We Mark Our Ballots: East Hampton Town

Solidly blue East Hampton is always favorable to a slate of Democrats — it’s simply a matter of political reality. The town’s Republican Party acknowledged that by running only one active candidate for Town Board, J.P. Foster — who actually had been a registered Democrat, albeit with an independent streak. He will face incumbents Cate Rogers and Ian Calder-Piedmonte; Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez will be unopposed.

But the Republicans are hoping to beat the odds by running Jeff Miller for town clerk, to replace the retiring Carole Brennan, who recently retired after 12 years in office (and 36 years overall at Town Hall). His opponent is Democrat Michael Hansen, a member of the town’s Planning Board.

Miller is the classic deep-rooted East Hampton resident, both in genealogy and in daily life. He has served as fire chief and school board member in Springs, and retired from a job after 35 years with the East Hampton Village Department of Public Works. He’s a familiar face — let’s just say Santa Claus and he have never been seen in the same room together — and would be a friendly presence in the town clerk’s office.

Hansen, like Miller, comes to the job with much to learn. He said he’s been talking with Brennan and researching town clerk offices on the East End, which is laudable. He has a background in education, and has been a technology consultant. He, too, has long local family roots on the South Fork. Because of his background, his pitch has focused more on the technology side, with a pledge to upgrade the office’s systems to allow for more convenience.

Miller has worked his way up through so many volunteer and paid positions at the local level, though, that he seems to bring something intangible to a position that is largely about managing people and being the face of Town Hall to most people coming to do business there. He, too, is focused on technology upgrades but is willing to let IT professionals lead the charge.

It’s a close call, a difficult choice, but Jeff Miller gets the nod because he better recognizes the person-to-person part of being town clerk, and his background suggests he can handle the various tasks on his plate. He has, as he says, “been involved in so many different aspects of the town.” It seems like the proper training ground for the job. Both candidates will need to learn on the fly; Miller feels like the right fit for that challenge — his enthusiasm for the job is apparent.

Foster, meanwhile, has run a spirited campaign and is a qualified candidate for Town Board. But it’s simply too big a hill to climb: Cate Rogers and Ian Calder-Piedmonte are exceptional council members, and each deserves another term in office.

Rogers has been incredibly active and has led a scholarly but necessary conversation about the town’s housing crisis. Her role in shining the spotlight on various aspects, from the need to limit house sizes to the outsize impact of investment short-term rentals on the affordable housing supply, is beginning to chart a path forward for the town to truly begin to make meaningful progress. In fact, her championing of the house size limits was a first step of its own, and the nitpicking of the details, by Foster and other critics, seems to miss the big picture.

Calder-Piedmonte is a fellow Democrat but he’s been willing to challenge some of the board’s positions to ultimately make them stronger. To put it simply, the current Town Board works together well, with both Calder-Piedmonte and Rogers focused on solving the big problems. There seems to be no need to mess with that.

Foster shouldn’t be dismissed: He’s made some interesting points along the way. But his message seems to focus on spending more to address shortcomings — more police, including at the schools; higher pay to keep town employees; an upgrade at the town dump, which most residents seem perfectly happy with. It’s a classic challenger’s argument, which lacks a great deal of information on how to pay for it all.

At a critical moment for East Hampton Town, keeping the current team in place is a wise choice for voters.