Town ousts longtime fisheries consultant

He's worked alongside the historic fishing families of the South Fork, built a flat-bottomed "sharpie" sailboat with legendary fisherman Milt Miller, was issued summonses in 1992 with singer Billy Joel while protesting striped bass restrictions, and stood with the Lester brothers of that storied East Hampton fishing clan when they were charged with fishing violations in 2008.

But Arnold Leo's participation in the milestones of South Fork fishing history, and his representation of Long Island interests at regulatory meetings, carried little weight when it came time for the Town of East Hampton to renew his $15,000-a-year post as consultant for the town's fisheries committee.

Earlier this month, three Republican council members voted against the renewal after town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson suggested Leo had not been effective in the job.

During a recent afternoon talk at his home beside East Hampton's Accabonac Harbor, Leo bristled with indignation at Wilkinson's claim.

"What has struck me as odd is the incredible hostility I feel from this man," he said of Wilkinson. "I just feel he's given no legitimate reason for why I have not been reappointed."

Wilkinson said the matter was not complicated."In a nutshell, I and the board decided not to extend the contract," he said. "The term was up and we decided to do it with a fresh set of eyes."

Wilkinson said he has no hostility toward Leo. He said whether he likes someone has no weight in his governmental decision making.

Outsiders left stunned

Leo's ouster stunned some who have seen him fighting for local fishing interests for years. "It's very disconcerting for all the obvious reasons," said Bonnie Brady, executive director for the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, who was on the town committee that recommended Leo for the post four years ago.

Most of the work of the town fisheries consultant involves representing East Hampton fishing interests at regulatory meetings up and down the East Coast. The meetings are an important forum for fishing communities to have input into regulatory decisions on fishing quotas. Leo has attended such meetings for years, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the arcane rules and the history, observers said.

"They have lost an outstanding representative, not only of the Town of East Hampton but of New York State," said Pat Augustine, an appointed representative of New York on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Decades of experience

Leo's history with Long Island fishing interests goes back decades. He fished East Hampton bays in the 1970s and '80s, using pound traps and gill nets, and he scalloped in the sharpie - a narrow, shallow draft sail boat traditionally used in Long Island waters for oystering - that he built with Miller. He was elected secretary of the East Hampton Baymen's Association in 1978, and remains in that post today.

In 1992, he and Joel were issued summonses in East Hampton while protesting state laws restricting the commercial fishing of striped bass. Both said the restrictions would cripple those East Hampton fishing families who depended on the bass for their livelihoods.

In East Hampton, Leo held the consultant position for four years. When he started, the annual salary was $22,000, and he said he used an additional $10,000 to travel to regulatory meetings. The salary was recently reduced to $15,000 by the town board.

In his personal life, Leo, 75, has a lot to be happy about this winter: his daughter Melissa Leo was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her role in "The Fighter." A former book editor, he lives modestly in the Springs home he bought in the 1970s.

"I don't have a trust fund," he said, adding that the paycheck he received from the town was needed income. Nor was he born into fishing.

"A very important part of my identity is of someone who is working to improve the circumstances of the fishermen and to be a voice for this community, a way of life and an economy that actually is something that's profoundly human."