Huntington Needs a Town Charter

Despite repeated attempts by some town board members, term limits and a budget audit for the Town of Huntington don’t look like they’re going to happen anytime soon.

Term Limits

Just to recap:  It was originally suggested two years ago by SaveHuntington that ALL elected officials should be limited to two terms in office.   Unfortunately, after the politicians and special interest groups got involved in the negotiations, we ended up with a proposal for a 3 term maximum for town board members ONLY. 

Despite that compromise, term limits lost 3-2. 

Annual Performance Audits

In addition, SaveHuntington proposed a few years back that Huntington should have an annual 3rd party Performance Audit on all local governmental departments in the town of Huntington.  (A performance audit would be able to identify which programs are working as planned and which ones should be eliminated).  

As predicted, we ended up with a lot of grandstanding and finger pointing and only a vote to “memorialize” a request to have the state comptroller conduct a ‘once every few years’ audit.   To make matters worse, the state comptroller’s office in Hauppauge indicated this week that even just a plain audit won’t happen any time soon.

A Lesson Learned

So, what did learn from all this?  We learned that we’re better off creating government reform from the ground up, not from the top down.  And, the rules that we have in place right now (as spelled out in New York State Town Law) are not sufficient to protect our property rights because the interests of the politicians do not coincide with the residents they’re supposed to work for.

The Town Charter Solution

Suffolk is an Initiative and Referendum county, so we have the ability to change whatever we need to change via the referendum process.   In other words, we don’t need any politician’s approval.

 Over the next few weeks I will be posting articles here on Patch spelling out the reasons why we need a town charter and encouraging people to join Huntington’s Town Charter Committee, which will be open to all residents of Huntington.

To get things going, here are a few ideas that are making their way into the first draft of a town charter:

• Term limits for ALL elected officials
• Annual 3rd Party Performance Audits for ALL town departments
• Campaign finance reform (no more contributions from town vendors)
• Ethics overhaul
• Hamlet representation and land use
• Alternatives to zoning
• Eliminating housing preferences
• Strengthening code enforcement
• Spending caps
• Establishing a Public Advocate’s office
• Homeowner’s Bill of Rights

This is not an easy undertaking and will take considerable time.  Hopefully, by year’s end, we will be able to put forth a new town charter that will make all current and future residents of Huntington proud.

Next:  Why We Need a Charter

For more information on Huntington's Town Charter please go to: www.savehuntington.com