We Mark Our Ballot: Southampton Town

Term limits will end Jay Schneiderman’s eight-year tenure as Southampton Town supervisor. The transition to a new administration is always a stressful moment for the town, but this year offers one soothing thought: The race for the town’s top post features two exceptional women who both have qualities that predict success in the role.

Voters, in fact, should have a difficult time making a choice between Democratic candidate Maria Moore and Republican candidate Cyndi McNamara — as the editorial board struggled with an endorsement. Both women, regardless of party, are worthy.

But, as is true with voters, choose we must. It’s a difficult enough decision that one of Moore’s prominent campaign slogans, “Experience Matters,” actually can apply to both candidates: Moore has a long and remarkable list of accomplishments as Westhampton Beach Village mayor, while McNamara has been, in her first few years of service, a consummate board member who knows Town Hall inside and out, and has proven to be an informed voice on issue after issue.

Still, there are unique qualities. McNamara’s style is more direct: She states bluntly that there has been a “disconnect” between Schneiderman and his board, which she hopes to repair. Her roots as a community activist — she came up through the school board and served on a Citizens Advisory Committee — have given her a comfort level in challenging her colleagues, and even community members, on key issues, disagreeing without being disagreeable.

Would she be a strong leader? She has the convictions and the ability to communicate them, but often the best activists find their strength in pushing against things rather than moving them forward. That’s not a criticism, just a reality — and, though it might be unfair to McNamara as she seeks the supervisor’s office, there’s a nagging feeling that she’s already in the perfect spot.

Moore, on the other hand, could be a risk moving from a small village to the comparably more complicated world of town government. Making the leap to the supervisor’s seat without an interim step is ambitious, and it compounds the risk.

But in the final evaluation, there’s a deciding factor that’s simply too significant to ignore. Moore has quite literally transformed Westhampton Beach in her relatively short time as mayor, and she showed enormous leadership to accomplish something so many other civic leaders are struggling with: a new sewer system, which will address a polluted Moniebogue Bay while providing new development opportunities in a downtown that, bonus, is now one of the most attractive on the South Fork after a redevelopment. That she led efforts to do both — and got them done during a global pandemic — is astonishing.

And these are not incidental successes: Sewers remain the most important issue at Town Hall, with Flanders, Hampton Bays and so many other neighborhoods in need of action. Westhampton Beach was on that list, for years, before Moore took on the task. As she tells it, she asked her colleagues in Southampton Village if they minded her having a brief word with their engineers as they were in town to discuss a sewer project in that village; a few years later, her work is done, and Southampton Village remains stuck in neutral. Cool, confident leadership is the difference.

Maria Moore has succeeded in a way that makes her absolutely the choice to try to work the same magic in Southampton Town Hall as supervisor. The town needs fresh leadership, and she can provide it. And, critically, Cyndi McNamara would remain on the job as a Town Board member in such a scenario, which puts two strong, smart, dedicated women working side by side. That is a genuinely exciting outcome for town residents.

Likewise, the four Town Board candidates for two seats are all fine candidates. But in this case, two rose above the pack.

Rick Martel deserves another term if only because his brief Town Board stint has been dogged by circumstances, including the aforementioned pandemic, which made it difficult for any elected official to do much more than react. Martel’s deep background in Hampton Bays, both as a business owner and as someone interwoven into the fabric of the community, make him a natural pick for public service. He has shown an ease in working across party lines and is knowledgeable enough on the issues to have informed opinions. In a new term, it would be nice to see a bit more of the passion that drives him: Housing is clearly an issue he takes seriously, so there’s plenty of opportunity to act.

Michael Iasilli stands out from the three newcomers seeking a Town Board seat. He’s the youngest and the most energetic, but he’s also got the right background in public service, working as an aide to County Legislator Bridget Fleming, who has chosen not to seek reelection. His election would inject much-needed adrenaline into town government. Not all his ideas are winners — his push for a switch to electing board members from districts instead of on an at-large basis has many thorny drawbacks — but he deserves credit for raising an innovative idea, if only to give it a healthy debate.

Bill Pell and Bill Parash are both excellent Town Trustees, and so it’s not a surprise that they both have focused on improving the evolving relationship between the Board of Trustees and the rest of town government. Both were a bit less able to provide clear strategies on several key issues, including the town’s affordable housing and water quality needs. Neither would be out of place on the Town Board, but they simply seem a step behind their opponents, and a bit slim on specifics.