Boat captain says Greenport Village is out to get him
Mr. Prokop insisted the $2 million figure he wrote in the letter refers to a Suffolk County requirement for insurance, not a village policy, because the county had been subleasing the dock to the village. The village agreed to take full control of the dock after the county Legislature voted unanimously to give it up on July 29. The letter itself states that Mr. Smith’s permit is being revoked because he broke dock rules and regulations. The letter does not cite the increased insurance coverage as being required by the county and uses language that matches the village’s code in all but the amount of insurance required.
When reached to confirm the $2 million requirement, county attorney Dennis Brown declined to comment due to ongoing discussions pertaining to the assignment of the MTA lease to the village.
When asked if other vessel owners were also asked to meet the $2 million requirement — or would be in the future — Mr. Prokop said he would only discuss Mr. Smith’s situation and refused to answer other questions.
Mayor David Nyce did not return messages left on his cell phone or at Village Hall seeking comment for this story.
Also on Tuesday, village administrator Paul Pallas said he believed Mr. Smith’s current $1 million policy — which complies with village code — had been accepted and that Mr. Smith was not going to be kicked off the dock.
“My understanding is that fairly recently, we did receive [proof of] insurance from him, so I’m not quite sure what the issue is,” Mr. Pallas said. “At this moment, I don’t think there is one, personally.”
But Mr. Smith said Tuesday he has received no communication from the village stating that he is allowed to stay at the dock and that letters sent by him and his attorney have gone unanswered.
“If they accepted my insurance, then how come they [still] haven’t cashed my check?” he asked.
Insurance records acquired from the village show that eight vessels currently using the railroad dock, including Merit, are registered as having insurance.
At 134 feet long, the aging Fire Fighter — which was once called a “potential liability” by Mr. Krupski due to its condition — is more than twice as long as Merit. Yet Fire Fighter has a $1 million insurance policy, not the $2 million the village had required for Mr. Smith’s vessel, the records show.
Trustee Mary Bess Phillips’ vessel, the Illusion, is among the other ships that pay for a $1 million insurance policy.
Mr. Smith said the county’s requirements — whatever they are — should no longer apply since the county is divesting itself of the dock.
Mr. Smith’s lawyer, Dan Rodgers, said it’s clear the village is fed up with Mr. Smith, who penned a guest column in the April 24 edition of The Suffolk Times slamming village officials for their handling of the Fire Fighter situation and of the local fishing industry in general.
In that column, Mr. Smith wrote: “It seems the village is more interested in being called a fishing village than actually being one … They have a commercial dock but don’t allow fish boxes there. Get that? No unloading. No fueling. No gear on the dock. Those are the rules — in a fishing village.”
He later wrote blog entries railing against the Village Board.
“Sid is a gadfly; he is a pain in the ass,” Mr. Rodgers said. “He sees things that he sees are unfair, and he challenges them.”
That’s no excuse to single him out, the attorney added.
“They are shoving this guy out to sea and saying ‘Get lost,’ ” Mr. Rodgers said.
Mr. Smith said he had a $250,000 insurance policy for years while at the dock and that the village always accepted it as sufficient, even though the code had stated that $1 million was required. He was only made aware of the $1 million insurance requirement after the village asked him to leave the dock and he began investigating the matter.
“It’s not like I never had insurance,” he said.
When reached for comment Tuesday, Ms. Phillips said it was strange that Mr. Smith was previously unaware of the $1 million insurance requirement.
“I find it completely amazing that if the rest of us knew he had to have it, how didn’t he know?” she said.
Ms. Phillips said Mr. Smith had not previously been brought into compliance with the village code because Village Hall lacked the “infrastructure” in personnel and procedure to check the boats on the dock. She said the village looked into Mr. Smith’s application after he became so outspoken about Fire Fighter and submitted several FOIL requests to the village.
“The fireboat kind of brought it to a head,” she said.
Ms. Phillips claimed the village was seeking to bring Mr. Smith up to the same insurance level as everyone else. She said she could not comment as to why his insurance requirement was stated to be higher than that of other vessels.
“I had nothing to do with it,” she said.
This March, as usual, Mr. Smith filled out the annual railroad dock application and sent in his rent check, he said. But while reviewing his bank statements the next month, Mr. Smith saw the village hadn’t cashed his check. He was later told he needed to raise his insurance coverage, he said.
Mr. Smith said he then contacted his insurance agency, which raised his policy to $1 million to comply with the village code. That’s when he got the letter from Village Hall.
Mr. Smith said that between March, when he sent in the check that was never cashed, and July, when he received the letter notifying him he had to leave, no village officials ever contacted him.
“Nobody even called me, talked to me, notified me, anything,” he said during an interview in his Greenport home while letting out a long, raspy wheeze of a laugh. “Just — ‘You’re out.’ ”
