City denies Hay Beach Property Owners Association allegation of withholding information

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Shelter Island Town Hall (Photo credit: Tara Smith)

City Council issued a written statement on Tuesday refuting an accusation by Hay Beach Property Owners Association chairman Patrick Clifford that requested information regarding a now defunct application for staff housing at the Gardiners Bay Country Club (GBCC) is deductions.

Mr Clifford wrote a letter to the editor appearing in today’s newspaper, accusing the city of failing to provide all of the information requested in an access to information request. He received information previously made public, but said there should be information from email accounts or cell phone conversations that was not provided.

There appears to be a feeling, as expressed by correspondence from Mr Clifford, that the public is not receiving information about what City Council is doing, the statement released by City Council says. But this is not the case, according to the statement. All substantive proposals are submitted to a hearing in front of the public and most are discussed during numerous working sessions.

During the Tuesday city council working session, Supervisor Gerry Siller referred to the letter from the Hay Beach Landowners Association, saying: We cannot give you any documents we do not have. not.

City attorney Bob DeStefano Jr. said the only thing he ever withholds concerns documents which are attorney-client privileged communications.

Mr Siller said that in today’s society there are all kinds of conspiracy theorists, but he and his fellow city council members follow the procedures of the Freedom of Information Act.

City Councilor Jim Colligan said he did not recall any discussions at work sessions, regular city council meetings or even executive sessions relating to the GBCC request. He said he looked at his notes and emails and couldn’t find any mention of such discussions.

The one time a former Community Housing Board member attempted to add a discussion of the demand to an agenda, he was turned down by then-chair Mike Bebon. In practice, in order to avoid influencing a decision of the ZBA, other boards and committees are not allowed to discuss ZBA nominations, unless the ZBA specifically asks them to do so.

The request was referred to the Zoning Appeal Board and although city council was notified, there was no discussion at the city council level, according to the city council statement.

In fact, to avoid even a suspicion of undue influence on the zoning board, all city committees, including city council, have been specifically asked not to discuss the matter unless the zoning board requests it. , according to statements. Therefore, there has been almost no communication regarding this matter.

As for the fees for which changes to the zoning code have been suggested, they constitute recommendations to be discussed by the municipal council. Until the working session on Tuesday, no discussion took place.

Despite concerns raised during meetings of the Comprehensive Plan Committee, there have been no substantive discussions on this issue, according to the city council statement.

In his letter to the editor, Mr Clifford said he thought there must be more documents because Country Club representatives are working on a revised proposal. A new proposal has yet to be submitted and club president Doug Sandberg has not revealed any information about potential changes that could be made if a new candidacy is submitted.

There were statements while the initial request was pending that supervisor Gerry Siller had commented favorably on the proposal. The supervisor denied making any statements regarding this request.

Mr Cliffords’ request was not limited to the GBCC app, he said. The Association is interested in city council actions that could impact the island as a whole, he said.

He referred to rezoning discussions that have not yet started; the site plan review process which was finally concluded with a new local law enacted in December 2020; and information relating to the protection of the aquifer.

The city council statement states that legislation on the site plan review has been documented and is available on the city’s website.

If any issues evolve, they will be discussed publicly, the statement said.

Mr Clifford said he would continue to pursue the matter, believing that there would be more documents that could have been provided.

If the city council continues to resist, it may delay production until after polling day, he said. We wanted to bring this matter to the attention of Islanders so that they can draw their own conclusions about the actions of their elected officials and their desire to hide them from the public.

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