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5/28/2009 - 1:40 PM
Check back soon for more Newsroom Q & A
By a special guest

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5/28/2009 - 1:45 PM
Answered Questions
By Phil Cardinale

Riverhead Town Supervisor Phil Cardinale agreed to respond to readers' questions here on the Newsroom Blog.

Mr. Cardinale, presently serving his third term as town supervisor, is running for re-election in November. A former town councilman, Mr. Cardinale is an attorney, father and grandfather. He lives in Jamesport with his wife, Susan.

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When the town elects to keep Public Safety Dispatch within the Town of Riverhead, are you going to allow attrition as the town grows? Moreover, the town's safety has suffered for the last six years (as per available online budgets) by not staffing 911 communications properly. And, according to you, the overtime has caused 911 communications to become unbearably expensive, and you want to eliminate it. However, in your budgets for the last few years, you have 12 employees accounted for and taxes collected on, but we never had 12 dispatchers hired. If re-elected for 2010, are you going to do right for and hire the proper number of dispatchers, based on your budget and attrition?

The Town Board at my request has unanimously agreed to place this question on the November 4 ballot for binding determination by the town's voters: "Should the Town of Riverhead add the sum of $950,000 to the 2010 town budget (and subsequent town budgets), through the collection of taxes from Riverhead taxpayers, in order to retain the Town of Riverhead Public Safety Dispatch Function, a function for which Suffolk County taxes Riverhead tax payers and is legally required to provide." Suffolk County is required to provide Public Safety Dispatch services to the Town of Riverhead.

The county collects taxes from the town residents for this purpose. Despite that, in 2008 the town chose to provide its own Public Safety Dispatch services at a cost to the town of nearly $1 million. This is an important issue which should be fully explored, fully debated and thoughtfully decided. If the town's residents choose, on November 4th, to fund public safety dispatch services through a town tax while continuing to pay for such services through a county tax, I will fully and fairly fund town public safety dispatch services in the town budget.

Incidentally, over the last 4 years there have never been more than 11 dispatchers authorized by the town budget. Over that period, when a dispatcher left, the town has had consistent difficulty in promptly locating and clearing a replacement.

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Do you think that Riverhead town should adopt a policy of having all town-owned vehicles (except unmarked police) clearly display the town seal, identifying them for official use? I find it highly offensive that, with the terrible condition of roads throughout the town, the highway superintendent is driving a new, unmarked SUV with official plates and darked-out windows so no one can see him or what he is doing. Who authorized this purchase?

I agree that town-owned vehicles other than unmarked police vehicles should clearly display the town seal. I also believe that most town residents appreciate the substantial improvement in town roads that has been occurring over the last year under the new highway superintendent, Gio Woodson.

The Town Board authorizes the highway department budget, and the highway superintendent, an independent elected official, oversees expenditures. Superintendent Woodson works very hard, puts in very long hours and is well respected by his employees. He travels extensively throughout the town and county exclusively on town business. Superintendent Woodson can be reached at (631) 727-3200 Ext. 228 and invites the public to phone him at any time.

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In a recent Riverhead News-Review interview, Councilwoman Barbara Blass made some very serious statements and insinuations pertaining to the town's landfill reclamation project. Ms. Blass started with, "I think, ultimately, all of the facts will come out. Don't forget that at the time there were a lot of forces that were operating behind the scenes to make sure that project didn't conclude."

She finished her interview with, "A lot of what was happening behind the scenes had to do with the sand mining industry, the carting industry, the trucking industry, the asphalt industry, and they were all operative in that project, without a doubt. And that's about as far as I can go on that."

Are these statements true? If so, did you have any knowledge of that at the time? And if there were industries operating behind the scenes to make sure a town project didn't conclude, did anyone in Town Hall do anything about it?

I don't know whether the statements you quote of Councilwoman Blass are true or not. I did not read the article you refer to. You may wish to contact Councilwoman Blass directly at (631) 727-3200 Ext. 225. What I do know is that the long-pending (nearly 20 years) landfill project, the result of yet another unfunded state mandate, is finally finished. Where a garbage dump once existed will now stand a public park.

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