“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” Lord Acton in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton 1887
Smithtown Board members would be well advised to consider this quote. The Supervisor’s budget message provided the grim news that property values have decreased significantly with the average home’s assessed value dropping from $6,000 to $5,500. A decrease in property value has major implications for taxpayers, but it did not prevent the Town Board from raising taxes and giving pay raises. For some town employees raises were part of contract negotiations, not so for everyone. Board members voted, unanimously, to award a ten percent increase to each member of the Planning Board (PB) for the 2013 Budget year. This is the same PB which Council members now want to take away their responsibilities for overseeing commercial development. Is the PB doing a good job worthy of a ten percent pay hike or responsible for the stagnation and blight in our downtowns? Which is it? Tax payers deserve to know.
It seems that Town Board members have chosen to forget the 2011 GRAND JURY’s investigation into the Town’s interference into the commercial development of the Nassau - Suffolk Lumber site across the street from Town Hall. The report documented the clandestine activities that put health and well being of residents at risk and decreased the tax liability of a commercial land holder to the detriment of taxpayers.
The Grand Jury concluded that the Town lacked certain protocols that would prevent runaway elected officials from behaving in ways that are detrimental to the taxpayers of Smithtown. The Grand Jury urged the Town to set up a system that provides for an honest and open review of the application and permitting process.
THE GRAND JURY Concluded:
# 3. The Town of Smithtown must enact legislation which allows for the appointment of an independent Board of Site Plan Review.Town Board members must no longer be allowed to serve in this additional capacity. The presence of an appointed Board of Site Plan Review will introduce new individuals to the process whose singular roles as public servants will be to ensure that the legal mandates of Site Plan Review are enforced. These members should be selected in the same manner in which members of other Town boards and commissions are appointed.
#4.The Town of Smithtown must amend the Town Code so that the process of Site Plan Review requires notice and an opportunity to be heard for property owners situated next to the property of the applicant. This notice will not only provide these homeowners an opportunity to voice their concerns as to the application, but may also afford the Town knowledge of conditions and issues that might be unknown. This provision must establish a minimum time period for providing notice, and also allow for an appropriate period of time for response.
In a Nov. 21 article in the TIMES of Smithtown “Speeding Up The Pace of Government in Smithtown”, Planning Director Frank DeRubeis is quoted saying “It’s hard to convey the sophistication of reviewing a large site plan,” “Also, the Planning Board holds public hearings during its portion of the site plan review process, something the Board of Site Plan Review does not.By cutting out the Planning Board, DeRubeis argued, discussion of the plan’s many details may fall to the wayside.”
The article sites assurances from Councilman Wehrheim and Malloy they that they will continue to seek input from departments to discuss the necessary details of the plan.
This Town Board appears to be thumbing its collective noses at the Grand Jury report and the residents of Smithtown. Fresh off their success in passing a budget that blamed higher taxes on everything but the very raises they were doling out, your Town Board now wants to consolidate its already considerable power to include uninhibited decision making devoid of Board and presumably Departmental review.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. What could they be thinking?
A public hearing is scheduled for December 11, 2012 at 2pm