Burke-Gonzalez Takes the Reins in East Hampton and Sets Sights on Progressive Future

Kathee Burke-Gonzalez was sworn in on Tuesday as East Hampton Town supervisor, the first woman to hold the post in more than 20 years and just the fourth in the town’s history.

Burke-Gonzalez, already a veteran of Town Hall after 10 years a councilwoman, wasted little time in laying out her plans for how her administration will prioritize needs.

As she had during her campaign, Burke-Gonzalez said in her inaugural speech that her government will have three goals guiding its every move: preserving the community, investing in the future and modernizing how it operates.

Preserving the community, she said, will prioritize child care and mental health services for young people; support services for the elderly, like transportation and food assistance; and continuing the emphasis on creating more affordable housing begun under her predecessor Peter Van Scoyoc’s “All Hands on Housing” initiative.

There are 65 new homes and apartments set to be occupied at below-market rates this year thanks to town-subsidized developments, she said.

“Later this year, 16 families will be putting out the welcome mat,” she said, nodding to the 16 single-family homes that will be built on town-owned land this spring and sold at below-market rates to new owners chosen by lottery. Another 50 units of rental apartments currently under construction on Three Mile Harbor Road will be completed by summer. The town has one other project in the planning stages on Route 114 and its sights set on more in the not-too-distant future.

She announced that the town will be working with Community Development Long Island, a nonprofit affordable housing advocacy group, to make as much as $125,000 available to individual homeowners to offset construction costs of accessory apartments in qualifying existing homes, which would have to be leased at capped rents.

The town will prioritize programs to upgrade septics and improve water quality with runoff treatment projects on Lake Montauk and at the Georgica Pond rest stop, to boost renewable energy usage, improve cellular communication and begin planning for long-term coastal resiliency.

And she said that she will strive to improve the way the town communicates with residents, with business owners and with itself to boost efficiency. She announced the creation of a new town administrator post and public information officer to improve outreach and information sharing.

“While we face many challenges, and addressing them will not be easy, if we work together to find common ground and make decisions based on our core values — family, hard work, compassion for one another and respect for our environment — then much can be accomplished,” she said. “The test of any government is not how popular it is with the powerful but how honestly and fairly it deals with those who must depend on it.”

Also sworn in on Tuesday was newly elected Councilman Thomas Flight, a Montauk resident, who was elected on the Democratic ticket, along with incumbent Councilman David Lys, who was sworn in for his second full term on Tuesday.

“It’s the community that makes this such a special place to live,” Flight said. “We rely on you to step up, and I look forward to working with each of you on what you are passionate about to help make this town better.”

Burke-Gonzalez’s ascendance left an empty chair on the dais in Town Hall on Tuesday — one that the board will get to fill with the person of its choosing.

Board members were tight-lipped about who they have been interviewing for the post, or when they expect to make an appointment — which could come as soon at this week. The last time the board had to make such an appointment, which went to Lys in 2018 to fill Van Scoyoc’s council seat, the board made the new appointment by the second week of January.

Along with swearing in the new elected officials — including new Town Justice David Filer and East Hampton Town Trustee Patrice Dalton — and reelected incumbents, the board on Tuesday made a number of appointments to regulatory boards.

Longtime Planning Board member Randy Parsons had declined to be reappointed and was replaced by architect Bruce Siska, and activist Jaine Mehring was appointed to the Zoning Board of Appeals, replacing Montauk attorney Joan McGivern, who Burke-Gonzalez said had declined to be reappointed.

When she was elected in November, Burke-Gonzalez and the new Town Board sent out a public appeal to any town residents interested in serving on its appointed committees and boards, asking them to submit resumes and cover letters.

Mehring, who was well-known to the board from her frequent exhortations in recent years against the pace and scale of residential redevelopment across the town, was among the first to put in an application, Burke-Gonzalez said.

“Jaine put in a request to be considered, and we interviewed her and thought she would be sensational,” she said.

The process also led to the replacement of ARB member Esperanza Leon, a historic preservation advocate from Wainscott, with Chris Britton, a Montauk architect and project manager for Men at Work Construction.

“The new board wanted to have a process where, even if you were a sitting board member, you had to put in a resume and letter of intent, and we took that from everyone,” Burke-Gonzalez said in explanation of the change in the ARB makeup. “Chris Britton came to us through that process, and he’s an architect and has a lot of experience in historic preservation, and we thought that would be a really good fit.”

Tuesday also saw the hiring of one new attorney, Charles Collins, for the town’s legal offices, which will still be short one assistant town attorney — a post the Town Board will strive to fill as the town attorneys scramble to keep up with a deluge of legal matters. Burke-Gonzalez said that she also plans to expand the use of outside legal counsel to help ease the burden on the town attorney’s office.

The board also gave all elected officials raises of about 6 percent for 2024. Burke-Gonzalez will earn a $137,157 base salary. The four council members will earn $86,504 each; assessors, $99,919; the superintendent of highways, $115,946; the town clerk, $115,946; and the two justices, $100,180 each.