HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-08/11/2026 PH 1
1 TOWN OF SOUTHOLD
COUNTY OF SUFFOLK : STATE OF NEW YORK
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SOUTHOLD TOWN BOARD
4 REGULAR MEETING
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7 Southold, New York
8 August 11 , 2026
6 : 00 P . M .
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14 B E F 0 R E :
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16 ALBERT KRUPSKI JR, SUPERVISOR
17 KATE STEVENS , JUSTICE
18 JILL DOHERTY, COUNCILWOMAN
19 BRIAN MEALY, COUNCILMAN
20 ANNE SMITH, COUNCILWOMAN
21 ALEXA SUESS , COUNCILWOMAN
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AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 2
1 INDEX TO TESTIMONY
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3 Public Comments : 3-78
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AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 3
1 PUBLIC COMMENTS
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
3 right . So that ' s the end of our regular
4 agenda . There are no scheduled public
5 hearings tonight . But before we open the
6 floor up to anyone who ' d like to discuss
7 any topic with the Town Board, I know
8 Councilman Mealy has a couple of
9 announcements .
10 (Whereupon, Councilman Mealy made
11 some announcements at this time . )
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
13 right . And we have -- we have probably as
14 many people on Zoom tonight as we do,
15 in-house . So is there anyone here who
16 would like to address the Board on any
17 matter?
18 JEREMY GARRETSON : Hi , Jeremy
19 Garretson, resident of Southold . While
20 we ' re on the topic of Flock, I ' m going to
21 try to keep this short . I ' m a terrible
22 public speaker . So I ' m just going to
23 read . Good evening . Those that know me,
24 Jeremy Garretson, Southold . I ' d hoped
25 to -- I ' d hoped to hear today ' s work
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 4
1 session discussion with the sheriff ' s
2 office regarding Flock cameras before
3 addressing the Board this evening . Since
4 that discussion has now been -- been
5 postponed till October, I don ' t believe
6 this conversation can wait another three
7 months . That ' s why I ' m speaking tonight .
8 Over the past year and a half, I ' ve spent
9 countless hours researching Flock safety .
10 I ' ve read court cases , academic studies ,
11 investigative news reports , and town
12 documents obtained through FOIL . I ' ve
13 also spoken with elected officials and law
14 enforcement . The more I research, the
15 more I realize this isn ' t just about
16 license plate readers . It ' s about
17 government surveillance , government
18 accountability, and right of innocent
19 people . This isn ' t about whether Flock
20 has ever helped solve a crime . It has .
21 This debate is about whether the
22 government should be collecting and
23 storing the movement of innocent people in
24 the first place . Before I go any further,
25 I ' d like to address one argument I hear
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 5
1 all the time . We already carry cell
2 phones . The Supreme Court has recognized
3 that our phone ' s location is protected by
4 the Fourth Amendment , which generally
5 means law enforcement needs probable cause
6 followed by a warrant signed by a judge to
7 obtain it . Flock camera -- cameras work
8 very differently . They collect
9 information on everything -- every passing
10 vehicle without probable cause, without a
11 warrant . The surveillance happens first,
12 and only afterwards does the government
13 decide whose movements to examine . Those
14 are fundamentally different things . On
15 reliability, a randomized controlled trial
16 conducted by Valero Police Department in
17 California found that 370 of LPR hits from
18 fixed readers , such as those mounted on
19 streetlights , and 350 on mobile vehicles
20 were misreads . That is an astonishing
21 high -- high error rate . These errors
22 have resulted in innocent people being
23 stopped, detained, arrested . In some
24 cases confronted at gunpoint by police .
25 Just this past week, Brookfield Police
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 6
1 conducted a high-risk stop on 1-94
2 involving a vehicle that had already been
3 cleared in a Milwaukee homicide
4 investigation . According to reports , the
5 vehicle had not been removed from the hot
6 list . This led to a heated confrontation
7 in the middle of the highway with officers
8 drawing their guns and putting innocent
9 lives at risk . According to Business
10 Insider, in the Summer of 2024 , Roseville ,
11 California police officers contacted a man
12 whose license plate had repeatedly been
13 misread by Flock cameras . On six separate
14 occasions , the system alerted police that
15 his vehicle had been stolen or linked to a
16 felony . The problem was simple . The
17 camera repeatedly mistook the Number 9 for
18 Number 8 . In another recent case,
19 Colorado woman was wrongfully accused of
20 stealing a package after police relied on
21 license plate reader ' s data without
22 properly verifying the evidence . Officers
23 issued her a criminal summons despite her
24 repeated denials . She ultimately proved
25 her innocence using her own vehicle ' s CPS
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 7
1 logs , built-in camera footage , and
2 surveillance video from a local business ,
3 showing she had simply driven through the
4 area and never stopped at the victim ' s
5 home . She later said that if it hadn ' t
6 been for her own technology documenting
7 her whereabouts , she likely would have not
8 been able to prove her innocence . Think
9 about that for a moment . We ' ve reached a
10 point where law-abiding citizens need
11 better technology than the government just
12 to prove they ' re innocent . Misuse by
13 police and Flock employees . In Dayton,
14 Ohio, the city discovered that outside
15 agencies , including ICE , had accessed
16 Flock cameras thousands of times . This
17 was a violation of the city ' s own policy .
18 And officials later learned that Flock had
19 granted federal agencies access . The city
20 responded by covering its cameras with
21 garbage bags . In April , Texas authorities
22 used a network of more than 80 , 000 Flock
23 cameras to track down a woman who left the
24 state to obtain an abortion . This didn ' t
25 just -- They didn ' t just use Flock cameras
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 8
1 in states where abortion is illegal , they
2 tracked her through states where abortion
3 was perfectly legal . In my opinion, this
4 is one of the clearest examples of
5 government overreach and misuse of the
6 surveillance system that was sold to the
7 public as a crime-fighting tool . Just
8 this past week, we learned about another
9 case involving Wisconsin police officers ,
10 used Flock cameras to track a man across
11 state lines after he legally purchased
12 marijuana in Michigan . When he returned
13 to Wisconsin, police used that information
14 as a pretext to stop his vehicle , search
15 it, and arrest him for marijuana
16 possession . Nationwide , there have been
17 at least fifty documented cases of police
18 officers misusing Flock cameras . Flock
19 Safety ' s home state of Georgia, which has
20 roughly 5 , 000 Flock cameras , has been the
21 center of many of these cases . Thanks to
22 audits conducted by the Georgia Bureau of
23 Investigation, misconduct was uncovered
24 involving ten officers from Savannah
25 Police Department, five officers from
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 9
1 Albany Police Department, two officers
2 from Cherokee County, and one officer from
3 Greene County Sheriff ' s Office . Roughly
4 thirty of those fifty cases involved
5 officers using Flock to track current or
6 former romantic partners . Michael
7 Stephan, a small-town police chief,
8 tracked his ex-girlfriend ' s vehicle 600
9 times . Josiah Ayala, a Milwaukee police
10 officer, used Flock a 124 times to track
11 his romantic partner, and 55 times to
12 track her former partner . Elizabeth
13 Snowman, a former police officer in North
14 Carolina, was charged after investigators
15 found she accessed the department ' s ALPRs
16 31 times to track her boyfriend ' s ex-wife .
17 George Opadek, the county sheriff, used
18 the Flock system to search for his wife ' s
19 vehicle hundreds of times . The misuse of
20 Flock cameras isn ' t limited to police .
21 Flock employees have also been documented
22 accessing the system improperly . Flock
23 claims these were conducted for training
24 purposes , but it ' s worth noting that some
25 of the cameras accessed were in sensitive
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 10
1 locations , including a pool at the Marcus
2 Jewish Community Center in Atlanta, the
3 children ' s gymnastic room, and several
4 fitness centers and studios . Some will
5 argue that better oversight is the answer .
6 1 now disagree with that . Oversight is
7 important because it exposes abuse after
8 it happens . It doesn ' t prevent it . The
9 Georgia Bureau of Investigation uncovered
10 these cases because it conducted audits .
11 The real question is , how much misuse has
12 gone undetected in a place where no one is
13 looking? More importantly, if
14 surveillance system requires constant
15 audits just to ensure it isn ' t being
16 abused, perhaps the problem isn ' t
17 oversight . Perhaps the problem is the
18 surveillance system itself . According to
19 the FOIL documents I obtained from the
20 town, there were approximately seventy
21 thousand Flock ALPR cameras nationwide
22 when Southold signed the contract in
23 January 2025 . Today that number has grown
24 to more than a 120 , 000 . At this pace,
25 there could -- could be well over 200 , 000
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 11
1 within a year . What will that number be
2 two or three years from now? I understand
3 that some of this responsibility falls on
4 Suffolk County and not just town -- the
5 Town of Southold, but when I asked
6 government officials how many more cameras
7 we should expect to see in Southold,
8 nobody could give me an answer . According
9 to Flock ' s own sole source letter, which I
10 obtained through FOIL, its Wing program --
11 Wing platform can apply computer vision to
12 third-party cameras , transforming them
13 into evidence, capture devices using the
14 same vehicle fingerprint technology
15 Flock ' s Falcon cameras use . Think about
16 what that means . Mission creep doesn ' t
17 necessarily require installing thousands
18 of new Flock cameras . Existing cameras ,
19 like the ones on this building, again --
20 existing cameras like the ones on this
21 building or throughout our community could
22 become part of the same surveillance
23 network with nothing more than a software
24 update . And it ' s not just license plate
25 readers . Flock has expanded into the
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 12
1 drone as first responders technology, and
2 is developing systems capable of
3 maintaining continuous aerial -- aerial
4 surveillance by automatically rotating
5 drones as their batteries deplete . The
6 company also advertises drone cameras
7 capable of reading license plates from
8 more than 2 , 000 feet away . This is how
9 surveillance systems grow, not all at
10 once, but one camera, one software update ,
11 and one new capability at a time . The
12 question isn ' t whether today ' s system is
13 acceptable . The question is , what will
14 the system become tomorrow? And at what
15 point do we finally say enough?
16 Vandalism . All across this country,
17 people are disabling Flock cameras and
18 taking their privacy into their own hands .
19 Let me be clear, I do not encourage
20 vandalism . That ' s why I ' m here . However,
21 these acts have brought the debate over
22 government mass surveillance onto the
23 national stage . And I ' m sure many of you
24 are aware, a few weeks ago, multiple Flock
25 cameras were damaged in Southold Town .
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 13
1 Just this past week, two days ago, I
2 noticed a camera at the corner of Route 25
3 and Manhasset Avenue has been damaged
4 again, and had red paint poured over its
5 solar panel . Based on what I ' ve witnessed
6 firsthand and what I ' ve -- has been
7 reported in the news , that appears to be
8 the -- at least the fifth incident of
9 vandalism . I bring this up not to excuse
10 the destruction of government property,
11 but because you have the power to prevent
12 more of it . The Town Board approved
13 the -- the contract, and the Town Board
14 has the authority to terminate it . Rather
15 than simply condemning these acts at --
16 these acts , we should also ask why people
17 are willing to risk criminal charges to
18 disable these cameras . What causes
19 ordinary citizens to believe that
20 vandalism is the only way left to make
21 their voices heard? Our nation ' s founding
22 offers a lesson . Long before shots were
23 fired in the Revolutionary War, there were
24 protests , boycotts , and destruction of
25 government property by colonists who
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 14
1 believed their liberties were being eroded
2 and their concerns ignored . I ' m not
3 equating these situations , nor am I
4 encouraging vandalism . I am saying that
5 when people believe their fundamental
6 rights are being ignored and that they
7 have no meaningful voice, frustration can
8 boil over . In destructive ways . The best
9 way to prevent that, that isn ' t -- is --
10 isn ' t simply stronger enforcement, it ' s
11 restoring public trust by listening to
12 those concerns before they reach that
13 point . I don ' t have a problem with --
14 with security cameras . As a professional
15 photographer, I certainly don ' t have a
16 problem being filmed in public . My
17 problem is a private company building a
18 nationwide surveillance network that
19 collects information on millions of
20 innocent Americans who aren ' t suspected of
21 committing a crime . My problem is a
22 system that has repeatedly misidentified
23 innocent people, been misused by police
24 officers and even Flock employees , and
25 continues to expand with no meaningful
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 15
1 limits . At some point, we have to stop
2 asking what can this technology do, and
3 start asking should the government be
4 doing this at all ? Every generation is
5 asked to decide how much liberty it is
6 willing to trade for security . Those --
7 those decisions are easy to justify in the
8 moment, but they ' re much harder to reverse
9 later . If this isn ' t enough to make us
10 pause , what is ? This Board approved the
11 contract . This Board has the authority to
12 end it . I ' m asking you to act while there
13 is still a choice . Once the cameras
14 multiply, once the existing cameras are
15 folded into the network, and continuous
16 aerial surveillance become commonplace ,
17 it ' ll be far more difficult to turn back .
18 I ' m asking the Town Board to terminate the
19 contract with Flock Safety effective
20 immediately . The freedoms we lose are
21 rarely taken at all . More often they ' re
22 surrendered one camera at a time . Thank
23 you .
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : So just
25 a quick response to that point . You know,
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 16
1 coming from, I would say my generation,
2 you know, technology was supposed to be
3 the answer to a lot of things . It was
4 supposed to be really inexpensive, and --
5 and make life less complicated . It ' s kind
6 of done the -- the opposite . So -- and
7 security cameras too, you brought that
8 point up that they could be hacked into .
9 And that ' s a -- that ' s a -- that ' s a --
10 JEREMY GARRETSON : Can I just
11 clarify that?
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Yes .
13 JEREMY GARRETSON : In the contract
14 that Flock gave Southold Town, it talks
15 about the Wing program, and that is the
16 ability to take any existing camera and
17 fold it into the system, where it will
18 automatically function as a Flock camera
19 without you having to buy the Flock
20 camera . It -- it ' s a software update .
21 Like, it -- it feeds it into the feed and
22 uses the AI and the same technology that
23 the Falcon cameras use .
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
25 you .
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 17
1 JEREMY GARRETSON : I ' m not saying
2 that ' s what ' s happening here, I just know
3 that that was in the paperwork that the
4 town had .
5 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
6 you . And I appreciate that observation .
7 JOHN BOGOVICH : My name is John
8 Bogowich . Sheila Spence and I live at 600
9 Little Peconic Bay Road . We came before
10 the Town Board back on May 5th to bring to
11 your attention the expansion of the
12 property at 500 Little Peconic Bay Road
13 from a three-bedroom single house to a
14 13-bedroom multi-structure compound . I
15 won ' t go back through all of the detail
16 that we provided that, but we did provide
17 to the Board at that time a detailed
18 indication of what was going on, as well
19 as , the site plan indicating and
20 specifying the 13 bedrooms that had been
21 provided to the town, as an appendix to
22 the Wetlands Permit that was approved by
23 the town back prior to that May 5th town
24 meeting date . I ' m coming here, and we ' re
25 coming here today unfortunately, to
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 18
1 express our both disappointment, and to be
2 honest just mystification as to what has
3 happened since that May 5th meeting . You
4 were all , I don ' t -- you know, I didn ' t
5 speak to each and every Board member, but
6 you all seemed quite responsive and
7 curious about the goings on that we had
8 detailed . There was an indication that
9 the Town Attorney ' s Office would make them
10 self available and to dive into this
11 matter . And an instruction that we have
12 our attorneys who we ' ve retained, for now,
13 the last eight months at a substantial
14 personal expense to Sheila and me, I might
15 add, but that ' s irrelevant for this
16 conversation . That they should engage
17 with the Town Attorney ' s Office to try to
18 understand what was going on here . They
19 had a initial meeting the next day on the
20 6th of May . And notwithstanding many,
21 many outreaches by our attorneys to the
22 Town Attorney ' s Office, there has been
23 zero response to any of their requests for
24 information, updates , progress reports , or
25 updates on anything that was going on at
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 19
1 the property . Further, we have just
2 become aware today that on July 24th,
3 there was -- what is being referred to by
4 our attorneys as a pre-CO that has been
5 granted with no review, no supporting
6 documentation, no Zoning Board meetings ,
7 no public scrutiny or presentation that
8 was I -- issued by John Jarsky, legalizing
9 both a waterside cottage and a garage
10 apartment, which are the two other
11 structures that are part of this compound .
12 There was no -- there were no affidavits
13 filed . There was no supporting argument
14 as to why these structures should be
15 entitled to preexisting condition,
16 certification . And further consistent
17 with what I said before , there was
18 absolutely no notification to either us or
19 to our attorneys of this development . And
20 further from that, our attorneys have had
21 to go down and request physical inspection
22 of the Building Department files on a bi
23 to tri-weekly basis just to discover this
24 information, which is the only reason we
25 know about what I ' ve just detailed . I
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 20
1 think this is deeply troubling on many
2 levels . one is obviously, and I ' ll kind
3 of put it there and put it off the table,
4 one is the conclusion . But before you
5 even get to the conclusion, which, you
6 know, we find troubling, the one thing we
7 asked for back on May 5th was , given the
8 oddity of this plan, given the fact that
9 it was seemingly being processed under the
10 radar screen in an attempt to just do
11 something quite transformative and
12 potentially quite disruptive to the
13 neighborhood, and as a precedent to the
14 Town of Southold, our biggest request was
15 a clear, transparent process where it
16 would be -- where it would be incumbent
17 upon this property owner to lay out their
18 plans in detail , and it would be -- there
19 would be a proper public forum where those
20 plans could be scrutinized, reviewed by
21 the public, and commented on by the public
22 prior to any conclusion being reached .
23 And unfortunately, and I -- I say this
24 with, you know, sadness , like , it ' s been
25 exactly the opposite . So I -- I implore
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 21
1 and ask all of you as a matter of first
2 and foremost just good, transparent
3 government to let ' s bring this thing out
4 of the shadows into the light of day .
5 There ' s lots of minutiae around this ,
6 which I will not, you know, subject you
7 all to or the rest of the public group
8 here to tonight . Our attorneys have done
9 exhaustive work on this . We are happy to
10 participate and share that information and
11 engage in a dialogue in any way, but let ' s
12 bring this thing up and into the light of
13 day, especially, as we said before, in
14 light of the forthcoming opening of, you
15 know, Airbnb-ing, the -- the short-term
16 rental provisions which, as we -- as we
17 suggested back in May 5th, seems clearly
18 the intent on the use side behind this
19 transformation . Thank you very much for
20 your time, and your continued attention .
21 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
22 you . I ' m going to ask our Town Attorney
23 to answer .
24 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
25 Sure . So I do have an e-mail . I ' m CC ' d
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 22
1 on an e-mail , July 7th, with your attorney
2 to me and the Zoning Board of Appeals
3 attorney to -- to Building Inspectors and
4 that ' s the last correspondence I have . I
5 know I -- I have spoken to your attorney,
6 and I ' m happy to continue the dialogue
7 with your attorney . And I ' m happy to
8 speak with the Building Inspector to see
9 what exactly is going on . From my memory,
10 we did not see anything untoward . But,
11 you know, we -- we ' re happy to look into
12 it again .
13 JOHN BOGOVICH : Just for the record,
14 this C of 0 has been granted on a garage
15 apartment that has absolutely no record
16 going all the way back to the ' 70s of any
17 approval as an exception in these later
18 days or when it was required to be an
19 active zoning . There is no record of any
20 approval of this as a separate apartment .
21 And with due respect , the characterization
22 that you don ' t see anything untoward, I
23 find that extremely curious to
24 problematic . Because, if -- there ' s --
25 there ' s no way that this should have been
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 23
1 approved without a detailed -- if there is
2 some supporting rationale for this ,
3 where ' s the file? Where ' s the affidavit?
4 Where ' s the process that says , "This has
5 been thoroughly reviewed . These are the
6 findings that we have . This is what
7 supports this temporary C of 0" ? And why,
8 honestly, in -- in the wake of what we ' ve
9 been trying to be extremely constructive
10 in in engaging about this , and why when
11 the when the preeminent request was
12 transparency and communication has there
13 been none? How could this happen at this
14 point? How could the Building Department
15 make this decision and there ' s no
16 communication about it? And honestly, if
17 you don ' t know about it, that ' s
18 problematic too, because then what ' s going
19 on with respect to a clearly alerted
20 situation where there ' s full visibility
21 that this is a matter of concern? What ' s
22 going on where the -- the Building
23 Department can go off and do this and
24 nobody knows about it? So, with -- with
25 respect, we are -- we are trying and will
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 24
1 continue to be as constructive as
2 possible . But I will also say I think
3 this is elevated at this point to
4 something that needs to come up beyond
5 just an attorney to attorney conversation .
6 We were very happy to have that process be
7 the core of it back on May 5th . The first
8 meeting was a good sharing of information,
9 but there ' s been nothing since then . And
10 1 would request that the Board in whatever
11 configuration you normally adopt to handle
12 this , whether it ' s designated to one of
13 you as a Board member or there ' s a
14 committee or whatever it is , I don ' t know
15 what that is , happy to have whatever
16 process attaches to that, I think it needs
17 to now move to something with the Board,
18 as well as , the attorney -- to attorney
19 communication in parallel .
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No,
21 thank you for that . Ben, could you call
22 me --
23 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
24 Sure .
25 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : -- after
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 25
1 the meeting?
2 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
3 Absolutely .
4 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : --
5 tomorrow .
6 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : And
7 we ' re -- we ' re happy to speak to the
8 Building Inspector as well .
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We will
10 talk to the Building Inspector tomorrow
11 Thank you .
12 JOHN BOGOVICH : Thank you . Thank
13 you very much .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Sir?
15 MARK NEAME : Boy, can I correlate to
16 both of those comments . I ' m here to
17 continue that Flock conversation . I ' ll
18 try --
19 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Sir, can
20 you just -- We -- some of us know you .
21 Can you just identify yourself?
22 MARK NEAME : Oh, yeah . I was just
23 about to . Sorry . I ' m Mark Neame from
24 Southold . Moved here in another century,
25 grew up on the island . Also worked with
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 26
1 the FBI in national infrastructure threats
2 in the mid- ' 90s , the kind of threats that
3 owned our town ' s servers , et cetera . So
4 well-versed in this area . I just also
5 want to comment on how the whole thing was
6 set up in the conversation tonight because
7 it was textbook Flock manual , which was ,
8 let ' s toss it down a little -- down field
9 a little bit and guide it to October .
10 Let ' s say we care . Let ' s bring up the
11 saving of a little old lady, okay? And
12 then talk about the First Amendment, which
13 isn ' t even relevant here . It ' s about the
14 Fourth Amendment . I ' m also shocked, just
15 following up on his comments , that the
16 Business Improvement District hasn ' t
17 knocked on your doors because the
18 implications are also surveillance
19 pricing, and that means that if you visit
20 a vineyard, you ' re most likely to have a
21 car insurance increase, right? Or you
22 park by a bar and so on and so forth,
23 because that happens . Also, the
24 ShotSpotter is an audio capability . So
25 it ' s enabling another feature , right? So
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 27
1 those were the setups tonight . I ' ll be
2 quick though . I ' ll -- I ' ll get it to two
3 questions . I maybe even won ' t even do my
4 preamble . But I did spend over eight
5 months with the town over Freedom of
6 Information Act requests around these
7 cameras . I concluded about a week ago . I
8 really appreciate the department and the
9 town ' s attorney handled it properly . What
10 remains is policy, as he had mentioned,
11 and that responsibility belongs to this
12 Board, right? So the captain, in meeting
13 with them over this , informed me that in
14 June, the system sharing settings are a
15 town-level decision . So all those sites
16 that have access are this -- this Town ' s
17 decision and this Board ' s decision . And
18 the town ' s own records demonstrate that 59
19 outside agencies can search Southold
20 cameras and its data while our officers
21 have access to a nationwide network of
22 over 94 , 000 cameras . Just think of the
23 orders of magnitude here . The town
24 official letter said there was no opt-in
25 or no opt-out decisions . No member of
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 28
1 this Board voted on these configurations ,
2 and no one in this room confirm -- can
3 confirm who outside Southold has searched
4 our residents ' data . I know this because
5 of I have the record, and you haven ' t made
6 the requests . My questions are two . One ,
7 will the Board place Flock sharing
8 settings on an upcoming agenda for public
9 vote? Although I do believe they should
10 be taken down, I want this on a public
11 vote to decide whether to keep them or
12 turn them off, rather than leaving them
13 set at vendor defaults that no one here
14 has authorized . Number two, has the
15 County asked Southold to sign a
16 right-of-way agreement, and I think it
17 might have already happened, for its
18 cameras the way Riverhead did in January?
19 And if so, who signed that? Because these
20 are liability points , right? And they ' re
21 not just endpoints to facial recognition
22 technology . And by the way, there ' s
23 nothing preventing marketers to buy this
24 data . So we ' re all opted in, and then
25 they ' re selling it, and you allowed it,
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 29
1 and that ' s shame . I ' m going to say -- and
2 it ' s the Fourth Amendment . So actually,
3 I ' ll full stop there , and I ' d like to have
4 some answers on my two singular questions .
5 1 believe the attorney would probably be
6 best suited for it .
7 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
8 Sure . What was your first question?
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Will we
10 review the Flock camera settings , as far
11 as or -- or ask them to --
12 MARK NEAME : Stop the Flock sharing .
13 Yeah . Right . And vote on it . Put it to
14 the town to vote on it . I don ' t even need
15
16 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : I
17 don ' t know if we would be voting on it,
18 but I -- I ' m sure the Board would
19 certainly to the extent that they ' re even
20 aware of this , discuss it .
21 MARK NEAME : See , the awareness
22 level is problematic because we ' re talking
23 about bonds to secure our servers and all
24 of this . And through my Information Act
25 request, these servers haven ' t been
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 30
1 updated for five years . I can own this
2 with my cellphone from here, literally .
3 I ' m not going to, you know, have that
4 conversation now, but you ' re setting
5 yourselves up for a liability . These are
6 liabilities besides violating all of our
7 rights .
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No, and
9 1 appreciate you bringing that up .
10 MARK NEAME : And the second question
11 was , when does that contract end? And can
12 we stop it with the County? And who
13 signed it?
14 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : I
15 don ' t believe anyone from the town signed
16 a contract with the County, but I cannot
17 be sure .
18 MARK NEAME : So then we can take
19 those down or put a sign in front of them
20 or mitigate or remediate them in some
21 fashion because they -- If you have a kid
22 in your car and you don ' t want that kid ' s
23 face in the cloud, they ' re taking it and
24 putting it there anyway, and these are
25 going to be exploited . How many letters a
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 31
1 day do you get in the mail from medical
2 people who, "Oh, we ' ve been violated
3 again, and your privacy has been violated,
4 and we ' re just letting you know" ? Okay?
5 These are the things that are making
6 happen . I ' m -- I ' m talking about moms
7 with their kids , okay? So we should be
8 really thinking these things through . I
9 made a map of surveillance cameras in New
10 York City in 1995 . I ' ve been thinking
11 about this a few minutes . All right .
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
13 you for your time . No, thank -- thank you
14 for coming .
15 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : I
16 think -- I believe that was one of -- one
17 of the questions . One of the questions
18 that we asked the Suffolk County Sheriff ' s
19 Office is , is how -- how do they put --
20 what input do they put to record? Because
21 1 don ' t -- from what we ' re being told is
22 it doesn ' t automatically record every car
23 that goes by . It records the input that
24 the sheriff puts in . So if they ' re
25 looking for -- for a specific car,
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 32
1 specific license plate, that ' s what they
2 put into it -- and that ' s what the --
3 they ' re going to record . That ' s what
4 we ' re being told, and these are questions
5 that we ' re asking the Sheriff ' s Office to
6 confirm . I hope we can shed some light on
7 that .
8 MARK NEAME : Yes . I appreciate you
9 guys all hearing that out . I really do .
10 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No,
11 and -- and as far as the storage of that
12 data, it ' s -- we seem obsessed as a -- as
13 a culture now to build data centers and
14 store all that data .
15 MARK NEAME : Just a liability again .
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : It ' s
17 just a -- It ' s just kinda curious why we ' d
18 want to store all that data for what,
19 so --
20 MARK NEAME : History has shown
21 making lists have really not served us as ,
22 as a society . I don ' t feel like I need to
23 say anything further there , but, like, we
24 can be better .
25 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 33
1 you .
2 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Al , some
3 municipalities like Troy, New York, has
4 recently passed their local law to say
5 that data captured cannot be held longer
6 than 48 hours . So municipalities are
7 either staunchly saying, canceling their
8 contracts , or they ' re trying to modify the
9 contracts . Some municipalities are
10 saying, "Okay, we ' re having our community
11 conversation . Let ' s put a halt on all new
12 installation of Flock cameras . " So every
13 conversation in every community is
14 different, and we ' re just beginning our
15 Southold conversation, and the Suffolk
16 County Sheriff will add to that . We asked
17 some very good questions , and
18 unfortunately, we tried to have the
19 conversation sooner rather than later .
20 And I am just proud of our council person,
21 Alexa Suess , trying to capture these
22 important questions and so we can have --
23 1 don ' t know if Alexa wants to add to any
24 of her research, but we ' re trying to have
25 this conversation in an important way, in
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 34
1 -- in Southold ' s way . And unfortunately,
2 you need other partners to have this
3 complete conversation, because as far as I
4 understand it, there ' s Suffolk County
5 cameras that are in Southold, and there ' s
6 Southold cameras .
7 MARK NEAME : Yeah, they ' re both .
8 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : And Chief
9 Grattan has informed us about what the
10 Southold cameras are doing . So we have to
11 have -- We don ' t know everything . And as
12 Jill said, Suffolk County has explained
13 certain things , and we want to have that
14 conversation in public, and hopefully --
15 it will be unpacked on October 6th .
16 MARK NEAME : There are other ways to
17 execute and give police the tools to do
18 their job . It doesn ' t need to be a Flock
19 system . And there -- I don ' t want to
20 delay because of the other people
21 speaking . But it ' s --
22 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : It ' s
23 happening all around the country --
24 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : Thank you
25 for your comments .
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 35
1 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : So
2 you ' re right to bring it up . Thank you .
3 And it ' s also kind of ties in with, you
4 know, we had a scam last -- late last week
5 on Friday about one of our town
6 departments sending out letters to people ,
7 applicants saying that they owed money,
8 and it was a complete scam . But the --
9 these people are sophisticated enough to
10 be able to use the town seal and use the
11 town names of town employees , and use the
12 names of the applicants . So when you see
13 that kind of -- that technology used for
14 that, it ' s really -- it is disconcerting .
15 And then to the specter of them using
16 our -- our security cameras , tapping into
17 those is -- is also disconcerting . We
18 spent a lot of time and effort right at --
19 before and around Thanksgiving last year .
20 We had a big computer hack . We spent a
21 lot of time trying to make our systems
22 secure . I was part of doing that . And
23 it ' s a constant ongoing effort .
24 MARK NEAME : I can help in those
25 areas , separately, okay . But let ' s get
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 36
1 rid of the chilling effects first . Thank
2 you .
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Okay .
4 Yes , sir .
5 MICHAEL SONIC : Hey . Good evening,
6 guys . My Docket Number was 695 , and I ' m
7 Employee Number 7678 , Michael Sonio, that
8 has been terminated with the Southold --
9 Southold Town Highway Department . I have
10 sent an e-mail to -- I apologize , I missed
11 two of you on my e-mail chain, outlying to
12 why I feel as though I was unjustly
13 terminated with my position . I feel as
14 though there is inside that department
15 some deep favoritism/political unjust that
16 1 fell victim to . I know I was on a six
17 month probationary period, but I have yet
18 to really have been provided why and
19 concrete reason to as why my job was
20 terminated, and any proof or anything
21 related to that as to why I was let go . I
22 don ' t know if I should -- I had a 30-day
23 review, which I brought in here, and a
24 90-day review signed by -- that I was
25 dealt with my boss , Dan Goodwin . And if
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 37
1 you wanted to look over this , if I -- may
2 1 pass it down the line to you guys or --
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . :
4 Certainly, you can present it to the clerk
5 and he can distribute it to us .
6 MICHAEL SONIO : I feel as though --
7 compared to the 30-day review, as you can
8 see, all "excellent" marks , and then on my
9 90-day review, there ' s all pretty much
10 "unsatisfactory" remarks . Some that look
11 like it could ' ve been even, call it
12 "pencil whipped, " and as to some that
13 don ' t even make sense when I ' ve had the
14 opportunity to perform . I come from New
15 Hampshire . My family has summered out
16 here since the 1940s in Mattituck . I
17 moved down back in April , late April ,
18 early May . I had this job secured first .
19 And there ' s a couple underlying issues as
20 to why I really can ' t figure out unjustly
21 1 was terminated . And I don ' t know where
22 to kind of go from there . I have an
23 e-mail here , too, that I did write you
24 guys . It takes me probably two to three
25 minutes to read if that ' ll give me some
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 38
1 more details to provide . But like I said,
2 there ' s just a lot of -- I was told in my
3 -- one instance is I was told in my hiring
4 interview to stay out of the drama as in
5 pertaining to management, my -- the -- the
6 highway superintendent, as well as , the
7 deputy, I believe his title is , was told
8 by them to stay out of the drama with
9 management compared to employees ,
10 coworkers . There was already some
11 deep-rooted issues prior to me start --
12 like way prior to me starting there , and I
13 feel I was just unjustly a victim of it .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Well ,
15 it ' s a personnel matter, so we were not
16 going to discuss that this evening, but
17 we ' ll certainly -- I read your e-mail very
18 quickly this morning, but we had work
19 session from 9 : 00 till after 4 : 00 today .
20 So I -- I don ' t know if, Ben, if you want
21 to answer anything for the Board . We -- I
22 -- personnel matters , we would not discuss
23 it in public .
24 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : I
25 apologize .
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 39
1 MICHAEL SONIC : Sure . No , it ' s
2 fine .
3 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
4 Okay . If you have any questions , you can
5 certainly call my office or stop by at any
6 time .
7 MICHAEL SONIC : Okay . Do you have a
8 direct line?
9 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : You
10 can just call the Town Attorney ' s Office .
11 1 don ' t have it off the tip of my tongue .
12 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY :
13 765- 9939 .
14 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
15 Jill knows it .
16 MICHAEL SONIC : Okay .
17 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Is that
18 your only copy of it?
19 MICHAEL SONIC : Yes .
20 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Then you
21 might want to take that .
22 MICHAEL SONIC : Okay . Thank you,
23 all .
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Okay .
25 Thank you .
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 40
1 NICHOLAS DEEGAN : Nicholas Deegan
2 from Mattituck . In regard to the Flock
3 cameras , I feel that it ' s really turning
4 into something else, that we ' re letting
5 the police force in Southold Town, Long
6 Island, the Suffolk County Police force,
7 kind of dictate what I think the elected
8 officials of the town should be dictating .
9 And I think you ought to get control of
10 it, finish it up, finish up this contract,
11 shut it down, because we have a -- it ' s
12 going to be just a creep that you ' re going
13 to get . It -- it ' s going to -- this will
14 not be the end of it . They ' re going to
15 collect more information, and all the
16 other stuff will go on, the garbage they
17 can get out of that and sell . And I
18 think, you know, we all know about the
19 Chinese with their surveillance and --
20 well , you can ' t walk out the door . Well ,
21 we don ' t want to get into that here in
22 Southold Town . So I would appreciate if
23 you could seriously consider doing away
24 with the Flock cameras , and don ' t let the
25 police forces of Suffolk County of Long
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 41
1 Island dictate of what happens here in
2 Southold Town . I think the elected
3 officials should be taking over, and this
4 is , you know, you barely beat the
5 handbook, not the police force .
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Well ,
7 thank -- thank you for that . No, I
8 appreciate that because this is -- we are
9 taking this seriously, and we ' re trying to
10 find time for -- if we try to do
11 everything, we ' re not going to do
12 anything . We focus -- I mean, today was
13 busy . Last work session was busy . We are
14 taking it seriously, though . We ' re not --
15 we ' re not just pushing it off .
16 NICHOLAS DEEGAN : Thank you .
17 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
18 you .
19 NICHOLAS DEEGAN : Thank you for all
20 you do .
21 MINERVA PEREZ : Good evening,
22 everyone . Hi . This is Minerva Perez with
23 OLA, Eastern Long Island . I just wanted
24 to speak a little bit about public safety
25 and accountability . For the -- for the
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 42
1 meeting on July 29th, the energy and the
2 urgency of that meeting I think was clear .
3 1 think, you know, it was documented . A
4 lot of conversations about just making
5 sure that we don ' t -- let things linger,
6 that we don ' t have something go on and on .
7 And I really took that to heart, at that
8 meeting . It was great to see people in
9 the room and also great to hear from Board
10 members . What I really want to do right
11 now, and this is not an OLA thing . I want
12 to echo what five very smart and dedicated
13 members of your public safety task force
14 recommended . I want to echo the fact that
15 their recommendations were not light, but
16 they were meaningful and well thought out .
17 They were -- they were -- come after --
18 they -- they came to those recommendations
19 after a lot of questions and conversations
20 and weeks of gathering and -- and whatnot .
21 So I just want to make sure that we ' re not
22 losing that . I know you did have a work
23 session and some things were discussed .
24 What I ' m -- I ' m -- I don ' t know if this is
25 the only thing that ' s being -- that you ' ve
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 43
1 come to -- but some of the conversation
2 I ' m hearing is that maybe you ' re going to
3 wait on the chief, Chief Grattan to work
4 on a policy update that spells out what
5 kind of process the police follow when,
6 there ' s a confirmed ICE or immigration
7 incident . What we want to make sure of is
8 that, you know, what went into even
9 presenting kind of a template of a law,
10 which is essentially what we -- what we
11 presented and your five members of your
12 task force felt was absolutely more than
13 adequate to put forward and to keep moving
14 forward and voting in, is simply doable
15 without putting you in any kind of great
16 liability . And simply having a policy
17 update, which is -- could be great, and I
18 think it ' s great that the chief is going
19 to work on that, but having that be
20 potentially the only thing that gets voted
21 on, is that going to be something that you
22 vote on and then walk away from the rest
23 of the conversation? I don ' t know . I ' m
24 just -- I ' m just going to be here because
25 1 -- you ' ve had the work sessions and the
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 44
1 other work sessions , no space to comment .
2 And really, what we saw from that last
3 public meeting was the urgency and the
4 desire from many people on this Board .
5 Not just the task force members to really
6 see this come forward and come to a vote,
7 and come to sort of an end of a -- of
8 discussion that takes us forward and
9 doesn ' t set us back . The accountability
10 feature around a law is kind of why that
11 was put so strongly forward -- is that
12 it ' s not going to be a procedure that gets
13 buried, that people have to dig around
14 for, but that it ' s going to be something
15 that ' s very clearly stated to the entire
16 community . And it ' s not just on the
17 shoulders of law enforcement . I do think
18 in a way that kind of passes the buck .
19 Law enforcement is a big piece of it, as
20 they should be , but also our schools , our
21 healthcare infrastructure, the -- what we
22 have out here, our ferry system, any of
23 the systems where damage can be done when
24 there is chaos , and there is unintended
25 chaos or injury that can stem from panic .
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 45
1 That is the role of this Board of
2 governance . And that ' s your role . And so
3 1 am just here to make sure that that
4 stays urgent . And I want to thank you for
5 all the work you ' ve been doing . I know
6 there ' s been a lot of busy sessions , and I
7 do thank you for that . And for the very
8 meaningful conversations that I ' ve been
9 able to hear online and whatnot . So thank
10 you for all that .
11 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
12 you for coming . Thank you . We did -- we
13 did have a special work session last week
14 to try to -- try to flesh out some of the
15 some of the items . And you know, you
16 mentioned the task force members . We were
17 very grateful because we had some great
18 volunteers there, and their work -- their
19 input was appreciated, believe me . And
20 Anne, you want to or Alexa, do you want to
21 lay out some of the -- some of the things
22 we discussed this morning?
23 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : So just
24 to recap a little bit of the discussion
25 that we had in open session today, I want
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 46
1 to reiterate that . Yes , we are absolutely
2 looking at an outside agency policy at the
3 moment, but there is more to it than that .
4 We had discussed an outside agency policy .
5 We have discussed communication as far as
6 to -- from the Police Department to the
7 Supervisor to Town Board members to
8 mayors . And then of course communication
9 that can go to institutions , such as
10 schools or medical facilities or -- as you
11 mentioned, the ferry . I ' m so glad you
12 mentioned that . I think it ' s a great
13 know a great point, and I don ' t think that
14 was brought up this morning, so thank you .
15 We ' re also discussing a task force or a
16 working group to continue to work on both
17 communication on this issue and also
18 potentially reviewing instances where
19 there are outside agencies . So there are
20 a lot of moving parts to this . There ' s
21 also the actual education and
22 communication, i . e . , I think you ' ve
23 brought this up in the past, explaining,
24 you know, what our police officers look
25 like, what their uniforms look like , what
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 47
1 they ' re here to do, and what they ' re not
2 here to do . So there are a lot of parts
3 to this , and we are discussing all of them
4 equally . I believe the -- we are waiting
5 currently on the chief, as you mentioned,
6 and our town attorney to work on the
7 outside agency policy, but we have not
8 forgotten about any of the other parts .
9 We ' re working on them in tandem .
10 Anne , do you have anything to add?
11 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Yeah . I
12 would just add, in addition to that, today
13 we did challenge ourselves to have a very
14 detailed resolution that we do vote on
15 because I think that ' s important . And if
16 we can ' t move toward a law being adopted
17 quickly, then we can at least memorialize
18 the steps we are taking and put the step
19 -- these pieces in -- into place , but not
20 wait to have all the details for each
21 part . For example, if there ' s a task
22 force , who is on it, what can they do?
23 What should they do? We also work very
24 hard because we are a small community not
25 to keep creating new groups . So our
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 48
1 thought was to convene members of two
2 different groups to then feed back into
3 those bigger groups , the Police Advisory
4 Committee and the Anti-Bias Task Force .
5 And then as we need other representatives
6 or partners , we add them to that . I
7 didn ' t -- I don ' t think I said this
8 morning, but I do want to make sure --
9 most often when you have a task force,
10 there is a final report that is presented
11 to the Town Board and then accepted, maybe
12 not adopted, but accepted . And absent
13 that, we have obviously -- we have the --
14 the, recommendations from the five members
15 of the task force . That is actually
16 serving as an outline and guide for us .
17 Like, every decision we ' re making, like,
18 "What did -- what did this group say about
19 that? What was their research? How does
20 that support or not work for us ? " So I --
21 I do think as a Town Board, we need to
22 write a final report so that that exists ,
23 not -- again, searching somewhere on the
24 website for the documents that you can see
25 now . But I think this will help us kind
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 49
1 of, as you said, bring it to some
2 conclusion, get some action, have a vote,
3 but not lose the other pieces that it ' s an
4 ever-changing landscape with public safety
5 right now, and we need to be responsive to
6 that in our practices . Police will create
7 this policy and procedure, but it ' s in the
8 context of a bigger effort that, yes , does
9 belong at this -- at this governing body .
10 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And part
11 of what Alexa said was the -- was the
12 training part and the community outreach,
13 and we just lost someone who ' s very
14 valuable . She was actually on the task
15 force , and she moved on . The previous
16 Town Board and Supervisor had hired
17 someone who ' s very capable of
18 communicating with the -- with the public .
19 And so we ' re looking -- we had today at
20 work session spoke about replacing that
21 person for that -- in that position . And
22 it goes -- that position goes beyond
23 educating for public safety though . I
24 mean, there ' s always -- there ' s traffic
25 concerns . Something came up with about
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 50
1 beach access , a month ago . I asked the --
2 in response , I asked the government
3 liaison and our GIS coordinator, come up
4 with a map, and this is for everyone in
5 the community . Come up with a map of
6 beach access and then a narrative of who ' s
7 allowed to use that beach access , because
8 then you avoid all those conflicts . "No,
9 you can ' t fish here . Go 200 hundred feet
10 down the beach, and then you can fish
11 there all day . " No problem . And so --
12 but people need to know that . So we ' re
13 working on those sort of initiatives with
14 that person that -- and we will replace
15 that position . Thank you .
16 MINERVA PEREZ : Thank you all .
17 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Welcome .
18 DINNI GORDON : Good evening . I ' m
19 Dinni Gordon . I am -- I live in Greenport
20 on 6th Street, and I ' m the Chair of
21 Greenport ' s Housing Committee , and I ' m
22 also a member of CRAB, the Community
23 Housing Advisory Board . And in that
24 latter role , which I ' m mostly going to
25 speak about, I ' m very appreciative of the
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 51
1 fact that Southold has a housing plan for
2 a town -- for the town, that provides
3 guidance for spending money in the
4 Community Housing Fund . I also feel
5 confident that the town, staff, and Board
6 will find their way to spend the fund so
7 that it benefits people that cannot buy
8 million-dollar plus houses , but who do
9 essential jobs and give life to the town
10 and to Great Greenport Village . I am
11 concerned, however, that the staff and
12 Board are now considering a proposal for
13 down payment assistance that will not
14 reach the people we most want to keep and
15 attract, and who should be the target of
16 any policy we develop . I was unable to be
17 at the July meeting of the CRAB, the
18 Community Housing Advisory Board, and if I
19 had been there , I would have been the sole
20 dissenting voice on the current proposal .
21 1 know that you have heard much opposition
22 to the guidelines that were provided to
23 the Board, and I ' m sure you ' re going back
24 to the drawing board on the essentials . I
25 will not give you my overall version . I
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 52
1 think you ' ve heard a lot of what I would
2 say . I do think the price -- purchase
3 price cap and the income maximums are too
4 high, as you might guess . But in these
5 remarks , I want to focus on two other
6 points . One of the reasons the maximum
7 purchase price seems untenable is that it
8 could apply to someone who has an income
9 that makes them eligible, but also has
10 access to assets that are -- would make
11 him or her disqualified . Affluent parents
12 of a young person just starting out in a
13 professional or craft career, or consider
14 New York City retirees who have benefited
15 from rent stabilization for forty years
16 and are now relying on a fixed income, but
17 spend every summer on the North Fork and
18 have accumulated substantial wealth .
19 These are not the intended targets of the
20 plan for down payment assistance . An
21 asset test -- asset test should be part of
22 the determination of eligibility, and I
23 hope you will think about that very
24 seriously . I am sure that others have
25 pointed out that the New York State Town
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 53
1 Law provisions that set parameters
2 reflecting the standards of the New York
3 -- State of New York Mortgage Agency are
4 not mandatory . There is no requirement
5 that someone whose income is a 1500 of
6 local AMI must be eligible for the
7 generous no-interest loan . Southold need
8 not rely on the state boundary . I also
9 want to take issue with the first-come ,
10 first-served provision in the guidelines .
11 If we are really looking to help
12 first-time home buyers , many will have not
13 the faintest idea of how to go about the
14 business of negotiating a house price,
15 finding a responsive lender, and figuring
16 out what are affordable monthly mortgage
17 and tax payments . We shouldn ' t be
18 preferring those who have resources to
19 guide them through the process over those
20 who may be a little disorganized as they
21 approach these tasks , these new tasks . At
22 first, I thought that setting a date
23 certain for applications was the way to
24 go, but then I realized that there also
25 needed to be a selection process for the
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 54
1 possibility that there would be
2 significant competition among qualified
3 applicants . I have Greenport ' s Board --
4 Planning Board Chair, Patricia Hammes , to
5 thank for thinking of a lottery in that
6 situation . First , you have a date
7 certain, which is longer than six months
8 or whatever, and long enough for that
9 person who is less prepared as a
10 first-time home buyer to go through the
11 elaborate process of buying a first house .
12 These are some points that I hope you will
13 consider as you rework the down payment
14 assistance plan, along with others that
15 colleagues have pointed out as
16 inconsistencies in the guidelines . In
17 closing, I do also want to send a warning
18 about the general project of supporting
19 down payment assistance for people whose
20 household incomes are at or below the
21 Suffolk County AMI . It ' s the supply
22 problem . I am told by more knowledgeable ,
23 people more knowledgeable than I , that
24 there are a few houses for sale in
25 Southold that a family making less than
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 55
1 $200 , 000 a year could afford, but only a
2 few . And down payment assistance does not
3 increase supply . So I hope that whatever
4 plan the Southold staff and Board settle
5 on will not use up much of the CHF money,
6 most of which I think should go to new
7 construction to addressing the supply
8 problem . Thank you very much for
9 listening .
10 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
11 you . Thank you so much for coming .
12 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Dinni ,
13 were your comments submitted to CHAB?
14 DINNI GORDON : No, because I know it
15 was --
16 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : No, I ' m
17 saying just go ahead and send that in
18 though . Submit those because that would
19 be helpful .
20 DINNI GORDON : Yes . Sure .
21 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : You can
22 e-mail to Andrea .
23 DINNI GORDON : Well , they -- the
24 August meeting has been canceled . So we
25 won ' t meet until September, but --
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 56
1 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : It ' s
2 still good to have them on the record,
3 though .
4 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Just
5 send them to Andrea .
6 DINNI GORDON : Yes . I will do that .
7 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : That ' ll
8 be helpful .
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
10 you . And so to your -- to your point with
11 that, it ' s kind of funny because we tried
12 to do the same sort of program in -- I
13 would say, 2008 when the bubble burst .
14 There were an awful lot of houses for sale
15 and, in town, and we had a little bit of
16 money as a town . Then, 2008 , 2009 , and we
17 wanted to do the same type of thing .
18 First-time home buyer assistance . it
19 would be a flat rate , and you would pay it
20 back, no interest, when you sold the home .
21 By the time we -- we didn ' t have a housing
22 director or a program or a plan or
23 anything like that back then . By the time
24 we got that kind of formalized, that idea
25 formalized a little more, the real estate
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 57
1 market started to creep up . All the --
2 all the for sale signs disappeared, and
3 that was -- that plan was abandoned . So
4 this -- And I have to give the past Town
5 Board and the past supervisor and the --
6 and the community a lot of credit for
7 passing that half percent tax, because
8 they did so under some criticism for not
9 having a plan . But they -- they had to
10 strike while the iron was hot, pass that,
11 and now a lot of volunteers and town staff
12 worked on a plan . And now you ' re a member
13 of the CHAB, the Community Housing
14 Advisory Board, which is a state
15 authorized body . And that ' s -- So we ' ve
16 gotten there so far . What you mentioned
17 tonight shows how terribly complicated all
18 this is . We have been -- we have been
19 really struggling . We have so many
20 different partners , not just in Southold
21 Town . Different laws that we have to
22 comply with . And so I don ' t know if any
23 Board member who wants to talk about this ,
24 but I just thank you for your -- for your
25 service on the Board . Thank you for
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 58
1 coming tonight , because the way that was
2 originally rolled out, I got a lot of
3 comments about, "What the heck? $2 million
4 dollar home . " And that ' s -- we ' re trying
5 to clarify that . I ' ll put it that way .
6 DINNI GORDON : Well , clearly, you
7 know, one of the points I ' m making is that
8 you don ' t have to use that set of
9 standards that the state sets . They --
10 they are parameters . They are not
11 mandates . And I hope that one of the
12 things you will do is to modify that . But
13 1 also think even if you do, there ' s going
14 to be a supply problem for -- especially
15 for young people who are first-time
16 homeowners .
17 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : Sure . So
18 if I may make a couple of comments . One
19 is that this program is still being worked
20 on, and I so appreciate your -- your
21 comments . I think checking for assets is
22 incredibly important and needs to be built
23 into this in some way, shape, or form .
24 I ' d also like to add that this program is
25 only one puzzle piece of the whole housing
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 59
1 plan, which I ' m sure you ' ve read over .
2 That also includes developer subsidies .
3 So we ' re trying to attack this from both
4 the supply side and the demand side of
5 this housing economy . That requires us
6 to -- to pick one thing and then do it , as
7 we ' re waiting for -- for more code
8 changes .
9 DINNI GORDON : Well , I think there
10 was more -- Excuse me . I think there ' s
11 been more publicity about this . And
12 people are paying more attention to this
13 piece of it . But I mean, the other piece
14 is that I think the Board did very, very
15 well to create this framework for
16 developer subsidy for rental housing, the
17 creation of rental housing, but it hasn ' t
18 gone anywhere . And so I think, you know,
19 the fact that -- that what comes up first
20 in the public mind is this program, which
21 really has so many problems , and that I
22 would hope that going back to the -- the,
23 the -- the developer subsidy problem and
24 giving all of us information about that
25 would be probably better received and move
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 60
1 this whole plan -- I mean, it ' s so
2 terrific that there is a housing plan . I
3 mean, that is something to be
4 congratulated for, by the town and for the
5 town, and I think that that ' s the -- the
6 -- the subsidy idea is really what is
7 going to address supply in a way that this
8 can ' t, by its nature , can ' t do . Thank you
9 very much .
10 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Yeah . I
11 just -- I would also add today at our work
12 session, Assistant Town Attorney Julie
13 McGivney, as well as -- not sure who else
14 was there with her . I think maybe she was
15 by herself . We are dedicating our focus
16 right now on the Zoning Update on creating
17 a new Housing Code, which will make all of
18 the things that you just talked about
19 being important, the -- the subsidies to
20 developers , work more efficiently .
21 Because right now, the way the code is
22 written, it ' s not aligned properly with
23 the plan . So we are rapidly working to
24 update that code so that we can start
25 processing the applications for building
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 61
1 new apartments and --
2 DINNI GORDON : Well , I like the word
3 "rapidly . "
4 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Yeah .
5 It ' s -- it is rapid and very, very focused
6 work by a lot of people and -- and that
7 update was really helpful today . So
8 that -- that is recorded in our work
9 session . Thank you .
10 DINNI GORDON : Thank you .
11 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : And then
12 1 just want to mention with -- we ' re
13 trying to clarify what we -- what we did
14 with the -- with the subsidies , and it ' s
15 not the only thing that they have to .
16 It ' s not just like, "Okay, I make this
17 now, " you automatically get a down
18 payment . There ' s so many other things
19 that they have to qualify for, and then
20 once they pass and qualify under our
21 program, they might not be mortgageable,
22 and they might not get it . So it ' s up to
23 the bank to say if they ' re mortgageable .
24 And I think with all the other
25 difficulties in trying to figure this out,
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 62
1 at this point, it was easier for the town
2 to just take what was already done by the
3 state , adopt that, and then concentrate on
4 the other details that are -- are very
5 important to the program . And just
6 because we give one section of a program
7 out doesn ' t mean we ' re abandoning another
8 or we ' re not working on it . We have
9 rental subsidy program pretty much done .
10 We -- and we have the contractor program
11 done . And it ' s all there . And then what
12 we ' ve discovered in every little piece
13 that we worked with is our -- all our many
14 different codes that talk about housing
15 contradict . So we felt it ' s important
16 that we had to just stop, take a breath,
17 let ' s make this code that follows the
18 housing plan and that everybody can go to
19 one section of the code and say, "Oh, this
20 is how it ' s done . " So then you ' re going
21 to see all these things right there , and
22 it -- and we ' re trying to simplify . So
23 people can understand what we ' re doing and
24 what we have . So there ' s many different
25 parts and moving parts . You know, your
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 63
1 comments are heard, and we want you to
2 send them to Andrea because that will help
3 develop the wording that we use in that
4 program .
5 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And the
6 code changes that Anne mentioned, so
7 nobody sees it, but we ' ve got dedicated
8 Housing staff, Planning staff . The Town
9 Attorney spent countless hours , and he and
10 his staff . We hired a -- contracted out,
11 a Housing attorney to help us with this .
12 We don ' t have to research everything . All
13 that work ' s been done, and she ' s been very
14 helpful . So we have tremendous amount of
15 town staff dedicated towards this effort
16 right now to changing those codes and
17 making them consistent with our Housing
18 Plan .
19 DINNI GORDON : Well , I appreciate
20 that, as I understand it, as you think
21 about the Zoning changes , that Housing is
22 the top priority or the first priority,
23 not the --
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : It is .
25 It is really the top priority in that .
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 64
1 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : I also wanted
2 to share that, I don ' t think that it ' s
3 maybe been shared widely enough that
4 people realize that we did actually submit
5 our pro-housing community letter of
6 intent . So we wrote it , I think in
7 February . We voted on it . We were
8 waiting to see what was happening with the
9 state budget in terms of CCRA, make sure
10 we were going to retain local control .
11 And then we submitted a letter, which
12 really outlined kind of a conditional
13 intent, which is we really want to
14 participate , but we want to also push the
15 program to get right sized for rural
16 communities like ours , to make sure that
17 there aren ' t quotas , which have currently
18 been removed . But we want to make sure
19 that -- that we ' re not going to be
20 beholden to a scale that ' s not appropriate
21 for our community in terms of our
22 limitations because of our aquifer and,
23 and other things . Our sort of re-existing
24 restraints . But I think it ' s important
25 for people to realize that we really, as a
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 65
1 Town Board, are very much committed to
2 that, and it ' s reflected in the zoning
3 priority in the letter of intent . And
4 also just to echo what Jill was saying is
5 just because we ' re working on something at
6 the moment, it ' s because we have to go
7 step by step . So it doesn ' t mean that
8 that ' s going to be prioritized ultimately,
9 but you have to pick something and move
10 forward on it . So while things are moving
11 in parallel , some of these things are
12 getting a little bit more airtime
13 press-wise, but that doesn ' t mean that a
14 lot of stuff isn ' t happening, so .
15 DINNI GORDON : Well , it ' s -- it ' s
16 great that you ' re submitting the request
17 for the pro-housing designation . And I
18 think the state is eager to have people,
19 to have small communities , as well as ,
20 larger ones participating . I mean, the
21 Village is much smaller than the town, and
22 they -- the State has been very responsive
23 to our interest in being certified so that
24 we can apply from -- for some of these new
25 programs that may be especially attentive
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 66
1 to smaller communities .
2 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : And it should
3 be pointed out that while I think we at --
4 and also Greenport Village have submitted
5 the letter, there ' s still subsequent work
6 that needs to be done in terms of
7 following up with actually our Zoning
8 codes and then also "X" number of building
9 permits that were submitted, you know,
10 over a course of several years . So
11 there ' s a lot of homework that ' s still be
12 doing -- to be done on many communities '
13 front .
14 DINNI GORDON : Right .
15 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : But at least
16 we ' re part of the conversation in a good
17 way .
18 DINNI GORDON : So I must say that
19 Denis Noncarrow has been very helpful in
20 our collection of the building permit
21 information that we needed . So I have
22 experts .
23 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Good .
24 Excellent . Thank you for coming .
25 Would anyone else like to address
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 67
1 the Board?
2 (No Response . )
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Seeing
4 none --
5 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : I ' ll
6 make a motion to adjourn .
7 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Second --
8 Is that a hand on Zoom or not?
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Oh, yes .
10 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Oh, I
11 thought so .
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Welcome ,
13 Lily . She is still on mute . Lily, can
14 you un-mute yourself, please? So Lily,
15 we ' re ready to hear your comments , but
16 you ' re muted . We can come back .
17 Carolyn? Welcome Carolyn .
18 CAROLYN PEABODY : Lily and I are
19 like, trying to struggle with, I guess
20 trying to un-mute here, so .
21 Unfortunately, I was unable to come to the
22 work session, and I haven ' t had time today
23 to review it . Lily has , and so I was just
24 hoping that she would be able to ask the
25 questions because she ' s much more informed
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 68
1 on it . But , you know, I appreciate
2 Minerva raising the question that she did .
3 And I know that --that the other members
4 of the group of five , that we are
5 concerned that we not get stuck, and also
6 that -- the fact that it was not sort
7 of -- like it wasn ' t a formal -- it wasn ' t
8 on the agenda to give us an update . That
9 was a little concerning because I -- I
10 really feel like we need to have the
11 public have information about what ' s going
12 on in terms of the specific steps that are
13 going forward . And and in particular
14 about , the status of how the Board is
15 thinking about the proposed either
16 resolution or law, as -- as it -- as it
17 was originally proposed . So that ' s --
18 that was -- that was my question, and I
19 believe that was also others ' questions as
20 well .
21 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : I think
22 that we had a discussion on the agenda
23 this morning at 9 : 00 AM .
24 CAROLYN PEABODY : Yes , I ' m -- I ' m
25 aware of that, but as I said, I wasn ' t
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 69
1 able to -- I haven ' t seen it . And the --
2 the question is , like, how, you know,
3 like -- is it possible to, like, just give
4 us a status update beyond that? That
5 you ' re working on it?
6 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Yeah .
7 That was the update we gave this morning .
8 And then just now after Minerva ' s comments
9 about a resolution getting drafted for --
10 for some Board action for the next Town
11 Board meeting in terms of steps toward
12 implementing a lot of the recommendations
13 that -- that came from the task force and
14 making sure we memorialize the work of the
15 task force in a way that isn ' t simply a
16 series of documents on the website, but
17 something that gets put in front of the
18 Town Board for acceptance . So those
19 things exist in the public record . And
20 then the work toward a task force made up
21 of members of two different committees to
22 be -- we ' re also attending, responding,
23 debriefing, educating . Like, those
24 details need to be worked out , but in the
25 meantime , we ' re focused on procedure and
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 70
1 policy . So we ' re kind of trying to get
2 things done in a certain order and not
3 waiting for it all to be figured out
4 before we pass anything as a Board .
5 CAROLYN PEABODY : Well --
6 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : I hope
7 that made sense . I think I ' ve -- I said
8 that too fast .
9 CAROLYN PEABODY : Well , that makes
10 sense . And you had said that earlier, and
11 1 -- and I appreciated that . And it ' s
12 great that -- that you ' re referring to a
13 number of the issues that were raised . I
14 guess the -- it ' s the overall issue of
15 what ' s the status of the Board ' s
16 positioning on the -- on the proposal to
17 adopt the proposed legislation?
18 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Well , I
19 -- I think you can, if you -- if you could
20 review, because it was a good half an hour
21 discussion this morning . I don ' t want to
22 go into that right now . If you could
23 review that from our work session, I think
24 that would be informative .
25 CAROLYN PEABODY : Okay . I just
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 71
1 wanted to get a sense of what your -- you
2 know, what your thinking is in terms of
3 the actual -- beyond -- beyond the issues
4 around communication and that it was -- I
5 understand that you ' re not inclined to
6 talk about it, but it -- it seems like it
7 would be a -- it just to simply say that
8 you ' re considering it, you ' re going
9 forward with it, you ' re --
10 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : Well , I think
11 it ' s important to point out that the --
12 that the OLA Law consists of parts and
13 components , you know, which are -- all of
14 which we ' re talking about . So I think
15 we ' re talking about all the pieces about
16 how -- how our police responds , the
17 immediate emergency response . We ' re
18 talking about the oversight by the Town
19 Board as police commissioners , and we ' re
20 talking about the communications through
21 sort of a subcommittee made up of two
22 existing committees . So we ' re talking
23 about kind of all the pieces , all the nuts
24 and bolts that also have gone into the
25 work that East Hampton Village and Town
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 72
1 have done . So we ' re all talking about the
2 same pieces . I think -- I think that ' s
3 pretty clear . So I ' m not quite sure what
4 component you don ' t think that we ' re
5 talking enough about . I think we are
6 focused on the idea of a protocol and
7 policy, that ' s made transparent through a
8 resolution, because we think -- at least
9 based on the discussion today, we feel
10 like that gives us the kind of flexibility
11 that we actually think we need based on
12 the changing landscape that ' s happening
13 and based on the sort of uncertain status
14 of the New York State Law and all sorts of
15 things . So we ' re -- we ' re -- we ' re
16 weighing it , and it ' s still an open
17 discussion, but I think that ' s all pretty
18 clear from work session .
19 CAROLYN PEABODY : The question I had
20 that -- that ' s the specifics part of it,
21 has to do with -- relegating the decisions
22 around police protocol , and I just wanted
23 to know if you ' re thinking that that ' s
24 going to be part of the resolution .
25 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : Absolutely .
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 73
1 Yes . Absolutely . That ' s the core .
2 That ' s the -- that ' s a piece . The
3 protocol -- the oversight, and the
4 communications I think are the three
5 pieces of the framework that will be in
6 the resolution .
7 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : And all in
8 the context of public safety, emergency
9 response is shared publicly and what
10 components of many emergency response
11 plans that need to be kept confidential
12 for security reasons and for public
13 safety . So what -- those are the pieces
14 we ' re -- we ' re grappling with, but the
15 response will be the priority . And we
16 should have a draft of that response .
17 Chief Grattan is working with Town
18 Attorney Ben Johnson on fine-tuning it .
19 So hopefully we ' ll have a draft of the --
20 stay tuned for the August 25th meeting .
21 We ' ll have hopefully something to review
22 and dig -- and dig into .
23 CAROLYN PEABODY : That ' s great . I
24 just wanted to make sure that that was
25 going to be part of the resolution as
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 74
1 well . All right . Thank you .
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
3 you . Lily, are you -- are you with us
4 now?
5 LILY DOHERTY JOHNSON : Yes , I am .
6 Well , goodness . Hello . Oh, sorry . Just
7 got dogs too . This is exciting to me on
8 Zoom . This is the first time I ' ve done
9 this . I ' m Lily Doherty Johnson, Village
10 of Greenport Trustee . Sorry, I have done
11 Zoom . I just have not Zoomed with -- So I
12 did watch your work session this morning,
13 which is why I was a little late to get on
14 this meeting . And I guess I just did have
15 a couple -- I mean, I appreciate and I
16 understand, I do think figuring out
17 policies and procedures quickly is really
18 important, so I appreciate that you guys
19 are focused on that . I would encourage
20 you that to -- there ' s no reason that a
21 law can ' t be looked at the same time, and
22 1 know that you also are busy and have a
23 lot of things in front of you . But I do
24 think this is a pretty important thing .
25 So I would just encourage you to think
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 75
1 about going at those parallel tracks ,
2 because they are related . And just as
3 being on the task force , I did have that
4 thought where I was like, "Well , does this
5 need to be a law? Maybe it doesn ' t need
6 to be a law . " And I even at some point
7 kind of thought, " It doesn ' t need to be a
8 law . " But I have come to the conclusion
9 that, you know, for transparency and for
10 accountability, it ' s much better as a law
11 than just as a resolution . Because just,
12 you know, as working in the Village , I see
13 -- we go through so many resolutions ,
14 right , and they get lost, and they ' re hard
15 to find . And people don ' t know to look
16 for them unless you know to look for them .
17 Whereas , you know, your code, although
18 it ' s much even bigger than our code , which
19 is still -- there ' s a lot there . But
20 that ' s one document people can search and
21 know that it is -- like , the final say,
22 and I think that ' s important . The other
23 thing I guess I wanted to say is that when
24 you ' re thinking of a Task Force, I do
25 think thinking of including the Village is
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 76
1 important because all of these actions
2 have been in the Village . And I just
3 think that having that Village and town,
4 you know, working closely is really
5 important, and I know we -- it ' s something
6 we are -- we are working actively on
7 making better . And then I was interested
8 to hear the report of Monday ' s kind of
9 incident where people saw Homeland
10 Security and people were, you know,
11 thought it was -- ICE was in Greenport
12 and -- and it was interesting to me to
13 hear that . Like, Chief had texted the
14 mayor, which is -- is the kind of the
15 protocol , right, that we ' ve been
16 discussing and that the OLA Law has
17 discussed . Even though I know, understand
18 that this wasn ' t an immigration action .
19 But I think -- I think even considering
20 the, the non-actions of the things people
21 think are actions is important because
22 that fear is all over the village and the
23 town . And so how do we actually
24 communicate that and mitigate that? And I
25 think part of that is , like, having that
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 77
1 confidence . If we know that Chief is
2 going to tell the Mayor, then we know --
3 you know what I mean? Like, then we can
4 -- know that that is correct information .
5 Right now, there ' s a lot of -- like , we
6 don ' t know what the protocol is , so we
7 don ' t know who knows what when You know
8 what I ' m saying? I think just again,
9 more of that clarity would make things a
10 lot -- so that we know that that ' s going
11 to happen . It won ' t be perfect, right .
12 Because it ' s a lot of things are still out
13 of our hands . But I think -- I think
14 that ' s an important thing .
15 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No,
16 thank you for -- thank you for bringing
17 that up because we had a long discussion
18 about how to do it properly and, and to
19 people safe , and including, of course, the
20 schools . And because you want to make
21 sure everything ' s verified so that the
22 community ' s response is , is appropriate
23 and safe . So thank you for bringing that
24 last point up .
25 So I do have a motion and --
AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 78
1 LILY DOHERTY JOHNSON : Thank you
2 guys for -- for doing all of this .
3 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Thank you,
4 Lily .
5 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I do
6 have a motion and a second .
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All in
8 favor?
9 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Aye .
10 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Aye .
11 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Aye .
12 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : Aye .
13 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : Aye .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Aye .
15
16 (Whereupon, the meeting was
17 adjourned at this time . )
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AUGUST 11, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 79
C E R T I F I C A T 1 0 N
2
3 1 , Jessica DiLallo, a Notary Public
4 for and within the State of New York, do
5 hereby certify :
6 THAT, the within transcript is a
7 true record of said Board Meeting .
8 1 further certify that I am not
9 related either by blood or marriage to any
10 of the parties to this action; and that I
11 am in no way interested in the outcome of
12 this matter .
13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto
14 set my hand this day, August 24 , 2026 .
15
16
17 (J s ica Di alto)
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