(2009-04-16: Published in Riverhead News Review)

Riverhead reminds me of this one box of Christmas lights I had kept up in my attic for years. Each year after Thanksgiving I would bring the box down and open it, only to find a twisted, tangled mess of spaghetti wires. I would spend hours cursing and trying to untangle the mess. When I finally managed to do that, I would then learn that some bulbs had burned out, which caused the entire string not to work. Then I would test the bulbs, one at a time. Finally, one year my wife suggested to just go buy a new set of lights. Wow. Why hadn’t I thought of that? It seemed so simple. So revolutionary.

And so liberating.

Riverhead resembles that twisted, tangled mess. Only in this case the wires are replaced with codes, regulations, departments, approvals, business dealings and relationships.

Much is often written of the codes, regulations and departments that make doing business in this town nearly impossible, but how many of you pay attention to the business dealings and relationships? I mean really pay attention. They are even more twisted and tangled.

Let’s get specific.

On March 17, the Town Board unanimously adopted resolution #244. This resolution was offered by Councilwomen Barbara Blass and it authorized the supervisor to execute a road, drainage and excavation agreement with a “certain” company regarding a “certain” subdivision. This seemed like any other boring piece of legislation until it read, “The Town of Riverhead … hereby agrees to waive all excavation fees.”

My first thought was how nice it was that the town was waiving the fees. After all, why should any property owner have to pay a fee to mine sand on their own property? I do believe in property rights.

Then my next thought was — wait a minute. If this is a Riverhead town code that everyone else has to obey, then why would our Town Board want to give this company a break? Why isn’t everyone getting a break? How many other companies had to pay those fees? What is so special about this company?

So I reread the resolution, and I learned the town was getting road and drainage improvements in return for the waiving of these excavation fees. So all is good, right? Wrong!

Looking at the resolution yet again, nowhere could it be found how many yards of sand were going to be excavated. Without knowing that, how could there be a proper cost analysis? In other words, what was the difference between the cost of the road and drainage improvements versus the amount of fees that could have been collected from the sand mining?

How much did this deal cost or save the taxpayers?

So I went down to Town Hall. I figured with Mr. Cardinale’s open government, I should be able to find out how many yards of sand were going to be mined in this agreement.

I was allowed to see the excavation agreement at the town clerk’s office. However, nowhere in the agreement did it indicate any yardage amount. Now something really began to stink. In a 49.2-acre site, we could be talking about a lot of sand.

And sand is gold.

I really thought it was a simple question: How much sand? Yet not one person in any town department could answer. Finally, I went to the town attorney’s office and asked deputy town attorney Dan McCormick, who supposedly handled this deal. He wanted to know who I was and why I wanted to know. Seemed reasonable. So I stated my name and said my reason for wanting to know was that I was a concerned taxpayer. Mr. McCormick then seemed evasive. He instructed me to fill out a Freedom of Information Law request, through which it takes at least five days to get the information requested. But in an open government, why should it take that long? It was only one question. Why couldn’t he just politely answer?

Riverhead Town Code indicates that the fee imposed on the excavation of subdivisions is $2 per cubic yard. With a 49.2-acre site, 200,000 to 400,000 cubic yards of sand is a very realistic amount that could be removed. Do the math. That could be nearly the cost of keeping the 911 dispatchers!

So this leads to a myriad of questions.

The resolution and the agreement were adopted on March 17; why wouldn’t the amount of yards be indicated in that agreement, and why isn’t it available to the public?

Is this agreement in any way connected to anyone who was associated with the town dump fiasco? (I did notice the engineers hired by the subdivision’s developer were the same engineers who handled the landfill reclamation estimates.) This, I feel, is important because what happened over at that landfill was a colossal miscalculation of cubic yards. And that miscalculation is going to cost the taxpayers for years to come.

How many yards of sand have already been removed from this site? How many more yards will be removed? Who is monitoring this excavation?

Is the omission of yardage a deliberate act, or a supreme act of stupidity?

How many other twisted, tangled resolutions were passed in this town that no one was paying attention to? How many more twisted and tangled agreements have cost this town money? Does anyone still trust the town is working in our best interests?

It would probably take years to untangle the answers to all those questions. But wouldn’t it be easier just to go out and find a new town government?

So simple. So revolutionary. And so liberating.

(Published News-Review 2009-04-02)

Midway through his third term, Supervisor Cardinale’s legacy of colossal blunders and empty promises has turned Riverhead into a boulevard of broken dreams.

In a recent News Review “Equal Time” piece, Mr. Cardinale attempted to break down the town budget into percentages, fractions and dollar amounts. Unfortunately his explanation resembled more of a three-card monte dealer explaining mumbo-jumbo economics. Shame on anyone for ever getting snookered by this supervisor again.

While breaking down the town budget, Mr. Cardinale attempted to justify saving $1 million by cutting out the public safety dispatchers. But Mr. Supervisor, don’t the dispatchers save lives? Should we even consider the price for that service? This only highlights the supervisor’s lack of proper budgetary decision-making. Because if Mr. Cardinale had been truly concerned with cutting spending and reducing the tax rate, he would have abolished the useless agencies, departments and programs that are responsible for economic growth in this town. How much money would that save?

Coincidently, no where in his budgetary breakdown does Mr. Cardinale highlight the cost of his failed town dump reclamation. Nor does he breakdown the burden being placed on future generations because of that error. Other then the taxpayers, has anyone ever paid a price for that mistake? I suppose he would prefer if we all just forgot about that.

The sad part is that after all of Mr. Cardinale’s plans, promises, studies, and ideas. From the town dump, to EPCAL, all the way to a downtown resting in peace, we were all snookered.

And in spite of that, he has the gall to be proud of his accomplishments. I ask you all, what accomplishments? After 5 1/2 years, has anything ever materialized in this town? What do the taxpayers have after all of his empty promises? Nothing but broken dreams.

It’s time for Riverhead to open up the doors and windows, and clean house. It’s time for sweeping change.

After all, things are starting to really stink. It’s time for Riverhead to turn the page on a failed administration.

After all, we’ve tried it the Cardinale way and it hasn’t worked. It’s time for Riverhead to come together and find new leaders in every level of town government.

After all, look at what the people in charge are doing now.

It’s time for a change.