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Image provided by: Suffolk Cooperative Library System
By DON MEYERS From an initial allocation of $26 , 000 in the 1973 Brookhaven budget , for a tow n attorney , the town attorney ' s office now commands the third highest budget of any town department. HPUrt s*o t;w%n+sw4 fl\7^A AAA ,-i*-v^** c ti\\-r /» « *» f fr\ ** J. Jit COVllliUV^U > f fW ) VSVS\S VS LSVA . Mtill^ wut *. WX 1979 puts it behind only the recreation and town highway departments . When a child partici pates in a recreation department , you see the benefits of that department. When your stree t is p lowed or resurfaced , you see the role of the highway department. It is less easy to discern the benefits derived from the office of town attorney . The office was create d in 1969 by then Supervisor Charles W. Barraud with provisions for a department head , a deputy and a secretary . However , it was not until February, 1973 , that Mr. Barraud appointed Martin Kerins , an aide to former Assemblyman Perry B. Duryea , to the post. Before Mr. Kerins left office in December 1975 , he had a staff of a dozen , including a deputy, three investigators and secretarial help and several assistant town attorneys. In the three years that followed , the staff has more than doubled. Under Town At- torney Joseph Mule\ there are 26 em- ployees. Total salaries for 1979 will be $470 , 336. T^i*ir» rfo Konpfifc will Qmniint fr\ oKAnt _ - ..i£3~ —. IC_- Lkj *•- _ -,-- _ i\ . t fVWtt - $126 , 000 and operating expenses such as rent, utilities , reimbursement for automobile expenses and Duilding maintenance come to another $49 , 400. Budgeted in 1979 for legal expenses is an additional $50 , 000. That goes to pay expert witnesses , and appraisers in tax grievance proceedings that go to court. It also goes to pay outside attorneys. It appears that the fund will not be adequate to pay those outside legal ex- penses. The town board majority has voted to sue both the town ' s zoning board of appeals and the assessment board of review. And , since it would be a conflict for the town attorney ' s office to represent both the town board and the boards being sued , special counsel must be appointed. The zoning board, at a special meeting, named the law firm of Donner and Fageison to represent it at a cost uf $150 per hour. Counsel has not yet been hired by the re v ie w board The town ' s legal expenses were a campaign issue when Supervisor John F. Randol ph , a Democrat , ran against Barraud for the first time in 1973. According to figures supp lied by Supervisor Randolph at that time , Brookhaven spent $441 , 173 for legal ex- penses in 1972 as compared with $252 , 383 for Islip Town and $156 , 434 for Huntington Town Previous to 1973 , Brookhaven relied exclusively on outside counsel Randolph lost to Barraud in 1973 , but Barraud decided to implement the office of town attorney by appointing Kerins / After Randol ph won in 1975 , he ap- pointed friend and confidant , Walter Beck , to the post Mr. Beck was not reappointed when Randol ph again won in 1975 Ran- dolph , instead , chose Beck' s deputy, Mr Mule. Brookhaven again led the cost sweep- stakes in 1978 when it came to the legal f^ao UH *\l-» ^ V\iir\ rfc%t r>C QZ.IZ fVAA nnf i»-i^l i if }**-\ -* - ^-~S V> ...*. (~ ~ Uvi^ v l L.» ^ .^ .U ,wv. , wu l .liv.uluiig fringe benefits. The Isli p budget was $517,420. Councilman Joel Lefkowitz , the board' s only Republican , vowed that the town attorney ' s office would again be a cam- paign issue in 1979 as it had been in 1973. (continued on page 6) $700 , 000 price tag stirs questions ffl F^^ S e. * B Eg B fL JS £ S B€ _ 5\ ^5 ^^E ^ff EP » ff \B B ffi«W i g gj S a B ^^ ^^ B ^r B SL * fiH\ ^fe By KARL GROSSMAN Some 200 people representing town , county , sta te and village government in Suffolk and school districts spent Saturday morning at a conference on reducing costs and cutting taxes . \We have voluntarily come here today to find practical methods of reducing and restraining the tax burden in Suffolk County, \ Suffol k Executive John V.N. Klein declared as the meeting began. Mr. Klein and State Senator Kenneth LaValle organized the session at Sachem High School in Lake Ronkonkoma. \We can no longer afford the burden of municipal governments performing duplicative functions or failing to work together for the benefit of taxpayers , \ he went on. \Our presence here today is a clear message to the peop le of Suffolk County : each level of government understands its responsibility and is willing to attack the cost of government through collective effort. Each and every step taken as a result of this meeting will be a victory to the persons who support us all with their haM-earned tax dollars . \ Mr. LaValle said : \We can no longer a fford the luxury of working alone and continuing to isolate ourselves from the overall situation \ The \ combined impact on the taxpayers \ of all the budgets involved \has become overwhelming \ \California experienced a property tax revol t , \ he continued , \because homeowners were paying 2 per cent of market value of their home as property tax. In Suffolk , the average homeowner is paying 3 per cent and the wolf is at the door. \ (continued on page 1 7) CUTTING REMARKS - Methods of cutting government costs at all levels by the pooling of expenditures and e\pertise are discussed at Jan. 6 meeting in Sachem High School auditorium b y (left to right) Suffolk County Executive John V.N. Klein , James Hines , superintendent of schools in the Second Supervisory District and executive officer of BOCES II , and State Senator Kenneth LaValle of Port Jefferson. Klein and LaValle hosted historic get-together attended by more than 200 governmental representatives, including school districts. i rz r ~ ~ . ^ I TQX \CUitiFI Q COntB TBHCB draws 200 I ! ^^ ! r 1 Assuming all goes according to plan , St. Joseph' s College will open the doors to its Suffolk campus in September at the former Seton Hall camnu s on R OP _ x _ _ _ Boulevard in Patchogue One of the last official acts before the deal to purchase the building from the Novia Scotia Order of Sisters of Charity , is a variance request to be heard by the Brookhaven Zoning Board of Appeals on Jan. 17. So far , there seems to be little opposition to grant the college the right to set up a campus on the 53-acre site , despite a town ordinance requiring 70 acres for such a facility. in the nicdiitiiiie , college officials are going ahead with plans to increase student enrollment at the Suffol k site to 800 day students . There are no dormitories planned. St. Joseph ' s now serves 300 full-time and part-time liberal arts students attending classes in rented quarter s in Brentwood. The college ' s Brooklyn campus ac- commodates another 426 full-time day students . The new Suffolk quarters are expected to attract twice as many studen ts . Until 'his yea r , the Brentwood branch only accepted college juniors and seniors . The four-year program will begin in Suffolk when ihe college geus its new campus. Rosalie Tutino , vice president of development for the 62-year-ol d school , said the college offers a traditional liberal arts curriculum with \ career tracks \ in areas like pre-law , counseling, com- munication art Gov ernment service and public relations. Purchase of the building by both the town and county had been publically discussed before the college announced its plans to buy it , at an undisclosed price , last month . Suffolk Coun ty had considered buy ing the school as a police academy for $3.5- million but the project was cut from the 1976 budget. Mor e recently, Brookhaven Town officials had eyed tne Seton Hall site as a possible town hall location . St. Joseph' s , with its plans to expand enrollment , finds the site attraccive because \With the Seton Hall sit«=- we 'll be able to attract younger students who want ui>~ iuiui i.uiitgt CApfcucuLc , mis. lULinO said . For the past four years , Se ton Hall has housed about 225 special education students in space rented b y the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). BOCES said it plans to house Us students at various public schools next year. St. Joseph' s eye s a Sept , opening
