J.P. Foster R

BACKGROUND

• Foster, 54, of East Hampton, is a registered Republican and is running on the Republican Party line in the general election.
• He worked for the Village of East Hampton for 35 years and is retiring as the village’s chief dispatcher. Foster also managed East Hampton Town’s 911 system as well as the fire and EMS dispatch from Montauk to Sag Harbor.
• Foster served two years on the town planning board. He has served 13 years on the East Hampton school board, with 12 years as president. He has served on the East Hampton Local Television Board for more than three years.

ISSUES

• Foster said “attracting people to want to work in East Hampton” is important to him, especially in department positions in the township, which he said has had a high agency head turnover rate. According to Foster, this has had negative impacts, with the understaffing causing longer waits for needs such as building permits.
• He sees affordable housing as an issue and wants to enact legislation to give first responders priority for affordable housing opportunities in the town, citing a similar measure passed in the Town of Huntington.
• Foster said he wants the town to have “a more robust school resource officer program,” similar to that of East Hampton Village, in which the school resource officers are paid by both the school and the village, “and then the village gets to use them in the summer months," which he said he would like to see for the town.