments are really doing. Um actually this year our department heads were overwhelmingly cooperative in providing all of the updated information. Some data that just was incomplete for for certain years. But um I really a kudos to them to be able to provide us all of that information. Um, but again, it's it's it's important for the public and again for the town to be transparent about what some of these departments are actually. >> It's a very data-driven budget then too. And that's why

046that's why we have such great department heads and staff to give us information so we can crunch the numbers to make sure we're validating what we're asking for the tax dollars to be paid for. But also in that what you see is you actually see a decrease in some of the road end uh uh garbage collection potentially for next year because we're using more of the carry in carry out philosophy as some of our some of our beaches on there then too. But those all encapsulate we saw just recently neighboring municipalities how removing trash waste receptacles can it's something that the residents want then too. This budget reflects what the values of the residents want as the supervisor put in the preamble. I just have one quick question just I forgot to ask which is

047the one of the larger increases we saw in percentage and dollar amount was the juvenile aid bureau which is going from about 200,000 to 400,000. Could you just talk to what's driving that increase? >> Sure. That is actually um as council member uh Rogers mentioned the um SRO program or the school resource officer. So the police and juvenile a bureau is probably more antiquated name for the program now. It used to be called JAB you know when DARE was the initial DARE type program. We should probably actually possibly rename that department. But anyway, um so that is where two police officers are now being funded as the school resource officers in the 2026 budget. Um for a number of years, the town has funded uh their singular SRO through the A fund. So now that

048we have two SRO's, one dedicated solely to the high school and a secondary that is a floater between the other districts, um since the entire town benefits from those SRO, both of those SRO's being in the school, we reallocated the secondary SRO from the B fund into the A fund. >> All right. So that program Tom gets run by, you know, overseeing is Lieutenant Al Versa and now uh Sergeant Nick Lloyd has also had the training. So, he's going to be pushing in more to the schools. We've got police officer Michael Rodriguez, as Becky mentioned, he's in the high school. Police officer Devon Toya is in the feeder districts. And we just did a resolution last Thursday night authorizing two more police officers to go for the week-long training at the end of October. And

049that's police officer Mike Gomez and police officer Danny to um I'm sorry, Danny Munoz. So, we are going to have more officers that are trained in that and can help support uh because I think that's what our community is um you know interested in supports and I think it uh they work well with our school districts and I think it gives families and parents peace of mind. So, as David said, you know, the I've always said that the the budget is a reflection of what the community values and what our priorities are. And this budget uh, you know, supports and recognizes the contributions of town staff with promotions, regrade, uh, regrades, merit raises, training opportunities, and the addition of seven new positions, which be Becky spelled out. We also, this budget supports our families through

050our supportive project most and Elanor Whitmore which are quality child care and afterchool care. As Kate mentioned, we support the YMCA when which is the kind of the umbrella that a lot of our organizations operate under like Hampton Lifeguard Association, Ocean Rescue to help waterproof our kids and you know and every child in the community up to the age of 18 gets a free membership to the Y. It also supports uh grants to mental health providers and like Family Service League and Phoenix House. Um but then we've got the organizations uh that roll up their sleeves and open their hearts to those who need a little help like our three local food pantries, Montalk Springs and East Tampa. We support the Meals on Wheels program, the Montalk Community Nutrition Program, and then uh the retreat

051and I try just to name a few. And then we have grants um and some are smaller in nature that for those folks in our community that need a creative outlet like Neopolitical Cowgirls, our fabulous variety show, East End Special Players, and then the the um agreement that we have with LTV. So I think overall that this is a fiscally responsible and a socially responsible budget that we've you know laid out here and Becky will come back to the work session when we're back in Montalk on the 14th. You know typically when we start talking about the budget things come up as Becky mentioned there's you know a handful of changes that needed to be made salaries that needed to be adjud adjusted. I mean it is a 302page document and uh you know there's

052a lot of numbers and so things will get um solidified and so if you have anything that you want to bring forward or changes you want to make Becky said let's get it to her by Friday. >> One just one last question. Sorry I should ask this earlier but um just this isn't so much about the 26 budget this is about the 27 budget. Um, one of the biggest drops in um, costs we're seeing for this year is the bond anticipation notes are going from past few years have been at 2.2 million etc. This year we've dropping it down to 300,000. Are we expecting to see a big increase in bond anticipation notes in 27 and how could that impact the budget? >> That is going to depend on your 2026 capital plan. So at

053uh, this year's debt sale we rolled a lot of the bands which you know public's benefit short-term borrower within five years to be paid off. We rolled a lot of that short-term debt into the longer term debt. So, um, we issue short-term debt usually on larger projects to get started. We may not have that final number yet till we, you know, start, you know, um, initi issue the initial debt. We go out to bid to make sure we don't need any additional funds or maybe we'll, you know, um, we issued a debt and we have a little bit of cushion in case change orders are needed. And then once we kind of get towards the finish line on some of these larger projects, we close out the short-term debt and turn it into long-term debt.

054So um talking to 27 that will depend on bas on what you adopt for your 2026 plan as far as issuing new debt. >> Okay. >> Could you just also talk Becky because we went we do our debt sale annually in August and how much interest there was last time around. >> Um a lot um you know um our um bond council and our financial adviserss um love when our debt sale time comes around because we have we generate um probably more interest than a lot of their clients. um they think it's funny that people want to say that they own a part of East Hampton um you know as part of the debt that that we're borrowing. So, um, our financial adviserss are very happy every all I guess when our debt sale comes

055around and that we are able to routinely get some of the lowest interest rates that are current, you know, given whatever the financial condition is at the time we're issuing the debt >> because we're so competitive >> because we're extremely competitive and having um the uh the Moody's rating and also the highest short-term rating outlook also. It's a MIG one I believe is what they call it. So, the town is fortunate to have that as well. >> Beautiful. Right. That's a wrap. Great. Thank Thank you, Becky. I appreciate it. And to your staff who's we had a little celebration, right? When this finally got published and handed off to the clerk. And I will say handing it off to the clerk, Carol was very bittersweet because this was the last budget that um Carol will

056be receiving as town clerk. and you're going to be on a retirement tour, I'm sure, in the next few months, and we're really grateful for you and all that you do for us. Critical department in our town. Um, okay. So, now we have Heath is up here to talk about scams, how to spot and avoid them. This is something that came about, I'm sure you're going to address. Do you need someone to run the PowerPoint or are you good sitting at the desk there and and doing it? >> I could probably do both. >> Okay. Thanks. Well, Heath is setting us up. For those of you who don't know Heath, he's head of our IT department for the town. and I'm I'm going to say he's done a phenomenal job this year rolling out open

057gov for the town uh and kind of in introducing and implementing our cyber security programs across town processes. So, thank you, Heath, for what you do. >> And I will definitely second that. And the impact that it's had on uh uh online uh permitting, online applications for our residents has been significant. And also uh the am vast amount of work that goes into cyber security as you said, Tom, is uh it's underrated for the uh impact that it has in keeping all of us safe. All right, it's up. >> Full screen. Thank you. It looks nice. >> Copy. One sec. >> There's a remote. Is >> that's just the question of should I stand here or >> can can you grab Is the remote there that you could change? Not the No, that's um it's

058a small remote that you can change. >> That's it. So, you just need to point >> it plugged in and we're good. >> Should be. It was working the other day. We just had a You want me to sit down? Well, it looks like something might have been unplugged. So, [Music] I'll just work from there. Good afternoon, everyone. >> Hi, Heath. >> Good morning. Still almost afternoon. My name is Heath Leeman and yes, I'd like to talk a little bit about scams, online scams obviously, and how we can help prevent them from happening to us, our family members, and generally anyone who, which is everyone, is susceptible. Um, we like to know that with uh scams, we're going to worry about why people try to do this. Well, the the bottom line is always fundamentally

059money. We know that there are multiple types of scams today. They're more creative than they were in the past. I know some of us might remember the old school scams we used to actually get in the mail. Some of us would get what was known as a chain letter that if you didn't send it off to 20 other people, something terrible was going to happen to you or your family. And people really did respond to those type of scam letters as well. Of course, they evolved further and further along. We saw scams back when everyone was joining online for the first time with AOL and people would get the scams of some Nigerian princes offering to uh include us in the in the uh scam that they were going to have where they're leaving their

060nation and wanted you to help with a bank transfer for millions of dollars which they'll cut you in on. So scams have been around for quite some time. We um we know the techniques keep evolving to become more and more sophisticated to get into our psyche. I know that some people who I have known personally have fallen for some of these fraudulent scams just because of the excitement that comes with it. good friend of mine, their uh good friend of mine's mother actually received a phone call and it was a typical phone call where she believed it was her grandchild calling from jail >> in Mexico and she needed to wire a few thousand to get her out and not to tell mom and dad. Unfortunately, people do find this type of tactic very very

061easily believable and I try to say well don't we we should always question everything you know especially if you think you're speaking to your grandchild simple question what's your birthday most grandparents know the grandchild's birthday probably faster than they know their own child and a kid will normally be able to say their birthday where a scammer might not. Just pause. Don't take everything as I immediately have to answer this. I immediately have to answer this. Worst place tends to be is also on the mobile devices. So when we know we're a victim of a scam, it I I fall to a point where I'll deal with a lot of phone calls and I know the scammer is fishing. We know that fishing is a common term with emails, on fake websites, and of course the

062phone calls which we're getting which we know. Just making sure I'm in the right place. I got to move this over. Sorry about that. >> No worries. Yeah, we know that our scammers are looking to profit from any information they can glean from us, they can extract from our conversations. So, always be a little bit on guard. You know, I know that a lot of people are often told, don't just simply answer a phone and agree to everything that are being asked of you. Don't say yes right away. Um, scammers will deliberately try to target people who are who are considered vulnerable. uh people who are listening for an an emergency situation that causes a heightened sense of alertness in some people like myself who say, "All right, you're you're coming at me a little

063hot, coming at me a little quick, so I want to slow this conversation down and get a clear understanding of what is being asked for so that way I can help discern if it is really a scam or a legitimate call online scams as I started to mention like fishing. Fishing is an example of where your scammer is looking for you to give them your credentials, your ID, your date of birth, your social security number. items that they are fishing for is often your ID and your money. Sometimes it's or, but usually it's both. Fake websites are often the tools that are scammers will use to deploy their their malicious software. oftent times their website will look like a legitimate site but will not be. Which is why when you get a suspect email, don't

064click on any links or call any numbers within those emails. It's better to open up a brand new web browser. Take a look at the legitimate source for their for their phone numbers and perhaps their emails. So, if you were to receive an email from the town of East Hampton, if you weren't expecting anything, open up a fresh window, open up a fresh browser, browse to the town's website, and check for contact information there. Check the emails if any are posted. Always call and verify with a department you think you are getting an email from that you believe might be fraudulent because that department will absolutely know whether or not you have been contacted. So, we want everyone to just take a pause, examine what you're presented with, and determine, I'm not saying I don't

065trust you, so I'm going to verify on my own end just to make sure we're both on the same page. Now, of course, malware tends to be something you might have clicked on in an email you received or on a website that you went to inadvertently. uh websites such as clicking on an advertisement in any web browser that brought you to a site which is again fishing for your information looking to get your personal information and then plant software in your computer to use at a later time. This also happens on your phones as well, which again is why I like to remind people, be very cautious on your phone. It shouldn't be the go-to response for all emails. You can't always check the legitimacy of an email origin from your mobile device as easily

066as you can from your desktop computer. Uh fishing, websites, malware. We have our lions and tigers and bears. Oh mine. All right. So a definition of fishing. Yes. Fishing is an uh a method which our online scammers are trying to glean information to get information on your personal information or your financial information. And there are multiple types of fishing. Spear fishing is more targeted. Whailing is when they believe they've got somebody who is now giving them all the keys to the kingdom, all the information they could ever ask for and they're going to profit quite often they can profit quite easily and it's very difficult to reclaim that loss. Uh, clone fishing again is faking up the websites which we'll go to. And of course, we always wish to slow down to help avoid being

067fished. Fake websites. I mentioned fake websites are often seen with suspicious URLs. The web site's name doesn't necessarily reflect the location you're going to. So, if you're going to your banking site, City Bank, and it's not City Bank in the link, don't go there. Never go buy a link to a website. Open a new browser and go that way directly. Do your own searches directly. Check for that HTTPS. There's a little lock at the top of the URL browser in the name of where you're navigating to. And if that lock's not there, don't trust that website, especially with financial information or personal information and I keep going the wrong direction. Phone scams. Phone scams are becoming more and more apparent. People are getting a lot of phone calls and you'll get caller ID spoofing. So,

068it'll say that it's coming from your bank. The call is not coming from your bank. It's coming from some scammer looking to again gather your information and use it at a later time. Uh we know we can deal with rooc calls where a lot of times we have systems that could find them and and block them. However, the problem with that is roocalls will get updated with new phone numbers and they'll keep keep trying to get you to give them your information. Obviously, another problem is with posing as a government official. We often find people are told that the IRS is coming for them. I know that if you check with the IRS and any federal government website, they will notify you. They do not place phone calls. They send an official letter and they

069will notify you that way. You can also when you get a phone call like that, put them on hold. Then look up the IRS directly and see if you are actually getting contacted from them, which most likely you're not. This is another example of why a fishing attempt will try to get your bank account information to say to wire month funds in or out and if they do so they have now access to your banking accounts and again that is what we wish to avoid. So again, slow down, take a pause scam. People get those scams, but I also included in the IRS scam the occasional uh this is asking for gift cards. Anytime you are asked to go off online and go buy gift cards and then come back and pass those gift card

070numbers to someone else, that is a scam. That is unfortunate that a lot of people get taken in because of the urgency at which the email comes in stating that I'm your boss and I need you to do me this favor to go out, purchase gift cards, and we'll reimburse you after you've returned. A lottery scam is another one where people will get emails about winning a lottery. I often have to remind people, did you sign up to a lottery? Because generally you won't be notified of winning something you never entered. But even if that's the case, I believe in instances where there will be some type of sweep stakes, notification usually comes in through the mail. Lottery scams, investment scams. A lot of us are very familiar with investment scams. We tend to be

071a little more cautious. Unfortunately, everyone is still susceptible, especially when we get instances of being told there are monstrous returns for this minor investment. The lure of possibly becoming extremely wealthy from one of these windfalls is often what gets people to jump, especially when you are vulnerable. And vulnerable can be you're having a bad month, you're a little behind on bills. Anytime you get an opportunity to get a catchup, this tends to be the victims that are often targeted. It's not always. Even the extremely wealthy have fallen for multiple investment scams. And of course, we always want to try to protect ourselves the best we can. And that is to first identify what type of scam you might be encountering. I've included an example of a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes some of us may have

072been involved in in some way or another. Um trying to remember back in my college days we encounter Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes. These are where a group of people will pull money in and the person on the top gets paid out. the people they bring in will be next and the people they bring in will be next. Ultimately, all of these scams collapse and there's always people who don't get paid out ever. Pyramid schemes, just another example of the Ponzi scheme. Again, there's somebody at the top who is profiting first and walks away. The people at the bottom is when it collapses and always lose. Ah yes, identity theft. Um most of us may have encountered if not encountered personally but know people who have been victims of identity theft. easiest case. Once a

073scammer has your information, your name, your date of birth, social security number, the first course of action will often be they will try to open up credit cards and file for unemployment in your name. These unfortunately tend to be just the first steps of a larger example of where they're going to start taking out credit and even worse attempting to steal your identity to transfer your property over to someone else. So it is very important to always maintain your privacy and always be sure of who you're sharing your information with. [Music] Credit card fraud, using fraudulent information, pulling up a new credit card, pulling out lines of credit, making purchases, social security fraud, filing for unemployment, or even filing for social security. Um, again, the primary information is what we are trying to always safeguard

074and I will definitely state I believe the IRS has and social security has increased their level online to using I believe the real ID, the ID method of which they are using a verification system to check you for who you really are before they work on transactions. So, if you are in a situation where you're being scammed, note that the IRS will often never contact you by your mobile device or an email. And if you are prompted to go to a location where you're not being verified by multiffactored authentication such as the IDM me that's that's most likely a fraudulent site. Okay. In conclusion, I want to again bring up the constant vigilance. Be aware of what you are being hit by. There are tons of scams out there and we often fall victim when

075we rush. Take a beat. Slow down. Be accurate with who you believe you're communicating with. And it is okay to say, "I I'm not comfortable with this call." Hang up and find the actual resource. I know that phone books seem to be a thing of the past. Open up your phone book, find the telephone numbers of these organizations, call them directly. If you aren't calling them directly, which by the way, information still works 411. Uh, call them directly. You will speak with a human being at some point and speak with them inquiring about this. So you are alerting them if you have been scammed or concluding whether or not you were having a legitimate conversation with someone authorized for that organization. Always be skeptical. It's okay. It is definitely better to be safe than to

076make an oops and say, "Oh, how do I fix this now?" because then it becomes a different process of recovering from that. Oops. All right, >> Heath, can you just part of let's just talk about what was the one of the impetuses for for having you present today was the um this I guess what would you call it the scam that was going out where the planning board or or the zoning board was sending out invoices to folks? >> Right. Well, I was first alerted by the planning director. She notified me that someone from the public had contacted her about a scam they received saying they were from the town of East Hampton. Our online presence does put a lot of information out there. So scammers will take whatever they can from our online presence

077and gather that information in their first portion of building their their plan on how to attack who they wish to attack. A lot of it can be gleaned from the information of who's going to be at what meetings in in regards to the planning department. They post them. They want to keep the public informed about what's going on. And by doing so, you put out a certain amount of information, which allows your scammers to start a target, building their scope of who they're planning on using to attack with. And being that planning happens to have a large public presence, they're able to get, well, let's take some of the people we know from the planning department and try to present an email that's fake. Now, these emails are often easily identified. When you open up

078an email and you will see the email address, it may have their name, but if you highlight over the email address, it will show you the actual name of where the email came from. And it absolutely did not come from the town of East Hampton, which will match our domain for our website, which any email officially from the town of East Hampton will be with the at ham m.gov.gov email addresses are for governments. All government municipalities have the ability to register for a.gov email or a.gov domain and then have a legitimate controlled domain that only is available to the government. So that would be your first indication. Then the second part was they had uh grabbed a screenshot of our our um town seal. I believe they put that in their uh invoice. The invoice,

079it looked incredibly unprofessional. And I'm a firm believer if it doesn't look clean, it probably isn't. And what I mean by that is the the invoice looked like it was a scanned invoice with some artifact, which is just like the black lines you'll see on a piece of paper that is photocopied one too many times. and it had a watermark of our town seal, but really a lot of other elements were just missing in a normal invoice. And of course with our new with our new system for open gov, the payment process is done entirely through your open gov portal. So, if you have any bill that you're worried about paying, log into your portal and check your records that you have opened and that's where the bills will be paid. It will not come

080from anyone internally to send an invoice to anyone in the public. Um, the only uh potential invoice I'd say is maybe your tax bill. Mhm. >> And even that you can go to our town site and you can access your town tax directly there. So again, a lot of things were just off about this scammer, but it was something that somebody was following down the rabbit hole, and I hope they stopped before they went too far. Because unfortunately it it's for us we want to stay on top of it anytime something like this does occur. That way everyone is aware and to stay a little more vigilant in protecting your personal information. Call the town next time you get an invoice. You didn't request it. Call the town. We are more than happy to address

081any questions from anyone at any time. >> And we don't typically email invoices. We ma like we mail tax bills. >> That is correct. >> That is definitely not something we're emailing yet. >> Right. >> Thank you, Heath. Um, look, I it's it's a very pro pro kind of topic because it's it's out there and people are being scammed on a daily basis. I just wanted to highlight some other resources for people. There is the internet crime complaint center. Um, it's ic3.gov for any online fraud or scams. Um, you can use that. Also feel free to contact the town PD department 631-5377575 for non-emergency events as well. Um and then the other thing you can do is is you can actually uh create um your own kind of prevent preventative measures. Uh there's a website

082identitytheft.gov to create a recovery plan um you know should you ever come across any any of this crime in itself. But I I think as he says, just slow down, be vigilant. Anything coming from the town, you know, verify it with the town website or or make that telephone call. But thank you very much for the presentation today. >> Thank you all for your time. >> Thank you. >> Okay, Jim, if you have a question for Heath, you can maybe follow him outside and he can answer it for you. Okay. Thanks. All right. So, next up we have uh discussion about chapter 102-14 building construction certificate of occupancy. Jake, I know you were going to address this for us, please. >> Good afternoon. I hope everyone's doing well and thank you for the opportunity to

083speak with you today. What we are currently looking at is our chapter 102-14 updated certificates of occupancies. We've had some time now for this to be implemented by the town and we're looking at the process for which it has been implemented and any better practices or changes that might be needed to ensure that this goes smoothly. And I think the most important thing to remember here is the purpose of the updated CO. It's all about protection. It protects occupants of a property specifically. So we ensure that everything is built up to code. Second, it protects buyers. So whenever somebody purchases property, they're ensured that everything on that property has the applicable certificate of occupancy. and they don't have to deal with it later. And also, it protects the town's taxpayers. This ensures that everybody is

084paying their fair share. So, that's the purpose behind this law, and we're working really well with getting this imple implemented and ensuring that everybody's safe. Now, as we look at it, we are currently looking at three different ways that we might need to amend the code to make it smoother. Specifically, we're looking at three things. One, the process for which an updated CO is applied for and ultimately granted. And we're trying to figure out ways that make it easier for property owners to obtain and apply for such. Second, we're looking at the penalty section to see if that is in proper alignment with what is going on. And finally, we're looking at whether or not there are any further exemptions which should be codified. I intend to come back before this board next week, maybe

085even after that too, to keep this board updated as to what we are finding to ensure that all property owners get what they deserve. But I I must let the board know that one of the major things that has happened is this board has done an excellent job at staffing the building department. What we have done recently in the hiring of our new head of the department, Richard Nurmoil, is you have imported decades of experience, decades of code compliance, decades of process to ensure that we can have a smooth operating building department. In addition, there have been a number of other staff hires within the building department which will also help alleviate any and all stress. So that's where I am right now. I can take any questions from the board, any direction from the

086board, and it's my intention to be back before you in the coming weeks. >> Yeah. So Jake, I'll just start by saying I look forward to recommendations to how to make any process smoother while still maintaining safety. And that is a process for which we are looking at this. We are looking at all available options and we enjoy this. >> I'm sure you do. Thank you. >> Anytime we can make something better, it's always a positive step forward. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, Jake. Yeah. No, I would say I mean, look, I'll be candid. I've heard a lot of public feedback about concerns regarding this issue um from the building industry, from the legal industry as well um as to kind of complications that have arisen. So, I do know it's something we need to

087look at. I look forward to those recommendations. I know we've had chats offline about this as well and um it's I think it's important for the public to know that we are looking to improve that process where we can. >> Y >> and on that note, Councilman, I'm available anytime anybody in the community has something to say as to how the process could be made better. As this board has always been always seeking input, I'll take the input directly so we can work. anybody has experience in this willing to listen to work with. >> All right. Thank you, Jake. >> Thank you. >> I just want to say also, you know, I I've heard also things comments about about this law, but very rarely is it people saying they think it's a bad idea. I

088think most attorneys, most people involved in real estate agree that their buyers shouldn't know that what they're buying is legal. I mean, has an updated CO. So, I just think like most things, the first time you change it, it's not always perfect. And so I think there need to be tweaks. One thing that I've heard discussed that I'd be supportive of is the idea of allowing somebody to to have a professional certify that their CEO is up to date and meets what's on the property. Um, as you mentioned, I think that there's, you know, changes in the building department and new department head and other hires that are going to help the process for people to get an updated co on their own. But providing another option, I think would be great. sort of people,

089you know, I don't want this to be the issue. If something is totally compliant and they they have a co that is accurate, I would hate for uh there would be a waiting period for us to get to it to be the issue and providing other options. Something I I wholeheartedly support. So, thanks for looking into it. I think uh I look forward to your specific recommendations and moving forward. >> Right. But in in the meantime, there are folks that, you know, they're up against closing deadlines because they, you know, they've got mortgages and whatnot. And our building department has been working individually in those cases so folks can make their their desired date. >> Two points. One, Councilman, thank you. I believe that the purpose of this law is protection and we are hearing

090positive things regarding the intention and ultimately the results. However, there are issues and the worst thing we could do is throw the baby out with the bathwater. We'll find the right process. And supervisor, I think you hit on an extraordinary point that if there's an issue with a specific property, contact the town. >> Contact the town. The building department is very receptive and listens. So, thank you. >> Thanks, Jake. Okay, next up we have the short-term rental discussion that's going to be led by Deputy Supervisor Kate Rogers. So, I know Amory, you're going to hold that presentation up and then Kate can get started. Thank you. While Amory is pulling the uh presentation up, I uh want to frame this discussion today as uh a solicitation for input from both the board and the community.

091Um the discussion today's discussion on short-term rentals focuses on a type of short-term rental that we're seeing uh happening in the town and actually across uh I think the globe and that is an investordriven short-term rental and not the tradition of local people renting their homes to supplement their app annual income which has been a part of the tradition in East Hampton since it was founded. As food prices and all else rise, I want to take care that we are focusing on the issue at hand, and that is a commercialization of residential properties or neighborhoods by investors and creating businesses in residential neighborhoods in the town of East Hampton. This type of investing came to light during the process to recommend code changes to the gross floor area. Um the committee began to see a

092correlation between size, number of bedrooms, amenities, and short-term rental properties. As we will see in this pres uh presentation, there are connections as we focus on housing affordability and the degradation of our natural resources. One uh source of uh some of those sources of food sources for our community such as the degradation of our scallop industry um and our fishery. It is important to know how our housing stock is being used today and then decide what if any actions are needed to specifically address the concerns of commercialization of our neighborhood. So Henry uh this is slide two. Okay. So uh this presentation will present data from the short-term rental industry and offer possible actions the town may take. A little background. In 2015, the then town board passed a new law which required registration of

093houses being rented in East Hampton. The law created the rental registry. the town of and in the enabling legislation for the creation of that code section which is 199 it states that the town of East Hampton recognizes that there are rising concerns and incidences of single family residences being overcrowded utilized as sharehouses motel or other transient housing occu uh accommodations multifamily residences safety personnel with additional information to ensure compliance with the legal usage of properties throughout the town and to protect the health, safety and welfare of rental property occupant occupants as well as the community at large. The town requires more and better information and regulation of rental properties. The adoption of a rental registry will provide information on the quantity and location of rental properties throughout the town and provide valuable information to public

094safety personnel in ensuring compliance with the provisions of the town code. In the next section, I'll be talking about the existing regulations uh in the town of East Hampton. So, first we have chapter and this is the definition uh and purpose of the East Hampton single family residential district uh regulations and that verbiage single family residential district regulations is how we define neighborhoods uh residential neighborhoods in our codes and in this code we recognize that there are appropriate supplemental uses as well for the benefit of our community. So uh uh residential neighborhoods an important local important function of local land use regulation is the establishment and protection of single family residents districts in which tranquil, healthy and safe neighborhood environments are maintained for the quiet enjoyment of resident homeowners and their families and in which

095the children of such families may be properly raised. Such residential areas provide a a setting suitable primarily for the town's permanent and seasonal residents who are living, working, going to school, paying taxes, etc. in East Hampton. The needs of transients, on the other hand, are best accommodated in other districts. And I just want to say that the word transients is equals a a short-term occupancy such as a hotel. Um, someone coming out for a weekend and staying in a hotel. I just wanted to make it kind of clear what transient means in this code. Nearly all business nearly any business enterprise conducted for the purpose of making a profit may sacrifice other values critical to residential neighborhoods. Thus, the courts have long recognized the right of municipalities to entirely segregate business uses from such districts

096and to otherwise prevent unwarranted commercialization from encroaching therein, including that commercialization caused by the misuse of single family residences. In particular, the purely commercial use of such structures by absentee owners possesses problems for adjacent properties and residents as well as to legitimate businesses located in commercial districts paying business taxes taxes and must be strictly limited. The regulations in these sections and throughout this chapter recognize these principles and are destined to further the same while at the same time permitting certain compatible activities in single family residences that can serve to supplement an owner's income without risking harm to surrounding residences or entire residential neighborhoods. Next slide, Emory. And these are the supplemental uses that are are uh allowed and recognized when owners and the owner's family are not in residence. Monthly rentals, seasonal monthly rentals, and

097short-term rentals. And I'll come back to this in a second. And uh all of these types of rentals require registration with the town's rental registry um when the owner is not living on the property. And what we have short an ability to have short-term rentals in our town. Uh they're limited to stays of not more than two weeks by definition. This is a little confusing and limited to only two times in a six-month period. However, this limitation is not found in the rental registry code section. Where this is found, and is it's a little obscure to find is in 255120, the definition of a motel. So a single family residence which is rented to occupied by a tenant or tenants in terms of not more than two weeks on three or more occasions during any

098six-month period shall be deemed to be unlawfully operating as a motel for all purposes under this chapter. So I I know that's a little confusing and we'll we'll get into uh more of that uh in future slides. Amory, next slide, please. Um so slide six uh this is the number of rental registry registrations that have happened yearly since the inception of the code and uh this is where we require all homeowners renting their homes to register with the rental registry and to attest to the information they supply in a self inspection checklist. The rules state that any advertisement, be it online, be it in newspapers, be it anywhere, must contain the rental registry number, that the tenant information be included as well as the rental time period. And if there are changes, then the new

099information must be supplied to the town. Right now, this is overseed by the building department. And as you can see, enforcement without technology, just as a preview, will be discussed later is essential. uh we need uh for technology for uh monitoring for compliance at that the numbers themselves uh speak to this issue. So our current fee for uh the rental registry is a 2-year registration for $200. Um so the total of rental registries issued uh by the town since the inception of the law was is $12,179 to date. Next slide uh section will be a short-term rental market analysis. So what is AIDNA? AirDNA is a leading provider of real estate data and analytics for the short-term rental market and vacation rental industry offering tools and insight to help hosts property managers and investors succeed.

100The platform uses advanced technology to collect and analyze market data, providing users with detailed market insights, revenue estimates, competitive analysis and performance tracking tool tools to identify profitable opportunities and optimize their rental businesses. Now, AirDNA is uh uh the um example that I selected for this presentation. There are many um providers of such uh um analytics and data to help uh uh businesses with their profit. Next slide, Amory, please. How does it work? Uh AirDna and and these other plat uh other providers gather data by scraping by uh scraping public information from short-term rental platforms, analyzing it with artificial intelligence and using it to provide accurate market intelligence. What next slide, please. What does DNA air DNA provide? And again, it's an example of all of these types of platforms. It provides market data and

101analytics. It provides interactive maps where users can explore markets, visualize key metrics like occupancy rates and competition, revenue estimates and performance tracking. The platform provides revenue estimates and tools to track the performance of properties, helping users set competitive pricing and understand earning potential. Competitive insights. Users can benchmark their performance against other listings and analyze competitor data to stay ahead. Emerging market identification using certain tools that help users spot high potential up andcoming markets to invest in before they become saturated and pacing data. The platform shows future booking trends, offers insight into future demand and availability to help hosts and investors make informed decision. So, who uses it? Well, uh according to their website, uh hosts and small uh indivi small and individual hosts use AirDNA to help price their listings and monitor their competition. Investors

102use it for growing and professional investors to use the platform to find profitable investment properties, assess market trends, and make informed decisions. And property managers use it. Professionals use AirDNA data to manage their portfolios, identify marketwide trends, and provide services to their clients. One metric that I'd like to talk about before uh we get into the type of data that is provided uh on the websites is RevPAR. And I didn't know what this is and it it's a key uh metric. So I uh uh looked for the uh information and RevPAR is revenue per available rental. It is a hospitality industry metric that measures how well a property generates revenue. And what they take into consideration is average daily rate and occupancy rate are two metrics that are used to con calculate revpar. A higher

103revar in indicates a successful combination of pricing and occupancy strategies while lower revpar might suggest areas for improving. So the recommendation is you need a little charm and hospitality to run a great Airbnb but you need razor sharp acumen to really drive business success. Uh, next slide please. So, what uh what this particular website does and they all analyze East Hampton's rental data is provide an overview and some key metrics uh of of the town of East Hampton. East Hampton has what is considered two full submarkets. So East Hampton itself and that includes the hamlets west of Montalk is a submarket for analyst analytics and then after I go through East Hampton you'll see that I also have Malk analytics because that is a second submarket that's uh that that loca is located in in

104our town. So, if you look at this page, and I and I hope it's big enough for folks to see it, you'll see that our submar market score is 46, which is a pretty good uh score. Uh the there's a 53 uh this is out of 100. There's a 53 for rental demand, a score of 85 for revenue growth, there's a lower score of 49 because it's seasonal and not year round um for uh profits, and a 61 out of 100 because the regulations are favorable. So, uh, what we can see here is the, uh, this is a year, uh, long metric. You can go back further and do multiple years, but I took a 12-month period. Um, so what we see is the average daily rate in the town of East Hampton to rent

105a property is uh uh 1,29K. The Revpar score, and this is a very good one. and it's up 20% in the last six month last 12 months is uh $69.60. The little blue the little purple dots uh represent the amount of active rentals that there are currently in this subm market which again includes areas west of Nap. Next page another analytic is the number of listings in East Hampton. So we can see that currently uh there is and this is for uh September there is a uh it's 3% down because of the seasonality but it is at 1,343 active current uh rentals. The next uh chart uh shows the listings by rental channel. Uh the vast majority is Airbnb but uh they both combine um and there are other other platforms. It's not just Airbnb

106and VBRO that uh that advertise short-term rentals. Um Mon uh Bonvoy Marriott. So the hotel industries are also getting into this type of short-term rental uh advertising on their platform and of course every platform charges a fee uh for advertising these rentals. Um also you can see uh rental growth in the last three years. We are very seasonal uh listings by annual availability and this is by the amount of nights and most availability is for between one and 90 uh nights. Uh and then listing by property type. By far an entire home outweighs a private room in this type of short-term rental uh listings. Next slide. Emory is and this shows another metric uh for investors which is the East Hampton occupancy rate. So we see that the occupancy rate uh for East Hampton over

107from January to August is uh the the average is 49%. The average length of stay is 4 days which I think is a very u surprising metric to me and the lead booking time so the people are booking 63 days ahead. Also the bottom chart shows you the uh percentage of the month that was occupied over the last 12 months. And uh we can clearly see that uh the seasonality of these rentals is why you get the little lower metric uh um on on the yearly uh average. Next slide. Amory is the East Hampton average daily rate by bedroom. So, uh, as you can see, uh, the bottom line, uh, it's kind of a dark greenish or dark teal is one bedroom. Then we go to two bedrooms. Next line is three bedrooms, four bedrooms,

108five bedrooms, and six bedrooms. So, you can see a correlation between the number of bedrooms and your average daily rate um, according to this this uh, data. Next slide, Amory. And if you just recall that the last slide uh showed that the average stay was four nights. When we're looking at East Hampton yearly revenue, the average revenue is $134,000 uh $500 per year, which is up 21%. The entire uh renting an entire place is 141,6 uh 141600. A house is 141500. an apartment you can make 53,000 uh a year approximately and again the uh graph shows the average rental uh over the uh past 12 months by month next slide Amory and because Montalk is it considered its own submarket uh in this realm uh I'm going to show you the uh M talk overview

109of the same metrics how how is the subm market performing it's a 42 out of 100 Again, investability is 46. Rental demand is a 55 out of 100. Revenue growth is 82 out of 100. The score dips because it's seasonal and uh 56 out of 100 because there's favorable regulations. Again, we see the annual revenue by month, the occupancy rate, the daily average rate, and that rev score. Next, Amory. Here we see the number of listings. So uh just for montalk it's an additional 531 listings uh and that's in addition to the 1300 that we saw for East Hampton active in this time period. Listings by channel listings by rental size uh uh listings by annual availability and that's the number of nights um that they're seeing and the listing by rental type. Obviously, uh

110house uh is the majority uh of listings that we're seeing. Again, the each purple dot is an active listing in Malk. [Applause] Mtok occupancy rate, it's a 49% occupancy rate and the length of stays, average length of stays in Montalk is 3.4 days and the average booking time is 70 days. Uh next slide. The average daily rate by number of bedrooms is apparent in this. Again, it just shows that the more bedrooms you have, the more money you will make per you can charge per night. The next slide, Amory, is the U Malk revenue analysis. So, you're looking at an average uh uh revenue of $11,600 per year um in a 12-month period. So I now move to a specific uh on the next slide an investor story that was uh this is one of

111many investor success stories uh that that are being published in uh financial papers. Um this is from the business insider. Um I have it annotated. All my slides are annotated and the headline is which caught my attention I quit my job to flip homes in the Hamptons full-time. The house I bought for 630,000 is now worth 1.8 million. And I'm going to take I took out on the next slide some key um paragraphs in the uh in the article. So uh first of all, we never believe that your first purchase had to be your primary home. In 2017, we were still renting in Brooklyn, expecting our first child when we bought a three-bedroom home in East Hampton for $635,000. Next uh how it developed uh person grew their social media brand early and it helped

112make renovations cheaper. One of the first steps uh the person took was hiring a freelance designer on Upwork to build a brand identity. For 2000 she created my website brand identity logos colors and official fonts. I think it really helped me land deals with brands. For instance, I worked with home and kitchen fixture company for three properties. They gifted me an entire house worth of products, probably about two $20,000 worth for showing them off during my renovation videos on Instagram. It definitely helps with the ROI of the eventual sale. And I believe that's the rate of um >> Return on investment. Thank you. Now, the goal is to sell one house each year while renting out the other two on Airbnb. Last year, our two properties in the Hamptons brought in $360,000 in Airbnb revenue.

113Both have five bedrooms and pools. I only invest in homes in East Hampton because I like its rules regarding short-term rentals. There are minimum two week stays, but with four exceptions, you can use them throughout the year, which are usually time around holidays like Thanksgiving. So, the point of this is that um this type of short-term rental activity in our town is not based on the uh local person renting their house out seasonally or even for a short term uh a short-term rental um to supplement their income. What we're seeing is investors buying houses up in East Hampton, not living in East Hampton, and using them, in my opinion, as businesses in our commercial districts. This is the type of >> commercial residential districts, sorry. Uh this is the type of short-term rental investor support

114that is now available to folks that that seek these types of uh investments. There's platforms and listing sites, and they're listed here. There's more than what's listed. These are examples. Property management companies. And these firms handle the day-to-day operation of short-term rentals, including marketing, guest services, cleaning, and maintenance. And what surprised me the most is there's actual lenders and financers available. These companies provide the necessary capital for investors to purchase or renovate properties. And the there's mentioned uh East Street Capital which is a leading lender for short-term rental investors offering various loan products for financing these properties. So what are the known uh or studied impacts of short-term rentals on communities? This is the next section. Amory, next slide. Page 30, Amory. [Music] So there's positive impacts and there are negative impacts. The positive impacts

115that have been studied is increased tourism spending and local business revenue, supplemental income for homeowners, wider visitor lodging options and tourism dispersal, potential uplift in property values in some areas, and I think we've certainly seen that. And revitalation, revitalization of underused housing stock. Now, that does not apply to East Hampton. That applies in other areas. Negative impacts housing for housing negative impacts. It reduces the long-term rental supply, increases housing cost and rents. There's affordability pressures and resident displacement and concentration of short-term rental in high demand areas. Negative impacts to the community is noise, trash and parking disturbances, erosion of neighborhood character and social cohesions of the community, uneven competition with hotels and lodges in our commercial districts, and strains on local services and infrastructure. In governance, it is difficult to monitor and enforce compliance through

116traditional methods. And we see that with uh putting the onus uh in in this particular case on a homeowner through the rental registry and then trying to monitor the online platforms to make sure that even that number is present. And if you went to any of these platforms today, you'd see there are so many listings that do not have even that compliance. Um there's def there's complexity in coordinating with the multiple platforms that are now available. There's regulatory loopholes as we can see uh that with the average short-term rental being four nights in East Hampton and 3.4 nights in Montalk that there are regulatory loopholes exploited by hosts or investors and administrative and legal costs for towns. So how can municipalities regulate short-term rentals? And I don't have a code proposals today because again I'm

117going to restate that this is I'd like to my my goal for today was bringing to attention to this matter providing some data of what we know is happening in East Hampton and then beginning the discussion on what the town board and soliciting input from the community on what would be sensible regulations uh on short-term rentals. So, one of the ways that uh the state through counties have started to deal with the negative impacts of short-term rentals is through a landmark short-term rental registry law that the state created. And that rental registry, short-term in this case, is defined as less than 30 days. and it allows counties to opt into a program to track and regulate vacation rentals and require short-term rental operators to remit sales tax on their bookings. Suffach County took advantage of

118this law in 2023 and added short-term rentals to the motel tax, the o occupancy tax in June 1st of 2023. And it said every facility providing short-term lodging, which is less than 30 days by their definition, for a fee in Suffach County is required to collect an occupancy tax from persons occupying such rooms at the rate rate of 5.5% of the per DM rental rate charge for each room. And that law became effective June 1st, 2023. It applies to all lodging facilities, including residences and tourist homes, not just traditional motel and uh hotels. And um there's uh the following definitions are defined uh you can find them in chapter 523 article 2 of the Suffach County code. Uh recent more recently this year the Suffach County Controller John Kennedy has uh approved a groundbreaking voluntary

119collection agreement with a short-term rental platform Airbnb on June 10th, 2025. with the signing, Airbnb itself will be responsible for the admittance of all lodging taxes. And finally, in the last section here is is some discussion points of what East Hampton can do. And for me, I would advocate for this and I think the budget discussion was good one to have today because I I hope we'll be sending a recommendation to Becky uh for uh adop uh uh providing for a third party software monitoring of platforms. There's a number of vendors that do this currently. Southhold is a community that just uh started with one of these companies as they're kind of experiencing this the same impacts. And for me, you can't know what you need to do until you know what's happening out there.

120So, I think this is a critical step. It has uh automated crawling and parcel owner matching they're able to do. They can data share agreements or subpoenas and cross-check with registry, tax, and complaints and provide us that information. But we can also institute a verifiy or block mechanism through these these uh platforms where platforms must verify that the rental registry number is present and have it on all advertising before they take the booking. Uh unregistered o over the cap listings can be blocked. This was uh based on a New York City local law 18 and the Santa Monica precedent for uh instituting a verifier block mechanism has been upheld in court. Other actions that uh the town board can take adopt a code section that spec is updated specifically for short-term rentals. Educate public and

121uh uh public platforms and the public. Procure vendor contracts for the monitoring that I just spoke about. launched the verification compliance for our rental registration. Um, some other communities and uh in tourist areas have adopted a policy, a code that the short-term rental property and if a if someone owns more than one in the town, at least one of them must be the owner's primary residence. increase the fees uh to to uh to deal with the ex added expenses that will be incurred by the town. Ensure proof of proof of compliance with the Suffach County tax requirements. Impose our own transient occupancy tax. And I know that there are others that I haven't listed uh here for this presentation. And with that, um I thank you all for listening through that lengthy presentation and open

122it up to discussion. Um, I'll kick off with this one. Um, look, it's one where I I take Teddy Roosevelt's advice, which is tread lightly but carry a big stick. Um, I you know, I I think that there's a reason that the state and the county have implemented taxes in in this area. Um, and largely it's the biggest revenue driver in the town as a whole. when you kind of look at the rough numbers, it's estimated that short-term rentals generate over 100 million in revenue for local homeowners. Um, now that's some local homeowners getting that there. It is increasingly becoming uh professionalized in the industry as you're having people come in and do that. But I think there's a lot of local people who will continue to rely on this and and may have more

123than one property and and that is their job. Uh they might have four or five properties and that is their income source. So I I think that we have to be very cognizant of that as we move forward with this. Um I I think we have to also acknowledge you know the the the blind fact which is we're a tourist destination and with that comes complications. It's one of the same reasons when we look at the airport and we kind of go back and forth as to what the future is and to to be a you know a primary tourist destination as Jim Bundigi says you need to have an airport and you know to continue to support the tourism industry out here. Um, I think it's important, you know, for for restaurants and retail

124stores and other ancillary businesses to survive to tread very carefully when you're talking about changes that are going to affect that tourism industry. Um, you know, I think in terms of the problems that this industry creates, there variety that are potentially there, but I think it's really important before we make any changes to have that clear data on it. How many noise complaints come from short-term rentals versus commercial properties? Is that a verifiable fact? I think it's it's anecdotal to say it's there, but we can pull that data from PD and make sure that we're making these decisions based on clear data instead of anecdote. Um I I I think that is just we have to be very careful we're not pushing away visitors in doing this. Um I I I appreciate um Gloria's earlier

125comments. Um actually I think probably related with regards to the cost of of residences out here and the potential impact this has had on that. But changes here and and something that you know takes away from revenue streams for property owners will also impact property owners property prices in the long run. And that that's something that taxpayers have to be cognizant of that if we make these changes is there then a risk that your property value comes down for a lot of people that continues to be their primary asset and I think we have to be cognizant of that as well. Um I I I think in terms of you know the impact this has on local housing it's interesting. I mean one of the ways to look at this is you know school populations.

126Um I I know from Montalk School, you know, the school population there has gone up, it's gone down. Um you know, it's relatively been at the same number for the last two to three decades. Springs, I know, is from what I understand, relatively o overpop populated from a school population, and you know, it's it's a challenge there. East Hampton has been relatively consistent. So, you know, is it taking away housing from local families? I again, I'd love to see the data that supports that. um from something outside of the school populations if it's there. Um with that said, I I I do think that this is changing the nature potentially of the town we live in. And the more this becomes commercialized by larger outside entities versus being operated by local people or local businesses,

127um I I think the less control we have over it. um in terms of implementing software to help us to get an understanding of where this industry is and what it actually looks like on a big scale, I am open to that. Um I do know there's one piece in there that contradicts with one of the ADU recommendations I'm making, which is regards to short-term rentals, that it doesn't have to be your primary property for a short-term rental to be in there. So, that's a proposed code change we have coming forward. So, I would be against that change um from from my perspective. Um I I appreciate you bringing this forward. Um I understand why. Um but I again, as I said, I think as we move forward with this, we have to be incredibly

128careful about the much larger effect this is going to have on our local economy. Uh my comments are short, but uh it goes back to the first state of the town town speech um or given uh by the by the madam supervisor is you don't want we don't want to be treating East Hampton like a commodity. Need to be treating East Hampton like a community. And if you're saying that the analytics are coming back, that there's many uh uh large LLC investors that are treating like a commodity, I would look forward in uh to moving forward to try to find other ways that we can continue to treat it like a community. But at the same time, Tom is correct on there. Um my family for 50 years out here has rented our houses, uh

129it means to put kids through school, uh buy cars, uh and other things. So, we have to make sure that that doesn't affect that traditional form of revenue and resources for our community members out here, but treating things like a commodity is something that I want to make sure that we uh impose restrictions on. >> Yeah, I mean, I I agree. I think this is is obviously a real issue. I I hear about it all the time from from residents. I think everybody will acknowledge that this is um is changing things. Uh but like all issues, I think we have to address them with balance. And I think that Dave and Tom have hinted at that in Kate in her presentation as well. Um, our neighborhoods are changing. I mean, there there are houses and

130neighborhoods I think everybody sees them that are are purely commercial that they're they're no longer homes. They're they're rentals. Um, and that's that's a dangerous trend for sure. I don't think we want to have, you know, purely commercial activities in our residential neighborhoods. However, Dave and Tom both acknowledge, and I know Kate does as well, that, you know, there's a long tradition of, you know, longtime residents renting out to sometimes longtime seasonal visitors. You know, people who rent their house to the same family every August or every July and and and we don't want to jeopardize that. I think that we have to acknowledge that tourism is a big part of our of our community, but it can only be a part of our community. we have to have a a complete community where year-round

131residents can also have places to stay and and other parts of our economy thrive uh as well. And and I do think this this strikes at the at the housing crisis if more and more of our residential neighborhoods become purely commercial. But I think we have to tread lightly in that we don't want to, you know, prevent the people who rent their house out to for part of the summer to individuals to help be able to afford to live here. So again, I think that I think that the whole thing um involves balance. I I I certainly support addressing it and looking into specific solutions. Um you know, this was an introduction. I would love to hear from from the community out there. Uh and and and and frankly from people who might have part

132of their their livelihoods be, you know, made from this because I think we again it's it's a balance. We live in a very beautiful place. A lot of people want to come here. um we want to support that. That helps our economy, but we need to make sure that that we don't become purely seasonal and that we have a healthy, vibrant year- round community that we've always had. So, I look forward to talking about this, you know, and all the nuance that it involves in more detail in the coming months. >> Thank you all. Uh do you want >> Yeah. Well, I just I know that um South Hold has hired a vendor to to track and monitor and just give them an understanding of what's happening in their short-term rental market. And Supervisor Krubsky's

133talked about this a little bit at uh East End Supervisors and Mayors Association meeting a few months back. So, so I'm guessing they went out for RFP for that. Do you do you know what that what it's, >> you know, costing them? what their what their agreement is. >> No, I haven't gotten that far in the research. I wanted to, you know, make sure that if we go out to RFP that I I'm not in contact. I did reach out to South. They gave me a contact from one of these vendors, but I don't want to do that. Um I would do recommend, however, that we at least get proposals uh to see what uh this would cost us if we wanted to move forward. Um I think in the long run if we look

134at the uh fees right now um and again I think what South hold did uh I'm sorry what Newport uh Rhode Island did which is of course the touristbased economy um coastal economy um by looking at uh looking at a primary residence and this is not for a affordable uh uh dwelling unit which is a different kettle fish alto together. This is for uh rentals. So if if one if you own more than one house in East Town of East Hampton, I know plenty of people that were able to pick up cottages. It's an important supplemental income. It also can be sometimes where family members live uh in need in between any kind of supplemental income. These are part of our culture. Um but uh saying that it has to be a primary residence for

135investment type purposes um is completely different than affordable dwelling units uh where you'd want to maybe um put sta your own staff etc etc and I and I do support that. Um but I do think the first thing we have to do is to and it kind of u talks about what Tom has recommended is to collect the data of exactly what's happening. um and then base solutions on what that data is where we're lacking in compliance of the rules that we already have. Um any of this type of data, it's essential because it's online platforms to use technology just kind of like we just saw Heath tell us how we have to use technology to to help us keep uh safe. it. It's doable and there's plenty of companies now out there helping municipalities

136know what what's happening in their municipalities so they can make definitive decisions. Um I uh don't include a ban like New York City did in recognition of the local economy and the importance of it. But I do think we can do a better job of ensuring that it is an allowable supplemental use of a residential property of a neighborhood outside of a commercial district versus a strictly commercial venture. And what I showed today hopefully is that it is no longer just a supplemental use. high demand areas such as East Hampton are becoming more attractive to this type of business investment and that is not something I think we in want for this town and so my first recommendation would be to to at least get gather proposals and have a further discussion on if we

137should go out for RFP on the technology. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Amory, >> do would folks support moving forward with an RFP to see about getting uh third party software monitoring to help assist? I know because I know our, you know, our code enforcement officers, they're they're using the platforms, right? They're on there trying to understand, but you know, it's gotten pretty crafty. They don't give addresses. You're just looking at the at the house. I'm trying to think back when, you know, over the summer when we were giving the police statistics. I remember saying like we had, you know, four commercial noise violations to your point, Tom, but we had dozens and that was just what PD was responding to. That wasn't what code enforcement was also responding to. So, we know that there's,

138you know, um, you know, folks that are, you know, got music playing and and after nine o'clock or there's parties and and whatnot. But, um, I mean, I think, you know, data is, you know, going to give us a clear picture of possibly what's going on and then and we take it from there. And again, this isn't for uh seasonal rentals, which is our tradition as well. Ian, you were speaking about, you know, people renting out a house for a month. This is specifically looking at short-term rentals um and and uh knowing what's what their impacts are in our community and knowing if there's compliance with our existing rental registry laws. And then to me kind of looking at the platforms like the state did and and the county did and say you have to

139monitor the onus is on you not the homeowner. Um because they are really the the profits that the short-term rental platforms are making is incredible. No, I understand. I just was pointing out that and I understand this is short term which is by definition. >> I just wanted to make sure it was clear to everyone and soliciting uh your input is critical to any decisions that we make. >> And and I think we also have to bring the the chambers, you know, into the conversation, right? Because when when people are renting out houses for um it's, you know, it's it's hurting our our hotel motel business to some extent. I mean, we've heard stories that they're they're >> I I I challenge you. Well, they're charging $1,000 a night. I don't know. >> That's what

140they're charging. That's what they're charging. I think that's fair to say they all are. Our hotels are definitely not charging that. And I I've been hearing instances where they're they don't have full occupancy. Family run hotels, not big corporations. >> No, look, I I I think in terms of collecting the data, I I'm I'm open to it. I would just like to really clarify and be very clear with the public about what sort of data it is we're going to be collecting about their properties and their and their businesses. Um but I I'm open to doing an RFP to collect that data. I just think maybe we have one more discussion as to what it is we >> Oh, absolutely. Probably more than that. And and it's you know it's the the data that they're

141collecting is only what's publicly >> platform people data. It's platform data. >> Yeah. And I I I agree that that I'm I'm very open to it. I think it's a good idea, but the specifics are going to matter. And again, back to the short-term rental, we all identify a problem. All I'm saying is that we have to make sure that, you know, saying we need a solution, that it's the right solution, and that it targets exactly what the issue is and and not something beyond that. So, we're we're all in agreement. I just think the details are going to matter a lot. >> So, I'm not necessarily open for an RFP yet. I have to do some more research about how other municip municipalities are dealing with. I understand if I might be the outlier

142here. Uh I understand uh where where this is. I I I fully believe that we're not looking to punish the year round resident. It is more of the corporations coming in there then too. But there's this one came on my plate a little bit late. Sorry. As you know, I was been traveling. Let me do a little more research on it. Maybe another discussion. >> Well, maybe we could also do is ask some of the folks from Southold to come to a work session and let's understand their experience with working. >> I would challenge asking them to come down here. I I'll reach out. I can reach out to them all. >> Yeah. I would I would also like put the message out there to the public to to the homeowners and the property owners

143who live out here. You know, please contact us with your feedback so we understand it fully. >> Yeah. And to be clear, I agree with you, Dave. I don't think we're ready for an RFP yet because we have to, you know, dive in to find the specific criteria. So, I think again, >> yeah, I don't think we're ready for an RFP either. We have to give us and the public much more information on that. But, I would like to look into that as a first step. Well, we should ask Jeanie because she's she's uh has access to list listerves for New York State to see, you know, we could collect, you know, other municipalities that have done it and just see what theirs look like. >> Yep. >> Yeah. But I do think we are

144looking at uh commercial in commercial investments in our residential districts by investors who only seek to make profit and are not looking at being part of this community at all. >> Okay. >> All right. Thanks, Kate. So, next up, Ian, you're up with the Maidstone Park Playground. See? >> Yeah. Uh, so first of all, I just want to thank um this is the Mainstone Park playground. This has been in the works for some time. Uh, I want to acknowledge Kate and Kathy who were previous liaison and a committee. Um, I probably left some members out who participated over the, you know, the development of this. Um, also even without Heath's help, I just want to notice that I have these geometric shapes in the corners of this presentation, which was a small miracle for um,

145so just I don't pat myself in the back too much, but uh, that was that was a a feat. Um, >> you didn't realize one of the job descriptions for being on the town board is how to do a PowerPoint. >> That's right. That's right. Uh but so the committee members, you know, Lauren Bulers, who's here with us today, who does so much for Springs, Valerie King, Judith Groden, Bruce Angel, were the people most involved during my time. Um and I was the liazison. Uh there's been a lot of other help from I probably should have listed them here as well. John Rooney, uh Steve O'Brien, and and a lot of other departments in town. Um this plan has been run through the planning department, natural resources, and so um again, I was probably too

146sparse with with the credit here, but that's the core committee. Next slide. Uh the goals of this project were to renovate an existing playground um with there's one piece of equipment there. I guess there used to be more that deteriorated and was removed, but there's a disturbed area in the clearing when you first enter Maidstone Park uh across from the baseball field. Uh and one of the main goals was to provide equipment for for toddlers in particular um and younger children where there's not a lot of of options for playgrounds around town. Um, and in addition to older children, you know, I I think it's good to have a place where whole families can come and enjoy. Uh, but we definitely wanted to make sure we filled that hole for for toddlers and young children.

147Um, and then the other, you know, always I think you know, Tom will certainly certainly talk about this, I'm sure. It's also important that we be as inclusive as possible. Um, I know the uh ADA committee, you know, is always focused on this and that's a good thing. So, we wanted to make sure that there was were inclusive elements to this playground as well. Um the committee felt very strongly when I came on as liaison that they wanted to um keep it as natural as possible. You know, we didn't want a a very plastic feeling, you know, modern appearance to the entrance of a, you know, beautiful park set in nature. Um and we also wanted to contain the playground within the existing cleared area, which already exists around the playground. Again, some of it

148was disturbed. This plan does expand upon it a little bit, but it's all contained within the existing cleared area to minimize disturbance while also providing uh new opportunities to play. That brings us to the next slide, which are some of the challenges. You know, uh there were a lot of discussions about keeping this very very natural and even, you know, using things like our own materials, wooden materials we'd put in place for for kids to playground. And uh you know, me growing up spending a lot of time outside, I get it. climbing trees and playing with stuff that's there is is wonderful, but as a municipality, you know, we're required to use equipment that is that is certified and seen as as safe for for play. So, that limits our options a little bit and

149it and it and tailored um it changed the way we thought about this playground. Uh, another thing that, you know, I'm not a playground expert, so there are many new jobs about being on the town board and designing a playground. I guess we'll um will count as one of them. There's legally required separations of pieces of equipment. You can't just plop things out in a way that makes sense to you that you can see, you know, children playing on. There are safety radiuses and and different standards. And so, uh, again, that was a limiting factor that we had to deal with when designing, uh, this playground. Um, another concern was wear and maintenance. Uh, we talked a lot about using wooden equipment or natural materials versus others. and speaking with uh buildings and grounds um

150and others. You know, we wanted to make sure we acknowledge that this is near the water, their environmental conditions, and not only do we want a beautiful place where kids can play, we want it to last and make sure that we can maintain it over time. Um so, wear and maintenance concerns were were a big part of the considerations as well. Next slide. Uh the budget for this project, again, I can't take credit for that. That was set aside before my time, but it's 190,000. Um this plan is to purchase equipment. So in going through this process, we are are using a contract that exists for purchasing of equipment for the actual installation. We would have to go out to bid eventually. Um but the total available budget is 190,000. The equipment cost in this

151contract with a discount through the Babylon uh contract is just over $100,000. Um we did do an estimate on what the installation would be and it's 83,500 actually just a little bit under that. Um and that leaves us with some extra just in case those bids come back different or there's you know small changes. So I think that we're on budget here. Uh the idea here would be if there's support from the board and the community to move ahead with this purchase um and then go out to bid and uh figure that part out. Do you know what the lead time is, Ian, to order equipment? Is there >> Yeah, the lead the lead time would be that just over four weeks for it to for it to be delivered. Uh I spoke with the

152equipment supplier. Um and by the way, there's a piece of equipment that's already there by the same company. So, it would this this would and that's in fairly decent shape with some small repair. We didn't want to trash it. So, it's the same company and and that person uh he acknowled we we if we have an RFP, we should be able to pick an installer before that equipment will be delivered. The equipment gets delivered straight to the installer and then they bring it with them. >> Ah, okay. >> Um and I I did speak about that timing and it it should all work out. But again, I you know, I think we have to make sure we hear from the board and uh and other members of the public. I did distribute this um to

153the Springs community, people I know who have long list serves to try to make sure that we get the information out there beyond just this work session, but um you know in behind the scenes as well. Um now I just have a view of a rendering and and obviously the the setting around this is not exactly the area but the playground um shape and pieces of equipment layout is the same. So the the piece you see in the the left corner there is an existing piece of equipment that you know playground equipment is pretty expensive. It turns out uh so I didn't want to trash that and start from scratch again with some small repairs. It's uh in fine shape and I thought we could add to it. Um one of the biggest things that

154people wanted were a swing set. You know I think children love swings and the committee felt strong that should be a part of it. Uh this configuration involves a toddler swing on the end. um this flex swing which is ADA compliant or inclusive as as the the nomenclature is in the playground world. Uh which is another thing I learned. Um and then two swings for um you know older children. And by the way, if anybody had a strong opinion about the different mix of swings, we could change you know we could change that around a little bit. This just seemed like a good balance for again something for for everybody, all different uh types of families and children. Uh, and that's from that that view would be from the southeast. So, the current parking lot

155that we're looking at. Next slide. This shows a layout of each of the pieces of equipment that would be included. Um, and again, the the top the top left corner is the existing piece. And then we built these other elements around. And you can see that even though the area was expanded a bit, there's there's there's not much extra space when you count these safety radiuses. And just in in case anybody's looking very very carefully and wants to think I'm breaking the rules by some overlap here. Turns out you're allowed to have a little bit of overlap if they're stationary pieces of equipment. So in the top right hand corner there's one place at which those safety radiuses overlap just slightly. Um I promise you all that's safety and playground compliance. Next slide. This is

156a view from, you know, if you were standing back on the the water side looking back at the parking lot. Um, showing the the pieces of equipment. Next slide. And here is a uh another person I even in my trying to make up for not giving enough credit originally uh Bar to be Freriedman helped me lay out the uh playground layout in the existing area so you can see how it fits in that clearing uh without needing to clear any additional trees. It'll just be a little bit of work to to level out the ground. That's the aerial layout. Next slide. So now into the specific pieces of equipment that are there. Uh the left hand side here shows the new major piece of equipment. Um you know it's a multi- component. We wanted to

157have it the most natural feel possible. So we chose natural colors um that's not an actual tree there, but it's a piece of equipment. I think it's a type of concrete actually um that's uh made to look like a tree and feel natural. Uh and again that was sort of the aesthetic and the feel that we were going for there. uh the playground surface. This was something that was discussed quite a bit. Um again, we wanted to be as natural as possible in that this is engineered wood fiber which basically looks like wood chips, but it's engineered to make sure that it meets safety standards. Um and there are I'll just admit there are problems with that material generally um in that you have to replenish it. It does take some maintenance, but it is

158uh the the least expensive thing that you can have and compared to say rubber mats um that that other playgrounds, more modern playgrounds use, it met the aesthetic and the feel that the committee wanted. And it is importantly ADA compliant. Um admittedly, it would probably be more difficult to wheel a wheelchair around here than a completely flat surface, but it was important to me um and the committee that that that it made ADA compliant standards, and it does. Uh, another thing that we actually talked quite a bit about was the the edging and and again this rendering is not perfect. Um, we talked about edging it with wood or plastic and materials that could contain that engineered wood fiber. Turns out and again in the interest of keeping as natural feeling as possible, we can

159burm up the existing soil and dig out in between to contain that wood fiber. So, there's going to be a more natural border between the edge. Um, and that was very very important to some committee members. Um and so that was how the plan >> but with an entrance for for wheelchairs, right? >> Yeah, there's an exist there's an existing entrance and as part of the uh the cost estimate for installation, there's a a concrete ramp that is not ADA compliant perfectly that would be torn out and replaced with an ADA compliant. >> It's not Huh? >> What's that? >> It's not ADA compliant. >> No, even though they have the fence there to stop the wheelchair as it rolls down the steep hill. Uh I don't think it is. It looks too steep to

160me. >> Okay. Um I I could be wrong about that, but in any case, it it needs to be adjusted to fit. Um so yeah, that will be part of part of the project. Uh and the and it would would come from the same area that it is in the parking lot. There might be ancillary projects in the parking lot with drainage and maybe, you know, restriping uh that are not exactly part of this project that that could be um in addition to there's benches on all four sides here for for parents. And >> is that in the cost estimate? >> It is. The benches are all in the cost estimate. Um, and next slide. So, now to get into some of the specific pieces of equipment. Uh, again, not a playground expert myself. Uh

161this omni spinner was something that stood out very early on as a piece of equipment that um I spoke with two or three representatives from different playground companies and everybody um had similar pieces of equipment like this that were both enjoyable uh for children to play on and also accessible for all sorts of ages. Um this is actually you know listed as good for for children from 2 to 5 years old and 5 to 12. Um you know and it's also ADA accessible inclusive. um you can transfer from a wheelchair into this. Uh children can be involved in spinning on it and also helping to to to push. So um it seemed to be cast a very very wide net to for for children to all different types of children to enjoy um different ages

162and also again I think being enjoyable is important and everybody says that kids love these things. Uh next slide the flex swing. We actually looked at something you might have seen before, freedom swings, which which look a little bit different, which are ADA compliant or inclusive swings. This is a newer uh type of swing um but is also inclusive. And again, the feedback I've heard from playground representatives say it's very very popular um for all different types of ages and all different abilities. Um so I was uh you know, I included that. Again, the the the makeup this would take up a full bay in the swing set, but uh we can change the configuration of what type of swings we have if there's any strong feelings about that. This was actually a sub for

163two of those freedom swings because uh there was very popular feedback. Next slide. Uh this is a cozy dome. Another thing we talked about was including sort of a playhouse or a place for children to go cuz kids, you know, like to do that. Um, this isn't exactly that, but it gives the opportunity for for some climbing and also entering inside. And again, in the interest of of of casting a wide net to to allow as many children as possible to enjoy this, um, this is listed as as good for ages 2 to 5 and 5 to 12. So, so whole families can enjoy. Um, it also is listed as inclusive. You know, I I'm not exactly sure what the um you know, what the standards are for that, but this is something that that

164was listed as inclusive for children of all abilities. Next slide. Uh the log crawl tunnel. Uh again, meeting that wide age range. This was listed as 2 to 5, 5 to 12. You can climb on it, crawl through it. Um which which was appealing. And it also in the interest of keeping things looking very very natural. Of course, this isn't a real wooden log, but it but it looks like it. And I think um it it made sense also for for kids as they move across the playground can go from one thing to another and there's a little bit of a natural course there. Um and then the last slide. This is just another view of the uh of the playground. Uh and again, I want to thank the committee. They've put up with um

165you know, delays. I know at times probably frustrated with me and and things take time. Uh but I'm happy we're here. I'm excited to present this and I would love to to hear feedback from the board and uh the public. This is a project I'd like to move forward with very you know in the over the next couple of meetings I'd like to make sure we have uh any feedback that people have because I want to uh we are able to get a discount on this equipment through the Babylon contract which will expire eventually. Um, and if we decide to move forward with this project, I want to make sure we get an RFP out to to coincide to make sure that the installation coincides with the delivery of equipment. So, with that, I'll turn

166it over. >> Require a bid, Ian, for the inst. >> Oh, a bid. I'm sorry. Yes. Not an RFP. You're absolutely right. Uh, with that, I will just open it up to questions from the board. And >> thank you. Yeah. Um I'm going to caveat this by kind of saying that looking at the town's playgrounds has been one of the primary focuses of the uh disabilities advisory committee um and where we can make improvements. One thing that's really been identified as as lacking in the town's um armory here is um you know with regards to neurode divergent children specifically autistic children and some of the kind of key criteria for what makes a suitable playground for for children with with autism. Um, I think on the whole this has done a really good job in

167addressing that. You know, things like sensory friendly design features, inclusive play areas is great. The one thing I would love to see here that would actually get this over the edge for me would be fencing this area off. I know I emailed this to you. I know there's potentially some, you know, push back from the committee on this, but I I I I think, you know, given the proximity to water here, um, you know, given what we've seen that's happened elsewhere on the island recently with kids leaving schools, you know, it's it's just it's a safety feature. Um, I I I would love for this kind of to be the town's autistic friendly playground. Um, frankly, and that if we could get the fencing, I think it would meet that criteria. Otherwise, totally supportive. Thank

168you. Uh thank you for bringing this. I think uh looking at the global approach to the park there, Maidstone Park. Um there's a there's a flooding issue down there with drainage. We can look to fix that drainage also with the parking. Uh we can start working either with our off contracts, not part of this project, but potentially piggybacking into this project then too. And that's more a beautifification of functionality. Uh we need more parking that be clear of that parking. Sorry, that that flood mark there uh for even the softball and little league down there then too. Uh I understand where Tom's coming from as far as the sensory aspects of the of the parks. I know we have that over the former CDCH1 which was built for that. Uh I disagree with fencing it

169in. I think that the openness of this park and location it is is one of the uh one of the beauties of having it there. Uh but I do understand those concerns more more or less. I'm looking forward to having this installed and potentially ready for when we play softball and little league down there. >> Thanks, Dave. >> Yeah. Uh I'm I really uh applaud you for getting this forward, Ian. It's uh it's a project that had a lot of emotion attached to it and in a good way a lot of community ideas, but being able to narrow that down to fit the space and still have the natural beauty uh unobstructed, I think is great. Um, I think this Maidstone Park is a is a gift because it is multigenerational. There's so many uses

170for Maidstone Park that people can enjoy and do enjoy from walking your dog around the loop to swimming to to barbecuing to enjoying your family uh and and playing sports. So, I think this will be a excellent addition for me. One of the things I really saw parents struggle with was the the uh layout and especially if you had more than one child with you trying to keep track of them and then the parents just always were just standing around. They had no place to sit as well and so I really appreciate opening up that seating area. I would put more benches for folks. Um it's nice to be able to socialize while you're watching. You have your all eyes on your children. Um, as far as fencing, I would really need to understand more

171of the importance of the fencing or what it would look like there. I mean, none of the other areas there are fenced. Um, the barbecue area is not fenced. The beach is open. So, um I I'm not I don't know if I support the idea of fencing it off for this particular playground, but other than that, I think it's great that you're bringing this forward. And I remember swings being very important to people and the inclusivity that you're making sure that this equipment can be used. >> When you handed it off to me, that was that was on your list. I gave you appreciate that. >> So, I I think it's great. The surface is interesting, too. So, it's What does it feel like? What is it? loose. >> It's a fibar. >> Yeah, that's

172what I was going to ask. Is it fibar? Because I know that our buildings and grounds, right? They they get a it is >> a load of fibar every spring and then go around and fill it in and and you know cuz that's how it's always been cuz right now I think it's trimmed in wood and and we every spring folks go we go in there and it there's five bar that's put around the town's facilities and that's pretty much for um drop rating you know let's say the fall fall ratings on there. Uh so it's engineered wood um gets installed. There's a lot of maintenance to it. Uh we have looked into putting down another type of um matted um pelletized uh matting underneath as soft also but that is extremely expensive. Um >>

173but how's the seasonability of it? How does it winter? >> It it it w it winters but for maybe 15 years. you know, the cost of putting five bar every year, uh, you know, for 30 years is probably going to be the same. You put it only for 15 years for that matting. Um, I do like having five bar here, but there's might be other locations we might want to look to change that. I just know it's extremely expensive to do. So, you you probably double your budget. And it's a good point. I actually had a conversation with Steve O'Brien, who's always helpful in these matters and in everything else. And, um, you know, maintenance is a real issue, but you know, drainage has been an issue here, too. I think I think in this

174setting the more natural feel um and honestly even for water infiltration I think that the fibar or EWR with what what they're calling it same same material I think it's appropriate um and and I know that there might be an effort to to resurface other playgrounds in different settings with that material which I fully support um but in this case based on committee feedback and I think the area this felt right >> also if we went to the other direction let's be honest it's just going to delay the project I think you know the residents of springs deserve this right now. >> Yeah. And I think the idea of addressing that drainage issue that's been there for years is uh this is the time to do it as well. Um it's it cuts off a

175lot of parking and creates, you know, a mosquito pond there. >> Yeah. I I feel like this is this like you know you you paint your kitchen and then you realize well your kitchen's attached to your living room. And now you got to paint the living room because you know the we we do need to address the drainage and create more parking there because I think that this is going to be really welcomed by young families in Springs. I know when my kids were little, we're going back a long time, but I had to, you know, put them in the car and we had to drive to the village because we didn't have any place in Springs to bring the little ones. there was, you know, the spring school has equipment, but that's really um

176it was geared for for older kids. Um they did have a small playground for the younger ones, but you couldn't use it when school was in session, right? So, I think that this and I've seen families down there. It's also contiguous to to the the picnic area and maybe we also move some picnic tables over, you know, so that it's >> um so there's places families can come down and give kids snacks and have them, you know, playing there. >> Yeah. And I think it goes within the the uh like it's probably almost a 10-year effort of the town to upgrade the park there. We've done it with the pavilion. Yeah. >> Uh we upgraded the septic systems of both the comfort stations. um uh at the David King Field u that's been resurfaced unfortunately

177multiple times uh and we've also put exclusionary uh split rail fencing when individuals have been driving cars on there. So this is one of those levels the town is committing to the park uh and to recreational values. The only other thing I would add, because I know the litter uh committee would be angry with me if I didn't add it, is either removing some of the receptacles that are there that are kind of lined up um before you go down drive down to the park so that you know the litter is controlled in this area as well. >> Okay, Becky and I look forward to seeing it. Thank you all. >> No, and I think it's great that you're we're able to retain the equipment that's there. This also, there used to be monkey bars

178there and we had to take those down because they had >> gotten dangerous. Um, >> and really the only ones that were using it were runners to stretch before they, you know, went for a couple of loops around the park. >> Yeah. And it wasn't obvious that we were going to do that. We had a a specialist come in and look at it to, you know, to to tell us what kind of condition it was in. And given the cost of these pieces of equipment and the space that we had to work with, it it made sense in the end. So, >> yeah. And we're and we're going to need to see maybe when we we need to figure out we're going to need more parking there because I mean people are parking there now

179to do their their loops to walk and if we build something this is going to be very inviting like I said for young families and there's going to be more of a demand there and you've got that steep hill if you're if you if you don't have parking up top you're going down the hill and finding you know and then you're walking up a hill with little ones which is you know >> um can be a challenge. Great. >> All right. Beautiful. Um, so again, I think this is something I know you said you you sent the the presentation out to a number of folks in Springs and to the CAC. So, you know, ideally this is something we want to move on because we'd love to get this y in play for for for

180this, you know, spring summer of next year. So, we're asking folks to reach out to you if they have thoughts, questions. Um, >> 100%. And one of the people I sent today was was David Buddha, who I know does a very good job of getting information out there. So, >> all right. So, now we're up to our last topic today, and we welcome Eric Chance. We're going to have a discussion um post-hering discussion on the affordable multiple residence um legislation that we heard I guess it was two weeks ago. >> Yeah, almost 10 days ago. >> It had to be. >> Welcome, Eric. >> Hello, everyone. Um yes it was uh September 18th was the uh date of the public hearing. Um so you received uh well there was one speaker at the hearing. You

181received one written comment. Um I think the order of events for the day is to discuss the public comments. Um see if they've been adequately addressed. also see if there are any changes uh to the proposed legislation that need to be made as a result of the public comments or any other concerns that the board um may have depending upon whether or not there are changes that need to be made. Um depending upon what they are um you may need to to rehear the matter. Um if that's the case, we'll we'll address that. Um if not uh then the planning department would bring an EF parts two and three to the town board um for a secret declaration. We'd also send off the um planning commission uh referral. So those would be the next steps

182if there are no changes needed. Um I guess I have some comments here. Just in summary, um the public comments were really sort of in three categories. One was concerned that the use will not maximize units on a property. The second was concerned that creating such a use will not be financially feasible and the third is concerned that the ownership uh ownership structure is too limited by not permitting condos or fractionalized ownership. Um we note that the use is intended to be limited in scale with single centralized ownership creating multiple residents that fit into existing residential neighborhoods. Mhm. >> Uh the use is not intended to promote the creation of new affordable housing developments. Um that in quotes as a specific use or or other largescale development and as such the maximum number of housing

183units that would otherwise be permitted um without sewage treatment by the health department may be greater in some instances than what this code would otherwise permit. However, it's important to not only promote additional affordable housing opportunities, but also create a use with standards and requirements that will not result in an adverse impact upon the character of a neighborhood. Um, concerns over financial feasibility were expressed. It was stated that between the cost of land and construction, the return from rental revenue will not result in a financially feasible project. Um, the planning department agrees that the cost of land is prohibitive in this sense. However, the use is not envisioned to create opportunities for private land developers. It is anticipated that entities applying for this use will primarily be private property owners and/or public private partnerships to

184create an affordable multiple residence. In the case of the former, the cost of purchasing land is moot as they would already own it. In the case of the latter, uh public funding reserved for the creation of affordable housing opportunities could be utilized. Um, finally, the prohibition on units being condominiums was cited cited as possibly restrictive and discouraging to potential developers. Again, the town does not envision land developers to be the primary entities creating affordable multiple residences. In fact, it's interesting to note that um one of the planning board's primary concerns when they reviewed this um was that the uses would only be created by local employers as land developers. Um as such the board has received contrasting comments that the use will not be feasible for developers and that it will only be feasible for

185developers. Um most importantly with regard to ownership a key component of this use as drafted is that there is a single centralized ownership. This is important as affordable multiple residences would be situated within residential neighborhoods. If there is an ordinance, enforcement or other issue related to the teny of the property, it is desired to have one property owner and manager as opposed to up to 12 to resolve the situation with. Again, this use is not intended to permit the creation of an affordable housing development or a resort or other condominium complex. It is intended to permit the creation of smallcale multiple residences with a simple ownership structure. Um, however, uh, with that public comment in mind, the board may wish to discuss, um, further what the proposed code, as it's currently drafted, would permit as

186far as who can own or live in a unit, as that is a key component of the law. Um, so the board should discuss these public comments um, and determine if any changes need to be made to the draft legislation. As I said, um depending upon where the board lands in that conversation, um well, where the board lands in that conversation will will determine the next steps. Um but we are yet to do an EAF for this or a planning commission referral. Um so board should have a discussion and determine if there's any changes to the legislation that needs to be made. >> Okay. Well, >> do you want to take the lead here? >> Yes, please. Thank you. Uh and thank you, Eric. You know, I got to give Eric a lot of credit

187on this. He he helped, you know, really was behind this from the time when he was housing director and now he's the planning department has been very very helpful, very thoughtful about a use that I'm incredibly excited about. Uh even though it's not going to solve all of our affordable housing problems in one fell swoop. Um I mean, just right off the bat, I want to acknowledge that, you know, profitability and affordability are at odds with each other. Uh we should all get used to it. We're not going to come up with a plan that that has affordable housing at great profits for developers that want to put affordable housing everywhere. This is going to that that's why we're in the situation that we're in because, you know, there are other uses of land here

188that are just more profitable. Uh I don't think that we should or can let let that scare us from doing anything at all. And I think that um in some form this is going to be a very good and important next step to allow for affordable housing developments on smaller parcels u because we just don't have that many large ones left. And as I've said numerous times, we need um affordable housing of of all different types. There's not going to be one um you know, one solution to the problem. Uh as Eric noted, this is uh you know, who's going to build this? It's questionable. If somebody is a developer trying to maximize profit, they're not going to buy a property and and request an AHO and and try to do this. And I understand

189uh we actually only had one person publicly comment which was surprising to me. Um I thought those comments were helpful. Um I thought there would have been more comments. Uh although ult a lot of times the comments come from the negative and I think it can be thought of as encouraging that no one has objected to this. Um and I think that that shows the progress we've made as a town and the support we have as a community and the acknowledgement of this issue. Uh, one of the things that that that commenter said mentioned was being able to condo this out and Eric addressed this in his memo and selling the units. I think that one thing that that misses is that part of being affordable, if you're selling it directly to somebody who's going

190to live there, it would cap the sale price, which I think would make that not possible. Um, I'm going to put that at the side because I think that that's something else we could talk about later. Uh, but I think that this is thought of as, you know, one owner being the landlord. um renting these out to individuals, whether that's the town, uh this would open up opportunities for the town, um the East Hampton Housing Authority, or just individuals who maybe are sacrificing the most money they could possibly make to help serve the community. And I do think there's people um out there like that. Um and and again, if we don't create the use and give the opportunity, we'll never know. And the worst case scenario, nobody takes advantage of it. We certainly haven't

191done anything uh to harm ourselves. And I'm 100% positive that if this legislation goes forward, there will be affordable multiple residence units somewhere in town that's going to help address the problem um in some way. One of the things that came up through conversations, in addition to crediting Eric, I want to credit Britney Toladano as well, uh town attorney, who's been very very helpful um with the legal um part of this and drafting that code. Uh it's not explicitly stated in this code that the owner can live in one of these units, although it's always been assumed that an owner could live there. I think we might want to explicitly say that. And again, this kind of comes out of those public comments of who's going to do this. You can almost think of this

192as sort of a super ADU type of situation where somebody who owns um a parcel wants to live in a unit and then construct three rentals that they can make. you know, it goes back to almost the rental conversation we were having, but uh you know, an owner of of modest means could have three apartments on their property um and you're already as of right allowed to live on your own property. So, we wouldn't be giving anything that they don't have. They would just be choosing to add affordable units in addition to that. And so, I think that's something we should strongly consider being even more explicit about. And maybe I should have thought about that before, but it came out of um uh those public comments and then further conversations with with Britney and

193Eric. Um, and I'll I'll I'll stop in a second, but the last thing I want to say, and this is not necessarily directly related to this, but the idea of of having condos and selling these units off. I do think that we that that's not a a terrible concept, but I I wouldn't want to have four individual landlords, you know, owning condos and then renting those, which would be the scenario. Um, in in this case, I do think this opens up the door to the conversation of sort of um middle income. that would be a higher income threshold and sales threshold than our currently affordability standards. And so maybe this is a concept that could expand to that where somebody could sell units for something that an individual of modest means could afford. They don't

194quite meet the affordability standard that sort of 130 to 180% AMI. talked about this um in the context of larger developments um which you know had some trepidation for sure but I think this could be a model where that works and so those public comments are fully fully heard um and uh you know I'm excited to watch this move forward >> just ask a quick question of course >> so if you to to explicitly say that the owner can live there that would require reharing >> it's not clear I >> or is it a small enough detail that it doesn't require reharing. I don't know if that was looked at. >> It seems at first blush it would be a material change. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's Yeah, it's not it it's not clear and

195and it pains me to to do that, but I do want to do this properly. It's been in the works for a while. Um in my mind, and again, you know, hindsight is is I guess more perfect than foresight. I I should have thought about that because but in in the context of the public comments of who's going to do this, it became clear that oh, maybe somebody who already lives on the property would want to do this. Um and so I would want to make that explicitly part of it and and Britney thought it would need to be reheard as well. And um you know, yeah, I mean I I I'll jump in. I'm very open to that concept. I'm I'm surprised there been material change because theoretically, I mean, what's to stop the

196landlord renting the unit to themsself at zero rent? Um, so would it would it be that big of a change in that sense? So I I would be supportive of that. If it does require public hearing, so be it. Um, no, look, I'm overall fully in favor of this. The only thing would be, you know, my initial piece when we just brought this up, I would love to see this on smaller lots and we're currently proposing with the code change, but I think that vote has sailed. Um um but yeah, I'm support of this move forward. >> I don't have much to add. Um even if that's what we want to do for the public hearing, let's move forward to it again. and I'm fully supportive of it and uh I I recognize the comments

197that were were made by um by members of the public. However, I think the answer uh and the memo both both the answer you just gave and the memo that Eric wrote uh really answers why this is important to to also add to the you know to to the toolbox for affordable housing. It does surprise me that it would need another public hearing too because I mean a person owns land they have the right to live on it. So, but anything that is the proper way to move forward I'm also in favor of and I really don't have anything else to add. I think this is time to move this forward. >> Yeah, I I agree. So, if Jake if you could just have look just take a look at it one more time, see

198if this requires uh a rehearing and um I'm ready to move forward as well. And also another component of that is um with the town attorney's office in the lead, we'll draft language to uh for the code. >> Great. Okay. Beautiful. Thanks for joining us today, Eric. >> Thanks, Eric. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Okay, we're up to liaison reports. >> Thank you. I will kick off with the citizens advisory report. Uh we're meeting uh October 20th this month due to Columbus Indigenous Day falling next Monday. same place at Amigantic School Library. IT department um cyber security obviously topic of um the moment um just to kind of inform the board members 85% of town users have completed the cyber security training to date. Um we've put out 4,750 fishing simulations. Good news is only

1997% of users actually clicked those. So the training is effectively working there for fishing internally. Um open gov update for September. Uh we processed 519 records uh generated $320,000 in revenue, 786 permits issued, 42 inspections done. By department, the building department had 296 records created, $250,000 in revenue, 733 permits issued, three inspections done. Planning, 78 records created, 40,000 revenue, two inspections done. fire marshall 40 45 records 14,000 revenue 51 permits and 37 inspections. Uh human services uh second Tuesday of the month today. It's past now but just to remind people on the second Tuesday of the month we have free blood pressure screenings at the senior center uh conducted by Blanca from Eastampton Healthcare Foundation. This takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month. Highly recommend you getting

200your blood pressure checked. uh senior nutrition program unduplicated congregate meal count for the week of September uh 22nd to the 26th was 99. The grab and go unduplicated count for the week of September 22nd 26th was 86. reminder that wellness 60 plus is back at Ashwok Hall on Wednesdays with Quiong at 1 pm and osteoporosis prevention at 2 pm. The Friday chair yoga class at 1 p.m. with Lois has been cancelled for this week and just a reminder that the senior center will be closed next Monday for Columbus Indigenous Day. Um trustees um had a wonderful event on Sunday uh the clam contest. Congratulations to Susan Sloow and thank you to the trustees and their partners and spouses for putting on an exceptional event. It was it was really really enjoyable. Um sanitation department um

201just some feedback from some of the workers at the Montalk Center. Um just concerned with regards to ticks in the surrounding area where they have to kind of step into just want to work with getting the mowing done to a lower level there. There is a town policy regarding um tick prevention with regards to PPE uh and just want to make sure all our workers there have that adequate protection in place. Um ADU uh committee uh the planning board met on and reviewed the ADU proposed code changes on the 24th of September uh fully supportive of the pro code proposed code changes. So I'd like to move that forward to a public hearing as we can. >> Did you get their memo? >> Um it's Eric sent it out this morning. >> Okay. Yeah. >>

202All right. See it. >> Um digitization. Um so as as I've mentioned before, um we're we're kind of just verifying ownership of different data points in the town's database systems. Uh to date, I've had feedback from the assessor's office, the fire marshall office, uh when to get feedback from building planning and natural resources on that. So I'll be following up. um Brooks Park. Um Ian and myself met last week with the chair of the Brooks Park Group. Um just discussing some of the challenges of moving that project forward and some of the frustrations of other CPF properties receiving funding as opposed to Brooks Park. Um you know, we went through some of the operational challenges that we have um looked at with regards to that project. Um that group is looking to raise funds for

203the project internally to take burden off town finances. Um but key to that they've identified is a license agreement. Um, we'd previously got fairly close to one with the prior committee. Um, but I would like to bring forward that proposed license agreement to the town board. Um, potentially at a work session for them to review what it is they would like to do to move that forward. Um, marine museum restoration. Uh, we're currently getting quotes to address issues we have in the basement there and I'm looking to set up a meeting with David, myself, James Pinkot, and Steve O'Brien just to review how we're going to move that forward as part of the larger project there as well. Fort Hill Cemetery. Um just want to put it on people's radar that um I would like

204to include the cemetery wall extension in the 2026 capital plan. Um we're we're working forward with those proposals. LKMA is going to bring that forward to us in this month. Um East End Fire Commissioners, we had our meeting in Bridgeampton this month. Um raised by the commissioners were some of the insurance challenges that firehouses are facing. Um getting renewals, insurance is being cancelled. Um and this is basically due to guidelines they want firehouses to operate on with regards to response for emergencies. Um it's it's of concern um you know to to the commissioners how that rolls out because it's effectively insurance companies dictating what the roll out of an emergency operation will be. So it's something that we may wish to kind of contact Albany with regards to because I'm not sure if that's the

205correct procedure for insurance companies to be dictating how that operates. Um they also brought up housing. Um Dian, I don't know if they reached out to you with this, but um Commissioner Beckett um who discussed possibility of um first responder housing uh with land being gifted to firehouses to build it. Um I think they seem to think that concept was a bit more simple than potentially it is, but I just wanted to kind of put you in touch with Commissioner Becker if they do wish to move forward with anything like that. Um disabilities advisory board. Um so one thing that we are looking to do to increase membership of the disability advisory group and just communication is uh whether we can reach out to holders of disability permits at the town level. I did check

206with the town attorney that there's no HIPPO violation to do that. So um I would like to do a mailing for that group out to disability permit holders just to make them aware of some of the resources that available to them from a town perspective and some of the updates we have in coming on. Um we discussed the playground piece um obviously with regard to fencing. The next meeting for that group is October 17th. Eastampton Youth Task Force, we have a meeting also on October 17th uh Friday at 2 p.m. Um the primary discussion is going to revolve around the cell phone policy um that's been adopted by schools. Antibias task force uh will be meeting uh Wednesday 12th of November at 4 pm. Uh in attendance will be PD and OLA and we will

207be reviewing the police reform and reinvention progress um per the 2021 recommendations. Wildlife management committee um we had a very extensive meeting um last week uh on the agenda. We discussed the explosure um up in Northwest Woods and how beneficial that's been to the biodiversity in that specific area. Um, we also discussed the update from the DEC regarding the spotted lantern fly. Um, just for my colleagues on that one and the public in general. Um, actually relatively good news. They they think the impact of that may have well peaked at this point, especially as predators have leared to take their spotted lantern flight on as as prey. Um, so that's that's good news there. Um, we also discussed deer vehicle collisions. Um, per PD uh in the last 12 months. Um we we got the

208deer vehicle collisions by road segment. Um the number of accidents showing animals and actions the primary contributing factor and what percentage of overall accidents that was within the township. Um dear by far the largest majority of animal actions. Um just last few years data 2023 there were 134 accidents of which 16 sorry 17% were related to animal incidents. uh 2024 151 of which 80 or sorry 19% were animal related and 2025 uh to date uh 78 of which 11% are animal related. I just also want to do an outreach uh to drivers that we are coming into ring season uh in in this month and early November. There's a significant uptick in deer MVAs in that period. So just please be aware as you are driving dawn and dusk specifically where visibility drops off. Um

209we also had a discussion um following um Scott Campbell's presentation to the tick advisory committee with regards to deer population. Um and we internally within the wildlife group we discussed the the impact of biodiversity referencing the exlosure. We also discussed deer as a kind of the the primary tick host um that could be addressed uh in terms of impacting tick born diseases. Um we looked at the carrying capacity concepts um with regards to um what the kind of the the the relevant deer population is with regards to biodiversity in the town. And we began to discuss what population management policies we could potentially introduce uh as a town be it hunting sterilization. It's obviously a source of you know very emotive to some groups um but it's definitely something I think we do need to

210look to address as a town board. Um, I'll jump forward to kind of say the tick tick advisory committee is fully supportive of this too, whether it be for posters or hiring in professional marksmen. But something to um impact deer population to reduce tickborn diseases out here. Um, and while I'm on that tickborn disease, you know, one thing that I want to update the public and my board members on is that there was a recent change with regards to how tickborn diseases the count is measured. um both across New York State and what's come to light is the incident of tickborn diseases is far higher than we've previously recognized both in terms of people out here being impacted but also with regards for reporting there's a lot of people who come here and will get

211bitten by a tick but report it in Manhattan so it's actually not reported as data out here um but just in terms of the impact ticks are having on on public health here there's significant concern from the medical community and they would like to see action um from the town in some form to to address that. >> So, do you anticipate are they going to be making a presentation in >> Yeah, I think we're going to look to do a presentation either in November or early December with regards to management plans. >> Okay. >> Um other pieces. >> Can I one other thing? So, if if they're going to be coming back with a recommendation >> um for 2026, we need to put some money in the budget for it. Right. Right. So, that's something

212we need to get to Becky. >> Yep. >> Discuss next Tuesday. >> Yeah. I have a meeting with Andy Gates uh just to follow up on what proposed actions might be there. Um other information from the DEEC, there is unfortunately a new invasive species um which is having a significant impact on the environment out here. It's called laurel wilt. Uh it's a fungal disease spread by beetle. Again, uh this is impacting our sassifrass and spice bush species. Um if people do come across this on their property, uh the advice from the DC is to mulch in place and report to the DEEC Forest Health Group. Um business committee next meeting is October 15th at 2 p.m. Emergency preparedness. Um we passed a resolution last week. Uh we've had a new part-time assistant emergency preparedness coordinator

213on a 90-day contract. That's Aubry ISO. uh she will be reviewing um hazards identified in the Suffach County uh hazard mitigation plan and addressing town um protocols relating to some of those key hazards. Um additionally on wildfire preparedness update um we are moving forward with regards to um clearing some of our fire roads in the um Bucksill area, the Edwards Hole area, the Grace Estates um and we will update the public accordingly on that. Um uh tick control. Just one other followup there. Gerald Simmons is looking to do a community lime outreach lecture um possibly in the fall at Scoville Hall in Amigansit. I will confirm the date with um the public in the next week or two as that location becomes um confirmed. And then lastly, YMCA. I've had a lot of outreach from

214the public uh for an update on the pickable courts. Um the town submitted the application to the village for the pickable courts. That application was denied. The town engineer is working with the applicable village boards to get those necessary approvals. So that will hopefully be forthcoming. That's everything. >> Great. Thanks Tom. David >> uh niche preserve committee is canceled for this month. Uh the Monttok CAC met last night and I'll have a better uh recap of that tomorrow sorry next week. Uh highway department we will be milling and paving roads part of the fall milling and paving. So please be aware of that upcoming. uh in Montalk the loans to pipe there will be a fixing of the sleeving of the pipe at the terminal end of the seawward end so that might be some

215intrusion or some uh uh delays in some public access starting tomorrow there uh and lastly I'm working with the chamber of commerce and also Sam Klein looking at a potential New York forward grant for downtown montalk more information in the future >> beautiful thanks David Kate >> yes um I had another meeting about St. Matthews Chapel and the importance of it is to Freetown and a discussion on um uh uh designating it as a historic structure on private property at the farm museum. And there'll be another meeting of this group with uh assistant town attorney and uh the director of planning uh next week and I'll advise everybody uh on the board and the public of of how that will move forward. I attended the Rew summer intern graduation. 31 high school students participated this

216year. It was by far the largest number. Um the amount of um wild and native plant species that they know as they went around the circle was uh pretty outstanding. um they really had a good time connecting with um with nature and being out and you could really see the impact it has on uh both developing a community uh of of those young people and their uh love of the outdoors and nature and the and I want to thank them and the leaders of that program for the good work that they did and we saw them working on the town um property on the pollinator garden and the grassland meadows. They also worked at St. on Matthews Pollinator Garden at the Farm Museum and also on the Long Lane and they really did tremendous work

217um hard labor for the summer and they and I really I want to just shout out another thank you to them. Um the compost report as I mentioned before where over 13,000 pounds in three years of food waste has now been eliminated from our waste stream. that saves uh taxpayers money and also creates that uh cycle of um that that renewable cycle of buying food, eating food, and returning it back to the ground here uh to be used again. Uh so I I wanted to it's a phenomenal number with a real small amount of people uh working on it. There'll be more information on backyard composting um coming in the future. Uh the Wayne Scott CAC met um uh they had a meet the candidates forum um during their last meeting and which took up

218most of the meeting. Um but of course their concerns always are for gun club and airport. Uh the New York State grant team we met uh we had an internal town staff team meeting with our state uh contract managers. It was very helpful to us to outline our tasks um and to get more definitions on how we will complete uh this grant. It it's a two-year grant, so we're going to get moving on that quickly. More presentations coming to the town board. Uh there'll be a resolution on today to accept surveying uh for the ditch uh dune reconstruction. These are the final surveys that are needed uh to complete the easements and that resolution is on for today. litter action committee held uh the national cleanup day on uh September 20th and organizations from across

219the town participated and I want to thank all those organizations and the litter action committee for bringing a constant uh impact to our town both to our wildlife to the cost of town residents for picking it up and asking people to please not throw their litter out their windows. Um, and also I'm will be hosting a forum uh with many of the um nonprofits in the community that promote uh sustainable landscaping, native planting to help the town create a more user-friendly website, web pages for plant species and practices for sustainable landscaping. Um, that will be held sometime in November. and most of the uh groups that work out here and landscapers are participating in that. And that's all I have for right now. Thanks, Kate. Ian, >> uh yes, last Saturday there was a wonderful

220event in Springs uh Springs Fest. It was a second the second annual um and it was just it was just lovely. I mean, a lot of you listening were probably there because there were a lot of people there. And um I just want to thank the Heart of Springs for putting that on Windy Hall and Aaron Field especially, and I I know there were a lot of others, but um it was just a great event, and it wasn't, you know, what people think about of the Hamptons. It it felt like home and community and just a reminder of of what a lovely place we live in and what a what a great community we have. Um the band, Real East End brass, made up of local school teachers, was absolutely fantastic. Saw a lot of

221my colleagues, neighbors. I'm a Springs resident, so I'm passionate about this. Um, I also just want to acknowledge that, you know, the Parsons blacksmith shop residing that's been in the works for some time happened to start shortly before this event and everybody um really took that in stride. I want to thank Ronald Webb Builders for helping to accommodate us moving some of their things around. Um, Matt Jedla who helped and Steve O'Brien of course who who did so much of the setup there. Um, and and the organizers for not panicking and understanding that it was going on. And in the end, I think it worked out great and I encourage everybody to go next year when that happens. I also want to acknowledge um something else that's related. I think that that's a lovely place

222to gather and you don't even realize what a nice yard there is back there. And there's a lot of good events from the farmers market and other things that happen in the heart of springs. Um there was parking on School Street you could access, you know, across that bridge and of course school's not in session when most of those events are happening. So, that's a I think a really interesting way for to us to safely accommodate cars and pedestrian traffic to attend those events. Um, I would like to look into I've spoken with natural resources department about trimming the fragmitey to make that walk more appealing and inviting. Um, and I'd like to look into that more what we can do to to remove that fragmite. It's expensive and difficult, but I think there are

223things we can do. Um, and I also have have started to look at the idea of of installing a parking lot, a seasonal parking lot as as low-key as we can behind Spring Library where there's a little bit of a clearing area. This idea has been out there for some time. Um, I'm looking into it further because again, I think that that's a lovely place to be and we just want to make sure that we can safely accommodate cars um and pedestrians. Also just want to acknowledge the Parsons Black Shop was open. Ken Colum was there working it. you know, the Coal Forge, which was really great to see. And I want to acknowledge Springs Historical Society, how much cleanup they've done there in the last two years that I've been here. It was a

224really uh it's a beautiful building. Super super cool. Um, and I just want to give them their credit. You know, when I first got on the board, there was sort of one part of it open and a lot of other stuff. And now you can walk around the whole shop and and really appreciate it. Uh, and looking forward for that siding to be done. Uh it was already touched on the largest clam contest I think was a very similar feel just a you know really for me felt like why I love this place and I want to thank the trustees and everybody who helped to make that happen. Uh back to sort of more government type stuff. Uh egg advisory will meet on Thursday this Thursday at 5:00 p.m. at 300 Panagle Place in sweet

225111A. As always that's open to the public. So I encourage anybody interested um to attend. Uh Tom mentioned Brooks Park. We had a brief meeting uh just to I've already passed on some of our our conversation to the planning department to look into access. You know, Brooks Park structures are set quite a bit off the road and uh my concern before we restore those buildings is that we have that we make sure that we can um have safe code compliant access that also preserves the idealistic the idyllic nature that drew Brooks and Park to that site to begin with. And and then that's the balance. Actually, Eric has given me some preliminary comments on that, but look forward to talking about that more. Uh, also to address some of Tom's report. Um, in terms of

226affordable housing for first responders, wholeheartedly agree, I've been trying to work on something mirroring what Suffach County did. Uh, but making sure we do our um we do our research and that it meets fair housing standards. And as he implied, it's trickier than than we think. I will say that um I mean Chris is a friend of mine a great chief chief would love to talk to him more about this amigance fire department actually is unique or fire district in that they actually have one of the very few properties that is large enough and zoned with the affordable housing overlay. So I think there's some real opportunities and um I'm excited to hear that conversation. I also have a call with somebody from Southampton tomorrow who's working on their own um way of addressing this

227need. I think we all agree that first responders, firemen, uh fire women are are incredibly important. Anything we can do to help house them when we talk about housing our community, you know, they're right at the center of all of that. But we just have to make sure that we do it in a um a legal fair way and also one that's going to uphold challenges because these type of of legis legislation um are getting challenged all over the place. And so um I've been working with Britney on this and hope to have more to report soon. >> Thanks Ian. So this weekend, Suffach County Legislator Anne Welker and I uh welcomed veterans and their families to the Suffach County Veterans Resource Fair at uh the American Legion Post419 in Amigansit. More than 20 organizations

228came together to connect veterans with information on health care, housing, employment, mental health, and other essential services. During the uh the Q&A, a question came up talking about giving priority to different uh user groups. A question came up about giving priority to veterans and wanted us to look into if that's something that could be done as well. >> Protected class, I believe, right? >> Right. >> Yeah. So, so that was that was brought up and uh so we were just grateful that so many folks came out, you know, made the trip out from Hop Hug and Yampang to be there. And we also had a table, human services, Diane Patricio and Lilyanna Rodriguez had a table. And so if folks that didn't get a chance to go, veterans or their families and they're looking for

229assistance and how to connect with these different organizations, just reach out to the human services department and they can connect uh to the services that that are available. >> Kathy, sorry, just while you're on veterans, just one other project we've got I've got going concurrently is um the project called Hometown Heroes. You might have seen other towns where they have flags recognizing veterans. Um I have a meeting set up with the organizer of that and um the VFW just to kind of ascertain what the costs might be, what it might look like. Something I'll bring forward to the rest of the board um in the near future. >> Yeah, I think that was sound I mean maybe it was a different organization, but this is sounds like something that was also done during COVID. Um

230so the town applied for a safety training grant from Perma and we award were awarded $3,500. This is going to offset the cost of chainsaw training that we will be conducting for personnel in our highway and buildings and grounds departments. East Hampton Sag Harbor CAC met last night. Uh I'll have a recap on that next week. And lastly, um our fall quarterly newsletter is going to be dropped at the post office today and so it'll be in mailboxes later this week. This is the preview of the front cover here. Um there's a couple of dates. save the dates that we uh want to let folks know about. We're going to be doing two drug takeback days. Saturday, October 25th and Saturday, November 1st from 10 to 2. And then we're going to be bringing back

231the free community shredding event that was such a success last year. And that will be on November 1st from 10 to 2. So that's all I've got for my liaison report. And now we can move on to resolutions. >> My pleasure. off for resolution 20251333 is a budget modification of the recreation department bringing $2,500 from other expenses and increasing motor vehicle repairs in the same amount. >> Second. All in favor? >> I 1334 is a budget modification buildings and grounds for modification for buildings utilities cost where we're bringing $150,000 from interest and investments and increasing expenditure line for light and power in the same amount. >> Second. All in favor? I I'd like to make a motion for 1335 the table. >> Second. All in favor? >> I I can make a motion for 1336

232the table. >> Second. All in favor? >> I have resolution 1337. >> Next week's fun. >> I have resolution 1337 release security at 12 Garvis Lane uh 20 uh 280- for improvements. And this security, the applicant is Joseé Leon at 12 Garbas Lane East Tampa, New York. And the release of security will be in the amount of $5,000. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Resolution 1338 is to accept a road widening easement uh in urban renewal parcel 17 and SP-2-1. Uh this the grtor is Third Street Invesco Company LLC. This is at 8 Third Street Springs. Um and the date is October 3rd, 2025. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> 1339 is to accept a road widening easement for urban renewal parcel 79D in SP2-2. The grantor is 24-15

233street LLC. It's at 2415th Street Springs and it's dated September 25th, 2025. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. >> Resolution 1340 is to accept proposal for additional survey week. uh work for Wallbridge surveyors. Pursuant to resolution 2025135, the town of East Hampton accepted a proposal from Wallbridge Surveyor to survey and obtain topography with twoft contours for roughly 2600 linear feet of beachfront along D Plains Beach, including all property lines and including the creation of easements over a portion of beachfront parcels for a cost not to exceed $8,640. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. So I have resolution 20251341. It's to amend resolution 20241526. This is the department head merit program and this is to add the following ed eligible title effective immediately. Town planning director second. All in favor? >> 1342 was

234to amend resolution 2025 1320. Uh this was a resolution we did uh Thursday night but it had the incorrect not to exceed number. It should be $175,000. Second. All in favor? >> I. >> Back to you, Tom. >> 20251343 is a budget modification for the sanitation department. We're going to increase revenue budget line for solid waste permits, solid waste fees, and insurance recoveries uh in the amounts of 45,300,000 and 7,500 respectively and increase expenditure budget line for subcontractor costs in the amount of $352,500. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> resolution 1344. This is to amend resolution 2025308 just to correct the fun line. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Resolution 1345. This is to adept the se adopt the section 8 2026 administrative plan. >> Second. >> All

235in favor? >> I. Resolution uh 20251346 is to establish a leave bank share time for an East Hampton Town Police Department police officer effective retroactive to October 5th. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. >> So that's all we have on the agenda. So do I have a motion to go into exec session? >> Yes. I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session for CPF, personnel, public safety, potential litigation, litigation, contracts, and real estate. >> Second. All in favor? Thank you everyone for joining us and thank you Jody at LTV. >> Thank you Tom board and you are