Riverhead councilwoman criticized for private developer meeting

Riverhead Town Councilwoman Jodi Giglio has come under fire from other board members after she said she met privately last month with representatives from Calverton Aviation and Technology — the venture group behind a pending $40 million land sale at the Enterprise Park at Calverton — to ask them questions about the deal and their development proposal.

Giglio said at Thursday’s town board work session that she met with representatives and principals from the group, including Nader Ghermezian, chairman of the Triple Five Group partner in the proposal and members of the Ghermezian family, in Manhattan the weekend before a March 19 hearing on the proposed deal.

The venture group is seeking to buy more than 1,600 acres of the property, which their Calverton-based partner, Luminati Aerospace, can use to expand operations.

Giglio said after the work session that she accepted an invitation from the group’s representatives because she wanted answers to questions about several project details, including whether the group would be seeking Federal Aviation Administration funding for the project. Giglio had expressed concern about the potential for helicopter traffic into the former Grumman facility.

She said she wanted to hear from the group before the March 19 meeting. “I was anxious and curious to know the answers,” she said.

Giglio said that during her eight-year tenure on the board she has met individually with a variety of project applicants and has not been criticized for it.

“We have always had one-on-one dialogue with the applicant, whether it’s on a one-on-one basis or a two-on-one basis,” Giglio said. “So I really didn’t feel I was out of line meeting them [Calverton Aviation] because it’s something that has been done in the past.”

Other board members criticized Giglio for meeting with the venture group on her own. The board has been mostly in favor of presenting all of the deal’s details at public hearings, citing transparency concerns.

“I have to say that a closed meeting is not transparency,” Town Councilwoman Catherine Kent said at the work session. “Frankly, I am both shocked and appalled at the arrogance of a council member going in and having a private hearing.”

In the first of what is known as a “qualified and eligible hearing” on Feb. 27, board members declined the group’s request to see the board’s questions before the March 19 hearing.

Stuart Bienenstock, director of business development for Calverton Aviation and Technology, who was also at the April 5 work session, said Giglio is the only board member the group has met with individually. Invitations to sit down individually with other members, including Town Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith, were rejected, he said.