Warren and Manger Face Off in Mayoral Debate; Incumbents Stevenson and Brown Challenged by Newcomers Centeno and Hudson

The candidates for Southampton Village mayor and for two village trustee seats squared off in debates on June 1, hosted over Zoom by The Express News Group and moderated by Executive Editor Joseph P. Shaw.

The evening started with incumbent Trustees Robin Brown and Roy Stevenson and challengers Greg Centeno and Palmer Hudson, before Mayor Jesse Warren, who is seeking what would be his third two-year term, sparred with challenger and current Trustee Bill Manger, who was elected last year to a two-year term.

Manger, Brown and Stevenson are running together on the “Better Together” ticket, while Centeno and Hudson are aligned with Warren’s reelection campaign.

There was a reasonable expectation that the discourse between Manger and Warren could get heated during the debate. Over the last few months at Village Hall, a pattern has emerged of Warren being on the short end of 4-1 votes, and the past six months of public meetings have been marked by a high level of acrimony and at times open hostility between the mayor and the four trustees.

Warren tried to take that possibility out at the knees with his opening statement, saying he wanted to make the debate about “great ideas” and individual accomplishments, rather than insults and “personal attacks.”

Manger, who made his opening statement first, was blunt about his reasons for challenging Warren for the mayor’s seat just halfway through his term — the first he has served since a long hiatus from serving on the board in 1997 and again in 1999 — and his assessment of what has been going on in Village Hall.

“I had no intention of entering the race when I entered Village Hall last year,” he said. “But after speaking with many village residents over the past few months, I knew you were tired of the constant drama, rising legal costs, and the mayor’s dysfunctional management style that prevents us from getting things done. I felt I had a duty to step up.”

Manger touted his experience working in Washington, D.C., where he was chief of staff of the U.S. Small Business Administration and ran the Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic. During that time, he managed a staff of more than 10,000 and was in charge of providing $125 million in emergency lending to the 11968 zip code, he said.

Warren touted his accomplishments as mayor over the last four years, saying that under his leadership, the village has made significant progress toward creating a sewer district and cleaning up Lake Agawam and other village waterways by securing funding for water quality improvement. Lowering the tax rate and vacancy rate, supporting efforts to create a more vibrant downtown, including the implementation of an arts and culture overlay district, were other achievements Warren listed.

“With all this great progress, let’s keep going,” he said.

One of the major issues that caused tense back and forth between Manger and Warren related not to a difference in vision for the future but rather the rehashing of a contentious situation from six months ago — the provisional hiring of Suffolk County Police Deputy Commissioner Anthony Carter to be the village’s next chief of police, a post that Carter accepted then turned down.

The hiring was on a provisional basis because Carter had yet to take and get a top score on the Civil Service exam for police chief, which would be required before he could become the permanent chief — a reason Warren gave for voting against hiring Carter.

At a special Village Board meeting in December, where Carter was hired provisionally, Warren was the lone “no” vote on the hiring resolution, and he spoke at length — in front of Carter and his wife and children — about his reasons for voting against his hiring.

Manger called it “an astonishing and terrible thing” and “a terrible moment for the village,” while also accusing the mayor of promising Carter he would support him, only to turn around and vote against his hiring.

Warren, meanwhile, insisted that Carter knew ahead of time that he would not have Warren’s vote and proceeded to take the position anyway.

Carter reneging on the position meant the village had to renew its search for a police chief, a process that remains ongoing. The village has been without a permanent police chief for nearly two years, since former chief Tom Cummings reached a settlement with the village to retire.

Southampton Village Police Captain Suzanne Hurteau has been serving as acting chief since then, and Shaw pointedly asked both candidates if they would support hiring her as the permanent chief if she passed a chief’s exam.

Warren said he would be “more than happy” to appoint her as permanent chief and added that he thinks “she’s the right person for the job,” and has the support of many village residents. Manger was less committal, saying, “We would have to see where she ranks on the list, and look at everybody else and make a decision at that point in time.”

Another topic that was covered in the debate was the proposal, brought to the board by Warren, to eliminate so-called “benefits for life” for elected officials who currently can qualify for family health insurance benefits at age 55 after they leave office if they serve five years or more on the board.

Warren has tried in recent weeks to bring the issue up for a vote. He said he became motivated to eliminate the benefit after the representatives for the CSEA union pointed out during recent contract negotiations that it was unfair to expect union employees to contribute more to their health insurance while elected officials who earn lifetime benefits are not being asked to do the same.

It’s a policy Warren promised would be “eliminated on day one” if he was reelected, along with Centeno and Hudson, who would support the measure and give the board the necessary votes to do so.

Manger and the rest of the trustees have not said they are necessarily against the elimination of the benefits, but rather wanted to have an outside evaluation of the program, and other potential changes to compensation and term limits, done by a neutral party. To that end, they voted, 4-1, at a recent meeting to hire an outside human resources group to evaluate compensation and benefits for elected officials, which Manger said is the right process.

“It’s probably better than us making a determination about what our compensation and benefits should be,” he said. He also reiterated that, several weeks ago, he voluntarily relinquished his right to become vested after five years on the board, and did not want to stand to personally benefit from delaying a decision on trustee benefits and give the appearance of impropriety.

Warren said the decision on whether to allow elected officials to earn benefits and how long term limits should be is a decision that should be placed in the hands of village voters rather than an outside consulting group.

Toward the second half of the mayoral debate, Shaw pointed out that Warren has been accused of discrimination and harassment in two separate complaints brought against him, one by former secretary to the mayor Miranda Weber, and another by current Village Administrator Charlene Kagel-Betts. Shaw asked Warren why, in this day and age, that shouldn’t be disqualifying for an official seeking reelection.

Because the complaints are pending, Warren said he was limited in what he could say legally in his defense, pointing out that the trustees had recently taken a vote that could partially strip him of indemnification, a move he called “politically motivated,” adding that it has further restricted him in what he can say in his defense.

Manger said it was not a political move but rather a move made in the interest of protecting the village and taxpayer dollars after Warren released to The Press what was supposed to be a private and confidential complaint. Warren went on to accuse Stevenson of telling him in a private phone call to resign, and threatening that, if he did not, the village had “things in its pocket” it could do to make things difficult for him. Manger called that accusation “absolutely, unequivocally false.”

Manger and Warren also discussed an issue they agree is crucial to address for the village, which is finding an appropriate site for a sewage treatment plant, a necessary component for creating the village sewer district. A site that has been identified as a possible solution, outside of village boundaries at 1 Bowers Lane, fell apart recently when the owner backed away from selling the property to the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund for the purpose of building the sewage treatment plant, after loud opposition from neighbors. The village has been trying to bring a sewer district to the village for years, an effort that dates back to Manger’s first term as trustee.

Warren vowed in the debate to continue pursuing the Bowers site, but Manger pointed out the futility of that stance, reminding Warren that the town has officially withdrawn its support, and that even if the village decided to purchase the site without financial backing from the CPF, the owner is no longer willing to sell it for that purpose, and even if he did, the town would not grant the necessary zoning change to build the plant there.

Manger used his closing statement to implore votes to choose him, casting him as the alternative to “the drama and division the mayor has brought to the village.”

“I bring a respectful, civil and competent hand that the village so desperately needs,” he said.

Warren urged voters to allow him to continue doing the work he’s done for the past four years, saying he is committed to seeing several projects through, including a plan to create a world class park on Pond Lane, and downtown revitalization.

In the trustee debate, Centeno, a resident of White Street, touted his 45 years living in the village and equally long career in architecture and design as qualities that would make him a strong candidate as a trustee, while Hudson, a recent graduate of Georgetown University, cited his double major in computer science and government as skills that make him a good fit for a trustee seat. Hudson said that, if elected, he’d like to lean on that know-how to explore technology based solutions for traffic issues and to improve cybersecurity.

Brown and Stevenson, meanwhile, emphasized their veteran status and the bonds they’ve built in the community during their time as trustees.

Stevenson said there are three reasons why residents should vote for him.

“Experience, experience and experience,” he said. He pointed out that he has lived in the village his entire life, 67 years, and is a small business owner, running Stevenson’s Toys on Jobs Lane. Before serving as a trustee the last two years, he served 14 years on the Village Planning Board.

Brown said the relationships she’s built during her time as trustee have been key, from first responders to important individuals like the art collector and philanthropist Peter Marino, as well as revered architect Siamak Samii and more.

She described herself as a “hands-on people person.”

The tension between part- and full-time residents in the village was a topic that came up in the trustees debate, and all candidates seemed to agree it was important to treat all residents, regardless of whether they live in the village on a full- or part-time basis, with the respect they deserve, and strive to meet their needs.

Centeno and Hudson, relative unknowns when it comes to village politics, both explained their motivations for entering the trustee race.

Centeno said getting to know Warren better and hearing about “the really amazing things he’s been able to accomplish” sealed the deal for him, while Hudson, who is just 22 years old, said he has “a desire to serve the community and bring decorum and respect to the Board of Trustees.”

“We can have a bright future if we put aside our differences and have respectful debate,” Hudson said.

When it comes to priorities if reelected, Brown said she will focus on working to improving traffic issues, both from the perspective of flow and safety, and added she will continue to make herself available to residents because “I think our best ideas come from our residents.”

Continuing to protect residents’ quality of life is a key priority for Steveson, and he said clean water is at the top of that list, and finally creating the sewer district in particular.

“It’s really just something that can’t wait anymore,” he said. “Lake Agawam is poisoned, and it will continue to be until we do something about it.”

Both Stevenson and Brown were asked about the pattern of 4-1 votes in recent months at Village Hall where the four trustees are consistently aligned against the mayor, even though they had supported him in the past. Brown said her allegiance is never to one individual but to “the vision and the village.”

Stevenson said that while he supported Warren when he ran two years ago, a lot has changed since then.

“He seemed to be a person who wanted the same things for the village that I did,” Stevenson said. “It took two years of working under him to realize he’s a very ineffective manager and not a good leader. He’s not interested in working together; he wants it his way, and if he doesn’t get his way, it’s the highway.”

Hudson said that while he and Centeno are aligned with Warren, they are also independent candidates.

“We have our own attitudes and personalities that we bring to the table,” he said. “I respect the experiences of Roy and Robin, but this is a trustee debate, and we’re not Jesse.”