Without their Republican colleagues, Nassau County’s seven Democratic legislators heard suggestions Friday about how to protect the county’s contract system from corruption and abuse.
Testifying at a special hearing called by the Minority Caucus, county and state officials echoed calls for an inspector general to act as an independent check on the contract process, which have been at the center of the recent federal corruption charges against former state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre).
“The oversight of a public watchdog is critical to overhauling Nassau’s contracting process,” said Acting District Attorney Madeline Singas, whose office published a report in July saying the contract system lacked adequate measures to rule out contractors with criminal histories or unethical ties to public officials.
An inspector general with the power to review every county contract — not just those worth more than $25,000 — would help prevent the county from awarding bad contracts, Singas said.
Minority leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead) and the other Democratic legislators have drafted a bill to create the office, recommended by both Singas and independent county commission on contract reform, headed by former NIFA chair Frank Zarb.
The bill says the position would be appointed by the county executive with input from the majority and minority leaders and confirmation by a supermajority of the legislature.
But George Marlin, a former NIFA board member, suggested that the DA and county comptroller have input in making the appointment, and that the office have set funding that’s insulated from county budget cuts.
He also stressed the importance of giving the inspector general subpoena power to make potential contractors and lobbyists testify under oath, which only the presiding officer, Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow), has in the Legislature.
“Unless you have the ability, or the staff who has the ability to dig into the weeds, you’re never going to get there,” Marlin said.
In the hearing, officials and the legislators also discussed tightening rules about the disclosure of contractors’ lobbying activity and political spending.
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano issued an executive order in May requiring companies bidding for contracts to disclose all lobbyists they employ, and that the county create a registry of lobbyists who interact with county officials.
The Democrats want to go further — they have drafted legislation that would also require lobbyists to disclose any communication with county legislators, department heads and administrators, which Singas said she supported.
Paul Sabatino, a former deputy county executive in Suffolk County, recommended banning contractors from making political donations at the county level within two years of receiving a contract.
Officials also said the county should put information about its contracts and contractors online so it is easily accessible to both the public and the legislators tasked with approving them.
All of these ideas are part of solving a “systemic problem of the culture” of Long Island politics, Sabatino said.
“You’ve got to change the mentality, change the culture, change the way people think in their approach to contracts,” he said.
While the Democrats maintained their concern for the county government’s integrity throughout the hearing, it was also politically charged.
The legislators held it in the Minority Caucus’s hearing room after Gonsalves denied Abrahams’ request to use the legislative chamber, saying only she as presiding officer could call a hearing there.
Copies of their written exchange were distributed at the hearing.
“At a time when we desperately need openness and transparency in Nassau County government, the presiding officer has closed the door on reform,” Abrahams said.
Abrahams said Gonsalves “ignored” another April 30 letter asking her to call a full legislative hearing on contract reform after federal investigators found Adam Skelos, Dean Skelos’ son, had manipulated the Nassau officials to secure an unsolicited multimillion-dollar contract for AbTech Industries, an Arizona-based environmental technology firm that employed him as a lobbyist.
That letter was also on view Friday.
In a statement, Gonsalves called the hearing “no more than a Democrat political rally,” adding that the Minority Caucus’ should be investigated for holding it on county property.
