Board Backs Mayor as Controversy Swirls

Patchogue Village trustees Stephen McGiff and Gerard Crean didn’t back down last Monday night from accusations they made against Mayor Paul Pontieri in a last month.

McGiff and Crean made motions to revoke a $150,000 loan to , terminate the employment of a Pontieri relative as a Village custodian and recover money from the sale of a vehicle to the Village that once belonged to Pontieri.  

“Thirty years interest free, we’ll be pushing up daises,” McGiff said during a particularly heated portion of the meeting with regard to the Artspace loan, which McGiff said the mayor approved without receiving board approval.  

McGiff, whom Pontieri pushed out of the deputy mayor role earlier in the meeting, and Crean, however, found little support among their other colleagues on the board with votes of 4-2 opposed to each of their motions.  

Pontieri, who has to the charges made by the trustees, did not say much during discussion of the motions.  

“It was done with the intention of moving the project forward,” Pontieri said of the Artspace loan, adding “I don’t do things that are illegal.”  

Following the rejection of the motions, deputy mayor Jack Krieger motioned a vote for Ryan Pontieri’s employment and for board approval of the loan to Artspace.  

Both motions passed 4-2, with McGiff and Crean voting in opposition.

Pontieri told Patch that the loan came about when Artspace was putting together its financial package to pay for the new development.

“When we got to closing, we had changed our building fees," Pontieri said. "In the meantime, we had raised them."

This left Artspace $150,000 short of the necessary costs to develop, and it could not change its application as it was already approved, Pontieri said.

Brian Egan, the village attorney, said the village had expected state funding in order to cover those closing costs, but that money has yet to be secured.  

“The fundamental issue is that it wasn't a loan but a deferment of payment,” Egan said. “The question is what the board wants to do with that.”

McGiff was not convinced.

“Whether we call it a loan, money deferred, it’s money due this village, money due this taxpayer, us,” he said. “That’s my problem with it.”  

A couple Patchogue residents also questioned the loan during the public hearing portion of the meeting.

“I’m not understanding the no-interest portion of this,” said Alan Sherman, adding that $130,000 30 years from now could be worth $500,000-$600,000.  

The four trustees who had the mayor’s back on the motions said very little during the meeting, but trustee William Hilton told Patch recently that even though he has broke with the mayor on some issues, namely the New Village project, he still supports Pontieri.

“I have a respect for the board and a friendship of the mayor,” Hilton said.

The next Village Board of Trustees meeting is Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in .