There is no question that Nassau County was governed better under Tom Suozzi. But should he run again? Should he return to office?
People do make a difference. It is not a question of big government or small, but government that works. And that is the direct result of the vision, the intelligence, the energy and commitment of individuals at the helm.
Even though our system of government requires collaboration, the individuals in their roles add their unique signature, their fingerprint, to the process and the result.
Take for example the issue of privatizing Nassau County’s Sewer Authority. Mangano’s style is to manufacture a crisis, strategize in secret, let the details manage themselves, make big promises of tax savings and financial benefits, and then hope for the best.
He doesn’t seem to have a real grasp of the details beyond the talking points and fact sheet he is handed to recite. More often than not, his predictions of positive benefit fail to materialize and the County is the worse off for it.
Take for example Mangano’s decision to consolidate the police districts, shutting down four of them.
“It was a bad idea poorly executed and wasn’t properly communicated to public,” Suozzi says when a reporter asks his opinion of the plan. “Now it is put off, they haven’t even implemented it. That’s what I’ve seen in this administration. They make broad pronouncements, then don’t do it.”
It may well be that Suozzi would also favor privatization of the Sewer Authority. But I would have greater confidence in the process and the result.
“I’m not opposed to privatization per se, but the way they propose it – borrowing money at a higher interest rate, proposing the operator will raise rates by 3 percent a year? Here’s guy who says he is opposed to raising taxes, but he permits a private operator to raise rates that would double the rate in 15 years. Irresponsible.
“We just had devastation with Superstorm Sandy. That’s also an opportunity to rebuild better than ever before, stronger, smarter and safer than ever before. That’s what need to do, and sewage treatment is example.
Should Suozzi be returned to office? There was so much that Suozzi did right – his focus on revitalizing downtowns utilizing sustainable development principles, of redeveloping brownfields rather than taking invading the dwindling greenspace, of environmental preservation. He grabbed Nassau County finances from the jaws of bankruptcy and put us on a more sustainable footing.
The county was just one step above junk bond status when Suozzi came to office; there were 13 credit upgrades and the county won plaudits as being the best run in the country – as Suozzi, himself reminded a press gathering recently. And this was in the period when the nation was enjoying a historic, meteoric economic boom.
Suozzi’s obsession, though, with consolidating (eliminating) local government – specifically, his extortionist tactics to get Great Neck to shut its sewer plant and divert to Cedar Creek on the South Shore – was the tragic flaw.
Was it bold leadership or arrogance? Vision or hubris? If an unpopular proposal works out, it is leadership; if not, it is arrogance.
Suozzi seems to have learned from that mistake. When I asked him again about consolidation of local districts, he said he still believes in consolidating local governments as the right thing to do to break the cycle of ever-increasing property taxes (I don’t personally agree), but he says it isn’t what the people want.
“I think it’s a good idea that’s not going to happen because people don’t’ want it –I still believe it would reduce the cost of government, but it is not politically palatable. But the price of perfection is bankruptcy. You may try to get it exactly as you want it and get nothing. You have to understand all the parties.”
What about consolidating school districts? He is asked. “Nope” with a look that says he has learned his lesson on that score. But he proposes making more opportunities for school districts to cooperate on purchasing and services.
It seems that Suozzi has learned.
At least Suozzi can find his way around other ways to put Nassau County back on the path to sustainable economic development. The new suburbia, as Suozzi is fond of saying.
I would take Suozzi in a heartbeat, though, over another term with Mangano – a weak, weak-minded executive who depends on his Machiavellian associates. Mangano’s actions have been mean-spirited and vindictive, rather than positive. Mangano regards the public service workers as leaches, a liability rather than an asset in the quality of life that Nassau residents enjoy.
One could say that Mangano made “tough decisions” – if they got the desired results.
Nassau County’s finances are in worse shape – basically undoing the progress that Suozzi had made. Mangano’s singular priority, clearly, has been to resist any increase in property taxes – like his Republican predecessor Tom Gulotta – and like Gulotta needs to depend on borrowing to cover operating expenses. He is plunging the county back into the same mess as when Gulotta left it.
As Suozzi said, borrowing makes sense for a municipality when there the pay-back period matches the lifespan of the project, like road repair or a library building. Borrowing is not sustainable to pay current operating expenses; that’s what taxes are for.
Suozzi’s solution to property tax creep is the 2 percent cap – something he helped advocate for when he was chairman of the Commission to Reform Local Government, and which he continues to support whole-heartedly.
I believe the 2 percent cap is very destructive – in fact, many local municipalities are facing bankruptcy It is a formula that is unsustainable and will require local entities- school districts included – to cannibalize themselves until they die – that is, cease to function. It is the localized version of “austerity” or sequester and it doesn’t work on the local level just as it has proved destructive on national level.
Mangano has made little progress in improving the county and if Republicans retain power and control, it is likely Nassau’s fortunes will continue to decline even as the rest of the state and country improve.
What progress on Long Island that has been made has come from the state initiatives such as Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Councils.
The biggest economic development project in the county, the Nassau Hub, was mangled by Mangano, winding up costing county taxpayers $2 million to run a special election. Wang still decided to move the Islanders to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
One of the ideas now floating is for a biotech center with retail but no housing. Suozzi says, reminding that his Nassau Hub plan had Charles Wang offering to fund the rebuilding of the Coliseum. “I would support it if there were a link with housing, and easy way to get back-forth between the two. There is talk about having housing in downtown Hempstead and biotech at the Coliseum, but let’s see a plan that people can start to debate. It’s about how to do it the right way.”
Suozzi is on the right track in being a major proponent of sustainable economic development – reusing brownfields rather than develop green space; revitalizing Downtowns to be places where people like to live and work, that are walkable and bikable to mass transit, and provide housing that is affordable for young people, and where there are stuff to do – restaurants, shops, entertainment – which he calls “Cool Downtowns.”
He is a visionary, to be sure, and a leader who hopefully has learned.
Suozzi made a point during a press availability that he made a critical mistake in the 2009 campaign of taking the electorate for granted – he noted he even had $1.1 million in his campaign “war” chest that went unspent.
Fortunately, the Democrats have a deep, talented bench – North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman being the best to step into the office.
Kaiman is a proven visionary, a bold leader who also proves he can back off and adapt in response to public opinion – he did this on the Mother-Daughter housing initiative, the Roslyn Country Club.
But it seems that Suozzi has garnered the support of most of the Democratic power figures – Jay Jacobs, the leader of the Nassau County Democratic Party, and several legislators.
And Democratic leadership have probably calculated that against an incumbent who will likely be very well financed, Suozzi is known countywide and already has money in the bank, which is increasingly the single determinant of who gets to run for political office. With Suozzi, the Democrats wouldn’t have to spend money to raise awareness of someone like Jon Kaiman, who is well known and well admired in North Hempstead but would have be introduced to the rest of the county.
But should he run? The Republicans will use Suozzi’s record against him, but Suozzi’s record Suozzi is infinitely better than Ed Mangano’s.
Tom Suozzi isn’t the only Democrat looking to get back in. Howard Weitzman, the comptroller ousted by George Maragos, is looking for a comeback.
I like Maragos very much and think he is a good man, who brings a businessman’s command of finances. But unfortunately, government does not operate the same way. He promised to be his own man – that is, if Tom Suozzi had been re-elected. Instead, he seems to be put into the uncomfortable position of trying to make Mangano look good, which is not the role of a comptroller.
I thought Maragos did the best he could do when he gave testimony over the Long Island Bus take-over – he dared to raise questions about some of the happy projections.
But Weitzman, in a letter published in Newsday, took Maragos to task, and also pierced the image the Mangano Administration hopes to present:
“The Nassau County comptroller describing the county’s year-end financial statements as ‘miraculous, in a way’ was truly bizarre – a miracle on the order of fantasy [“It’s election year math,” News, Jan. 31]. “The comptroller’s job is to act as the taxpayers’ independent financial watchdog, not to search for nonexistent miracles in the bitter truth of the county’s financial position.
“This is not the first time the comptroller blessed an out-of-balance county budget. In 2011, he repeatedly assured the public that the county’s budget was solidly balanced and would end the year in surplus. At year’s end, he was forced to admit that in 2011, the county ended with a $50 million deficit, the largest in recent memory.
“Now, after projecting a midyear shortfall of $45 million, he explains that a miracle has occurred, and the county will have a $25-million surplus. This is after superstorm Sandy wrecked the finances of every local municipality – except, it appears, Nassau. The taxpayers are entitled to a detailed explanation of the county’s financial reality. They have not received one.
“Maybe it’s because the county is using its own accounting rules to mask the real mess in Mineola.
“Deciding that the county will never have to pay $45 million set aside in 2011 for tax refunds, and using those funds for other purposes in 2012 in the face of almost $400 million in accumulated unpaid refunds, is reprehensible.”
