Should pesticides be monitored around 4-posters?

How can town operations be more efficient?

These were just a few of the questions posed to the 12 contenders for town office at the October 18 candidates' forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Shelter Island Association.

The event drew a crowd of over 150 to the school auditorium and they witnessed a slightly different question and answer format than in years past. Candidates did not have to answer every question and audience questions were vetted by League and SIA volunteers before being posed to the candidates by the moderator, not the audience member.

An audience question about the presence of the pesticide permethrin in the environment briefly interrupted the quick pace of the forum. Candidates fielded questions and delivered their messages to voters without attacking each other until the closing comments of supervisor candidate Bill Smith at the end of the event.

Individual questions were addressed  to candidates in turn, who had two minutes to answer; the other candidates could follow-up with a one-minute answer or not. Audience questions were written on index cards and submitted to volunteers on the forum committee, who walked the aisles to collect them. That committee consisted of Cathy Kenny, Tim Hogue, Meddi Shaw, Lois Morris, Valerie Levenstein, Marc Wein and Art Barnett. Each candidate was afforded a two-minute closing statement.

QUESTION CONTROVERSY

Candidates were divided into panels with the two town assessor contenders going first followed by the five town council candidates; the highway superintendent and supervisor candidates followed after an intermission. But the question and answer protocol hit a snag at the end of the town council responses. As moderator Janalyn Travis-Messer announced, “That's it for all the audience questions” and began to ask for closing statements, Bruce Raheb, a member of the grass roots Coalition for Fish and Wildlife Habitat, objected that his question hadn't been asked.

Ms. Kenny, president of the Shelter Island Chapter of the League of Women Voters responded, “As I explained at the beginning, we aren't taking all of the audience questions. They are being vetted” for being “repetitious or inappropriate” or “already asked and answered” by the forum committee.  

“My question wasn't repetitious,” Mr. Raheb asserted.

“I'm sorry, that was to be decided by the committee,” Ms. Kenny said.

“OK, I see where this is going,” Mr. Raheb retorted.

After the closing statements, the moderator was handed another index card and said, “The committee has asked me to present this one last question ... We're breaking protocol just a touch here.” The question was: “Are you aware that the tests done by Captain Bill Smith show that permethrin is entering the environment?”

Chris Lewis was up in the rotation of candidates to get first crack at the question: “Yes, I'm aware of that,” she said. “It showed permethrin present in the soil. ... One of the reasons that I found permethrin an acceptable vehicle for doing this deer and tick management program was because it bound to soil and that kept it from getting into the water table. So I wasn't surprised to find it there nor was I alarmed to find it there.” No candidate took advantage of the one-minute rebuttal.

Prior to the closing statements, the candidates had fielded three other deer and tick related questions including, “Are you in favor of monitoring the 4-poster for permethrin?”

SUPERVISOR HIGHS AND LOWS

If audience reaction is an indicator, the supervisor candidates' comments rated as high points of the event, with Paul Shepherd getting the most laughs. He was up in the rotation when this audience question about tree preservation was posed: “Do you feel the current safeguards in place are sufficient to secure the future of our local highest-value specimens and legacy tree-scape?”

“In English please, I would ask you to repeat that, if you could,” he responded to audience laughter.

Ms. Travis-Messer repeated it, and from the hot seat, Mr. Shepherd answered, “Okay. Alrighty then. ... Most people don't go around cutting down high-value specimens. So I don't know where the issue, whoever is asking the question, I don't know if you have a particular tree in mind?” he said, scanning the audience for the questioner.

“Honestly, I'm not being facetious, I don't know how to answer that question except to say that certainly you would advocate from the position of supervisor that people don't cut down high-value specimen trees. Like I said, I don't know who would do that. And if they did, God will deal with them.”

Incumbent Jim Dougherty chimed in, “I guess fools rush in, so I'll just say that I'm very pleased that we have a vigilant organization on the Island called Friends of Trees” that alert the Town Board when a valuable tree is at risk.

Breaking protocol for a second time, Ms. Travis-Messer allowed highway superintendent candidates Mark Ketcham and Jay Card, still on the stage after their question and answer session, to answer the tree question as well.

The only attacks on opponents came in supervisor candidate Bill Smith's closing statement, saying that the town was being run “in an almost complete veil of secrecy, by a volatile supervisor.” The challenger claimed that in his first term, Mr. Dougherty “has done little or nothing for Shelter Island,” describing him “working to carry out the agendas of a few select friends of his. This will not be the case when I am elected supervisor.”

Mr. Smith also asserted, “I will never spend $83,000 in tax money and tell you that it is grant money,” referring to costs of Bridge Street Park.

Mr. Dougherty responded in his closing statement, defending the projects completed in 2008 and 2009: “They started but they were at an impasse ... and I've brought the people together and got them talking.” He listed those projects: Shell Beach, Legion Hall and Bridge Street Park, adding “we did get $125,000 in grant money versus the $83,000 we spent. So we have a surplus there.” A Reporter investigation of Bridge Street Park funding, page 22, shows that grant money from the state is adequate to cover park improvement costs.

Excerpts of candidate answers continue throughout the news section. Complete transcripts of those answers are posted on our website, sireporter.com. The forum is being broadcast on cable Channel 22; check the town website, shelterislandtown.us, for programming times.

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3 comments found

Forum : 10/28/2009
He is not 'throwing out " anything...He has made a few statements, all of which he has been able to verify with documents or budget pages. He has also fucused many times on what he will do Jim. Just look at his website again.

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: 10/26/2009
There are lots of accusations flying and Smith is the only one that is throwing it out there. There is a difference between pointing out facts and trying to make someone out to be a criminal. The only fact is that we are once again in an election year in which SOME candidates are insistent on making someone else look bad in order to get votes instead of focusing on what HE will do in order to make things better. No one should ever be elected if they are going to behave like children. If that is what the behavior is now, how is that likely to be different IF one is elected?

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In The Audience..... : 10/22/2009
and your interpretaion of what happened and mine and others I talked to today are very different. Smith did not attack anyone. He simply made a statement. You seem to be accusing him of some sort of bias, when in fact, it is you that is. Are you implying that because some asked a question about testing it was planned? Com'on, does that mean that because they avoided questions about the drug problem and 4 Posters the LWV planned that too? Luckily there is Ch. 22 to watch it on. Please just TRY to report the facts. Your paper has a hard enough time doing that.

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