Editorial: Re-elect Wilkinson in E. Hampton

When Bill Wilkinson took over as East Hampton Town supervisor in 2010, the community's finances were a shambles.

A town of just 22,000 year-round residents -- give or take a few movie stars -- was facing a $27-million deficit in its $70-million annual budget, and a grand jury reported that the town had experienced a "complete collapse of fiscal management."

Since then, Wilkinson, a 62-year-old Republican from Montauk and former senior vice president of human resources at Walt Disney Co., has made remarkable strides toward cleaning up the mess left by his precessor. In just a single term of office, he's reduced the number of full-time employees from a peak of 411 to around 320. He also cut in half the number of town departments, consolidating 26 into 13, and worked with union leaders so that employees could be deployed flexibly in different jobs at different times of year. He underspent the 2010 budget by a remarkable $8 million.

Wilkinson's challenger this year is Zachary Cohen, a 62-year-old community activist and real estate investor from Springs with a strong business background of his own. Cohen, who is not a member of any political party, has made a specialty of environmental and budgetary issues. Clearly, he cares about the community.

But Wilkinson's track record speaks for itself. The incumbent has brought tremendous skill and energy to a difficult task, and it makes no sense to change leadership at this point, now that he's got the town back on the rails.

Newsday endorses Wilkinson. hN