We Mark Our Ballot: East Hampton Town

Party politics really have no place in town government — except that they tend to offer a framework for natural colleagues to cluster together. In East Hampton Town, the Democratic Party has a strong grip on Town Hall, but this year’s election demonstrates a big reason why: They simply offer up the better candidates, year after year.

For example, Kathee Burke-Gonzalez clearly has been apprenticing for the supervisor seat, serving as deputy to Peter Van Scoyoc, who opted not to seek a fourth term; his announcement was followed quickly by her campaign launch. The idea, clearly, is to offer a seamless transition. But in this case, that’s laudable planning that will benefit the town’s residents.

The Republican Party nominated Gretta Leon to run for the supervisor seat. It’s worth pausing to laud the GOP, which knows it faces a prohibitively tall hill to climb in this race, to use its nomination to spotlight a young woman whose family immigrated to East Hampton from Costa Rica. At 36, she represents a group of men and women on the South Fork who are most affected by so many of the issues at play in the town race, particularly affordable housing. (She, sensibly, is still on the South Fork primarily because she’s living with family.) In a race that, frankly, the Republicans expect to lose, they made a statement about the future, and that’s notable.

Leon has an infectious energy, and her passion about the challenges of trying to start, or continue, a career in your 30s in East Hampton is sincere and important. She’s right: It is getting worse, where affordability is concerned. But the honest truth is that her insights into solutions, into actual workable strategies to change that, are limited. Town supervisor is just not the right job for her, at least right now.

But, for all the reasons stated earlier, Burke-Gonzalez is ready. She has a “vision for 2024 and beyond,” which is what is needed right now at Town Hall, because most of the problems and all of the solutions are generational in nature. Housing, response to climate change, water quality — these are massive issues that will take years, decades even, to truly correct. The town needs mature, informed leadership in the face of so many challenges.

At the same time, Burke-Gonzalez calls her team the “optimism party” — she sees both challenges and opportunities. Zoning changes, more affordable housing, managed retreat, an airport in flux: She knows these issues and, more important has a vision for moving forward. She deserves to take the baton from Van Scoyoc — and she’s ready to sprint.

The choice for the two Town Board seats is similarly easy. David Lys is an outstanding Town Board member who is a key part of the town’s leadership team; he’s measured, informed and knowledgeable on so many issues, and has an unmatched connection to the community he serves. When he talks about affordable housing, he gives the distinct impression that it’s more than just talk: There are real strategies and, more heartening, actual prospects.

Lys certainly deserves to stay in his role at Town Hall, and his running mate, Tom Flight, makes an excellent impression. He’s come to the town ballot the right way — through community involvement and active participation in Montauk life, as an EMT with the local ambulance company and a member of the Montauk School Board. His private career in financial oversight and strategy can only be an asset.

Montauk will be very much in the spotlight in the coming years at Town Hall. So many of the overriding issues are actively affecting the hamlet; its need for a sewer system, for instance, and its potential future as the town’s archipelago community as sea levels rise. Flight can offer an important voice.

The Republican Town Board candidates, Michael Wootton and Scott Smith, have a genuine passion for what’s going on in town, it’s clear. Wootton, however, seemed less comfortable when talk turned from the future of East Hampton Airport, which has been a focus of his community activism. Smith was critical of many issues, but without offering a clear alternate path; “solutions, not litigation” is a nice sound bite when it comes to the airport, but that first word carries a lot of freight, and the boxcars can’t be empty. Specifics matter.