Republican Suffolk County Legislaors Shrug Off Need to Act Now

 

What’s the Hurry?

I was there. And I'm angry and frustrated.

No rush necessary. That was the attitude of the Republican members of the Suffolk County Legislature on July 25 as they voted not to approve the resolution that would have started a historic effort to purify the drinking water and the bays that surround our beautiful Long Island.

In a world where the desires of the public in a democracy should have won the day, our representatives chose to ignore the 40 people who testified that they should approve the resolution without delay. Forty people who turned out and sat through not just the testimony but the grandstanding of the legislators who tried to put some kind of rationale on their refusal to listen to both the experts and the people living with results of on-going water pollution.

It didn’t matter when Christopher J. Gobler of Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences startled the audience with the news that the nitrogen in our drinking water might very well be contributing to cancer among Suffolk residents. The levels considered safe by the EPA and the Suffolk County Water Authority might not be safe after all, according to new information.

It didn’t matter that the two new advanced septic systems approved for commercial use in Suffolk County remove at least 80% of the nitrogen that is contaminating our waters.

The opposition legislators listened but chose to delay indefinitely despite testimony that the nitrogen in the Great South Bay has been the death of the once-thriving clam industry there. Or that the luscious little scallops that used to be harvested in great numbers in the Peconic Bay can no longer survive there. No rush necessary to deal with those problems.

It didn’t matter when representatives of labor and the business community testified that the jobs created by replacing hundreds of thousands of polluting septic systems, and installing sewers in places with low groundwater, would create an economic boom in Suffolk County. The septic replacements would support an industry of small businesses, the kinds of businesses that are the heart of a local economy.

It didn’t matter that funding from New York State and the federal government would immediately flow to Suffolk County had the legislature put the proposal on the ballot and had voters approved it. Plenty of time, they said, in the face of being told that the money is being doled out now to other counties, and that enabling legislation passed by the state to allow the referendum might be impossible to get again.

In the face of repeated testimony that all the best science said the mix of improved septics and sewers was the best way to clean our waters, the Republican legislators just shrugged it off.

Instead, the Republicans, including Presiding Officer Kevin McCarthy, kept pushing for support for more sewers, more sewers, prodding speakers to say whether they supported sewers or improved septic systems. Wisely, the speakers declined to take the bait of a false choice. The Republican legislators insisted that the mix of funding from the sales tax increase of 1/8 of one cent--75% for septics and 25% for sewers—should be changed to favor sewers.  This despite the fact that about an equal $2 billion would have gone for each when funding from another source was included.

In the end, no hurry at all won the day in a party-line vote to deny Suffolk residents the chance to decide the issue themselves.

Why? That is the question. Supporters speculated that it was fear of Democrats turning out in big numbers in November to support clean water, resulting perhaps in losses to the Republicans running for re-election. Could it have been ignorance about the necessity of acting? Hard to believe because the experts were there to answer all their questions.

I was a reporter at Newsday in the era of the scandal-plagued Southwest Sewer District. Big public works projects are susceptible to bribery and corruption. Could it be that some individuals are licking their lips at the prospect of all those hundreds of millions of dollars in public contracts? Much harder, if not impossible, to profit off work of the many small businesses installing new septic systems in people’s homes.

And remember, this is the same Legislature that has refused to create an independent Inspector General to try to stop the corruption that has been endemic to Suffolk County for decades. Note that both Republicans and Democrats have opposed that safeguard.

July 25 was a sad day for democracy, and a sad day for the people of Suffolk County. We deserve a legislature that truly represents us. ##

 

 

Police Unions’ Campaign Donations Block Police Reform Efforts

Last Spring, Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone and the county legislators approved a dream of a new contract with the Suffolk PBA.  The 6-year pact guarantees yearly pay of $200,000 for every officer with 15 years of experience. That puts police among the top earners in the country. The head of the PBA told Newsday the pay was justified by comparing it to the earnings of athletes who don’t have to risk their lives.

 

Bellone denies that the generous contract had anything to do with the campaign donations he received during his re-election in the fall of 2019. But I’m not buying that. No one donates the kind of money the police unions did without an expectation that their investment is worth it.

 

 Consider that during that last election cycle, police unions gave $40,000 in direct contributions to Bellone, the legal limit. But that was dwarfed by spending on his behalf through a SuperPac, the Long Island Law Enforcement Foundation. It donated whopping $830,000 to support his re-election, and $662,000 to re-elect incumbent county legislators.  Because the SuperPac didn’t coordinate directly with the campaign organizations, the donations are unlimited, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.

 

This matters not only because of the conflict of interest and ethical blindness it demonstrates. It matters because the county is in the midst of a state-mandated examination of policing in Suffolk prompted by the killing of George Floyd. It has been holding virtual hearings at which hundreds of residents have been both critiquing thepolice and suggesting changes that would require shifting funds that have now been locked into place by the contract, like using social and mental health workers instead of police to respond to mental health crisis situations. Critics would also like it to be easier to fire bad cops, and discipline procedures are at least in part dictated by the contracts. 

 

Legislator Robert Trotta is the only county politician who is trying to correct the situation. A Republican from Fort Salonga, Trotta is also a retired detective, and he told me collecting garbage or tree work is more dangerous than policing in Suffolk County.  He regards the contract and the donations as an ethical conflict of interest that should concern every Suffolk resident. 

 

So he is sponsoring a resolution that would limit direct campaign contributions to no more than $500 for legislators and $3,000 to county-wide officials from employee unions and contractors doing business with the county. Even though it won’t affect the SuperPac donations, It needs to pass if only to demonstrate that the legislators care about the conflict of interest they face. 

 

The same situation is true in Nassau.  Nassau locked itself into an 8 1/2-year contract with the Superior Officers Association, and recently signed a new PBA contract against the objections of reform advocates.  In a demonstration of their clout, Nassau police demanded and got a bonus of $3,000 a year just to accept wearing body cameras, sucking more money out of the county’s budget for public safety. 

Despite what seemed like a very favorable contract, the Nassau police officers rejected the contract. That gives Nassau's leaders the chance to consider the kinds of changes reformers have been advocating.  Long Island United to Transform Policing has issued a call for no new contracts in Nassau County without structural police reform. 

In Suffolk, the contract remains an obstacle to change.

 

Trotta's resolution meanwhile continues to languish as neither Suffolk Republicans orDemocrats have shown any appetite for it. They expect us to swallow the idea that contributions have no influence on their actions. Bellone’s spokesman had the brass to tell Newsday that “ campaign contributions do not influence public policy.” 

 

Legislators who accept funding from police unions could recuse themselves from voting on their contract. County ethics rules require recusal if a legislator would benefit financially from a vote. But donations go to their campaigns, not directly to individuals, so there is no direct financial benefit. As for recusal, it wouldn’t work anyway because “the unions give to everyone, so there would be no one to vote on the contract,” says Trotta. 

 

Suffolk residents struggling to make ends meet will feel the impact of the bonanza enjoyed by the police. Especially during a pandemic, if you give police three times the cost of living increase over 6 years, something else has to give. The proposed 2021 Suffolk budget cuts bus routes, raids money from the Clean Water Fund, and shortchanges many other necessary services. The state controller ranks Suffolk County at number 62 among 62 counties in the state with the worst fiscal situation. 

 

Had Suffolk limited the police raise to just the cost of living, Trotta says $250 million would have been saved. And some of that could have been used to finance a matching fund for public financing of campaigns. The county passed a law creating a public finance fund in 2018, and scheduled it to go into effect next year. 

 

It won’t.  Because there’s no money for it. 

 

Long Island legislators live in fear that the unions will withdraw their support. The only remedy, it seems, is for us voters to get smart and hold their feet to the fire when election season comes around again. In an interview with the Washington Post, Daniel Oats, former Chief of the NYPD Intelligence Division and police chief in several jurisdictions, said:  “there cannot be true (police) reform unless Americans elect politicians willing to take on obstructionist labor leaders.”

 

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