Untitled Document

"Indeed, there is only one thing worse than the stench emanating from Bay Park, and that is the foul aroma of government that refuses to address the concerns of the residents it represents."

Anthony J. Santino, Town of Hempstead Senior Councilman

ROUND 1 - JANUARY 14, 2008

On Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at the inauguration of the Nassau County Legislature, a session that is normally for organizational purposes only, the Rules Committee met and voted 5-3 along party lines to push forward the Suozzi administration's request to pass a bill to incorporate the sewer systems of the villages of Cedarhurst and Lawrence into the county's sewage treatment plant at Bay Park. Also included in the plan was the deal for the county to take over the waste treatment plant in the city of Glen Cove.

Minority Leader Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) said the Republicans voted NO and are opposed to the sewer bill because of a lack of information to support it and that the whole move seemed to stink of a financial bailout of Glen Cove, the hometown of Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and new Presiding Officer Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove). The fact that Tom Suozzi's cousin Ralph is Mayor of the City of Glen Cove makes it reek even further. During the committee meeting the Republican minority grilled Suozzi's Commissioner of Public Works, Ray Ribeiro, who defended the county's plan saying it will save money and help the environment and denied the move was a bailout.

Having been rushed through the committees, the bill was now ready to come to a vote before the full legislature on January 14, 2008 despite many unanswered questions. The fact that the three localities included in the consolidation plan had yet to give the county their formal approval, the fact that NIFA (the Nassau Interim Finance Authority) was still seeking financial information on the plan, the fact that budget analysts would have to work through the weekend to finish a complete analysis of the county takeover of the sewer systems, and the fact that legislators were given a thick, technical, consolidation plan study to look at just two days before the plan was to come to a vote mattered not to the administration and the Democrat Majority, who were determined to pass this bill as quickly as possible.

On Monday, January 14, 2008 the full legislature convened in Mineola at 11:00AM (after delaying the start of the meeting for an hour due to "bad weather") to put the consolidation plan to a vote. The DPW received the approval from three localities on Sunday, January 13th. The County Comptroller, Howard Weitzman, delivered a report to the legislators 5 minutes prior to the beginning of the legislative session. Eric Naughton, the director of the Office of Legislative Budget Review delivered his fiscal report to the legislators midway through the hearing. Yet, regardless of the fact that none of the legislators would have the proper time to review these documents to help them make an informed decision, the bill was brought to the calendar.

Several Bay Park residents came to the meeting, armed with over 700 signatures collected in just 2 days, to express the concerns of the community on the impact of consolidating the sewer systems of Cedarhurst and Lawrence into the plant at Bay Park. The residents of Bay Park spoke eloquently and intelligently about their concerns of adding more sewage to the plant which would inturn increase the effluent going into Reynolds Channel. What about the already toxic smells that emanate from the plant, would they increase? Would the increased effluent cause our bay beaches to be closed more often in the summer due to high bacteria levels? If the plant already has problems handling "peak flow" how could they possible take on another million plus gallons of sewage on a daily basis? What would be the effect of increased effluent on our already stressed marine ecosystem? And, most importantly, why was this being rammed down the residents throats so rapidly?

The Democrat majority were taken aback by the knowledge of the people from Bay Park, I guess they thought they would only have to defend the plan as a bailout to Glen Cove. Legislator David Denenberg (D-Merrick) led the charge against the residents of Bay Park and towed the administration line in saying that this would be beneficial to everyone in the long run. Legislator Fran Becker (R-Lynbrook), whose area also covers all of East Rockaway except for Bay Park, jumped to the residents defense saying that the plan was ill-conceived from the get go and that lots of questions still remained and that at the very least the plan should be tabled until everyone had more information. Presiding Officer Yatauro then got into an argument with Legislator Becker and proceeded to shut off his microphone. "This is a disgrace" cried Legislator Becker as Yatauro ignored his shouts.

After a bit of turbulence, the meeting resumed as residents kept asking the legislators for real answers to real issues involved in consolidation. Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside), who represents the 7th LD which includes Bay Park, added absolutely nothing to the meeting and was rude and disrespectful to his constituents. As the residents of Bay Park pled their case, Legislator Toback was playing with his cell phone and having side conversations with his fellow Democrat legislators while completely ignoring his constituents. Toback even had the audacity to get up and leave the room several times as the residents of Bay Park spoke to the legislature.

After all the residents of Bay Park got up to speak out against consolidation, three fishermen from Freeport (Denenberg's district) said that consolidation was beneficial for the environment of the whole South Shore because the plants at Cedarhurst and Lawrence are so dilapidated that the cleaner effluent that Bay Park spews out is better.

Then environmentalist Rob Weltner, President of Operation Splash, also spoke to the legislators saying that consolidation of those plants would be better for the western bays in the short term, but an ocean outfall pipe was needed in the long term to prevent the bay from completely dying. Legislator Denenberg jumped on that saying the only way the county could ever get the grant money needed to install an ocean outfall pipe (about $200 mil) was to consolidate, thereby showing the State/Feds our environmental efforts. The thing is, none of these people live in Bay Park, so while their hearts may be in the right place, they do not have to deal with the smells, truck traffic, foamy tides, closed beaches, etc. that residents of Bay Park already must deal with as a part of their daily lives.

Legislator Denenberg then called in Ray Ribeiro, the Commissioner of DPW, and played softball with him asking him questions that must have been rehearsed more than a high school production of "Guys & Dolls". Mr. Ribeiro stated that the county's cost to consolidate would be $30 million, although it could go as high as $45 mil, which would work out to only about $5.00 and change per year for each county resident. As if we don't have to cough up enough already.

Sick of the fluff taking place in front of him, Legislator John Ciotti (R-Elmont) swooped in on Ribeiro and smacked him around verbally. Why did the county comptroller's endorsement letter say that the plan makes sense environmentally? Shouldn't his concern be the finances of it? Why was NIFA's input not included in the plan? Why was independent budget director Eric Naughton sitting at the meeting but not called upon to testify? With all these questions swirling about, he motioned for the item to be tabled until the next meeting in two weeks so that everyone involved had more time to study the plan. A vote was called to table it and our legislator, Jeff Toback, was the first to say no. The motion was voted down along party lines so Mr. Ciotti kept throwing it at Commissioner Ribeiro, who was now visibly flustered. Unhappy with Ciotti's questioning of the plan Diane Yatauro then shut off his microphone too, saying he was yelling too loudly. Amazing how the Presiding Officer never once shut off the microphone of a fellow Democrat!

After three hours of testimony on the issue of consolidation, Presiding Officer Yatauro called for the item to be voted on. With their agenda already in place despite the testimonies of Bay Park residents, the Democrats cast their 10 YES votes and the Republicans cast their 8 NO votes (Legislator Schmitt was absent) and the bill was passed 10-8. The residents of Bay Park left the legislative chamber angered and sickened by this colossal failure of their elected officials to represent their best interests.

The residents of Bay Park weren't the only ones disgusted by the events of 1/14/08. In Newsday the following day columnist Joye Brown wrote a scathing article (www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-lijoy155538606jan15,0,2076621.column) on the shenanigans of Diane Yatauro and the buffoons in the legislative majority. She even said it was such a bad parody of what local government should be that the only solution was to abolish the Nassau County Legislature completely.

To the administration and majority legislators, the consolidation deal was done. But the residents of Bay Park had only begun to fight.

The battle to stop consolidation raged on for 4 months with many brave community members taking time out of their lives to attend legislative meetings in Mineola, to try to get the legislators to change their minds on consolidation. As at the first meeting, the people were bullied, talked down to, had their integrity questioned and were generally treated like raw sewage, but we still came at them, undaunted.

Finally, our prayers were answered, the sewage consolidation plan was put into the county's capitol budget plan, but the Republican minority would not give any votes needed to pass the budget (a 13 vote super-majority is needed to pass the budget)

ROUND 1 - JANUARY 14, 2008

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