Letter to the Editor:

Response to George Bartunek’s “It’s a question of Ethics” editorial article posted in the News Review dated November 20th

As the new Riverhead Republican Chairman I was unfortunately unaware of the alluded propriety donations totaling $20,000 made to the Riverhead Republican Committee in late 2007 prior to the general election. Immediately I investigated the legitimacy of these donations with the assistance of the Suffolk County Board of Elections and our Treasurer. The Board of Elections concluded that these donations were in fact perfectly legal and were well within New York State contribution limitations. We also discovered that our Riverhead Committee only received $15,000 in donations since one line item in the filing was justifying the partnership donation of $5,000 that Mr. Bartunek’s assumed in-correctly as another donation.

These donations as well as all others, were accepted and expended by the Riverhead Republican party to support our platform and values of improving community quality of life through the enablement of business enterprise growth, a government managed by sound fiscal management and through job expansion. This past Town Board and its Supervisor continues to inhibit business growth whether in downtown or at EPCAL.

A political party does not settle lawsuits from individuals or businesses suing our Town, which is the purpose of our Town Attorney and or in this situation outside legal counsel. Our elected officials’ will only settle a lawsuit when our Town Attorney concludes in the fairness and benefits to the Town are satisfactorily complied. Unfortunately our Town has far too many lawsuits from individuals and businesses because of the myriad of Town government regulations and ambiguous codes prohibiting the timely processing of plans and permits enabling individuals and businesses to grow and expand.

Our elected candidates did not accept these contributions nor do we support arbitrary land clearing and the illegal use of one’s property without proper Town authorizations. The resolution of this lawsuit will be resolved in a totally ethical environment and as long as I am the Chairman of this Party neither my integrity nor the integrity of our Party will be sacrificed for any donation.

Martin Keller
Chairman Riverhead Republican Party