Jedediah Hawkins Inn Owner Donated $4K to Walter, Gabrielsen Campaigns

The co-owner of the donated $4,000 to the campaigns of Supervisor Sean Walter and Town Councilman George Gabrielsen in the final two weeks before Election Day, according to campaign finance reports released by the State Board of Elections on Thursday.

Jedediah Inn co-owner Lia Polites, who lives in Manhattan and owns a summer home in Jamesport, donated $2,000 to Walter's campaign on Oct. 25 and $2,000 to Gabrielsen's campaign on Oct. 28, according to a report filed 27 days after the election.

The contributions came about a month before the town's Planning Board approved a controversial breezeway to connect two buildings on the Jedediah Inn property.

While the Town Board did not make the decision to approve the 150-foot-long structure, the .

During the meeting, both Walter and Gabrielsen expressed support for the project, and sparred with civic association leaders who criticized the proposal as exploiting a loophole in town code. The civics charged that the breezeway would unite the two structures on the Jedediah property as one under town code, allowing the owners . They urged the Town Board to redefine a "breezeway" to prevent the loophole from being used.

However both Walter and Gabrielsen said they had not heard an outcry from the community about the breezeway and supported the inn.

"I can't tell you the number of emails from people from this town supporting this project," Walter said, adding that he spoke with civic association leaders in Jamesport who supported the proposal. Civic leaders from Jamesport refuted that claim, saying that they supported the inn itself, but not the breezeway plan.

Gabrielsen responded that he lives in Jamesport and “nobody’s against it” there. The planning board approved the breezeway's site plan on Dec. 1.

Candidates are required to submit campaign finance reports disclosing all contributions 11 days before the election and 27 days after the election.

Though Walter received his contribution 14 days before the election, and Gabrielsen received his 11 days before, neither candidate was required to declare them on their reports to the Board of Elections during the 11-day filing cycle, since the cut-off date for that period was days before they received the contributions, said Commissioner Anita Katz from the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

Both candidates were required to give notice to the Board of Elections 24 hours after receiving the contributions, since they passed a $1,000 threshold and exceeded the $2,000 legal limit for individual contributions. The state did not return calls seeking confirmation that the campaigns notified them of the money.

Gabrielsen refunded $1,000 of the contribution he received on Nov. 2, according to finance reports.

Walter said in his interview his campaign didn't immediately notify the Board of Elections because they knew the contribution exceeded the legal limit and tried to reach Polites to return the check, which he said had no return address or phone number. Walter also said he has never met Polites and didn't know who she was until after the election. Walter said he thinks his campaign couldn't find Polites because she was out of the country during the election season. 

Walter's campaign deposited the check and then wrote a refund check to Polites reduce it to the legal limit, he said. Walter called the situation a "non-issue," and insisted that donations would not change his policies.

"A contribution one way or another is not going to affect my decision-making," he said.