A Hamptons official who spoke out against a sweetheart land deal involving billionaire Ronald Lauder says he got shafted.
Charles Butler, the secretary-treasurer of the Bridgehampton Fire District, says his salary and benefits were eliminated and he was threatened with prosecution after he objected to the sale of a vacant plot of land to the cosmetics magnate, according to a lawsuit to be filed Monday.
The tiny parcel, which adjoins Lauder’s extensive property in the hamlet of Wainscott, was put on the market in September by the districtt, which had owned it for decades.
The 60- by 100-foot residential property had been appraised at $1.1 million.
Lauder immediately offered $940,000. Two other potential buyers came forward — one offering $999,999 and the other $1,010,000.
At an October meeting, the district’s Board of Commissioners decided to sell the property to Lauder.
“As a citizen, I object to this,” Butler said in legal papers.
Two commissioners said the rival bidders “must have something against Ronald Lauder,” court papers say.
Steven Halsey, board chairman, had been a Long Island representative for then-Gov. George Pataki, who counted Lauder among his most loyal supporters.
“Halsey should have never been involved in the bidding process,” said Lawrence Kelly, Butler’s lawyer.
A second, more formal, bidding process was conducted and Lauder’s $940,000 bid prevailed when a competing buyer withdrew at the last minute.
“Charles Butler believes that the withdrawal of that bid and the absence of a bid from other interested parties is not happenstance, and is based upon separate discussions and agreements which were not part of any public record,” his lawsuit says.
Butler’s opposition to the sale did not sit well with the five-member board.
Within weeks, he was stripped of his duties as secretary and treasurer. The commissioners also said he “may” have been overpaying himself and later eliminated his benefits and reduced his $60,000 salary to $1,200, and then to nothing.
Since Butler is an elected official whose term is not up until Dec. 31, 2014, such a salary reduction violated state law, his lawsuit says.
The board said in a November ad in a local newspaper it had replaced the treasurer’s duties with an outside service to cut costs.
Things got uglier after Halsey lost a December re-election bid for fire commissioner.
A district lawyer also accused Butler of forging a fire chief’s signature on the letter Butler required to refill heart medication he had lost when his home burned down in 2012.
The lawyer threatened to turn Butler in to the police if he did not resign as secretary and treasurer immediately, court papers say.
Lauder’s office had no comment.
Halsey, who is named as a defendant in the pending lawsuit, refused comment.