Mayoral Hopefuls Talk Signs, Negative Campaigning, Sewers And Pollution In Press Group Debate

Rancor, attack ads, twisted truth, whispered rumors, smear tactics, outside money funneling in — they all have been a hallmark of campaign season in Southampton Village.

That those maneuvers are repellent was one area where candidates for mayor — incumbent Jesse Warren and his challenger, former Mayor Michael Irving — agreed. Who’s responsible for them was a different story.

The pair discussed and expressed dismay about the tone of the campaign during a virtual debate hosted by the Express News Group via the Zoom platform on June 6. It was moderated by Executive Editor Joseph P. Shaw.

Stating that he’s proud to be running a positive campaign, Mr. Warren said, “What we’re seeing is the worst of the worst,” when it comes to attack mailers. He blamed his opponent’s supporters for the negativity.

Mr. Irving disagreed. “The tactics that have developed in the last two years are a direct result of the individual that is the mayor sitting right there,” he said, recalling the “brutal” attack on the Epley family during last year’s trustee race.

Further, Mr. Irving said the mayor’s feud with the police department spurred the mailings, sent by a police organization, noting, “He has to accept the responsibility of these advertisements that are going around. … It has nothing to do with us.”

Speaking to a lengthy career in public service, Mr. Irving said he and his wife used to go out together campaigning, they spent around $2,500 total. By contrast, he said his opponent has amassed a war chest “grossly overstated for a small community.”

Asked what they’d do to bring an end to the negative campaigning, Mr. Warren, rather than offer a solution, scolded his opponent, asking him why he didn’t contact the PBA eight weeks ago and ask them to stop distributing attack ads.

“The PBA has one goal, and that goal is to elect Mr. Irving,” Mr. Warren charged, alleging that if he wins, he’ll be beholden to the organization.

Mr. Warren said he takes great pride in being the only candidate who files financial disclosures with the state, and his campaign has raised money on a grassroots level with $10 to $20 donations. His opponent, he said, took money from LLCs and corporations, PACs, superPACs, and developers.

“We have a mayor presently who’s very impressed by himself, and he can sit there and smile and say all these things. I don’t believe that we’ve had any LLCs that have donated in our campaign,” Mr. Irving said. He said his donors were very concerned that Mr. Warren looked at contribution disclosures, then approached the donors.

Signs that entreat “Save Our Police” have popped up throughout the village. What do the candidates interpret them to mean? Mr. Shaw asked.

“I interpret those signs as a failure of our present administration to lead,” Mr. Irving said, pointing to a lack of communication between the current mayor and the police chief. “I spent four hours with the chief of police a couple of weeks ago, and he told me, flat out, Jesse has not spoken to him at all.”

That’s not true, Mr. Warren said, launching into a lengthy recitation of accomplishments before addressing the question. He said the signs and negative rumors about his relationship with the police are nothing but a strategy to distract people from all the good he’s done. He repeated that theory, and list of achievements, in response to questions several times.

“I can understand why a collective bargaining unit might be upset,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is, it’s our job as trustees and the mayor to negotiate good contracts on behalf of the village. And that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to put our taxpayers first, and we’re still going to make sure that we support our law enforcement.”

He suggested that a PBA contract expires in 2023, and one of the two candidates will be negotiating it: “Look at the signs, look at who’s funding these ads, and I think it will be crystal clear as to why these ads are going out, why the signs are going up.”

But, if he’s reelected, given the ill will between the police and his office, how will the dysfunction end? Mr. Warren was asked. He challenged the notion that there is dysfunction and said he works very well with the police department.

Mr. Irving corrected his opponent, noting the PBA’s five-year contract won’t be expiring until 2024. But there are a number of contracts, such as the one for public safety dispatchers, that do need to be negotiated soon, and Mr. Irving said he believes he has the expertise to do so. “I have the ability to sit down with dispatch, with the chief, and carry on a conversation in a realistic manner that doesn’t create this division in the village,” he said

The Village Board voted to have a consultant analyze police department operations, and at the mayor’s request, also voted to convene a task force to assist the consultant. Once the report by the firm Edmund Hartnett Risk Management was completed, however, the task force presented its interpretation of the report. Subsequently, Mr. Hartnett appeared before the board to clear up misconceptions caused by the task force presentation.

Did Mr. Warren have any regrets about how that was all handled? Mr. Shaw asked. He replied simply that he was happy that the expert consultant was able to come on and help the village.

Mr. Irving said he had no problem with the Hartnett Report, and there are always opportunities for improvement. He took issue with the management style demonstrated by the way the findings were released by the task force, only to warrant a correction from Mr. Hartnett.

Switching gears, discussion turned to a sewer district: Who will pay for it, property owners whose land is within the district or all the village residents? Mr. Irving felt the cost could be portioned out among all the village residents, since they will all benefit. He noted that when he was a trustee, a district was developed and numerous public hearings held on creating the system, with 75 percent paid by those in the district and 25 percent spread across the village. Major opposition came from the Southampton Association, Mr. Irving recalled.

Mr. Warren said he believes that with all the grant money available, creating the district without raising taxes is doable.

The sewer system will unlock the potential of the downtown business district, Mr. Warren predicted. But it can’t be rushed just because it’s an election year, Mr. Irving opined.

Looking toward a centerpiece of the village, Lake Agawam, Mr. Irving prefers implementing long-term solutions to the pollution threat, including registering landscapers to track what types of chemicals they’re using. In addition to working with the Town Trustees, he offered, “I don’t think that we need to pour a ton of money into the lake itself, but we need to pour a ton of money into the infrastructure that will keep the pollution from going to the lake.”

Taking credit for the formation of the Lake Agawam Conservancy, Mr. Warren said there are grants to pursue to continue environmental work, and listed an array of projects undertaken or in the offing, such as a bioswale on the east side of the lake, a permeable reactive barrier, and constructed wetlands. He said he was proud to move forward with the projects even during a global pandemic.

Mention of the pandemic was a jumping off point for Mr. Warren to articulate a list of initiatives he shepherded during the COVID-19 crisis. He was the first mayor to mandate masks in the state, and “we actually encouraged Albany to do it,” he said. He opened the first testing site on the East End and made sure seniors were vaccinated, the lawmaker said.

“There’s an awful lot of things that he claims he did,” Mr. Irving critiqued. When you’re mayor you don’t tell everybody what you did, he continued: “You don’t sit there and get some masks or get a shot for somebody and go, ‘Oh, I did this.’ That’s not leadership.”

Continuing with the theme of leadership and management style, Mr. Shaw pointed out that during the current administration, a number of key employees were fired; the turnover has been steady. Mr. Irving spoke of the importance of unifying the employees, and creating the family feeling among them. That’s not being done, he said.

Mr. Warren did not address the question, instead labeling his opponent’s criticism as a “personal attack.”

Both candidates have been on the receiving end of whisper campaigns depicting them as pawns for a “shadow government” — Mr. Irving for the Epley family, and Mr. Warren for the wealthy elite. Asked who they go to for advice, Mr. Irving said that as mayor “the buck stops at your desk.”

Mr. Warren claimed the accusations were just politics. “This whole shadow government is just another attack,” he said. “It’s just a distraction from our positive achievements.”

To see the debate in its entirety, visit 27east.com. The village election will take place on Friday, June 18, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center at 25 Pond Lane.