SPRINGS | Citizens Advisory Committee (Updated August 1, 2015)

Plan to Upgrade Parking at the Springs School Defeated 56%-44% in May.

July 27, 2015–The Springs Advisory Committee is appointed by the East Hampton Town Board and meets about once a month.

Ineffective?

It has been judged ineffective by the East Hampton Star editors, but against what standard?

The Committee's job is to provide information to citizens and get their input, and it does that.

Based on my having just sat through a two-plus-hours meeting of the Committee as well as having attended earlier meetings, I would say it is a useful source of information.

It helps Springs residents keep up to date on taxes, schools, zoning, environmental and other issues. From the attendance of various Town Board members it is serving its purpose of giving them feedback on citizens' views.

Report on July 27 Meeting

Here's my subjective report on the information at the meeting that interested me enough to write down:

• On August 6 the Town Board is having a public hearing on issue relating to public beaches - access, beach fires and so forth. It is encouraging people to express their views, but wants them to inform themselves first about the laws and proposals. 
• The Springs Invitational art show will be coming up in August and is a two-week art show. Most of the other shows are just for a few days.
• The Fisherman's Fair is Saturday, August 8 (earlier on the same day as the Author's Night at the East Hampton Library).
• Trucks parked on residential property continue to be an issue, and a maximum size of 12,000 pounds is proposed, with a 12,500-pound size being advocated. The option of renting parking space was proposed. Screening will be required for trucks on residential sites.
• Creation of a Registry for Rental Properties is moving along.
• A proposal is afoot to prohibit bedrooms in basements unless an existing permit was issued.
• After a recent heavy rain, 67 beaches were closed on Long Island because of the runoff water.
• Although the meeting was advertised as being focused on water quality, the water quality report was a brief complaint about spraying over Accabonac Harbor, with discussion held over to the next meeting in September.

Springs School

The biggest single topic was facilities issues at the Springs School. The Spring School District Board of Education created a facilities committee that met May 27 at Springs School and again in June. A third meeting in July was postponed (I showed up for it, not being on the mailing list and therefore not understanding the cancellation).

The Springs School facilities committee was appointed to "collaborate" with architect Roger Smith of BBS Architects of Patchogue, N.Y. on plans to upgrade the aging and overcrowded Springs School, i.e., to review and analyze the recommendations of Mr. Smith’s firm. The plans were presented originally in December in a slide show.

The recommendations review existing instructional and other space and consider other infrastructure needs outlined in the district’s state-mandated five-year building conditions survey and staff reports. Board of Education President Liz Mendelman said at the time of the committee's formation in May:

The architects have outlined a substantial amount of work for the school. We felt it was important to involve our community in shaping whatever plan may come forward. This process needs to be open and inclusive.

Roger Smith, the architect, said that the committee members will:

tour the building, read the reports, ask questions, and help us understand what to ultimately bring to the Board of Education as best meeting the aspirations of the community. We will be talking about the big picture items, like how to address current space deficiency and inadequacy, down to the more basic infrastructure items like the needs of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and other systems. 

The 13 members of the committee are composed as follows:

• School staff (6) - Principal Eric Casale, Chief Business Officer Tom Primiano, teachers John Gibbons, Jodie Hallman and Colleen McGowan, and Library Aide Linda Kernell.
• The Board of Education (1) - Jeffrey Miller, Trustee.
• Springs residents who are parents of current students (3) - Scott Faulkner, Susan Gentile Hackett, and Dave Conlon. 
• Springs residents without children in the Springs School (3) - Susan Harder, Carol Campolo and Pamela Bicket.

At the Springs Advisory Committee meeting, the three public members reported on what they had found from the first two meetings, and others chimed in:

• There are 700 students at the school. Between 400 and 500 students are driven to and from the school each day.
• The facilities plan calls for $20 million to be spent, financed by a bond. (The voters in Springs approved a $27.4 million budget, but voted 232-184 (56%-44%) against using a $2 million reserve fund for a new parking lot, a reconfigured drop-off/pickup loop, and other changes.
• Several people questioned the construction of new facilities when schools in the neighboring school districts are underutilized. The Springs School population has been stabilizing and will reach its maximum in the next two years, and then fall. It is already too late to build for the next two years.
• What might happen is that the School Districts on the East End could cooperate in creating a new Middle School. A group called SCORE has been created to look at possibilities for cooperation.
• Someone complained about the NY State Wicks Law, which requires that HVAC work be bid separately instead of being subcontracted by a general contractor. This forces up the cost of public projects.
• The NY State school aid formula is not designed to be very helpful for Springs, which is much more needy than Amagansett but receives less than two percentage points more in aid.
• The RFP relating to the construction of the facility was announced on June 25, with a closing date of July 2 - an unheard-of deadline of one week. Usually there is a Bidders' Meeting in the first week, to answer questions. Furthermore, the RFP does not seem to have been widely announced. There was a call for a repeat of the RFP with a wider notification and a longer period for response.

Comment

If someone was attending their first meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee, the proceedings must have been a bit bewildering. 

The chair rules with a gentle hand, pleading rather than demanding order. The chair, secretary and third person at the front table are not identified. Speakers are rarely identified. No agenda is distributed, posted, or methodically referred to. The announced main purpose of the meeting, water quality, focused on a single chemical and was brought up only in the last few minutes after two hours of discursive reports. These problems don't vitiate the value of the meeting, but they are so unnecessary - and so easy to fix...

Meanwhile, what did come through loud and clear was that the operation of the Springs School is worthy of our attention. If the RFP for facilities construction was fairly presented, the process was nothing short of bizarre. 

I spoke up and noted that the New York State Comptroller, Tom DiNapoli, monitors the finances of municipalities in New York State (he has recently taken on the Public Service Commission for its LIPA reform in 2013 - with the endorsement of many local officials) and if the Springs School does not voluntarily reopen the RFP of June 25, I suggested that DiNapoli be notified and asked to invalidate the first RFP on the basis of improper procedures.

My suggestion did not meet with enthusiasm from the facilities committee member who brought up the question. Why would we want to bring the State Comptroller into our affairs?

Why? Because what was described is unconscionable - professionally, legally, ethically.

If the concerns presented at the Citizens Advisory Committee are valid and are not addressed, I am determined to follow up with a letter to DiNapoli.