Metro

Hamptons trustees ran own fiefdom until court order to stop

They are town trustees run amok in one of the wealthiest enclaves in America.

A five-member board of trustees is the shadow government in Southampton, “unlawfully” spending $1.5 million with no oversight during a five-year period — until town citizens won a lawsuit to stop them.

The trustees trace their power to the colonial era when a 1686 contract, known as the Dongan Patent, set up what is formally called the Board of Trustees of the Freeholders and Commonalty.

The trustees were to be stewards of the town’s underwater land and public access to it. Eventually a separate Town Board was set up to run the affairs of Southampton.

Clinging to their royal mandate, the trustees oversee a mini-fiefdom complete with a 12-member staff including a driver/messenger, secretary and several mechanics.

Salaries total $476,955 this year out of a budget of $820,319. The trustees, who are elected, are paid $23,900, with the president getting $30,300. They also get health insurance.

The trustees make revenue by selling dock permits, waterfowl hunting licenses and the crucial job in this Hamptons resort community of selling beach parking passes. They also regularly dredge Mecox Bay and sell the sand to contractors who use it for dune restoration and other projects.

Revenue, however, did not go into the town coffers — but was held in nine different back accounts under control of the trustees, court papers charged.

Their spending is profligate. They paid themselves $100-a-month cellphone stipends and thousands of dollars a year for gasoline. They bought floral arrangements for funerals, ordered embroidered caps and jackets and earmarked cash for legal fees to sue their opponents.

Among the expenses recorded from 2005 to 2010 was $1,351 for an August 2009 “beach event” in Bridgehampton.

The trustees failed to seek competitive bids on 11 projects each more than $10,000, a violation of the state’s General Municipal Law, according to court papers.

The spending was only revealed after a group of aggrieved residents sued to stop the officials’ runaway power. And last month they claimed victory when a judge granted a preliminary injunction to stop the trustees from independently spending money.

“They have consistently acted contrary to the law,” said Gary Vegliante, the mayor of West Hampton Dunes, a village within Southampton.

The trustees are mulling an appeal. “The decision upsets a longstanding, judicially approved system of handling their monies, which they have followed for years,” said Richard Cahn, a lawyer for the trustees.