Doing Business

Two recent developments in East Hampton Town help demonstrate an alarming trend in recent years: Local laws and other regulations can seemingly be ignored by businesses that are willing to pay any corresponding fines as the cost of doing business.

The first occurred in Wainscott in August, when a national fashion brand’s clothing line was denied a special event permit by the town for a VIP product launch at an estate in the hamlet.

The owners of an Oakwood Court residence had applied to the town to host a weekend party to showcase the fall line of Max Mara, a pricey women’s fashion brand. The permit asked for permission to host a luncheon for 40 people one day, and then offered food, cocktails and shopping for up to 50 people at a time under a tent over the next two days.

The permit was denied — commercial “pop-ups” aren’t allowed on residential properties at any time. But the party went on as planned. Town officials, frustrated that the owners knew they needed the permit but then went ahead anyway after it was denied, issued citations all three days, but it didn’t stop the party. In the end, the party’s hosts paid a fine of $1,450 — likely an insignificant expense compared to what the brand made throughout the weekend.

The second incident was the latest in an ongoing effort to control noise and parking during the Surf Lodge’s infamous annual summer concert series at the Montauk venue.

After a lot of legal wrangling over the years — and, to be fair, numerous accommodations and concessions on the part of the hotel and bar — the State Liquor Authority and the Surf Lodge reached an agreement in recent years to allow the music to play at the cramped venue. But the SLA said that in order to keep neighbors who were upset over parking and noise happy, all concerts must end at 8 p.m.

A concert by Lauryn Hill on September 5 — which one state official said would better belong at Madison Square Garden — went on well beyond the 8 p.m. curfew. The liquor authority’s board of commissioners reacted angrily to the news, making not-so-veiled threats about the future of the venue’s liquor license.

An attorney for the Surf Lodge, at the commissioner’s meeting, offered immediate payment of a $30,000 fine for the violation, indicating, perhaps, that profits from the concert were pretty high. The Surf Lodge has paid nearly $100,000 in fines, dating back to 2017.

While the SLA promised to continue to monitor the Surf Lodge, it also seems obvious that the Surf Lodge hopes to continue to pay its way out of trouble.

The Surf Lodge, in fact, has made an effort to be a good neighbor, erecting a sound-dampening shell around its waterfront stage, installing a $250,000 septic upgrade and — ostensibly — agreeing to the curfew. But even given all that, it seems that the envelope is going to continue to be pushed as long as the concerts are allowed to continue while the fines are happily paid.

Both cases, the Surf Lodge and Max Mara, should be seen as a slap in the face of not only local officials but residents as well. It suggests that rules can be broken, or outright ignored, as long as a business has a big enough checking account to sign its way out of trouble. That starts to feel like no rules at all, at least for some.