Patch Candidate Profile: Michael Wootton For East Hampton Town Council

EAST HAMPTON, NY — East Hampton Town residents will be hitting the polls soon to elect local representatives.

The race is on leading up to Election Day, which, this year, falls on Tuesday, November 7.

Patch asked those running for office to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles in the days leading up to the election.

Michael Wootton, a Republican, is running for one of two open seats on the East Hampton Town Council. Also running are Republican Scott Smith, and Democratic candidates Thomas C.E. Flight and David Lys.

Here is Patch's candidate profile of Michael Wootton:

Name

Michael Wootton

How old will you be as of Election Day?

65

Does your campaign have a website?

https://wootton4eh.com

What city or town do you live in?

Wainscott

What office are you seeking?

East Hampton Town Council

Party affiliation

Republican

Education

BSIE BS - Industrial Engineering Georgia Tech; MBA Finance Columbia business School, CFA

What is your occupation?

Over 30 years in banking/ finance/ commodities trading

Do you have a family? If so, please tell us about them.

I live with my life partner, a school teacher at Southampton High School. I am father of the two adult children. My daughter graduated from the University of Edinburgh last year with a degree in philosophy and currently resides there in Scotland. My son lives with us and is currently working full-time and going to SCCC part-time.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Have you ever held a public office, whether appointive or elective?

No, I am new to local politics.

Now we'd like to ask a few questions about your reasons for running and your general views on politics and government. First, why are you seeking this office?

The answer is simple. I love our town, its people, its culture, and its heritage . . . and I believe it's super important for us to be able to discuss, dissent, and argue in an open and transparent manner all the issues that face our community.

This open, transparent discourse has been lacking in our town government for some time. I wanted to change that — and ensure that all voices are heard.

I believe the one-party rule of the Democrat party in East Hampton for over a decade has created an echo chamber — where critical thinking and new ideas are not heard or considered.

I hope to change that!

Please complete this statement: The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is ___, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most pressing issue facing my constituents, East Hampton residents, is overdevelopment.

The town has a roadmap in the comprehensive plan of 2005; but the goals of maintaining the unique qualities of East Hampton’s historic communities; protecting and restoring the environment, and reducing the total build-out have been ignored by the town board controlled by the Democrats for the last two decades.

In the nearly 20 years since the 2005 comprehensive plan was adopted the East Hamtpton Democrats have enjoyed nearly monopolistic control of the town and the board; so, there is no one else to blame for their failures other than themselves. The 2005 comprehensive plan has been virtually ignored.

Our community is currently at just about maximum build-out — all the major problems facing our community are a direct result of the build-out. The lack of affordable housing, water quality, energy demand, clearcut of open space, overuse of pesticides and fertilizers, and roadway congestion, are all daunting and complex challenges facing the town.

What are we to do to address these problems head-on?

I am an optimist, but I am also pragmatic, and a realist.

We are blessed with beautiful natural surroundings and great people; however, our town —its character, its culture and its heritage, its young people — is threatened by overdevelopment. A perfect example of this is that our volunteer fire departments’ memberships are at decade-year lows, despite the fact our population has grown by over 35 percent in the last decade. Young families simply cannot afford to live here. The East Hampton Democrat website claims that about 472 affordable housing units have been built over the last 43 years of Democrat-controlled town boards; that seems like a drop in the bucket, as we all know demand is far greater.

There are no silver bullets to magically fix these problems. The comprehensive plan provides a good road map — but our long-term goals must be focused on health, sustainability, and resiliency.

The good news however is the town board is finally examining the incongruity of the comprehensive plan of 2005 and Zoning. The town board held a meeting last week (10/5/23) to address Chapter 255 of the code. The meeting was well attended by the public. The common theme spoken there was, “We are losing our town and community, but hope that it’s not too little too late”.

Please note: I don’t believe this meeting to address the question of zoning would have ever taken place if were not for the tremendous work done by Jane Mehring and the grassroots efforts of her organization BUILD in kind.

In the short term; addressing zoning is a good first step, as well as increasing the staffing of our town building department. Longer term it will be necessary to take steps to diversify our local economy away from just real estate development and tourism. And the only way to attract new businesses and industries is to improve infrastructure. That means better internet service, better cell phone service, more cell phone towers, better mass transportation alternatives, better LIRR service, and an open and viable airport. Closing the airport will hurt our economy — not help it.

So, I am optimistic — hope springs eternal. If I didn’t have hope, I would not be running for town board.

What needs to be done to address water quality issues on LI?

The recent article in Newsday (4/15/23) regarding Suffolk County pesticide use was indeed shocking. The article stated that Suffolk County, with less than 10 percent of the state’s farmland, poured in more than 6.5 million lbs. of pesticides into our land. Suffolk County was by far the worst offender in the state. The article quoted experts who pointed the blame largely on privately owned estates on the East End. Beautiful, fine-trimmed lawns and golf courses comes at a heavy price. The fear is that the intensity of pesticide use will pollute the groundwater as Long Island’s drinking water comes from just one aquifer. This article does not even mention the overuse of fertilizer. If Suffolk County and East End residents are dumping that much pesticides to keep their lawns pristine you can bet, they are doing the same with fertilizer. Lawn fertilizer contains nitrogen and phosphorus, and storm water runoff carrying those agents causes algae blooms which severely disturbs the environmental balance of our waters. Earlier this month (10/1), the Mighty Montauk triathlon was planned and I was supposed to provide lifeguard support with East Hampton Ocean Rescue, however the swim portion of the race was cancelled almost 48 hours prior to the race because the storm water runoff into Fort Pond caused unsafe water quality to swim in. In sum, water quality on Long Island is adversely affected by overuse of pesticides, fertilizer, as well as by outdated septic systems and of course by overdevelopment of these monster-sized houses with equally monster-sized subterranean basements. What can be done?

- Work with Suffolk County officials to enact county wide and town wide limits on both pesticide and fertilizer use.

- Educate the public on the aforementioned dangers of the overuse of pesticides and fertilizers.

- Institute the use of bioswales county wide especially those area close to our oceans, bays and estuaries. Bioswales are channels designed to concentrate and convey stormwater runoff while removing debris and pollution. Bioswales can also be beneficial in recharging groundwater.

- Another worthy initiative is to advocate for implementing septic system upgrades upon property sales. Although this may make buying a home even more expensive considering all the closing fees and taxes totaling over 3 percent when accounting for mansion tax and CPF.

What do you think can be done to help improve our infrastructure, highways, etc.?

On the East End, improvement of infrastructure is key to diversifying our economy. Currently our economy is solely dependent upon second home ownership, real estate development, and tourism. In order to attract new businesses and industries and higher paying jobs apart from the service economy our infrastructure needs to be improved. We need better mass transportation from the LIRR, better cell phone service, more cell phone towers, and better internet service, increased bandwidth, and of course we need to keep the East Hampton airport open. To accomplish these goals will require strong leadership, relationship building and advocacy to meet with state, county and private companies.

How would you plan to help local business owners, who are struggling because of high rents, inflation and labor shortages?

The current East Hampton town board has been poor in helping local business owners cope with these struggles. Business owners complain and news stories abound about the town board’s lack of support for local business. The East Hampton architectural review board holding up a restaurant from opening over color choice for their storefront, and code enforcement hassling an owner about dancing at restaurant are two key examples. If elected, improving infrastructure as was discussed in the previous question would be a top priority; and this would help employers across the board. This is especially true with regards to traffic congestion. A shorter commute combined with more affordable housing would help with labor shortages and improve the quality of life for all. The affordable housing crisis can be alleviated in the short term by expanding village limits for accessory dwelling units.

What is your stance on the current migrant situation affecting New York? And migrants were to be directed to shelters on Long Island, how would you prepare/plan for that?

The Town of East Hampton is located over 100 miles from NYC. There is simple no infrastructure, nor the services to support any influx of migrant asylum seekers. East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc was quoted as saying recently that the town board has not discussed the possibility of asylum seekers arriving here. "We don’t have housing for the people here now," he said. If asylum seekers were to arrive in the town, "we’d deal with it then," he said. "But I don’t know how we could plan for that so much. The hotels are all full." I am running for office and not an incumbent. With the cold weather coming and no infrastructure to support it, I imagine the town would have to seek assistance from the state and federal government to avert a humanitarian crisis if asylum seekers arrived in mass.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am not a part of the East Hampton Democrat party machine.

My philosophy in politics doesn’t fit our rigid 2 party labels. I am fiscally conservative and socially progressive and I am an advocate for our environment. Again, a balanced focus.

I believe good governance requires participative management skills and the ability to not only lead but also listen, bridge differences, and build consensus. I hope to bring people together to find common ground and common-sense solutions to solve these complex problems.

If you are challenging an incumbent, in what way has the current officeholder failed the community?

The East Hampton Democrats have had total control of the town board since 2014, almost 10 years and majority control of the town board for over two decades. And what have they been able to accomplish in that time? Besides an ever-growing legal bill?

- Do we have a functioning cell phone tower in the Springs? Not yet . . .

- How about an updated senior citizen center? Not yet. . .

- What about the airport? They want to shut it down! You heard what the New York Stat Supreme Court justice said about their actions; he called them "arbitrary and capricious." Strong words from a judge!

What’s fascinating to me is that East Hampton Democrats' own website says that from polling, some 80 percent of East Hampton residents want the airport to remain open but with some restrictions. Currently the 'flying community,' which includes both private and commercial, is operating with restrictions via their 'pilots' pledge' and a voluntary curfew of operations. So if the current town board really wants to keep the airport open as they say their residents want why do they keep doubling down and keeping the legal fight going by appealing? Why not sit down and talk? And try to reach some sort of a compromise.

The list goes on: Truck Beach, another lawsuit and another defeat, when compromise was available to them. And now the most recent lawsuit re: septic upgrades with Hero Beach Club right here in Montauk.

Good governance and good leadership focus on the long-term goals, beyond any potential short-term gains, personal or otherwise. Good governance requires participative management skills and the acknowledgement of boundaries, limits and the potential to span them. The current Town Board has not shown good governance. It’s time for a change in the current town board. The Town of East Hampton deserves better. The Town of East Hampton deserves competent leadership.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

Try and use CPF money to restore the Wainscott sand pit and stop the Wainscott commercial center.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I currently serve as the treasurer of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, for the last 10 years; and I am an ocean lifeguard and first responder/rescue swimmer for both East Hampton Ocean Rescue and Southampton Village Ocean Rescue for the last three years. In 2012, I was recruited by my friends to compete in the Leukemia, Lymphoma Society fundraising contest. I reached out to the community for the cause and was fortunate enough to raise over $10k earning the moniker 'East End Man of the Year'. Later on, with my fellow YMCA master swimmers, we created a local annual swim fundraiser event benefiting The Lustgarten Foundation for pancreatic cancer research. In 2020 I biked over 100 miles from New York City to the Hamptons for autism research to support a friend with her local effort (Flying Point) to create facilities and activities for special needs children of the East End. Beside local fundraising, I volunteered with All Hands and Hearts, an organization that brought disaster relief following the battering of multiple tropical storms and hurricanes in Southeastern Texas.

During my professional career, I traded currency derivatives in the global foreign exchange market and advised Fortune 500 multinational corporations on how to best mitigate foreign exchange currency risk as a vice president for the Bank of New York. I believe the key to my success was my ability to establish credibility and trust, both with my clients and colleagues. I hope to bring both credibility and trust back to the town board of East Hampton.

I studied engineering at Georgia Tech and finance at Columbia Business School and the most important thing I learned from both, engineering and business is problem-solving and finding practical solutions in the context of limited resources and constraints. In trying to solve our problems locally, I realize that the constraints will be many and resources few, but I will advocate for solutions that are mindful, sustainable and common sense-based for the entire community and its needs.

As a lifelong independent, I find the intense polarization of national politics disheartening and I strongly believe that the issues and struggles that we have locally should be viewed as just that — local issues impacting our constituents and our local culture and not through the lens of party ideologies that dominate and create hostile environments at the national level.

I am a lifeguard, triathlete, and a lover of our ocean and our beautiful environs; as a result, I am passionate about local issues such as open space, over-development, and quality of life issues. I hope to bring perspective and grounded solutions to the many problems facing our diverse community: not solutions that fit the few; but solutions that benefit all!

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

Dreams die in the comfort zone!

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

If you are unhappy with the status quo, then vote for new thinking. Vote for transparency and vote for change. Please vote for me, Michael Wootton for East Hampton Town Council.
More information can be found on my website.