Port Washington resident Stephen Sombratto accused the Port Washington Water Pollution Control District of enabling discrimination against children and demanded swift action against the Police Athletic League at the district’s meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
Sombratto, whose children were directly impacted by an exclusion clause in an April 2024 license agreement with the Police Athletic League, said the contract effectively banned his family from participating in youth sports at Sunset Park.
At the center of the controversy is Commissioner Brandon Kurz, who serves on the district’s three-member board. Kurz created a petition online in July that urged the district to “Stop the Sale of Sunset Park, ” despite claims by Town of North Hempstead that there is no active sale of the park.
Earlier this month, the board voted to seek his removal under state Public Officers Law, alleging a series of ethical violations tied to the April “Kurz Agreement.” That deal granted the Police Athletic League exclusive rights to Sunset Park while allegedly giving Kurz a prohibited financial interest through his limited liability company, Sports Washington.
The board alleged the agreement discriminated against two families, including Sombratto’s, and accused Kurz of trying to “undermine public confidence” by claiming district youth programs were in jeopardy.
Commissioners Arduino “Eddy” Marinelli and Melanie Cassens ordered Kurz to revoke the contract, forfeit any revenue he received, and recuse himself from further district deliberations involving PAL.
Instead, Kurz signed an amended deal with PAL in July, which fellow commissioners argued failed to address his conflicts of interest.
Sombratto called the provision “appalling and absurd,” arguing that it inflicted lasting stigma and required formal correction.
“The April 8, 2024, Kurz agreement included an explicit ban against my children,” Sombratto said during public comment. “That ban has never been formally rescinded. Verbal assurances do not cure it. Emails do not cure it. Simply trying to remove it with a new agreement does not address this properly or legally.”
Sombratto submitted a written proposal he titled a “mutual agreement to vacate and acknowledge invalidity of exclusion clause.”
He urged the district to require the Police Athletic League President Stuart Lieblein and Kurz, whom he accuses of orchestrating the ban, to sign the document. Anything less, Sombratto warned, would constitute approval of ongoing discrimination.
Kurz did not attend the meeting due to a personal conflict.
“Either PAL and Commissioner Kurz sign this agreement, or the ban and the harmful stigma related to the ban remain in force,” he said. “If they refuse to sign it, then the message is clear: the discrimination stands.”
Sombratto further pressed the district to bar the Police Athletic League from future participation in the community’s youth programs.
He cited past litigation against the organization, including sanctions by a court and his own pending lawsuit alleging breach of contract, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“There is no justification for negotiating with the same people who wrote a ban against children into a contract,” Sombratto said. “To allow them to bid again would be to reward misconduct and put the district’s integrity at risk.”
In response, the district’s lawyer, Greg Carmen, acknowledged Sombratto’s concerns but emphasized that the district had already acted by canceling PAL’s license. He explained that the Police Athletic League has until the end of the year to vacate Sunset Park.
“The license was canceled,” Carmen said. “There is a 90-day window. By the end of the year, whatever rights they might have to be at that facility will have expired.”
Carmen stressed that the district had not issued a new request for proposals for another organization to take over youth sports at Sunset Park. He said the board was weighing competing community interests and was cautious about disrupting programs mid-season.
“At this stage, there’s a license agreement that’s going to terminate before the end of the year,” Carmen said. “We’re sensitive to what transpired. We’re not in agreement with what PAL did and how they treated you. But we’re trying to do it the right way.”
Sombratto pushed back, accusing the district of “slow-playing” the process and backpedaling on its earlier promise to pursue a request for proposal. He argued that waiting until December would leave families with no alternative provider ready to step in.
“What it appears from the outside is, as I said, you’re already talking to them, negotiating with them, which is the craziest thing,” Sombratto said.
Carmen maintained that the commissioners were balancing difficult pressures and working “seven days a week” to resolve the issue. He urged residents to give the board space to finish the process.
“Don’t be so quick to judge the actions of the board right now,” Carmen said. “They’re doing the best they can under the circumstances. One way or another, it will come to the right end.”
While the district insists the contract will expire by the year’s end, Sombratto says only a formal acknowledgement of wrongdoing will repair the harm done to local children.
