Your editorial, “Mangano’s end run” (Our Views Williston Times, June 8), is on the mark.
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has overreached in his attempt to become a fiscal czar, and the County Legislature is ready to acquiescence supinely by using its one-vote majority to back him — and thus undermine two centuries of American democracy. Thank you for issuing a wake-up call to Nassau County voters.
However, one other point has to be made.
It will not do merely to wring one’s hands and gnash one’s teeth about “hyperpartisanship.” Our elected county legislators are hyperpartisan, and begging them to compromise is a waste of breath.
The only way to break hyperpartisan logjams is to vote out of office legislators who would rather bring the county crashing down around our ears than to find some common ground through compromise.
I suggest the Williston Times would do voters and the cause of sane good government a great service by analyzing the voting records of each legislator and reporting the percentage of times each voted along strict party lines on budgetary and personnel issues.
Simultaneously, report which legislators crossed party lines to arrive at compromise on these issues.
Finally, report the results in chart form so that voters can identify hyperpartisan hacks — and vote them out of office in the next election.
Nassau County will never recover its fiscal health and good reputation so long as we keep returning to office party-line zombies. Someone has got to keep a check on our current county executive’s delusions of czardom. Between elections, that’s the county legislature’s function. If the Legislature can’t — or won’t — do it, then it’s up to voters to get rid of the party hacks, and elect members who understand that compromise is the basis of a well-functioning civil society, and that neither “civil” nor “compromise” is a dirty word.
Adam Simms
Mineola
