On March 31, 2016, Suffolk County Conservative Party Chairman, Edward Walsh was convicted in Federal Court of theft of government funds for falsely collecting over $200,000 in pay and overtime when employed as a lieutenant in the Suffolk Sheriff’s Office.
As a registered Conservative, the party’s 1993 New York City mayoral candidate and the author of “Fighting the Good Fight,” a 419-page book describing the history of the New York Conservative Party, I am appalled and embarrassed.
Founded in 1962 to counter the liberal Rockefeller domination of New York’s Republican organization, the Conservative Party became the nation’s must successful third party because it lived up to its charter to serve political ideals first. Throughout its history, the party has been the guardian of working class New Yorkers, men and women who subscribe to the belief that to be good citizens it is essential to love family, neighborhood, country and God, and just as important, to respect an ethic of hard work.
Edward Walsh has disgraced his party.
He abandoned his party’s principles, abused his authority and enriched himself at the expense of the citizens he had sworn to protect.
Suffolk Conservatives must begin to repair the damage by electing a chairman who puts principles above self-aggrandizement.
It should be noted that U.S. Attorney prosecutors in the Walsh case did a remarkable job. They worked tirelessly to assemble the facts that caused the jury to unanimously convict Walsh of all charges in less than one hour of deliberations.
It is my understanding that these same prosecutors are handling the Harendra Singh case.
Singh, a restaurateur with Oyster Bay town concessions which contained largely or wholly undisclosed loan guarantees, was indicted in September 2015 on bribery, fraud and obstruction charges.
I’m sure the prosecutors will work just as hard as they did in the Walsh case to uncover the truth and to determine if government officials in either the Town of Oyster Bay or Nassau County will be charged with crimes in connection with the Singh case.
On another front, there were several complaints lodged against my On the Right column of March 31, 2016.
In that column I wrote “Mangano’s first deputy, Rob Walker — who moved his office out of County Hall and may not be speaking to his boss — testified that he invoked his Fifth Amendment, received immunity and admitted that the feds are investigating him….”
County Executive Mangano’s press spokesman, Brian Nevin, contacted Blank Slate Media and told the publisher that Walker has not moved out of the County Executive’s office and asked for a correction.
I will take Mr. Nevin at his word that Walker still maintains an office at One West Street and concede that “he has not moved out.”
But, Mr. Walker has kept a separate office in the Public Works Department located on Cantiague Road in Hicksville. The word around the county is that Walker claims he likes to use that office to shorten his commute from home. That office is, of course, neither in the County Executive’s office nor in Mineola at all.
Interestingly, Mr. Nevin had no comments on Mr. Walker receiving immunity and admitting he was under federal investigation.
Nassau Comptroller, George Maragos, wrote a letter to the editor that has been published in this newspaper.
In that correspondence, the comptroller points out that he did indeed file with the District Attorney in “accordance with protocol” the 2013 critical audit of Friends of Nassau County Recreation, a not-for-profit that is presently under federal investigation.
I stand corrected and congratulate the comptroller for carrying out his duty and acting according to established protocol.
The comptroller should know, however, that my personal and public agenda are one and the same: good government. I will praise all public officials, regardless of party affiliation, if they expose corruption or express outrage over the shenanigans of Nassau pols.
The comptroller should also know, that for me, governing means more than following protocol. It means — in the words of St. Paul in his second letter to Timothy — to “fight the good fight.”
In my judgment, one should use one’s office to aggressively seek out and expose suspected wrongdoing and to use one’s bully pulpit to publicly demand investigations by law enforcement officials.
I would have publicly applauded Comptroller Maragos if, after following protocol with the Friends of Nassau County Recreation audit, he shouted from his rooftop demanding a criminal investigation.
I would have publicly applauded Comptroller Maragos if he had exposed, for example, the county’s egregious contracting process that D.A. Singas had the fortitude to investigate and describe as a “recipe for corruption” because it is not insulated “from improper influence, manipulation, collusion and fraud.”
Instead, he followed another “protocol” — that of the Nassau GOP, a protocol of party leader and elected official protection which seems to have led him to otherwise call no attention to this issue when it was in his power to do so in a way that makes a difference.
I will also applaud Comptroller Maragos if he publicly demands that NIFA use its broad powers to impose fiscal discipline on the county to achieve a truly balanced budget under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, rather than, as he continues to do, heralding supposed “budgetary surpluses” using other means which consider borrowed money to be “revenue” and budgets to be “balanced” thereby.
And if Comptroller Maragos proposes and is successful in fighting for Nassau to adopt fiscal practices which balance its budget under GAAP, I will support a committee commissioned to erect a statue in his honor.
