Dan's Papers - August 3, 2007 -

Last Monday, it was realized that a piece of the Suffolk County bureaucracy had apparently gone mad. As a result, various commissioners, County Legislators, Town Supervisors and private citizens got into the act to assure everybody that things would be brought quickly under control.

The madness was a County plan to possibly auction off the center of downtown Montauk. We are talking about the Plaza here, the open green with the flagpole on it where ceremonies take place, where fairs are held and where the flag is raised every morning. It would be like New York City, suddenly announcing they are considering auctioning off Central Park.

The possibility of auctioning off the park in the middle of Montauk came about in a memo from the Commissioner Robert E. Sgroi dated July 2, 1987. "Attached is a list of parcels that are being considered for auction/sale by the Department of Real Estate" he wrote. "If you have objections to the auction/sale of any of these parcels, please contact (me) by July 16."

On the list, and there were five items on the list, was the park in the middle of downtown Montauk. Needless to say, everyone jumped in to see that the middle of Montauk got on his auction list.

"Perhaps it came about because of a tax lien," he said. "There are 7000 parcels we deal with here. Things like this can slip in."

A check with the County Treasurer's Department, however, showed that no tax lien was ever taken by the County.

"I'll look into it further," Mr. Sgroi told me when I told him there was no tax lien. "But be assured that this parcel will never be auctioned off. I could never drive through downtown Montauk if that ever happened. I am removing this parcel from this list as of this moment." Meanwhile, County Legislator Tony Bullock, who is running for Town Supervisor of East Hampton, got wind of things.

"I am shocked to see the above-referenced parcel considered for public auction," he wrote in a letter to Mr. Sgroi. This letter had been sent, but not received by Mr. Sgroi, at the time I spoke to him. " This parcel constituted the largest remaining piece of open space in downtown Montauk. It is, in fact, the green, the center and heart of the Montauk business district. The thought of this piece being sold to a private party at an auction is in itself a ruthless affront to the Montauk community."

As it has turned out, the placing of this parcel on the auction list was just part of a standard internal procedure in the County Real Estate Department. Wayne Thompson, an assistant to Mr. Sgroi, and the man who says he put this on the list, explained things.

"This property was deeded to the County by the Montauk Improvement Company in 1968," he said. "The Company didn't want it any more and they didn't want to pay taxes on it, so they deeded it for a dollar. That was a long time ago, before computers. Here at the County, we come up all the time with old parcels that are not earmarked for any purpose. The computer wants them earmarked. This was one of them. Who was to take care of it? Parks and Recreation? Public Works? Highway? We put it up on this list - it is an internal memo sent to all the various commissioners - and ask who wants it, who wants to take care of it. If we get no response, then it goes further."

The further that it goes can be to a public auction. But this would be years into the future, after the Real Estate Department reviews it, decides no part of the County wants it, then offers it to the Town the State and the Federal Governments.

In fact, in response to the memo sent out July 2, County Director of Planning Lee Koppelman should only be conveyed with a restrictive covenant barring future development. In addition, the Town of East Hampton should be offered the parcel for addition to the adjacent war memorial."

As of the deadline, no response had come in from John D. Chester, Commissioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation, who would have been the obvious person to reply.

Meanwhile, Legislator Tony Bullock has sent a letter directing the attorneys for the County to prepare a resolution authorizing the transfer of the park in the center of Montauk to the Town of East Hampton. He has also advised the Town of the pending and has asked that they consider a Town resolution and supporting it.

Questions that remain: Why is an internal memo at an early stage labeled so provocatively OBJECTION TO SALE OF AUCTION/SALE PARCELS?

Does the County really want to give this parcel up? And if so, is the Town the best entity to take it? The answer to the latter question is probably yes.

Anyway, it is a good thing to know that when something like this pops up, apparently because of need to categorize something in a computer, everyone is so quick to jump in and put out the fire.