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Under The Microscope:
The Fall from Grace
East Hampton Town Supervisor William McGintee continues to blame everyone else for the town’s current fiscal crisis and claims the shortfall is nothing more than uncollected tax revenues. Public opinion, however, has a different perspective.
A nonpartisan telephone poll made to 300 persons 18 June between 5 and 8 p.m. revealed that government spending was the “biggest issue”, followed by government in general. During McGintee’s run for re-election last year, worry about the government was a bare blip on the radar.
By the same token, the number of people who admitted disliking McGintee jumped from 64 (21.3 %) persons in the May 2007 telephone poll to 175 (58.7%) individuals this year.
The random calls made last month reached 91 Republicans, 115 Democrats, 17 Independences, 3 Conservatives, 63 registered Blanks, and 10 individuals who claimed not to have any party affiliation.
The numbers became more telling when McGintee’s job performance was rated. The question asked,”How would you rate the following public officials as to their job performance? Would you say that they have done an excellent job, a good job, a fair job or, a poor job?”
Only 15 (9 %) of the 300 respondents said that McGintee’s work was “excellent” and 39 (13%) thought it was “good”. Thirty-eight people (12.7%) voters did not offer an opinion.
On the other hand, 51 (17%) settled with “fair” while 157 (52%) labeled it “poor”. In other words, 208 (69%) of the 300 people who are not satisfied with McGintee’s job performance even included some who said they liked him as a person.
When Eye on... was asked to select a Town Board member for comparison sake, the editor asked for Pat Mansir’s perceived work ethic. She runs for re-election to the board next year.
Twenty-eight people (9.3%) found Mansir’s work “excellent”; 84 (28%) people called her work “good”, 72 residents (24%) called it “fair”, 39 (13%) equated her work with “poor”, and 77 did not have an opinion.
Of the 300 Town residents who were polled on 18 June, 54 live in Montauk, 29 in Amagansett, 72 in The Springs, 31 in the Incorporated Village of East Hampton, 42 in Sag Harbor and 29 in Northwest.
Based on the poll, McGintee appears to be a loser in any future election for Town Supervisor. If tan election were held today between McGintee and his predecessor, Republican County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, Schneiderman would win with at least 56 percent of the vote.
If the election was between McGintee and Bill Wilkinson, who lost to him last November by 108 votes, 55 percent said they would vote for the Montauk resident compared to a paltry 20 percent for McGintee.
When Wilkinson. who will oppose any Democrat candidate in the next election, campaigned last year, he called attention to numerous discrepancies that he found were issued from the Supervisor or, from his Budget Officer. McGintee brushed off the truth as “politics” and scorned Wilkinson's ability to manage town government.
In denigrating his opponent's skills, McGintee underscored his own weaknesses. Wilkinson retired in 2005 from The Walt Disney Company where he was the senior most Human Resources officer for this global organization. In that capacity, he oversaw 130,000 employees and over 1700 direct reports.
Comments welcome for letters page. address it to hamptonseye@hamptons.com
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