On the Issues

Since being elected to the Southampton Town Board in March 2010, Bridget Fleming has established herself as a hard worker and a creative thinker who fights for her community. A few of her priorities are listed below. For issue positions not addressed here, please feel free to email us!

Economic Development

In these difficult economic times, Bridget believes it is our duty to protect small business and Southampton’s workers, particularly those who may be left behind. To that end, she’s made economic development a priority:

• Bridget is a member of the Riverside Economic Revitalization Task Force, looking for creative solutions to create jobs and bring tax revenues to Flanders, Riverside and Northampton.
• She sponsored a local law allowing volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers to join the New York State Health Insurance Plan.
• Bridget is spearheading the Farm Fresh Food Project, which will encourage teen entrepreneurship and promote local farms by bringing fresh produce to Flanders, Northampton and Riverside, areas of the town that don’t have ready access to fresh foods.
• Bridget serves on the Affirmative Action Advisory Committee, whose creation she championed along with Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst.
• Bridget authored a law that requires utility companies to put Southampton workers back to work, removing dangerous and unsightly utility poles.

Fiscal Responsibility

Lax fiscal procedures led to serious Town deficits in the recent past. In February 2010, Moody’s downgraded the town’s credit rating from Aa1 to Aa2.

Just four months into the new town administration, Moody’s restored the Aa1 rating “due in large part to a relatively new management team’s ability to correct the town’s internal accounting procedures and controls coupled with the adoption of financial policies and procedures intended to ensure conservative and transparent financial management going forward.� This translates into substantially lower interest rates on the town’s bond issues.

This turnaround has been achieved by a transformation in the culture of Town Hall under Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst with Bridget’s active support. It includes a sensible and lean approach to staffing, a culture of fiscal discipline at the department level, and the implementation of software programs that enhance fiscal controls. This new approach will have a direct and positive impact on taxpayers, not only in the short term but importantly, in the long term as well. In addition:

• Bridget sponsored a resolution to restore staffing levels in the Department of Finance, in order to maintain an internal control environment that will safeguard taxpayer dollars. New staffing includes the appointment of an additional accountant, and the creation of the positions of Principal Management Analyst and a technology consultant to implement financial systems software.
• Bridget voted no to a budget that mortgages our future by obligating the Town to a 10-year adjustable rate loan, currently at 5%, with no option to pre-pay.
• Bridget’s background as a fraud prosecutor makes her sensitive to shortcomings in management that can cost taxpayers dearly. She is committed to safeguarding taxpayer dollars through sensible management practices.

Environmental Stewardship

We in Southampton are blessed with incomparable beaches, ample open space, beautiful waterways, rich farmland and abundant reminders of our history. All of this is ours to treasure and protect, or lose. Bridget believes we must protect these treasures as a first priority, because once lost, they will never be recovered. A few of her accomplishments since taking office:

• The health of our waters is essential. Bridget is spearheading the Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan (LWRP), a comprehensive approach to waste water and storm water management, open space preservation, reduction of nitrification, and erosion control.
• Bridget provided the critical third vote to appoint a full-time Sustainability Coordinator, who promotes the use of renewable energy resources and green practices in building and operations, and works to reduce both energy consumption and Southampton’s overall ecological footprint.
• Reducing the environmental impacts of our waste management practices is critical. Bridget is pleased to have championed a comprehensive approach to the search for a new department head for the Department of Municipal Works. With input from the citizen group, the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, who supplied written questions for top candidates, the search group Bridget spearheaded cast a wide net and chose an outstanding and forward thinking engineer, Christine Fetten, to carry our building, engineering and waste management practices into a sustainable future.
• Bridget voted to discontinue the applications for the Serenity Estates and Tuckahoe Main Street PDDs (Planned Development Districts). Both were inconsistent with community needs and values. She has aggressively pursued open space acquisitions while holding the line on taxpayer expenses, and she serves as liaison to the Southampton Green Committee.
• Mindful that we preserve the environment for the use of all, Bridget has vigilantly protected the right of Southampton citizens to enjoy our waters and open spaces as widely as possible. An example is the recent proposal to lift parking restrictions on Noyac Bay Avenue, allowing increased public access to the waterfront. Bridget supported an approach that permitted parking to maximize the people’s fundamental right of access, but the Town Board majority chose to favor a small group of residents and club members over the interests of all the people of Southampton.