AT ODDS OVER RIGHT OF KINGS, AND JET SKIS, ON LONG ISLAND (free registration required):

John Lagana traces what he calls his inalienable right to ride his WaveRunner off the shores of this exclusive beach town to nothing less than the divine right of kings — specifically of one, King James II.

Mr. Lagana, 40, found out the hard way about East Hampton’s water scooter ban back in 2001, when he was ticketed twice and warned that his fancy toy could be impounded.

Each ticket carried a $100 fine, but Mr. Lagana’s disproportional war to get them dismissed includes mountains of research, four court challenges, more than $10,000 in expenses and legal fees, and endless traffic-clogged trips from his Rockland County home to this far-flung corner of the East End, where he has a summer place.

His crusade relies on a document that turns 320 years old today and has called into question the entire political power structure of a place known more for its rich and famous weekenders than for the colonial underpinnings of its government.

Town officials are equally resolute in defending the ban, which includes Jet Skis, WaveRunners and other personal watercraft. They have refused to dismiss the tickets, paid thousands of dollars to an outside lawyer, and accumulated bins full of legal papers.
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When King James II deeded the eastern tip of the South Fork — which now includes East Hampton, Amagansett and Montauk — to a group of settlers in 1686, the governor in chief of the province of New York, Thomas Dongan, drew up the patent, granting “freeholders and inhabitants” of the area the right to “enjoy without hindrance” recreational activities like “fishing, hawking, hunting and fowling.”

The legal power of such deeding documents, which exist throughout Long Island and in other early-settled places, has been upheld by courts including the United States Supreme Court.

Among Mr. Lagana’s arguments is that a passage in the federal Constitution prohibiting the creation of “any law impairing the obligation of contracts,” and a provision in the original New York State Constitution protecting “grants of land made by the authority of the king,” gives Dongan power in perpetuity. “If you’re going to ignore the Dongan Patent, you might as well throw out the Constitution,” he said.
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Mr. Lagana’s long, strange water scooter campaign has surprisingly high stakes because it challenges the two-tiered system of government here and in several other towns in eastern Suffolk County.

East Hampton’s five-member elected Town Board meets a few times a week and oversees the budget, the police and general government operations in this town of 11,000 residents. Its nine-member Board of Trustees, which includes several descendants of those 1686 settlers, is also elected, meets twice a month and claims control of local roads and waterways.

It was the Town Board that banned scooters from its sheltered waterways in 1988. It is the trustees who say on their Web site that they “represent the original government of East Hampton,” and were “granted sole authority over” the town by King James II through the Dongan Patent.

Fascinating stuff.

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 08:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

COURT SIDES WITH MOREAU IN HYDRO POWER STRUGGLE:

The town has successfully defended a power company's assessment challenge that would have cost it $12 million -- and its school district even more -- if the case had been lost.

Erie Boulevard Hydropower was seeking tax refunds for 1998-2001 for its Hudson River generating stations at Spier Falls, Sherman Island Feeder dams.

The company is already planning an appeal, while Town Supervisor Harry G. Gutheil Jr. said Moreau will revisit its bold plan to take over the hydro stations by eminent domain with the purpose of creating its own municipal power system.

'We've spent $2 million in the past decade fighting these cases,' he said. 'We could use that money to make a down payment.'
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Gutheil said the case cost about $1.3 million to defend, but was worth the effort considering the savings involved. Erie was seeking $9 million in refunds, which came to $12 million with back interest factored in.

The town previously spent $700,000 fighting a similar case for the years 1994-97.
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About two years ago, Gutheil proposed having Moreau take over the hydro stations by eminent domain.

'There's a lot of public power systems in New York state; Plattsburgh, Saranac Lake,' he said. 'Massena has its own transmission and distribution and has saved millions. I get excited when I think about it.'

The Hudson River hydro stations were previously owned by Niagara Mohawk, which sold them to Orion Power in 1999. Orion formed

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BRIGHTON AND FAITH TEMPLE SETTLE LAWSUIT:

The town of Brighton and Faith Temple have settled a land dispute that will allow for the expansion of Buckland Park and for Faith Temple to build a new church, school and housing for seniors.

Brighton Supervisor Sandra Frankel announced today that under the settlement, Buckland Park will expand from 50 acres to 121 acres. Faith Temple can now move forward with its application for approval of a new church, school and senior housing on 72.5 acres fronting South Winton and Westfall roads.

“It is an exciting day,” Frankel said. “It provides closure and a win-win situation.”

Rev. Stephen Edlin, senior pastor of Faith Temple, said today is a great day for Faith Temple and the community.

“We certainly are excited,” Edlin said. “And we love the community of Brighton. We can’t think of a better place to have our church.”

The settlement means that the town of Brighton will purchase 43 of the 66 acres to the east of the existing Buckland Park and 28 acres to the west for $2.9 million.

The agreement settles a lawsuit Faith Temple filed two years ago against the town. The town wanted to use eminent domain to purchase close to 70 acres east of Buckland Park.

The church sued in an effort to keep its land.

This case was being watched across the country for the potential constitutional issues it involved, but I'm glad to read the parties were able to forfend continued litigation.

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ATV RULING FOR DEC:

The loss of all-terrain vehicle access will hurt the economy of an Adirondack town that lost a court dispute with the state over control of roads through a state wilderness area, the town's supervisor said Thursday.

Horicon Supervisor Ralph Bentley called one of the environmental groups celebrating the win by the state Department of Environmental Conservation "the dictators of this park ... In the '40s they called it Nazi Germany. They have their own Gestapo with the DEC officers."

"The economy is bad enough up here, and they just drove a whole segment out of state," Bentley said.
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State Supreme Court Justice Richard Aulisi ruled Tuesday in Warren County against the town of Horicon, 70 miles north of Albany, saying it cannot regulate the use of the roads on state forest preserve land.

ATVs and other motorized vehicles are banned from state land designated as wilderness, but the town argued it maintained the roads, or they had been deemed abandoned, so it was free to determine what vehicles could use them. Adirondack ATV enthusiasts have opposed greater restrictions sought by environmentalists, arguing the activity provides an economic boost to the area's struggling economy.
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Aulisi ruled that the town couldn't prove it maintained the roads for the necessary 10-year period before the state acquired the property.

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SUIT OVER FORMER TEEN CLUB DISMISSED:

A federal magistrate judge has tossed out a lawsuit by the owners of the former Henrietta teen club, FunQuest, that claimed town officials closed it down because of racism.

While dismissing the $90 million lawsuit, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman wrote that Henrietta Supervisor James Breese, according to several witnesses, did make racial statements that were "reprehensible and deplorable" about the African-American crowd that gathered at the Jefferson Road club.

Feldman decided, however, that a 2002 decision by the Town Board to disallow dancing at the club — a move made after the club once became dangerously overcrowded and fights broke out — was not driven by racism. The ban on dancing forced the closure, club owners contended.

"Here, there is simply nothing in the record to suggest that Breese's racial animus infected or tainted the other four members of the Town Board who voted in favor of amending the special use permit" to prohibit dancing at FunQuest, Feldman wrote in the ruling released last week.

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OWASCO ENDS LEGAL ACTION BY APPOINTING ADVISORY COMMITTEE:

Owasco Supervisor Merrill Badman felt “blessed relief” after the town board unanimously agreed to settle the assessment debate that has been a dark cloud in the town for two years.

On Tuesday afternoon, Badman and his councilors voted in favor of establishing an advisory committee to work with the assessor, board of assessment review and citizens who have questions or concerns about their assessments.

Badman believes that the new committee, which will consist of town board-appointed representatives from the lakeshore, agricultural and residential districts, will help Owasco move forward with other issues that need to be addressed.

“If it works, it's a non-pressure-laden method of getting satisfaction all the way around,” said Badman, who noted that the advisory committee is likely the first group of its kind in the state.

Badman conceded that he can't take credit for the idea. That distinction belongs to the OwascoNews group, an organization of more than 50 Owasco property owners that had filed a lawsuit against the town after reviewing the 2004 assessments.

Posted by Joel Seachrist at 07:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)