Sag Harbor won't fill board seat for now

Sag Harbor officials have no immediate plans to fill the village board vacancy created two weeks ago when trustee Timothy Culver resigned, saying he and his family were moving to another house they own in the nearby village of North Haven.

"We're not going to fill it for now," Mayor Brian Gilbride said Tuesday. He said the current board has a history of working well together. "I could appoint someone, but I'm not inclined to."

Gilbride noted that activity in the village slows down over the winter, and that village elections will take place in June.

For several months, Sag Harbor has been looking at the possibility of hiring an outside police agency -- East Hampton or Southampton Town police or the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department -- to replace the village police, and Culver was a strong advocate for the change.

Gilbride said that while village police do a fine job, the cost of running the 12-officer department is becoming prohibitive. "I have nothing but respect for these guys," he said. "But with benefits and overtime they make $178,000."

Sag Harbor Village is negotiating a new contract with its PBA, and after going through mediation the PBA last month filed for arbitration. The village police budget is about $2 million.

Because the town line dividing Southampton and East Hampton runs through the heart of Sag Harbor, police in either town could be asked to take over the job now done by the village department. The mayor said the trustees do not want two different departments covering different parts of the village.

In the letter of resignation Culver filed with the village clerk on Aug. 21, he gave no reason for leaving the job. He was elected to his second two-year term in 2011.