Southampton Village weighs referendum for 4-year terms for mayors, trustees

Southampton Village is moving toward a referendum to lengthen the terms of mayor and trustee from two to four years, reviving a divisive proposal.

The board of trustees recently voted 4-1 to schedule a public hearing on a law which, if adopted, would be placed on the ballot in June as part of the village’s annual election.

Under the current system, village elections are staggered annually. Two trustees are elected one year, followed the next year by the election of two trustees and the mayor.

The proposed law would keep staggered elections but shift them to four-year terms.

If approved, the shift would begin with the 2028 cycle. That year, trustees would be elected to three-year terms. Then, in 2029, the other two trustees and mayor would be elected to four-year terms. In 2031, the two trustee seats would be up for four-year terms.

Trustee Ed Simioni cast the lone dissenting vote during the board's work session on Jan. 20. He said two-year terms are important for holding elected officials accountable.

“Before initiating a public hearing, I believe the board has an obligation to demonstrate that there is a concrete governance problem that requires this remedy, supported by evidence and independent analysis,” Simioni said at the meeting.

Mayor Bill Manger said Simioni was being “undemocratic by not letting the people of this village vote” on term lengths. He said during the meeting the proposal had many advantages, citing an analysis by the village’s planning commission.

Simioni said the commission's review did not consider the cons of the proposal. He pointed out that a similar village proposal in late 2023 was shelved after resident opposition.

According to the planning commission, more than half of Suffolk County towns have four-year terms for supervisor, and all of them have four-year terms for council members. Twelve villages in the county have four-year terms for trustees and mayor, the report noted.

It also notes that Suffolk County voters in November approved a referendum expanding terms of legislators from two years to four.

Southampton Village is not “the only place that’s doing this,” Manger said.

The village's planning commission presented their analysis during a meeting earlier in January.

Commission co-Chair Christian Picot said the ballot proposal will “ensure government transparency.” Four-year terms, he said, would also allow trustees to oversee projects that may take more than two years to complete.

“The short two-year term force[s] officials into a state of perpetual campaigning,” Picot said. He noted that under four-year terms, "officials can make necessary decisions like [a] controversial zoning change or tax adjustments and have time to prove the decision's long-term value to the public.”

He also cited the cost of running elections. The village has budgeted $25,800 on the election. Budget records show that the village’s last two elections cost less than $8,000 each.

The cost of village elections “will rise to over $40,000,” the commission’s analysis said, though it did not provide an explanation for the projected increase. Suffolk County is no longer providing voting machines for village elections. The Suffolk Board of Election announced the decision in October after purchasing new touch-screen voting machines, prompting village officials to brace for new election-related expenses.

But during the meeting, ex-trustee Kimberly Allan argued that more frequent campaigns help to “really engage the community.”

She questioned claims that frequent elections lead to policy instability, noting that elected officials typically work on issues identified during previous administrations. The village's employees, she said, often play a greater role in ensuring continuity than elected trustees.

“I wonder if we’re kind of … mixing apples and oranges,” she said.