The November 27th edition of the Smithtown News weekly paper, ran a cover story regarding the 2015 town budgets approval by default, citing Councilmen Creighton and Wehrheim voted against the budget “without any public comment”. The article went on to quote Supervisor Vecchio, in which he accused the Councilmen, in great length, of voting against the budget to avoid any responsibility or accountability. With no facts or evidence behind the Supervisors harsh accusations, the “official newspaper of Smithtown” printed the story. This censorship of news was the very reason Smithtown Today was founded. We dug deeper to deliver the full story and discovered evidence supporting the Town Council.
On October 17th, 2014 a memo to the directors of Environment and Waterways, the Highway Department and the Sanitation Department was sent and signed by all four members of the Town Council. This memo requests assurances, in writing, that the changes to vital services for Smithtown residents, listed in the preliminary budget will transition smoothly. No written correspondence, communication or requested information was provided to the Town Council, warranting concern for the leaf/brush pick-up and snow removal. More importantly, the absence of information left no way to make necessary changes to the budget. This memo serves as the proverbial smoking gun, proving the Council did in fact do their due diligence.
In addition to a lack of response from departments who report directly to the Supervisor, the amendments which the Councilmen voted against, included unexplained pay increases, in addition to the $120,000 in raises listed in the preliminary budget for Town employees. These raises were in addition to union raises, allowing for three pay increases over the course of six months in 2015. Councilmen Creighton expressed major concern for the continuous drawing down of the Town Reserves, which could potentially cause a likely drop in the Town Bond Rating.
Ultimately it is a journalist’s responsibility to deliver readers all the facts, so they may chose their own opinions. When this fails to happen, the credibility of a news medium begins to fall down a slippery circulation slope. More importantly, the people of this Town begin to lose trust, not just in our elected officials, but in our local information sources as well. The truly frightening reality here, isn’t the lack of respect Supervisor Vecchio has been quoted for in print, towards Town Officials, who do not share in his opinion. Even more alarming is the Town Council members looking out for the Taxpayers best interests, are in the minority