Is East Hampton Town Manager resigning?

The agenda for a Special Town Council Meeting at 11 a.m. tomorrow [Sept. 8] has the town buzzing with rumors – the most prominent one being that Town Manager Jeffery O’Keefe is either resigning or being fired.

The agenda items at the center of the buzz are:

2.     Executive Session:  Discussion concerning the employment and possible separation of a management-level Town employee.

3.     Retention of legal counsel to negotiate a separation agreement with a management-level Town employee.

Council members were unable to comment on whether the management-level town employee is the Town Manager because it is a personnel matter.

In response to an email from East Hampton Today asking him to confirm whether he is resigning, O’Keefe writes: “I cannot discuss this.  It’s a matter for the council in Executive Session tomorrow.”

O’Keefe has been under fire from town residents for months after he decided to eliminate the police chief’s position and restructure the police department – a move that he and some Town Council members have asserted is within his rights as town administrator.

While this action lit a fire of protest in town, it also brought to light allegations of harassment against O’Keefe, which all but one Town Council member have said was appropriately investigated, and dismissed.

A contingent of town residents, many of themselves organized as Take Back Our Town, have been calling for O’Keefe’s removal and reinstatement of Reimondo as police chief.

Tomorrow’s meeting will initially be a closed-door session – the general public cannot attend – but if the Town Council takes action on their discussion, that action must take place out in the open, probably immediately after the executive session adjourns.

Removing the police chief

If O’Keefe is leaving, it will not necessarily be the end of controversy for the Town Council.

It will remain to be seen, for example, whether the Town Council will still go forward with removing East Hampton Police Chief Matthew Reimondo from his job, and restructuring the department.

That seems likely, since all but one council member, Sue Weintraub, has stated at meetings and in interviews that they believe “right-sizing” the police department is necessary in order to avert a budgetary disaster next year.

Whether or not Reimondo will still get his hearing also would be up in the air, since it is O’Keefe – as hearing officer – who recently responded to a motion by his lawyer Atty. Mark Sommaruga to dismiss the hearing.

O’Keefe writes that he will allow the hearing in a non-committal statement that avoids giving any merit to Reimondo’s complaint.

O’Keefe’s decision reads:

Pending lawsuits

Other loose ends, should the Town Manager be leaving, will include the various outstanding investigations and lawsuits, including one against some of the Town Council members as individuals for allegedly mishandling the investigation of harassment complaints against O’Keefe.

Posted Sept. 7, 2010