Town Board meeting turns argumentative
Members of the Oyster Bay Town Board found themselves in the center of conflict at their meeting on Jan. 25. Syosset resident Kevin McKenna, a frequent critic of Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino who often speaks at meetings, exchanged heated words with Saladino and Councilman Lou Imbroto during the meeting and the public comment period that followed.
During the meeting, McKenna, a blogger, asked about a transfer-of-funds resolution that was filed by the town to approve the use of budgetary money by the town’s inspector general, Brian Noone, to hire a consultant to look into an outage in the town’s email system that began on Dec. 3 and lasted 11 days.
“Can the public know who the consultant was that was hired to look at that alleged computer problem?” McKenna asked. He also asked, “Do any board members know the name of that consultant? Do any of the board members care about the name of that consultant?”
An argument soon erupted between Saladino and McKenna. Eventually Saladino asked McKenna to sit down, saying he had violated the town meeting Rules of Decorum.
But McKenna was undeterred. “I’d like to stand up to make sure that I get my answer because, typically, what you do is you have the resident sit down, and 60 percent of the time you do not answer the question,” he said. “So, I am going to stay here until I get the answer to the question. You’re not going to bamboozle me like you bamboozle other residents.”
Eventually McKenna did sit down, but moments later he was accused by Imbroto of making a lewd gesture toward him.
McKenna claimed that he was simply pointing to the count-down clock, which is used to limit public comments to a maximum of 10 minutes.
“Do we think Mr. McKenna should have the privilege [to speak] as to the way that he just behaved?” Imbroto asked. “He gave me the finger from the front row, and he should not even be in this room right now.”
Town attorney Frank Scalera attempted to defuse the situation by speaking with McKenna, but their exchange bordered on becoming heated, with McKenna threatening to sue the town. “This is a professional decorum,” Scalera said. “You ask your questions, and you get your answers. It’s not adversarial. If I’ve got a video that shows you gave the finger to that person, you will have an issue.”
McKenna was not told to leave, although Imbroto continued to request that he be removed.
This was not the first time that McKenna has stirred up a Town Board meeting. In 2018, he was asked to leave a meeting, after Councilwoman Michele Johnson accused McKenna of making a “lewd hand gesture,” which she said was sexual harassment. The town tried, but was unsuccessful in baring McKenna from attending meetings for the remainder of the year.
“There are certain individuals that attempt to disrupt Town Board meetings either for personal or political agendas,” Imbroto said the next day. “Each should be held to the standards set forth in the Rules of Decorum, adopted to protect free speech for the public and prevent disruptive, obscene or violent behavior at our meetings.”
McKenna claimed on his blog that Imbroto’s accusation was false, and that the video of the meeting would prove it. But Imbroto countered that McKenna had held his hand to his chest while making the gesture, so it would not be picked up by the video.
The two have argued at past meetings. Imbroto said he didn’t know why he was sometimes singled out by McKenna.
McKenna said on Jan. 27 that Imbroto is Saladino’s “protector,” and that he has nothing against the councilman.
“I think he’s a nice guy outside the meetings,” McKenna said. “Why does he get so upset when I ask a question? They do everything they can to shut me down.”
Imbroto said that McKenna should have been ejected from the room, and added that there were no police at the meeting, as there usually are.
“Imbroto is using the same tactic used years ago by Councilwoman Johnson to attempt to ban McKenna from meetings,” McKenna wrote in his blog on Jan. 26.
“People get sent to the back of the room so the public will think that the person is getting an answer from a commissioner, but you never do,” McKenna said. “They should answer the questions so the public can hear it.”
And, he said, during the 10 minutes he was permitted to speak during the meeting regarding the transfer-of-funds for the inspector general he was unable to make his point, because Saladino and Imbroto continued to interrupt him.
“I have the right to my 10 minutes,” McKenna said. “They went into attack mode to shut me down for seven minutes. They spoke more during my time than I was allowed to. This is preventing freedom of speech.”
