In response to Richard Tedesco’s article: “Maragos gives park district records” (New Hyde Park-Herald Courier Friday March 15).
On Tuesday March 12 I attended the Town of North Hempstead Town Board meeting to address and ask questions about agenda item #27 concerning a resolution authorizing the execution of an agreement with Robbie Wagner’s tournament tennis training to provide summer tennis camp programs at Manorhaven Town Park,Michael J. Tully Town Park and Clinton G. Martin Special District Park, in the Town Of North Hempstead.
While civilly trying to discuss the fee-splitting arrangements of this agreement, a 70-30 split between the applicant and the town, I correctly pointed out that this arrangement did not suffice, since there was no breakdown in the town’s portion (30 percent),what portion, by percentage, would be the Clinton G. Martin Special District’s share of this agreement.
In other words what was to be our “cut” of the proceeds and how were we to know it would be credited to our special park district since our park is not a general town park and has it’s own separate budget?
I was assured by [Town of North Hempstead] Supervisor Jon Kaiman that the town park’s commissioner would oversee this exchange and was also told by the supervisor that the town park’s commissioner would also keep track to make sure only special park district residents from the campers would be allowed to use this facility since this is technically a private park, for park district resident use only, since only New Hyde Park residents pay for this park in their taxes and fees.
I then proceeded to ask how I, as a resident, would be able to monitor this transfer of funds since January of 2001 and January of 2004, the last 12 years, we, (the civic associations in New Hyde Park), were denied access to all of the Clinton G. Martin Park District records by his and the previous town administration. Supervisor Kaiman then proceeded to deny this fact, calling my assertion untrue.
“We’ve made those records public,” he said.
However, the supervisor has only turned over records from three years 2009-2011 and only after he was subpoenaed by George Maragos in 2011 on behalf of the civic associations from New Hyde Park.
The Town of North Hempstead at the behest of Supervisor Kaiman, then sued the Nassau County Comptroller Office in N.Y. Supreme Court to block the audit of the park district records as called for in the subpoenas. The town lost in the lower court and the appealed the case to the Appellate Division and lost again, (5-0), in a unanimous decision.
The five-judge panel stated, “the Town’s case has no merit” and cited five precedent cases statewide to support their decision.
While the subpoenas only presently cover the auditing period going back just three years, the key years in question under the Kaiman administration go back from 2004 to 2008 as well as the later years from 2009- 2011. The Kaiman administration assertion was that the county comptroller was attempting a “back¬door” way to audit the town’s budget.
However, the subpoenas only asked for the CGM special park district records which are under a different budget process and therefore not part of the town budget. Both court decisions upheld the subpoenas and therefore the authority of the county to conduct the park district audit. Curiously, although not asked for the these subpoenas both courts also affirmed the authority of the county comptroller to also audit the town budget if it ever sought to do so. The supervisor has chosen to appeal again to the New York State Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state.
Ironically, it was the town that made a connection between the park district and the town budget in the first place as a defense against the county audit but both court decisions denied them this connection and gave the county the authority under the New York State Constitution and the New York Legislature to issue the subpoenas and demand the audit.
As for the new town defense, the 1990 Inwood Fire District case is not germane to the lawsuit because in that case the fire district is a stand alone district and was no way connected budget-wise to the Town of Hempstead, which makes the point moot.
Supervisor Kaiman will only waste taxpayers’ money by further litigation, estimated to be up to a quarter of a million dollars in addition to what he has already spent to quash the subpoenas and block the audit.
In conclusion, the Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman should drop his lawsuit and immediately turn over for audit all materials concerning the Clinton G. Martin Special Park District as requested by the Nassau County Comptroller’s office in the subpoenas, not the cherry picked, sanitized for his protection partial records that the supervisor has turned over just recently after my challenge to him at the town board meeting.
We in New Hyde Park want justice after 12 years and we want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and we will have it.
That is what courts are for, but it begs the question: What more have you got to hide Jon?
Jim McHugh
New Hyde Park
Immediate Past President
Park’s Civic Association
New Hyde Park-Garden City Park
