In a way, it’s arbitrary to expect that one single, solitary day out of our entire 365-day calendar can actually signify a dramatic sea change. And yet, as a society we’ve come to expect every January 1 to bring a fresh new start.

This mentality is certainly ingrained in the local political system. At the beginning of each calendar year, newly elected officials are customarily sworn into office. This year, both Southampton and East Hampton towns saw slight shifts in the makeup of their town boards, with the addition of Republican Councilwoman Christine Preston Scalera in Southampton, and the addition of Democrats Peter Van Scoyoc and Sylvia Overby in East Hampton.

However, as we’ve already learned from the first week of the new year, new people don’t necessarily mean new politics.

While at the tail end of 2011 politicians on both sides of the aisle spoke about their optimism for starting the new year out on the right foot, that spirit of bi-partisan politics was hardly apparent at either town’s first board meeting of 2012.

East Hampton politicians argued over such seemingly petty details as the decision on whether or not to hold monthly Saturday morning meetings. And officials in Southampton threw blatant jabs back and forth across party lines over the legitimacy of vetting the town’s two top appointments before actually voting those two individuals into office.

The details of these tiffs — especially in Southampton — are important in their own right. However, they are hardly relevant when it comes to the bigger political picture, because when town boards are constantly being strong-armed by the political majority, and town board members make unbending alliances with their fellow party members, the specific issues at hand are essentially decided before they’re even brought to the table.

That’s not democracy.

It becomes frustrating to watch as our elected officials constantly bicker over party lines and spout what seem, over time, to be canned political responses meant to attack members of other political parties.

As voters and as people who live and work in these communities, we want to feel that we are represented by town boards that truly act in our best interests; boards with members who don’t base their professional opinions on their political parties.

In Southampton, Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst and Councilman Jim Malone both reiterated the need to work in the spirit of cooperation. But these sentiments have become hollow iterations. Their meeting ended on a sour note with the Republican majority prevailing and the liberal left licking its wounds.

In East Hampton, this week’s minor scuffle prompted newly re-elected Supervisor Bill Wilkinson to reflect on the nature of the town board’s antagonistic discussion with this thought: “I hope this isn’t indicative of the entire year,” he joked.

Bill, we couldn’t agree more.

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