Mineola village Attorney John Spellman and village Trustee Lawrence Werther got into a heated exchange at last Wednesday night’s Mineola Village Board meeting over Werther’s recent comments in the Williston Times suggesting the attorney improperly supported a prospective developer’s project.
Reading from the June 15 issue of the Williston Times, Spellman said Werther was quoted saying Spellman was “fronting” for Polimeni International in its application on the Churchill, the senior housing companion to the Winston apartment project, when the developers sought to change the project from a condominium to a rental property last year.
“I want to know if you were accurately quoted,” Spellman said.
Werther said he couldn’t recall if he used “that precise word.”
He then cited an e-mail he said Spellman sent to board members at the time, inviting them to meet with Polimeni representatives.
“This stinks of back-room deals,” Werther said, quoting from an e-mail he said he sent Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss. “Nothing that is to be said to me is to be said in an open meeting.”
“Mr. Werther, I meet with people and it’s not behind back room doors,” Strauss responded.
Struass said he didn’t force any board members to participate in meetings with Polimeni representatives and said Spellman didn’t either.
Strauss said his sole purpose was to provide “access to people you normally would not have access to.”
Werther said he would defer to the judgment of Robert Freeman, executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government on the issue.
“You can defer to anybody you want,” Strauss replied.
When Spellman asked Werther about what he intended in his use of the word ‘fronting,” Werther said, “Again, I don’t recall using that word.”
Spellman provided his own definition, saying, “It seems clear to me that ‘fronting’ means you’re on the other side.”
Referring to the same newspaper story, Spellman cited Werther’s comments on the recently rejected 7-Eleven application for a site at 400 East Jericho Turnpike that have been cited in court papers filed by 7-Eleven.
“If the same deliveries, same amount of deliveries, the same amount of vehicular traffic were there for hardware or shoes, we wouldn’t have a say in the matter whatsoever,” Spellman quoted Werther saying, calling his statement “absolutely untrue.”
He said Werther’s assumptions about the board’s prerogatives and the basis for its rejection of the application were incorrect.
“Virtually every word of the decision this board made had to do with the site plan,” Spellman said. “They were here for site plan approval.”
Werther warned that he wasn’t done with raising issues about how the board conducted business, saying, “This thing is going to go further.”
“You won’t find me in the back room,” Spellman responded.
Mineola Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira repeated concerns he had expressed at a previous meeting about what Werther was implying.
“I’m going to have an issue when my integrity and the integrity of this board are called into question,” he said.
Pereira pointed out that Werther had earlier sent board members an e-mail stating he wanted to be in on every prospective development project “from it’s infancy.”
“How do you do that without having meetings with people?” he asked. He added that Polimeni representatives had meetings with seniors in the village about the proposed Churchill change.
Werther also revisited a complaint he registered when Polimeni representatives recently sought – and received – board approval of a change in amenities they would provide the village with the Winston and Churchill projects. They abandoned an earlier promise to build a parking garage, but offered an alternative plan for an for parking at another site.
“We never had any hearings on this – not once,” Werther said.
“We got $3 million in amenities. We got something for our master plan. We didn’t give away anything,” Pereira said.
Asked by a reporter after the meeting about whether he recalled saying “fronting” to describe Spellman relationship with the Polimenis, Werther offered another explanation.
“If I did, I did,” he said. “If I it was in a different sense than [Spellman] took it.”
He said he meant that Spellman was “representing” the Polimeni interests to the village.
