Editorial - Town Government Is In Shambles

“All’s well that ends well” Supervisor Patrick Vecchio after the special town board meeting Thursday evening.

With a 3-0 unanimous vote, Patrick Vecchio and Lynne C. Nowick were appointed to their positions on the Town Board. Thus ending the vulgar one week saga of Oathgate. A kumbaya moment. Right? Hardly.

While many people attending the meeting were overjoyed with the appointment of Patrick Vecchio to his position of Supervisor, not everyone was satisfied with the meeting.  In fact few people were satisfied. Many in the audience wanted the opportunity to speak. They wanted to applaud the board’s unanimous decision and they wanted the opportunity to say what was on their mind face to face to Town Clerk Vincent Puleo and others who they believed knew in advance that the oath’s were not signed.  Audience members wanted to proclaim their anger that a town board made up of all Republicans could have been decapitated by Town Clerk Vincent Puleo, a member of the Conservative Party. They wanted to say they didn’t believe that it was an accident or a coincidence that thirty days passed without the clerk’s office noticing that the paperwork was not filed as required by law. 

But they were not alone. Town Clerk Vincent Puleo also wanted to speak. Had he been allowed he would have talked about an intolerable situation at Town Hall, where two years lapsed without communication between he and the supervisor. He would have said that it was Vecchio and Nowick’s responsibility to file the paperwork and that he should not be blamed. He would have said that he never tried to disenfranchise Smithtown voters by negating an election on a technicality he was doing his job. Puleo, if he had been allowed to speak, would also have said that he is a man of integrity. He would have said that leaving for vacation immediately upon submitting his memo vacating the offices held by Vecchio and Nowick should not be attributed to a plan, but rather an innocent scheduled vacation. 

Also in the audience were people like Eddie Haeffer the candidate who opposed Vincent Puleo in last November’s election. Haeffer speculated that a deal was negotiated to allow the two appointments. He said he would be watching votes carefully over the next year to see if board members change their positions. A sobering thought for some members of the audience who worked tirelessly to elect members sympathetic to their positions.

The appointment of Vecchio and Nowick was the right thing to do. Election results should not be overturned by a town clerk. An investigation by an outside agency is warranted. Locally, the Board should review town code to amend it to assign responsibility for the oath of office and its filing to the clerk’s office. On the state level this archaic law needs to be addressed and changed not for Smithtown as a local law but for the entire state. Never again should a voter feel that their vote doesn’t matter.

Oathgate is far from over. No one is buying into this kumbaya moment. Town Hall has been ripped open and people are watching. Smithtown’s Town government is in shambles. 

All’s well that ends well? We won’t know that until it’s over and that’s not going to happen any time soon!

Pat 

Comments

[Angry Voting Taxpayer]

Your editorial is spot-on. Investigation by an outside agency is warranted and this seems to be the consensus among many. Who puts this into motion? Who ultimately foots the bill? Can we sue the town clerk for the cost of such investigation since it is he who is the sacrificial lamb? What was the cost to taxpayers for the special meeting held last week? There were employees being paid overtime, the cost of opening and running the building, etc. This gross injustice of almost nullifying our votes for the obvious benefit of certain elected officials needs to be investigated! After the investigation, we should be looking into filling four seats - two council seats, town clerk and tax receiver.

[Carole Paquette]

Now let's hope that our state legislators can get Vecchio and Nowick reinstated to their full four-year term.