Federal judge denies bid by Oyster Bay officials to avoid depositions

Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino and town board members must give depositions in a federal housing discrimination lawsuit, a federal judge has ordered.

Magistrate Judge Steven Locke denied a motion last week from the town to reconsider a Jan. 3 order granting a request from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York to compel depositions of Saladino and board members Michele Johnson, Louis Imbroto, Thomas Hand, Laura Maier and Vicki Walsh.

Locke wrote that their testimony was "relevant and proportional to the needs of the case."

Councilman Steven Labriola is not part of the order because he already was deposed in his capacity as former town clerk.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the town in 2014 in Eastern District Court in Central Islip, alleging Oyster Bay’s Golden Age and Next Generation housing programs violate the federal Fair Housing Act because they give preference to town residents and children of residents who seek the below-market rate housing. The civil suit alleges the preferences discriminate against Blacks because the town is predominantly white and Blacks make up a larger percentage of the surrounding communities.

The town’s outside attorneys argued in legal filings that current elected officials shouldn’t be deposed because they were not involved in the creation of the programs.

Locke rejected the town’s argument as it applied to Saladino and other sitting town board members.

"Town Officials’ current intent and understanding concerning continued administration of the Programs, as well as their knowledge of prior motivations for maintaining them, are relevant to the Government’s discrimination claims," he wrote in his Jan. 3 ruling. "Discovery of this information may make the alleged pattern or practice of racial discrimination through the Programs more or less probable."

In a Jan. 24 filing, the town’s counsel had asked Locke to reconsider his order.

On Feb. 4, Locke denied the town’s motion to reconsider his January order because it didn’t meet the standards for reconsideration.

Town spokesman Brian Nevin wrote in a text message that same day that "Town attorneys will raise further objections with the court as this program was implemented and the court case commenced long before the current Supervisor and majority of respondents even entered public office in the Town of Oyster Bay."

John Marzulli, spokesman for the Eastern District, declined to comment.

Oyster Bay’s attorneys argued that current officials’ discussions were with attorneys and thus privileged, but town officials have discussed the programs at a town board meeting and hearing since Saladino became supervisor in 2017.

Councilwoman Vicki Walsh also disclosed in a pension credit filing that she had discussed Next Generation housing for three hours with "Keith Archer & Associates" on Jan. 26, 2020.