Southampton Town Board Sets Aside Nearly $400,000 for Legal Bills, Retains Six Firms To Offer Special Counsel

Two members of the Southampton Town Board disagreed — two days apart — over the hiring of special counsel to defend the Town Planning Board in a lawsuit brought by neighbors and environmental organizations over the approval of the Lewis Road Residential Planned Development.

Approved last December, the project entails a luxury golf course resort on East Quogue acreage in the Pine Barrens.

During the Town Board’s February 14 vote, Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni had no love for the notion of hiring attorneys to defend the planners in the suit.

“Considering that this PRD, in my opinion, is a commercial establishment in our most restrictive residential district,” he said, taking note of the golf course, clubhouse and “numerous other structures” in the Pine Barrens Compatible Growth Area and Aquifer Protection Overlay Districts, “I will not be supporting this.”

Supervisor Jay Schneiderman responded to his colleague’s dissent with, “The Planning Board made a decision and that is being challenged. Whatever the matter is, whether I like the decision or not, I am going to defend that body in their decision as our appointed representatives.”

“One hundred percent,” Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara agreed.

“I wouldn’t leave them hanging that way,” the supervisor said.

The vote was 4-1 in favor of retaining special counsel, with Schiavoni casting the dissenting vote.

Two days later, at the board’s February 16 work session, McNamara raised the issue again. She said that since the vote, a member of a town-appointed land use board reached out to her.

“It’s a hard job, it’s a thankless job, and once we appoint someone to take on these roles, we’re hands-off after that,” she said. “We don’t influence their decisions. They make very difficult decisions based on the record, and they deserve to be supported.”

She said some appointees are now questioning the Town Board’s support.

Prior to her election to the Town Board, as chairwoman of the East Quogue Citizens Advisory Committee, McNamara commented in support of the Lewis Road RPD during a hearing before the Central Pine Barrens Commission in 2020. Schneiderman was a member of the commission and cast his vote in favor of the plan.

The board voted to hire the firm Devitt Spellman Barrett to defend the town at a cost not to exceed $20,000, on Valentine’s Day.

In all that day, the board voted to set aside some $396,000 to cover potential fees for six different outside lawyers offering legal services.

According to Town Attorney James Burke, each year some $600,000 is set aside for outside legal counsel. “We typically use less than half of that,” he said.

Town Labor Counsel Vincent Toomey was retained at a cost of $125,000, plus an additional $5,000 in bills left over from 2022. Burke noted that the excess traces back to the need to use his services more than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Certilman, Balin, Adler & Hyman, LLP, are representing the town in the matter involving Rose Hill Road, Water Mill, titled “Havemeyer, et al v. Town of Southampton, et al,” currently pending in State Supreme Court. The suit involves a land dispute over a homeowner building a driveway on land swapped with the Town Trustees.

Community members consider the land a park and sued the Trustees, the town as a whole, and the entity 493 Rose Hill Road LLC, the listed owner of the adjacent property where neighbor Randy Frankel lives, arguing that they unlawfully alienated a park.

The suit was launched in 2019; the firm was retained to continue the town’s defense in an amount not to exceed $25,000. An additional $4,200 bill carried over from last year.

Beyond the Lewis Road matter, an amount not to exceed $120,000 was set aside for Devitt Spellman Barret, LLP. Described by Burke as a defense firm, they represent the town in insurance litigation and federal civil rights cases, as well as land use litigation.

Also on February 14, attorney Steven Leventhal was retained as special counsel to assist the town in ethics matters in an amount not to exceed $7,500. He advises the town’s Board of Ethics. It’s better to have outside counsel on matters that could involve people working in Town Hall, Burke explained.

David Arntsen of the Law Offices of Volz & Vigliotta, PLLC will get another $6,000 added to $7,500 approved in 2022 to cover expenses incurred on behalf of the town in the Sand Land litigation. Earlier this month, the State Court of Appeals annulled the company’s Department of Environmental Conservation permit and ordered the DEC to again ask Southampton Town to weigh in on the legality of the mining operation in Noyac.

The Town Board also authorized the continuation of legal services by the firm of Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP, to represent and defend the town in the pending litigation matters involving River Rock Structured Capital LLC. The case involves two homeowners on the north side of Mecox Bay in Bridgehampton. One property owner is suing to overturn approvals for the restoration of a neighbor’s house. Counsel was retained for an amount not to exceed $30,000.

Burke noted that even when outside counsel is retained, he or an attorney in his office attends court proceedings and conferences. His attorneys also handle cases that don’t require specialized legal representation.

“As much as we can, we try to keep it in-house,” he said.